Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheese
So please explain further CB! Tell us all about the vast differences Christianity has to offer from all of the other choices.
|
Well there is much.
It provides a correct view of who we are: We are fallen creatures. You and I and the rest of humanity are sinners. Left alone there will never be a perfect society because of who we are. There is much finger pointing at God on this site because of all the suffering in this world but, it is man who has caused and is causing the suffering here. People don't have food or housing that will withstand the weather because we neglect their well being and even exploit the poor in places like China and India. We have Armies because if we didn't we would be overrun by other nations and destroyed. We have police because we have tendencies towards dishonesty and violence. You and I might live good lives by our standards but, we do so by controlling our impulses. Neither you or I could live up to God's standards as revealed in scriptures.
God is the only God. There is only one God. There is no other. He has revealed himself in three personages: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are all revealed as individuals and as being the same person. This is a mystery but, not anymore than the fact that God is everywhere or that God is a Spirit. God created the world alone. God destroyed the world with a flood because of the violence of mankind. God hates sin and will judge sinners. God loves mankind despite ourselves and devised a plan for our redemption.
Redemption means payment for a debt. You see God's righteousness demanded a payment for our sin. That payment was death.
Man was created with an eternal soul so death never means the end. Death means separation. Physical death separates you from your body and this earthy realm. Spiritual death separates you from God. God sent His Son to fulfill the requirements of His justice. Jesus Christ took on the form of a man and allowed himself to die in our place. As Jesus hung upon that cross for the first and only time ever there was a separation between him and God the Father. God let a part of Himself die rather than be separated from you or I eternally. Being God death could not keep Him. Jesus as the Creator was life. After rising from the dead He remained in a physical form for 40 days on this earth. He could be touched, He ate, He spoke. On one occasion He spoke to 500 people. At the end of the 40 days he commissioned the first church one last time to spread the news of his redemption to the world.
The Bible says that: whosoever recieved Him to them gave he power to become the sons of God; even to them that believe on His name. In other words the payment is there and your relationship with God will be restore if you want that relationship.
The most familiar verse in the world is
John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton Son that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus wasn't finished speaking there. His next three verses were equally as revealing:
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotton Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into this world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Jesus Christ is not a continuation of some ancient myths. He is real and He couldn't have done more to prove who he was and his victory over death. There is no one like Him.