§outh§tar said:
Actually if lambs should have been unblemished then that disqualifies Jesus since his skin was broken several times by lashes from Roman centurions.
Tell that to the boy's Father
By the way His Father says to you ...
Thou Shalt have no other God's before 'me'
Now it is good for you that God is patient with you but He will only be patient with you as long as Jesus intercedes on your behalf. Now given that your salvation rests upon that is it wise to turn round to God as you have done in your statement above and say "I do not accept the offering of Jesus, look how his skin was broken before the sacrifice was made"?
Perhaps you would like to explain that to His mother as well?
I only thank God that you do not actually see what it is that you are saying because were you to have a faith such as my own and said such a thing, you would be very heavily punished. As it stands you are not guilty since you do not know what it is that you are saying. But I tell you this... You
have heard the truth and you will not be able to escape judgement forever. Please understand it is not God's will that you perish but when One hears what you have been saying and the spirit you have been saying it in, I , not the Lord, but I wonder how on Earth you are ever going to turn around. But then I am reminded in all humility that I once said very similiar things as the atheists say. Southstar, I know objectivity is important to you. You are a fierce debater and as such you believe that everyone must consider everyone elses viewpoint and naturally you want to be heard too. You say "Well if the God of the bible is to be believed then I see Him as nothing more than a murderer of man." I too really struggled with this but it wasn't until I was shown God's
intention that I realised why God was sooo angry with man and it wasn't until I saw Jesus'
intention that I realised that God's frustration with man was more than Jesus could bear for man such was His great love for the world. Jesus could not bear that we as weak as we were were going to have to be put to death given that His first intention was "Let us create living beings, like us".
God required that something be done, some intention must be shown by man that he will repent of his evil and turn back to the God whose first intentions for man were "Let us create living beings, like us".
But Jesus knew we could not stop doing what was evil and before you say "But I have always done good" I have to tell you that if God is not the first word on your lips from the depth of your heart the moment you wake each day then you have sinned. God is a
jealous God. He is insanely jealous for your
love. Now is He worthy? Well since he gave you life, little sweaty animal that you are, who are you to turn around and say "Get lost God, I have my own life now thanks to you sucker, so its not like I need you anymore is it!", even worse to say "Your son was just a loser too! Look, you sent Him and He wasnt even any good! Your stupid son got nailed to a tree and didnt save anyone. What kind of God are you anyway that you would enjoy seeing your own Son getting whipped by the Roman's?? Eh? Eh God? Eh?"
I mean you are 'bold', you must be assured of God's patience with you to be speaking like that?
We are little fleshy animals Southstar. Literally nothing at all! One blast from a large asteroid and there would be nothing at all we could do about it. It is like we are a child alone in a haunted house full of ghostly reminders of how soon our deaths will swiftly fall upon us. Now the athiest knows this and say's "See if there was a God, I would not be afraid but since I am afraid there must be no God?" But lets take that child in the haunted house shall we and change the sentence slightly so that we transpose the word God with something much much friendlier to the child...
As the child stands
alone in the haunted house staring images of death in the face he
is afraid and cried out "If my dad was here everything would be ok but since he is not dad must not exist! If he did exist he would be here now holding my hand."
Let us now suppose that a kind stranger sees the childs plight as he stands in the haunted house with his eyes firmly shut and says "Hello son, what is going on? Are you alone? You seem to be afraid, would you like me to guide you to the door so that you may go out and see the light of day again?"
The child also afraid of the stranger says "Ok, you go ahead and I will follow you."
"No problem" says the kind stranger, "Follow me"
Now the father says to the child upon seeing him standing there scared , "Why did you go off by yourself? I gave you money and told you to wait by my side until I was ready to take you inside but you thought you knew best didnt you? I knew that you would find it scary and I wanted to hold your hand but you ignored me didnt you? Always running off you are!"
The kind stranger sees the father's fear and not wishing that the child is punished any further says to the father "Aww I felt sorry for the little lamb standing there afraid. I guessed the whole experience was overwhelming for him"
The father says to the kind stranger "Thank you for bringing him to me! I had no idea where he had gone to! One moment he was here and the next moment he was gone"
The kind stranger pats the boys head and says to the father "Well I am just pleased to have been able to return him to you, although I am sure he would have been found eventually!"
"Nevertheless" says the father kindly, "He must not learn to run off!"
"Sorry dad" says the child.
The father's heart melts towards the son he loves and says "Come on you little terror, lets go and get ice cream to cheer us all up, would you like to join us Sir?"
"No thank you but it is a kind offer" says the stranger, "Call me a big kid but I could ride these attractions all day!"
The father smiles and knows the heart of the stranger, "Thank you again for your help today"
"It was an honour" says the stranger and gives the child a friendly smile before leaving on his way.
"Come on tike!" says the father "lets go on the merry-go-round!"
"Aww dad!" says the child "You said we were going to have ice cream!"
"That I did, that I did" laughs the father having completly forgotten all that was said before, "But I feel the ice cream would be more fitting
after we have turned our stomachs over on those rides huh?"
"Ok dad" says the child face downturned.
"Come on son, forget what has happened, do not let your heart be troubled. We have eachother again and now we may have fun. Rides and ice creams, what more could a child want? After all its what we came here for?"
The child thinks about it for a moment and then slips his hand inside his father's, "I bet you are sick on those rides dad!"
"Well I would be if I ate ice cream before hand. Ha ha ha"
They bumped into that kind stranger a couple of times during the day and truly you could not discern any difference on either the strangers face nor the childs for both had wide smiles. It was only the father that looked a bit bedraggled from it all.
That night the father read his child a story about a
friendly ghost. One that helped children who were lost. The child remember the stranger and asked his father if the stranger was a friendly ghost>
"No" said the father, "But I bet he is a friend of the friendly ghost"
"I want to be friends with the friendly ghost" said the child
"The friendly ghost wants to be friends with you too, thats why he is called the
friendly ghost"
"We are friends" says the child as he buries his face into his fathers chest.
"Yes we are" says the father, "Yes we are"
"Goodnight"
"Goodnight"
peace
c20