(April 6, 2016 at 11:41 am)SteveII Wrote:(April 6, 2016 at 10:39 am)Time Traveler Wrote: Your answer to Rob above does not address my direct questions at all. You answered...
Wholly unrelated. And...
Does not address my initial question regarding whether or not you would obey God's commands only if you were a leader of a theocracy or not, which you alluded to earlier.
And by all the world, you mean all those who weren't slaughtered in the biblical flood and only those alive after Christ was born. Why did God wait so long to send Christ to atone for Adam and Eve's sins? Why were so many generations denied salvation through Christ? And what about the poor Chinese, or Native Americans, or Aborigines who couldn't benefit from Christ's sacrifice because the poor bastards didn't happen to live in one small region of the middle east during Jesus's lifetime and wouldn't even hear about Jesus for centuries? Hardly seems like a global salvation.
Oh, so there was no sacrifice of God's one and only son on the cross. Christ simply said something like, "I atone for sin and make it possible to have a personal relationship with God!" without the bloody sacrifice bit. I like this much better! Seems to contradict the bible though, like John 3:16, but I was never much for taking the bible seriously anyway. Seems you aren't either.
Sorry, I typed out a long response and it is gone now...here goes again.
Christ and the Gospel message is the final revelation of God. It is what everything else has been leading up to. Christians are now to obey and live according to the instructions in the NT. There is no possibility of a theocracy (led by this God) because he will not interact like he did in the OT. So, whether I would obey if I were the leader is moot.
"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:20) and "the requirements of the law are written on their hearts" (Romans 2:15). 7"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8"For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.…(Mat 7:7-8). These and other verses indicate that those who have not heard the gospel can still find God.
Christ chose to die on the cross for the redemption of everyone who believes.