Why did Jesus have to die?

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God is almighty all powerfull he could forgive everyones sins on a whim

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I suppose God could, on a whim, eliminate every single thing that is wrong in the world, too. He could just snap his fingers and eradicate cancer, AIDS, murder, rape, plague, starvation, death.

Why doesn't he do such things?

In my personal opinion, perhaps it because such utopia only exists in heaven. Worthiness through sacrifice must be proven to enter heaven, and such exemplary worthiness and sacrifice was clearly demonstrated for all to see, hear, and read about by Jesus Christ on the cross, thus answering your question as to why Jesus needed to die in such a horrific way upon the cross.

Of course that is my opinion. You will do yourself better to formulate your own based on your own years of reading, research, and investigation. I'll warn you, faith is probably a prelimary requisite.

I think it comes down to the purpose of the planet Earth.
I think God made the Earth for his own purposes, his pleasure. I think that life on earth was made by God for Him to see if people would worship him or choose sin. For this reason he created this planet, this universe, with laws in place about sin. I think it gives God great pleasure in seeing a baby develop into a man, be crippled, find his strength in Jesus Christ, repent (change his life), and be prepared to serve him in heaven. That's why he gave His son, because of the love he has for us, and it was the only way because of the way He chose to created the earth. And the purpose he had for the planet.
I hope that can make some sense, but maybe not, seems kinda off the point on a re-read.

[hashi92]

okay i guess the debate is over. the purpose of this question was to see if i could get a resonable answer from a person of faith. whenever i ask a how question i always get the same answer. how do u know theres a god?. the answer is always "u just gotta have faith". i dont see how this answer is good enough for people. the very people that give u this answer will question every other unknown fact in there life. riddick did it to me when he questioned that i went to a catholic school. how do people unflinchingly put faith in God yet question every other aspect of there lives. it seems hypocritical. therefore i asksed a why question that couldnt be answered with a simple u gotta have faith quote. the remarks have been limited but interesting.

thanks

[hmkpoker]

Good job, you've successfully made atheism look stupider to Christians. Don't post unless you at least have the common intellectual integrity not to use "u."

[hashi92]

it should be about the ideas and debate why do uuuu have to get so nit picky. im not trying to re write the theory of relativity.

[hashi92]

christians will always look down on athiest because they are blinded by their faith. So does it really matter if my grammer is terrible.

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christians will always look down on athiest because they are blinded by their faith. So does it really matter if my grammer is terrible.

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Hiya Hashi92,


You are right, they are blinded, and it doesn't matter regarding ur grammar. It is just that some people are so used to tell others what to do and how to live their lives that they are not even conscious of it. U could say that, al least, in that respect, but probabbly with regards others too, they are of limited consciousness and little capable of empathy.

One of the interesting phenomena you can observe on this forum where the balance of believers to non-believers is not so usually highly weigthed against atheists, is that believers seem to be very uncomfortable with this fact and with the fact that thier fundamentals could be questionned at all. It may very well indicate that the herd mentality isrequired as propicious ground for the growth of religion. I have often wondered what would give cause to so many abrogating reason and choosing unreason. Must be some form of cognitive dissonance effect. Not that this is a bad thing, as you will see from the many postings, most of them are psychopaths which need religion to keep their propensities and proclivities in check. What I mean is that most express the view that religion is what keeps the world moral. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] That there would only be rape, murder and other mayhem if they were not kept in check by their religion.

Now, to answer your original question, the only thing I can think of, is that since they have not got the moral sense found in non-believers, that, in some way, they have projected all those unconscious evils in themselves to a god which, thus ,become the epitome of all the immoral (ie ask sacrifices, kill his son, inflict suffering, etc...) albeit as a projection.

In Jungian terms it is a pure projection of the shadow. Unusually, that projection is somehow on an archetype, thus displacing/interfering with the archetype usual functionning.

The reason why people respond when their God is put on trial is because to these people(myself included), you are saying a lot of things that are untrue about the God who we rely on to be saved. It is personal.
One thing I don't like is, atheists putting a lot of words together to sound intellectual. The goal of sharing one's point of view, should be speaking as simply as possible while retaining the truthfulness and wholeness of the view. Not dumbing it down, but speaking so people can understand, not just those in you inner circle of big brainers.

The things that are untrue are things like, that I would look down on you. Jesus commands us not to see myself more highly than I ought, but to see myself with sober judgement(not lesser than I ought). Maturity in christians should display itself in love for others, when asked, Jesus said the greatest commands were to "Love God" and "Love people".
I think that if the teachings of Jesus such as these, were removed form the world it would make it a much worse place to live. In response to --"That there would only be rape, murder and other mayhem if they were not kept in check by their religion."

I think maturity is a goal that God wants us to accomplish, taking the focus off our selves(a baby, completely dependant, can only recieve) to others(Jesus Christ, freely gives unselfishly).

[J. Stew]

I'm no devout catholic but I'll give it a whirl.

The body died but the thing from which Jesus acted from, which would be his pure consciousness, the knowledge of what it is like to act from that source, got passed down, or was what got attempted to get passed down, through the religion of Christianity. This is like the same thing as Dharma transmission in Buddhism, but some Christians think about it in a weird way. I think they think, 'If I act like Jesus, I'll be good and be like Jesus which is good enough. That's missing the point that they already are Jesus, or they are already the thing from which Jesus acted from, his pure consciousness his the same as our pure consciousness. It's just that we don't realize it cause we have a lot of attachments to conceptual ideas that cloud our ability to see ourselves as our true selves, which is just this basic awareness that is innate in all of us, the thing that is reading this page right now, that's God. Hashi is God ha ha you rule.

[MaxPowerPoker]

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Can all u devout catholics and christians please answer this question. It just seems like a senseless death to me. What kind of god would let his only son suffer so that the sins of man could be forgiven? How come God couldnt just open up his heart and say all those who believe will be forgiven? Why did he have do sacrafice someone for this to occur?

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Wow, I'm more than a little surprised that no one actually made an effort to answer your honest question. This is at the core of what it means to be a Christian.

Sin does not come without penalty. We all sin and our sin will be punished. The bible says that the wages of sin is death. Old Testament priests would take an animal and lay the sins of the people on the animal and the sacrifice would be effective to cover their sins. The penalty of death was carried out. The sacrifice was imperfect and so the priest would repeat the sacrifice every year.

Hebrews 10:4 says that it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore Jesus Christ, the Son of God came into the world to bear our sins. The punishment we deserve is inflicted on the perfect spotless Lamb of God. Our faith in this sacrifice of Christ is the basis of God's forgiveness.

If I steal $10,000 from someone and am brought before a judge, his job is to render justice. He cannot just release me and say "not guilty". Justice is not done. Someone is still out $10,000. Similarly, God cannot simply pardon sin without payment of the penalty. It was an act of supreme love for God to offer his son to save those who believe in him. It was an act of supreme justice to sacrifice the perfectly sinless, willing son of God.

When we put our trust in the faithfulness of God to save those who believe in Jesus Christ who has overcome death, God reckons to our account the righteousness of Christ. So, not only are we now forgiven with a clean slate, we bear the righteousness of his Son, Jesus. We stand before a righteous, loving and holy God without spot or wrinkle. He sees us as he sees his Son and says "well done."

Hope this helps.

-Zapp