(February 9, 2016 at 6:47 pm)Nihilist Virus Wrote: I've spoken with Christians who are OK with contradictions in the Bible, Christians who believe in the Big Bang and unguided evolution, and Christians who disregard the unsavory things in the Old Testament. But I have never seen a good response to my backbreaker here. The Christian retreats behind the shield of faith, no longer even sure what that faith is in.
It's a simple question:
Is God above the law or not?
It would seem to me that the answer to this question is an obvious no. Jesus had to die because of the weight of the law. If God was above the law then he would just forgive everyone without sending his son to pay for the debts.
But then there is a problem. Deuteronomy 24:16 says,
The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
This, presumably, is directly from God.
Then in 2 Samuel 12:13-20, David's son is killed by God because of sins committed by David.
So it looks like God actually is above the law. Why, then, did Jesus die on the cross? Surely it was not for his own amusement. Ultimately there was no reason for it since God, being above the law, can wipe the slate clean with no need of a human sacrifice.
Therefore Christianity, a belief system based entirely on the "fact" that Jesus rose from a death that was necessary for our salvation, renders itself pointless.
That passage from Deuteronomy is basically identical to the one in Ezekiel so they must have been written at the same time. We know that the one in Deuteronomy didn't alter anyone's behavior about putting people in the woodchipper.
