Another "Why would God do this..." question

[clarkgamble1]

Probably memorized the answer to this many decades ago, back in religion class, but I’ve forgotten it. Why would God send His Son to suffer and die a horrible death in reparation for our sins when all He would have had to do was simply forgive them? Seems He chose a rather sadistic means of satisfying His bruised ego. Bloody sacrifices belong in a primitive uncivilized society, not in a society composed of intelligent civilized people as were found 2000 years ago.

 

[Wesrock]

Bruised ego?

 

[STT]

Probably memorized the answer to this many decades ago, back in religion class, but I’ve forgotten it. Why would God send His Son to suffer and die a horrible death in reparation for our sins when all He would have had to do was simply forgive them? Seems He chose a rather sadistic means of satisfying His bruised ego. Bloody sacrifices belong in a primitive uncivilized society, not in a society composed of intelligent civilized people as were found 2000 years ago.

That, the death of Jesus, could be a representation of how much God suffer when we sin.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

Because the degree of offense against God is infinite, and therefore only an infinitely perfect sacrifice would suffice to cover our sin-debt.

As for why He chose this method instead of some other, I believe it’s because this was the best method to show the degree to which He loves us and the lengths He’s willing to go to save us. Suffering for another person is probably the greatest possible display of love. By choosing to suffer as He did, God shows us His love in a tangible, undeniable way.

 

[STT]

Why should God get offended? We are created imperfect and sins for us are unavoidable. He knew all this from the first day.

 

[Seagull]

I saw a Clark Gable movie recently -
an old black and white one - recommended by a old church goer.
" Strange Cargo "
It had a lot of hints of religion in it.
I thought it was a fun - summertime - watch.
Joan Crawford and Peter Lorre were in it too.

Julie (Crawford), a cafe entertainer in a town near the Devil’s Island (French Guiana) penal colony,
meets Verne (Gable), a prisoner on wharf duty.
Verne escapes and goes to Julie’s room, but is apprehended after Mssr. Pig (Peter Lorre) reports him,
and he is returned to prison.
Julie is fired for consorting with a prisoner.
At the prison, Moll has masterminded a jailbreak.
Verne joins the escapees, taking Julie with him.
The gentle Cambreau (a Christ figure) exerts a spiritual influence over the others,
often reading from and quoting the Bible.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

You’re confusing the emotional quality of “being offended” with the nature of an “offense.” An “offense” is an “act against.” We acted against God, and therefore offended him in the natural sense of the word. This offense is what requires the sacrifice to make up for, not any subjective quality of being offended.

Even though God knew we would act against Him, it doesn’t change the nature of the offense or the requirement for making up for it. It doesn’t change that we chose to reject Him and thereby incurred the penalty for that rejection.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

Probably memorized the answer to this many decades ago, back in religion class, but I’ve forgotten it. Why would God send His Son to suffer and die a horrible death in reparation for our sins when all He would have had to do was simply forgive them? Seems He chose a rather sadistic means of satisfying His bruised ego. Bloody sacrifices belong in a primitive uncivilized society, not in a society composed of intelligent civilized people as were found 2000 years ago.

So many problems with the way you have formulated this post. Chief among them is the idea that God could have an ego let alone a bruised one. God is divine. You cannot think of God in human terms.

 

[STT]

Why He created us imperfect?

 

[ProdglArchitect]

He didn’t. Our first parents chose imperfection by choosing sin over God.

The ability to chose isn’t imperfect, though how we use it can be.

 

[STT]

Perfect being, God/Godly, doesn’t sin.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

You’re once again confusing concepts.

Perfection is not equivalent to having all aspects of God. Perfection means to exist as we are intended to. God is perfect by nature. We are perfect if live according to our natures. A tree is perfect if it grows as it should. etc.

We are perfect when we use our God-given capacity for choice to always choose the good (Him.) We are imperfect when we chose anything other than Him. Adam and Eve were created perfectly according to their natures, which include the ability to chose. They chose against God, and so ceased to be perfect. God cannot chose against Himself, so your statement is true for God, but we are not God.

This is really deviating from the topic at hand though.

 

[STT]

ou’re once again confusing concepts.

Perfection is not equivalent to having all aspects of God. Perfection means to exist as we are intended to. God is perfect by nature. We are perfect if live according to our natures. A tree is perfect if it grows as it should. etc.

We are perfect when we use our God-given capacity for choice to always choose the good (Him.) We are imperfect when we chose anything other than Him. Adam and Eve were created perfectly according to their natures, which include the ability to chose. They chose against God, and so ceased to be perfect. God cannot chose against Himself, so your statement is true for God, but we are not God.

This is really deviating from the topic at hand though.

So we can choose against ourselves because of power of free will? If so, why God cannot chose against Himself?

 

[ProdglArchitect]

Honestly, this is getting into philosophical / theological discussion way above my pay-grade, and has completely deviated from the topic. I welcome you to start a topic on the question, but we need to let this topic get back on track.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

So we can choose against ourselves because of power of free will? If so, why God cannot chose against Himself?

The short answer is that there no logical reason for God to choose against himself. There is nothing greater than himself. So, you’d be asking God, who is perfection itself, to use imperfect logic to choose an imperfect state of being.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Seems our OP has the non-uncommon problem of seeing God as some sort of “man with super powers”.

 

[STT]

So we can choose against ourselves because of power of free will? If so, why God cannot chose against Himself?

Were Adam and Eve perfect? If yes, then by following your logic, how could they sin following imperfect logic? If no, then they were not responsible for their sin.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

mrsdizzyd:

So we can choose against ourselves because of power of free will? If so, why God cannot chose against Himself?

Were Adam and Eve perfect? If yes, then by following your logic, how could they sin following imperfect logic? If no, then they were not responsible for their sin.

Adam and Eve were influenced by an outside actor which induced them to sin. God cannot be influenced by an outside actor because all things are within the scope of His knowledge, so no new information could be added that would cause Him to change His nature.

 

[STT]

Adam and Eve were influenced by an outside actor which induced them to sin. God cannot be influenced by an outside actor because all things are within the scope of His knowledge, so no new information could be added that would cause Him to change His nature.

There are two objects to this line of argument: (1) It cannot resolve the problem of origin of Sin since you put blame on someone else Satan/Snake and (2) If lack of knowledge can be the reason for a person to sin then the person is not responsible for his sin.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

There are two objects to this line of argument: (1) It cannot resolve the problem of origin of Sin since you put blame on someone else Satan/Snake and (2) If lack of knowledge can be the reason for a person to sin then the person is not responsible for his sin.

External forces can lead you to sin, but the sin is still a personal decision. If my friend tries to convince me to go to a strip club, it is not entirely his fault if I agree to go with him. I ultimately chose whether to sin or not. Satan lead Eve to the tree, but she still chose to eat the apple.

If a person does not know that something is wrong then they do not necessarily sin, that is correct. However, since your’re trying to relate this argument back to Adam and Eve, it doesn’t hold water. They knew not to eat from the tree of good an evil. God explicitly told them not to do this. Then, because they chose to listen to Satan instead of God, they chose to sin.