decent church websites?
Out of context: Reply #66
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- flagellum0
The trouble is that people here make absolute statements about Christianity without knowing anything about the message of Christianity as it is presented in scripture. They argue from ignorance. They set up straw men and then proceed to knock them down. Crude, uninformed statements like the one Mimio made is a shining example of this - this sort of reductionism that hand-waves the Christian message away as just a blood-thirsty God selfishly demanding sacrifice. Very pagan. Very simplistic. So wrong.
Now, for the actual message of Christianity and why it could not have been conceived by (prideful) humans:
1. Man chooses to disobey his creator and he rebels. This causes man to fall out of fellowship with his creator. Man dies in his spirit as sin enters the picture for the first time.
2. God cannot tolerate the presence of sin. This would comprimise his perfect holiness and perfect love. Therefore, an atonement for all sin is required.
3. The atonement must be perfect ("spotless") in exchange for sinfulness. In effect, he must be the perfect ransom and propitiation for Adam's original rebellion. "Good" won't do. Perfection is required.
4. God the Son chooses to enter time and creation, clothed in human flesh. He lives a perfect sinless life in exchange for our sin-stained lives.
5. He takes the punishment we deserve for our rebellion against our creator. He defeats sin and death at the cross and thru the resurrection. (As foreshadowed in the OT sacrifices)
6. Whoever places their trust in him as savior, has the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to their account. Their slate is wiped clean. This is acheived through faith alone, without works or performance. Christ has done the work... He said: "it is finished". We rest in his grace.
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One of the reasons that the redemptive plan is true is because it would not have been produced by humans. Humans produce works-based pagan religion. We like to pat ourselves on the back and appeal to that part of our human nature that wants to have something to do with it. In contrast, the message of redemption in the Bible states that we are dead in our sins and separated from a holy creator. There is nothing we can do to fix ourselves. We can only fall into the arms of a loving savior who has done the work that we could not do.
Hardly a selfish God. The Bible presents a God who loves us so relentlessly that he came to us in the flesh and took the punishment we deserve.
I call that selflessness.