"Good" & "Bad" Christians?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Substitutive sacrifice is immoral on the face of it.  I can pay your debts, but that doesn't absolve you of the moral obligation of the debt.  I can serve your prison sentence in your place, but that doesn't erase what you did.

Torturing and murdering a 1st century rabbi to absolve humanity of its sins is a difference of degree, not of kind.

Boru

If you steal money from me, you have wronged me and owe me restitution.  If your friend comes to me and offers to repay what you steal if I agree to drop charges and I agree, you are resolved of your debt.  A person can forgive another person for a legitimate offense and not demand restitution.   In this case, even though the offender didn't do anything to make up for the offense, he is forgiven and absolved.

But that doesn't absolve me of the crime of the original theft.  Because *I* haven't done anything to make restitution to *you*. Substituting a whipping boy for a prince doesn't change the offense committed by the prince.

Forgiveness isn't the same issue at all.

Boru