Why Should I Believe? (moral, choice, myth, bible, POV)

[joeboonda]

Hmm. Well, faith is good, but the object of that faith is important. I can have faith in Barney if It makes me happy, and could sing "I love you, you love me..." all day long, but I am quite sure Barney cannot save me for:

Acts 4:12
Neither is there salvation in any other (Jesus): for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

[Darkness]

Mankind did know God but turned away, so God gave them over to a reprobate mind, their eyes were closed, their ears dull of hearing, their understanding darkened. Today more than ever, mankind's eyes are closed to the truth that God does indeed exist and knows all we think, say, and do. For many, God has allowed their eyes to be shut, their understanding corrupted, yet for those who will see themselves as what they are, sinners in need of a Saviour, God reveals Himself to them. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He gave His life that we may live. He gave us His Robe of Righteousness in place our own filthy rags. He offers freely the living water that we may never thirst, His body and His blood, as the bread of life and that which washes away ALL our sin that we may live eternaly with Him. ---Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, I want to see you, I want to see you...pray that today, see if your eyes and ears are opened, your understanding clear, and your heart cleansed and made new by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Besides the unfair punishment of the children for their parent's "crimes" resounding in your words, how does anyone die for my sins? If I commit a crime, I am the only one who can make amends.

Originally Posted by In Praise of the Devil

What I want to know is: how can someone else's act excuse me from anything? I am responsible for my own actions. Nothing that I do can take away the fact that someone else acting in a certain way, and nothing that they can do can absolve me of my own responsibility. Original Sin and salvation by Christ are both deeply offensive ideas to me and to all extropians who value
individual responsibility.

[joeboonda]

Originally Posted by Darkness

Besides the unfair punishment of the children for their parent's "crimes" resounding in your words, how does anyone die for my sins? If I commit a crime, I am the only one who can make amends.

I did not speak of children being punished for parent's crimes.

If you were to 'make amend' for your sins, which I understand where you are coming from, The Bible paints a hard picture of what this would entail:

First it says all have sinned.
Second it says the wages of sin is death.
Third it says Christ died, paying the wages of sin.
Fourth it gives us the choice to pay the wages of sin ouselves in Hell, or accept Christ's payment.
Christ has paid the penalty of all the sin of all the world for all time. We can either accept His payment in our place or pay for our sins forever in Hell. In the middle-east it is common practice when a seller is satisfied with the amount of money laid down for his wares, he snatches the coins up and the deal is done. God showed that He was satisfied with Christ's payment for our sins, He snatched Him up, Christ rose Him from the dead. We all know we have sinned, that the wages thereof is death--physical and spiritual and eternal separation from God in Hell. We are in a hopeless state, we cannot do enough good to counterweigh the bad, for all our works of righteousness are as filthy rags to a holy God. But God loves us so much that He made a way to reconcile us to Himself by paying the penalty for us. That is the good news! Now, the Bible does not say to just accept the free gift of eternal life and just go do whatever we want does it? It says the Law showed us we are sinners, and pointed us to Mount Calvary for salvation. Now we are to consider ourselves alive to Christ and dead to sin. We still have a sinful nature to battle and may slip and hit hard on the deck, but God by His power will keep us firm in the ship of faith. He will correct and chastise His children, for our good. Even some of God's children whom He bought and paid for will fall into and even continue in sin despite His correction that soon it will be come a 'sin unto death', and they will be taken home. God is not easy on sin, we see what it cost His Son, We do not understand how He could pay for our sins, but the Bible says He did just that! Our job is to confess to God that we are sinners in need of forgiveness, and to place our trust in Christ, that God was satisfied with the payment He made for sin, death, which the wages of sin is death, so He paid in full our debt. It is a simple yet profound concept to wrap our understanding around, and many have studied and written on it in depth for centuries, but once understood fully, it is life-changing, and life-giving.