My understanding of Christianity was slightly different-- that God could not abide us due to the stain of sin. I am sure support can be found for both theological positions, however, so I won't belabor it.
I am not really disagreeing with you. It is just very complicated. We were perfect, falling from perfection through sin is what separated us from God, but it is not what keeps us separated from him. God can legally declare us perfect based on his sons 'record' even though ours is marred with sin.
Regardless, a relationship takes two to tango. If God wants a relationship, he cannot put all the onus upon an imperfect person, born into a world full of darkness and without understanding.
My Lord, unlike man made religions that try and earn their way back to God by cutting others hearts out, taking drugs and dancing till they pass out, or creating 10,000 pages of ceremonies and rules God does 100% of the work in Christianity. Our sole necessity is belief. How in the world can that be too much?
If God wanted us to be free to choose him, then why are the cards so stacked against us? We are not free to choose, and no one has been since Adam and Eve. By this, I mean, we do not have the ability to make a true decision; we can make a choice as in a random lottery-- Door #1 or Door #2-- but we have not been given the information required to know what is behind Door #1 or Door #2, or why we should choose one over the other.
The cards are not stacked against us, our hearts are stacked against him. People in positions ten thousand times worse than your our ours have believed. There are people that were given miracles that denied him and people unjustly incarcerated or racked with a lifetime of pain that have loved him. It is not the evidence, it the lens through which the evidence is viewed. My case is typical. When I had more evidence that ever I lacked faith. It was only later after the good times and evidence was tempered with suffering and darkness that I could comprehend the contrast. It takes darkness to prove light is valuable and preferable in most cases.
God knows where I am. But I don't know where he is. God knows the depths of my heart. I have no clue who God is. It seems silly to blame the person without any knowledge (or else, someone who has been given misinformation) of doctors for running away from them; it seems preposterous to tell a person that it was their fault for freezing when they have never experienced fire.
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Just the sheer wonder of creation is enough to spend a lifetime seeking it's possible creator. You have 750,000 of the most scrutinized and treasured words in human history to start with. You can theoretically understand a great deal about God from that source alone. God promises that he will meet anyone who diligently seeks him. Can you truly do that? If not can you therefor blame God. There are also hundreds of millions of people alive who claim to have met a risen Christ spiritually. How many have you requested their testimony from. Faith despite what we might believe has no neutrality. No one is on the fence even if we think we are. I can tell you may have a sincere desire for answers but have an insincere filter your looking through for them. Every statement you make is a complaint.
Condemning people to death for one mistake is not reasonable. Making the same punishment for large and small crimes is not just. Refusing to acknowledge, and actively belittling, attempts to be good is counter-intuitive.
Death is coming like it or not, and not for any one sin alone. All of us have purposefully or inadvertently causes ripples of damage we will never know the extent of. Might as well not eliminate the only way out. You are never going to find God if you resent him. I know because I did for years.
Killing an innocent person in order to "pay the wage of sin"-- a payment that God himself created and could have simply let go at any time-- is monstrous.
We build museums and give medals to the "innocent" who sacrifice themselves for others. God did not demand anyone die for us. Christ volunteered to fix the mess we created. he is the most beloved man that ever lived and displayed the greatest sacrifice possible. Now if you can hate that can you wonder if you do not find God?
If belief in God is all God wants, then jesus' sacrifice was completely unnecessary, BTW. If sin isn't what's keeping us from God, then why did Jesus need to die? Why couldn't all of us sinners just say "I believe and love you Lord and I will do my best to serve you, even though I know I will make mistakes now and then."
It was not belief in him that he wanted. He said even Satan and the demons belief in him. He wanted us to belief in a sort of generalized fact of the matter. That we blew it, and he fixed it, at his own expense. It is a belief in his character and a reckoning with our he wants faith in. That last sentence does not convey an acceptance of the enormous damage sin has done and the extent of the foul. Allah hand waives sin away, God's perfect justice meant a price must be paid, only he bore it all for those who will accept it. It is not an admission of the facts he wants, it is an admission of the extent and cost of the facts.
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