Josh McDowell

[DeistPaladin]

"The rejection of Christ is often not so much of the mind but of the will, not so much "I can't" but "I won't." - Josh McDowell, Evidence for Christianity

What's your gut reaction to this?

---

I'll be back to check, I'm going to watch my show.

By rejection of Christ, I assume you mean his offer of salvation by his redemptive sacrifice on the cross?

Going with that assumption, I'll break it down for you.

My problem is not that I'm too proud to admit being a "sinner", if by that you mean I've made mistakes in this life. My problem is not that I'm unwilling to "repent and turn from sin", if by that you mean honestly assess my mistakes, learn from them and seek to set things right.

My problem is in thinking that there's any redemptive value in blood sacrifices, be they animal, human or divine.

First, I fail to understand the mechanics involved. How does blood sacrifice make anything better? How does it make God any more inclined to forgive? And if Jesus is God, then we have God sacrificing himself as a means to convince himself to forgive us, which only compounds the absurdity.

Second, moral justice demands that the criminal alone must be punished for his transgressions. No one can take the place of someone else's sins, even if that person were willing.

Third, it is morally wrong to accept an offer to take my place for the things I have done wrong. Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that a friend of a murderer turns himself in for the crime, in order to save his criminal friend. If the murderer fails to stop his friend from being executed in his place, knowingly allowing an innocent to be killed, he has yet more blood on his hands.

To review, here's the sales pitch of Christianity:

1. Admit you're a sinner.
2. Be willing to repent.
3. Believe that God sent himself down to earth to bleed on a cross as the means of convincing himself to forgive you.

You had me. You had me. You lost me.