Explain why it was necessary for Jesus to die, collectively, for mankind.?

Question

Was Jesus a payback? Does God consider us all as one person? How does the cold-blodded murder of a perfect human fit into love? Why were people trying to save Jesus? At what point in Christianity was the idea inserted that his assassination was a sacrifice for humanity?
If Jesus was visible, his miracles were visible. Why is his reward to you invisible. Your reward is the only thing that is invisable in the Christian concept. Was the invisable idea of Heaven added when the ancient popes realized that the concept had failed and they needed to cover their mistake. Very clever those popes.

Answer 1

so you missed the part of" dieing for our sins" huh?

Answer 2

The notion that Jesus's execution (not an "assassination") was a necessary sacrifice for human redemption was introduced largely by Irenaeus, a second-century Western Christian leader.

As a matter of religious imagery, it works: the parallel between the sacrificial rituals handed down from early Hebrew times and the "sacrifice" of Christ forms a pattern. A great deal of theological writing is about such patterns, and is IMO more poetical than anything else. Irenaeus didn't invent the parallels; they're in Paul's writings. But he took it to the point of describing that "sacrifice" as necessary.

Personally, I recognize the parallels but not the necessity. Jesus was killed because human beings are, at times, awful enough to do such things. God is capable of saving human beings regardless of how awful (or, in this one argument, how much less awful than they might be) they are. But since it happened that way, the sacrificial images are there, and they work.

The problem with making the death of Jesus necessary has been pointed out by many writers: Judas Iscariot's actions appear to have been necessary for salvation, which makes him a hero rather than a villain of the story. Apparently the recently-promoted "Gospel of Judas" was an early example of this line of reasoning. The author is thought to be a Gnostic (and therefore part of a branch of Christianity to whom Irenaeus was strongly opposed) and third-century (therefore in a good position to write satires on Irenaeus's theology).

Heaven, and for that matter a physical Resurrection, were both ideas that preceded Jesus's life, and certainly he (before the popes) made considerable use of the concepts. One fairly accurate short summary of his preaching is "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."

But Heaven is not invisible or remote. Christian teaching will tell you that you can begin a heavenly life here and now; that's what salvation is all about. The part about lounging around on clouds after death is simply inadequate imagery for a much deeper concept.

I admit, however, that the "pie in the sky" view of the whole thing, where people accept a rotten situation before death on the promise of a wonderful next life, has been used fairly often to keep people in line. There is a very large gap between salvation, on one hand, and subjugation to institutional authorities on the other.

Answer 3

I don't think Jesus was a payback, merely another mistake made by humans. He was murdered by someone who just wanted to show the Christians they weren't supposed to think they were powerful or anything like that. People tried to save him because they admired him, of course.
Jesus was vissible, his miracles were not vissible. I don't believe Jesus could really perform miracles, the way he got famous and inspired people is a miracle enough for me. If you're waiting for a reward in the shape of Jesus coming down from heaven to hand out paychecks to everyone who lived good, I think you can wait a long, long time.
The reward is living good, people appreciating you. The feeling that you did something good.
Yes, some stuff in religiom are seriously made up. Did you know the hell was closed down for a while? People realised that Christianity was to tough on non-religious people. So they took the hell away and said: "See, all who believe go to heaven. Nice god, our god, isn't he?"
And after a while hell was opened again. I think someone did something wrong somewhere.....
And so religion got adjusted to the thing popular in that particular time. But of course the big lines of Christianity haven't changed since Jesus came and said people should love eachother.

Answer 4

This is a good question, often debated by scholars around the world for hundreds of years. What we do know is what Jesus said and taught. He taught that the idea of following Leviticus was not the way to go, and brought the message of loving-kindness to the Middle East. This was the message of Buddha, and Jesus started to get many followers. This upset the apple cart, where the political views of the time were ensconsed in the three major Jewish sects of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes of the time.

To truly understand why he had to die is to understand the politics and religious feeling of the people at that time. Many cultures way before Jesus had embraced the idea of the Virgin Birth (for example, this is explained in the Popul Vuh of South America) and a god coming out of the union.

Many other cultures used sacrifice to the gods throughout the ages- humans and animals alike were sacrificed for the greater good of the group. Lambs were a popular sacrifice in the middle east, so Jesus got the moniker, "Lamb of God."

Other societies, such as the Mayans and those of Papua New Guinea sacrified their most valuable, beautiful and strong humans to God. Those of New Guinea even cooked and ate the man and woman who were cooked in a sacred fire. This idea is followed symbolically in churches where there is the receiving of Holy Communion: the body and blood of Christ. Jesus died to save the others, just as many civilizations before him had their own sacrificial people or animals to please the gods who would then send rain and good crops.

The idea of heaven existed way before the popes. Unfortunately, popes were politicians who manipulated this thinking and had their own agendas. Papal indulgences were like taxes into heaven. In politics, power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. (Lord Acton)

Sound familiar?

I suggest you read Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery." It addresses human sacrifice in a modern way.

Answer 5

That teaching had nothing to do with the popes at all but is a carryover from the Jewish Scriptures which derived their story from the ancient record of man, that was the truth. Man's first parents caused their offspring to be born in sin.
The popes like everyone else will have to face God for their own actions. If we blame only popes, who do we blame for own sins before God?

Sins is disobeying a law of God. God said Adam and Eve could eat of every fruit from every tree of the Garden of Eden except the tree of knowledge of Good and of Evil. With a challenge for more wisdom and knowledge by the devil they chose to eat of the fruit. The moment they did the physical act of ate the fruit they broke God's law. From that one act sin entered into all the world by default since all of their children would be born in sin. Sin separates man from God. Thousands of years Jesus Christ undid what Adam and Eve did so that man can once again have a righteous and holy relationship with God.

Blood sacraffice for sin had to be made and it was done on the same day since death was the penatly for sin. And that is why sacrafices and priests came later on for every generation of man to recognize that he had a relationship with the creator that needed to be corrected.

Through Moses a preisthood and sacrafice were models for a people to keep this in rememberance. But they were prophetic in nature showing there would be one true sacrafice for sin. That is in the Jewish scripturees. which is the Christian Old Testament. The New Testament is about Jesus Christ finished work on the cross. His blood sacrafice and his sinless holy life were seen from God to be the perfect sacrafice for sin. He is known as the second Adam but without sin. Those who believe in God's way of forgivenss for sin are saved and can have an eternal realationship with God on earth, and later on in heaven.

Answer 6

Blood sacrifice to appease angry gods is older than Christianity.

If you are wondering where it came from, look up the Egyptian god Osiris. His story is remarkably similar and a good example of what was common back then.

As to Christianity, Jesus was without 'sin' and died in order to atone for the 'original sin' of Adam. It is Adam's sin that presumably damns all his 'children'.

Every religion has its blood sacrifice, some are just more metaphorical than others, christians love blood metaphors because as human beings we find bodily fluids fascinating.

Answer 7

To maintain the practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism.

The sacrifice of a virgin to appease the volcano god is described differently, but the base is that you get to use your life to help me with my superstitions.

The cannibalism is celebrated with the bread and the wine.

Answer 8

i would say it happened because that is what the people needed, yes of course there could of been other ways to get the same message across, but that was the way chosen
people have always honered those they felt "died" for a cause, often unfortunately without analyzing if there were other ways to accomplish the same cause
as to reward, i am not sure that the focus of Jesus was heaven, but of getting closer to God, living within the spirit, if one does that, it is visible

Answer 9

Jesus is the only way of salvation because He is the only One who can pay our sin penalty (Romans 6:23). No other religion teaches the depth or seriousness of sin and its consequences. No other religion offers the infinite payment of sin that only Jesus Christ could provide. No other “religious founder” was God become man (John 1:1,14) – the only way an infinite debt could be paid. Jesus had to be God so that He could pay our debt. Jesus had to be man so He could die. Salvation is available only through faith in Jesus Christ! “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Answer 10

I'm a Christian and obviously my answer is to save us. You have many questions...hmmm.. Jesus is God's instrument to save all the mankind. And to remind you, popes are still basically a human being and human beings are capable of making mistakes

Answer 11

People continued to sin, and they needed to be punished for their sins. God couldnt punish all of humanity, so he stepped out of heaven and became human, like us. He took the punsishment for us so that we could go to heaven.

Heaven existed before Jesus, so it's nothing that was made up. God doesn't make mistakes.