Should do your homework properly !

Submitted by Rajesh (India), Oct 9, 2006 at 07:08

It seems you did not do your homework well. St Paul was 100% Jewish. He was born of the tribe of Benjamin and studied under Rabbi Gamaliel who was one of the best known rabbis of his time. The reason why St Paul was not accepted at first was because the Christians could not believe that the man who had been persecuting them, throwing them in jails, and killing them would suddenly become a Christian and start preaching the Gospel. It was when he was going to Damascus with letters from the high priest in Jerusalem to the synagogues in Damascus to arrest those who believed in Jesus that he got converted. You should read the Book of Acts in the Bible a little more closely if at all you have read it.

Jesus is God become man. God became man out of love for his fallen creatures. I really do not see any difficulty in this. Lets say you take a walk in the woods and you come across a big anthill(I hope you know what an anthill is :-) ) with millions of ants and and also you know that in a few weeks time a road is going to pass from there and so the anthill will be destroyed. You feel pity for these poor creatures so you decide to do something to save them and take them some where else. You talk to them but they don't seem mind you. You then use sign language but again they don't care. Then, you suddenly realize that the only way to save them is to become an ant yourself leaving your human body, your home, your family, all that you are and become an ant. Lets say you decide to do it. Most ants will not listen to you. Many of them would attack you. Many more will laugh at you. And a few, of course, would listen. God when He became man did something similar, but the difference between us and God is much more than the difference between ants and us. We human beings, of course, cannot become ants but God can do anything He pleases because He is God.

You are right when you say that Jesus sacrificed himself. He sacrificed Himself for you. In the book of Genesis (Chap 22) when Abraham was taking his son Issac to offer him as a sacrifice, Issac said to him that they have the wood and the fire for the offering, but questioned as to where the lamb was. Abraham in reply said "My son, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering." Centuries later, John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan pointed out Jesus to the people saying (John 1:29) "Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."

Issiah also prophesied centuries before the coming of Jesus (53:4-5, 12): Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying... the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises." "... he was bearing the sin of many and interceding for rebellious."

In John 10:15-18 Jesus says "I am the good shepherd...and I lay down my life for my sheep... No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, as I have the power to lay it down, so I have the power to take it up again."

St Paul did not invent anything. Jesus died for our sins. And God is not dead, for on the third day He rose from the dead. Dying He destroyed our death, rising He restored our life.

You cannot understand the Trinity using human logic. Do you know all of maths or physics or chemistry or medicine? Do you know how many grains of sand are there upon the seashore? Do you know when it rains how many raindrops fall? Do you know how many stars are there in the universe? If you do not even know fully about things you see everyday, how can you a creature of time understand the Trinity, that is God Himself ?

" Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God, who watches over and controls the world by his providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by the Creator; yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and fruitful use of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern the relations between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of things, and, if they are translated into human action and influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation. The human mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by the disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin. So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful."(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 37)

Rajesh

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