Tiassa
You make the connection between the topic Is Satan the source of all evil and Christianity almost impulsively. Although you make your position against the Christian God quite clear, I think you aren't being objective about it. Your long search God has led you on an interesting path away from Him. (I can see you smiling...)
Pilate did not go against Roman law, did not initially listen to The Jews and Samaritans he despised, and eventually avoided an uprising - maintaining order as his nature predicts. Possibly he even enjoyed aggravating the people who wanted Jesus killed - and at the same time kept his wife happy.
Matt.27:15Now it was the governor's custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. 17So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" 18For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.
19While Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message: "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him."
20But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
If the gospel writers intended to soften their position in the Romans eyes, they failed dismally, as they were persecuted ruthlessly by Caligula and his sucessors. Have you read some of the Latin poetry of that time? Caligula was fond of using live Christians as burning decorations at his orgies.
Fat lot of good it did sucking up to Pilate if that was their intention.
* * *
Whether God spoke to the Son or whether the royal plural was used (there were no capitals in the language used, so it is possible), suffering and eventual death was the result. Death could be understood as mercy or justice or both. This is the death Jesus suffered and died. Jesus knew that He had to die and why. This does not dimish the pain He had to go through, or make it less sincere. If He was assured of success it was faith in God's ability to release Him from death, and that His suffering was temporary. The goal was to release us from the wages of sin, from eternal death, and make eternal life possible.
And my belief is the same - that our death and sufferings are real, but that they are temporary. God will raise you and me from the dead and in that, my faith is the same one Jesus had. It does not lessen physical pain and hardships for me to know this for a fact, and it did so no more for Christ, but it helps me to be able to see it in perspective. So indeed, death has lost its sting.
You make the connection between the topic Is Satan the source of all evil and Christianity almost impulsively. Although you make your position against the Christian God quite clear, I think you aren't being objective about it. Your long search God has led you on an interesting path away from Him. (I can see you smiling...)
Pilate did not go against Roman law, did not initially listen to The Jews and Samaritans he despised, and eventually avoided an uprising - maintaining order as his nature predicts. Possibly he even enjoyed aggravating the people who wanted Jesus killed - and at the same time kept his wife happy.
Matt.27:15Now it was the governor's custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. 17So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" 18For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.
19While Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message: "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him."
20But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
If the gospel writers intended to soften their position in the Romans eyes, they failed dismally, as they were persecuted ruthlessly by Caligula and his sucessors. Have you read some of the Latin poetry of that time? Caligula was fond of using live Christians as burning decorations at his orgies.
Fat lot of good it did sucking up to Pilate if that was their intention.
* * *
Whether God spoke to the Son or whether the royal plural was used (there were no capitals in the language used, so it is possible), suffering and eventual death was the result. Death could be understood as mercy or justice or both. This is the death Jesus suffered and died. Jesus knew that He had to die and why. This does not dimish the pain He had to go through, or make it less sincere. If He was assured of success it was faith in God's ability to release Him from death, and that His suffering was temporary. The goal was to release us from the wages of sin, from eternal death, and make eternal life possible.
And my belief is the same - that our death and sufferings are real, but that they are temporary. God will raise you and me from the dead and in that, my faith is the same one Jesus had. It does not lessen physical pain and hardships for me to know this for a fact, and it did so no more for Christ, but it helps me to be able to see it in perspective. So indeed, death has lost its sting.
:m: