Most (all?) Christian denominations believe that god took on a human form and offered it as a sacrifice that presents imperfect and sinful humans the opportunity to be saved. The Biblical story of Jesus' life tells us that he succeeded in this endeavor. As a hypothetical, what do you think would have happened had he failed? I can only really imagine that he would have failed by committing a sin and therefore becoming imperfect.

First, an explanation of the poll options:

1- Didn't happen: this is the one to select if you lack imagination or are worried about speculating on such things. Since the Bible tells us that Jesus succeeded in offering a perfect life as a sacrifice, you find the whole discussion to be moot.

2- Couldn't happen: there are two ways to consider this. One, that it would have been impossible for Jesus to sin. That would imply that the whole thing was rigged. Two, that as a perfect human being, Jesus could only have committed a sin through a willful act. And that would have been completely contrary to what he took on a human form to do, as well as giving Satan a victory. That also implies that the game was rigged, in that Jesus would have had to act against his nature in order to fail.

3- Reset button: this is where things can get interesting. Let's assume that he did fail. He knowingly committed a sin and could no longer offer up his human form as a ransom for humanity. What would happen? Would he simply conjure up a new body and start over? Would he consider the whole experiment a failure and wipe out Earth, or even the whole universe? It's not like the next Earth/universe would ever have to know that he messed up. In all honesty, what do you think would have been the ramifications of failure?

4- The End of All Things: or would failure have created a paradox that would have necessarily destroyed even god himself? If Jesus failed, then Satan was right. If Jesus failed, then creation was not "good" and god was not infallible. God would have become something competely contrary to his nature and could not survive such a discrepancy.

The fourth option makes the second one seem the most plausible. It was impossible for god to fail, and therefore the game was rigged. Jesus could not have done any differently than he did, which made his sacrifice superfluous. Does that make sense?

BONUS QUESTION: Is it possible that this isn't the first universe that god created? Or the first planet populated with sentient beings? Maybe we're the third or fourth iteration, and god is STILL getting it wrong? If he wiped everything out and started over, how would we know? Maybe he just seems infallible because we haven't searched far enough in the universe to find the carpet that he swept his earlier messes under?

HOW WOULD WE KNOW???? omg!

The sacrifice was a physical repersentation of the Spiritual 'pain' God went through to provide you with chance at attonement. So we would have some sort of idea of the cost of forgiveness of sin. Jesus did not fail because Christianity understands his sacrifice. The act was symboloic of what has already taken place. (hence the torn curtain/another symbol of the seperation of God and man through sin.)

I take it that you are selecting option 1, then?

actually, option 5:

The OP does not understand the sacrifice of Christ well enough to even frame this survey properly, let alone properly judge any response that is not listed in any of the above options.

Ah, I see. The "you don't understand" cop out. Okay.

There is no option 5! Or maybe you need faith to be able to see it

Wasn't this a movie called The Last Temptation of Christ?

Ummmm

the JC character didn't / never existed...so do I get a pony?

(August 21, 2013 at 8:35 am)Tonus Wrote: Ah, I see. The "you don't understand" cop out. Okay.

If you do not understand, then you do not understand. Your whole survey is based around the idea that the physical sacrifice, was the only thing being represented on the cross that day. It wasn't. That means all questions based on that assumption are not valid.

The reason you hear 'you do not understand' is because most likely you don't. You may have a version of Christianity based off of some other version of it, but most times your personal version has been warped or tweaked just enough to support some supposed God paradox or in this case to frame out a one sided survey. Either way, its still not biblical Christianity. It's something you made up.

Drich Wrote:Your whole survey is based around the idea that the physical sacrifice, was the only thing being represented on the cross that day.

Can Jesus not be sacrificed and Christianity still function?