Why Choose Christianity?

[Guest]

Well, what is really heartbreaking is to see people believe that God found the only way to save people from sins is to die and humiliate himself, I worship a Mighty God.

God Almighty

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. Deuteronomy 32:39-40

Died For You

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

And Yet You Mock Him

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. Matthew 2:1-2

Have You No Shame?

____________

Actually this remedy theory is the one which makes me want to laugh as if God is correcting his mistake that he created people in a sinful nature and didn't give them a way to be redeemed for more than 5000 years, then he made the (plan) to correct his mistake by making himself a man and die for people. I am sorry, but I find no much difference between this theory and the theories of Greek myths.

You Dare To Mock The Holy Blood Of The Lamb Of God While Blaming

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. James 1:13-15

Him For Your Sin

Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:16-17

Beloved, Who You Gonna Call

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:16-17

When He Calls For You?

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:13

Love, Joe

[Guest]

The first point is concerning loving our enemies, well, I see this word is so vague and must be defined well, what do you mean by loving your enemies? Is it just feeling pity for them? How should you act with them?

Bless You

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:44-38

[A Muslim]

The Jews never understood that this will be the message of the Messiah and this wasn't what they understood from Isaiah 53 that it refers to the Messiah as they believed that the Messiah will come as a conqueror not that he will die for their sins, so actually Jesus did need to quote them if this was his function and why he came to Earth.

It is beyond debate that the whole Bible revolves around Jesus' atoning death. As for the Jews, please don't fail to recognize that the first Christians were those Jews who acknowledged and accepted Him as the promised Messiah. It is true that a segment of the Jewish society of those times downgraded their understanding of the Messiah to that of an earthly king that would delivered them from Rome, but your sweeping generalization cannot be sustained in view of textual and historic evidences. Jesus clearly preached that His Kingdom was not earth-bound. The same Jewish Apostles who first believed Him were the ones who elaborated further about the universal significance of Jesus as the Redeemer of all Mankind, as it was written.

It is important that you submit yourself to a focused and unprejudiced biblical study of this essential matter so you understand that salvation in only found in Jesus. This is about destiny, not religion.

My point is concerning the Jews who don't believe that Isaiah 53 doesn't refer to Jesus although they believe it was the word of God? Why should I take your claim over theirs? Especially that Jesus himself didn't recognize that it talks about him, and never taught it to people to prove his point, this conclusion was just made by Christians coming afterwards.

Actually there are scripts in 53 which prove that it doesn't tell about redemption, see for example this script:

Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand.

Of course you know that Jesus (Peace be upon him) didn't have a seed, you may say it's spiritually speaking, the case is that the Hebrew word is "zerah" which means a real seed other than the word "ben" which can mean spiritual sonship as in Genesis 15:3-4:

Gen 15:3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed(zerah): and, lo, one born(ben) in my house is mine heir. Gen 15:4 And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

You can see the Hebrew text to make sure, the same thing for proplonging days, this expression in Hebrew, can't mean everlasting life which doesn't match with your belief that Jesus is God, the same for the word in verse 1, (servant), according to your belief is that only God can make the sacrifice which doesn't match with this verse.

Isaiah 53 was foretelling about Israel, and the deliverence from the Babylonian captivity, the word servant refers to Israel in many scripts, and it was used that way commonly in Isaiah, for example in Isaiah 45:4, 48:1-3,....etc. And this can be proved all over the scripts, but it's very clear that they didn't mean that belief in salvation.

The conclusion of the matter is that He died on the cross. In the passage you are quoting Jesus was showing his full humanity, a subject that would become important later within the history of Christianity regarding the doctrinal debates about His true Nature, both as Man and God.

The question is: if he really came to die on the cross, why did he ask the Father to take the cup away from him? Was he retreating?

But we inherited the consequences nonetheless. If your father were a wealthy man and dilapidated his entire fortune due to wrong choices and went to prison for his non-payable debt, you would be born in misery and suffer all the consequences of such state even , when you did not do anything to deserve it. Similarly, you may also inherit a genetic disease because your parents exposed themselves to high levels of radiation due to their disregard for the prescribed protective measures to avoid contamination at the nuclear plant they were employed.

There is a big difference between your example here and our point, God would neither account my father's debts nor the genetic disease, but He would account me of having a sinful nature, so there were generations after Adam and before Jesus who had a sinful nature and were not redeemed, what would be their case? And at the same time, the Christians didn't stop sinning after Jesus' death, what did Jesus' death add?

[A Muslim]

Actually this remedy theory is the one which makes me want to laugh as if God is correcting his mistake that he created people in a sinful nature and didn't give them a way to be redeemed for more than 5000 years, then he made the (plan) to correct his mistake by making himself a man and die for people.

I don't mind if you disagree with us, but I wish you would make an effort to understand what it is we actually believe.

God was not correcting a mistake.

To claim no one was redeemed for 5000 years is not what Scripture teaches.

So what was the case of these people?

Becoming man, dying, and resurrecting was more than just redemption. It was about Him becoming one of us so that we can become one with Him. ("One" having the connotation like a husband and wife becoming one or a family being one or a team being one.)

So wasn't this the case for people before Jesus?

[brakelite]

I haven't read through the whole thread, so I apologise if this reply has been offered before...in fact, I am sure it has been in one form or another, however, I do feel compelled to reply, for in seeing the title of the OP, "Why Choose Christianity?", the answer that immediately came to mind was Jesus.

Christianity is all about Him. Jesus, our Creator and Redeemer. Without Jesus there is no hope, no future, no life, for as Paul said to the Athenians; "in Him we live and move and have our being".

Christianity is all about a gracious merciful passionately all loving God who despite our rebellious sinful behaviour chooses to come in search of His lost children. As He walked in the garden of Eden after our forbears sinned and called "Adam, Adam, where are you?" so He calls to all today, "Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Christianity is not about man's search for God and finding his own way to paradise. No, no. Christianity is about the Creator of the universe becoming eternally one with His creation by becoming a man, suffering throughout His life the enmity and hatred of a nation that recognised Him not, and offering Himself to death the wages of sin that we deserve, and thus offering mankind hope.

Christianity is about an all powerful merciful loving Saviour who right now is ministering in the heavenly sanctuary as our High priest offering all who would come to Him in faith forgiveness, and the promise of a new life in Him.

Why choose Christianity? Because Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man can come to the Father except through Me."

[brakelite]

Actually this remedy theory is the one which makes me want to laugh as if God is correcting his mistake that he created people in a sinful nature and didn't give them a way to be redeemed for more than 5000 years, then he made the (plan) to correct his mistake by making himself a man and die for people.

I don't mind if you disagree with us, but I wish you would make an effort to understand what it is we actually believe.

God was not correcting a mistake.

To claim no one was redeemed for 5000 years is not what Scripture teaches.

So what was the case of these people?

Becoming man, dying, and resurrecting was more than just redemption. It was about Him becoming one of us so that we can become one with Him. ("One" having the connotation like a husband and wife becoming one or a family being one or a team being one.)

So wasn't this the case for people before Jesus?

Before God created man, He had already prepared to meet the crisis if it would eventuate. It was not inevitable that Adam sin. God created him perfect, and with the power to choose. There was no sin in Adam, until he chose to disobey God's simple requirement. Adam and Eve were created to live forever, however, their future was completely dependent upon their willingness to obey. They most certainly could have lived forever, for they had free and easy access to the tree of life. Sadly though, in their desire to become more than what God had created them for, (sound familiar), they chose to disbelieve God and believe the devil, who promised them they would become like God, and never die. This was the first lie, and astonishingly has been repeated from pulpits the world over ever since.

However, praise God, like I said He was ready for that crisis, and Jesus immediately stepped up and promised to take upon Himself the death that Adam brought upon himself and all his offspring. We do not deserve to die for his sin, but our own, for as I am sure you are aware, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The people of history before the incarnation had faith in a future Saviour. This Saviour was brought to their minds in the form of the gospel as revealed in the ancient Jewish sanctuary services. Every lamb, every offering portrayed in type the future Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. And as they looked to the services of their sanctuary or temple as depicting the forgiveness and mercy of a gracious and loving Saviour, so we also look now to the sanctuary in heaven where that same Saviour awaits all who would come to Him in faith, and from which He will soon return to take His believing brethren home with Him, thus fulfilling all the purposes of God that He created man for in the beginning.

"For this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom, thou didst send."