In reply to observer

Submitted by Rajesh (India), Sep 27, 2006 at 00:45

In reply to observer:

You wrote: Lactantius Jr. - whatever you believe I will say that you are very weak. Jesus did not die to secure his followers. Jesus did not die for the sins of his followers have made. Every individual is responsible for their own sins. Can you imagine if I rob a bank and you get the blame, punished, jailed? I am sure you do not accept it.

In John 15:13 Jesus says to his disciples:No one can have greater love than to lay down his lives for his friends.

As you say every individual is responsible for their own sins. But if you were my brother and if you robbed a bank and if by taking your punishment I could give you a chance to become a better human being I would gladly take the blame and the punishment. In fact if you look at history you can find many people who have willing taken the punishment of other people in order to save them. This is exactly what God did for us, what Jesus did for us. He died for our sins, yes, even yours. As it is written in John 3:16: For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life in him. For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be judged; but whoever does not believe is judged already, because that person does not believe in the Name of God's only Son.

And why would God take our punishments? Simply because He loves us! That is the only logic that answers the question why one person would take another person's punishment.

As it is written in 1 John 4:10:Love consists in this: it is not we who love God, but God loved us and sent His Son to expiate our sins.

1 John 2:2:He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins, and not only ours, but also those of the whole world.

In the book of Genesis when Abraham takes his son Issac to sacrifice him as ordered by God (a type of what God was about to do by giving His Son, the Word, for our sins), he answers Issac's question about there not being a lamb to sacrifice by saying (Genesis 22:8): My Son, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering." Centuries later John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan points out Jesus to the people and says(John 1:29): Look, there is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

God is a God who is infinitely good. Any sin against Him however small demands an infinite recompense, that is infinite satisfaction. That is why no matter what we human beings do, the aerobics, gymnastics, acrobatics, throwing stones at some stone, fasting, penance, etc., can never ever take away our sins or be enough to make satisfaction for the sins we have committed, because every sin that we do is against a God who is infinitely good, requiring an infinite satisfaction, which we human beings are incapable of. This is why the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, to take away our sins. Centuries before the coming of Jesus, Isaiah prophesies (53:4): Yet ours were the sufferings He was bearing, ours the sorrows He was carrying, while we thought of Him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God; whereas He was being wounded for our rebellion, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on Him, and we have been healed by His bruises.

It is not the Jews who killed Him in reality. It was you and I and the whole world that killed Him by sinning, because he died for our sins.

You write:We dont say the bible is wrong, if we did we are not a Muslim. We believe all the FOUR BOOKS, Taurat, Zabr, Injil and Quran.

If you don't say the Bible is wrong why don't you believe what is written in it? Your actions show the truth, that you really do not believe. St Paul in the Bible in his letter to the Galatians (1:8) centuries before Islam writes: But even if we ourselves or an angel from heaven preaches to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let God's curse be on him. I repeat again what we declared before: anyone who preaches to you a gospel other than the one you were given first is to be under God's curse.

Centuries later Mohammad with his angel from heaven claim comes and preaches something that is entirely different, rejecting the divinity of Jesus, rejecting his sacrifice and death on the cross. I believe that Islam is a smart strategic move and a last ditch attempt by the Enemy of the human race to take away from humanity the salvation offered to it by God in the triumph of the cross. After all, "the thief," as Jesus says (in John 10:10) "comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." The church has always taught that the Angel of Darkness can come pretending to be the Angel of Light. The writings of the Koran and the life of Mohammad show exactly what kind of angel appeared to him pretending to be Angel Gabriel.

"Your God is of course not the same God as Ours." The source of the Jewish and Christian faith, and the source of the Koran are diametrically opposite.

Shalom!

Rajesh.

Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new.
Late have I loved you.
In my ugliness
I plunged into the beauties that you have made.
You were with me, but I was not with you.
You called me, you cried out, you shattered my deafness.
You blazed forth, you shone, you scattered my blindness.
You breathed perfume, I drew in my breath, now I pant for you.
I tasted and now I am hungry and thirsty for you.
You touched me and now I burn with desire for your peace.( St Augustine, Confessions, X, 27)

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