The Reasons why "Just Following Jesus" Doesn't work

[Chad32]

No, it doesn't. What your god does is more like blackmail anyway. He demands forgiveness from people who have nothing personal against him, on pain of eternal torture. Assuming he is actually all powerful and such, there's no way he can really lose out on anything that's done against his creation or himself, so I'm not sure why he'd be angry or offended anyway.

If I made a sandcastle, and someone came and gave it a good kick, but I could snap my fingers and it would be the way it was before, I've lost nothing. The other person can't do anything that I can't fix. So what is it costing him by just forgiving someone who is sorry, without asking for anything in return? Why the publicity stunt of having an avatar of himself killed, then bringing him back?

Yahweh is supposedly benevolent, and worthy of worship, but no matter how worthy you are, demanding worship makes you unworthy of it.

[vorlon13]

"Following" Jesus is even harder when the supposed followers actually want Jesus to follow them. All those pesky and inconvenient scriptures ? Come on Jesus, give us a break !!!

[Rekeisha]

For someone who takes the stance of caring less about weither God exist or not you have a lot of opinions about what He does.

In your scenario Chad the sandcastle may be rebuilt but the wrong done to you and the work you have done is still there. If you are going to truly forgive you acknowledge the wrong but you seek the relationship over your own personal rights for retaliation.

God does not work in the way you imagine Him to work. He put aside all His power and made Himself weak. He lived his life dependent on the Holy Spirit not His own Godliness. He allowed Himself to be crucified for our sakes. It cost Him pain and humiliation. There must be a price paid for our sins, either God will pay or the sinner. It is mercy to receive God's payment. It is just to pay for your own sins. It corrupt for God to over look the sin.

No matter who you are it will always cost you something to forgive.

[robvalue]

If someone kicks over my sandcastle they gonna pay.

Just ask that little kid who tripped on the beach last summer.

I forgave him eventually, somewhere between the fifth and sixth kick to the head I think.

[Chad32]

For someone who takes the stance of caring less about weither God exist or not you have a lot of opinions about what He does.

In your scenario Chad the sandcastle may be rebuilt but the wrong done to you and the work you have done is still there. If you are going to truly forgive you acknowledge the wrong but you seek the relationship over your own personal rights for retaliation.

God does not work in the way you imagine Him to work. He put aside all His power and made Himself weak. He lived his life dependent on the Holy Spirit not His own Godliness. He allowed Himself to be crucified for our sakes. It cost Him pain and humiliation. There must be a price paid for our sins, either God will pay or the sinner. It is mercy to receive God's payment. It is just to pay for your own sins.  It corrupt for God to over look the sin.

No matter who you are it will always cost you something to forgive.

I drift between apatheism and antitheism from time to time. It mostly depends on who I'm talking to.

Nope. I reversed it. I'm all powerful. As an individual far above everyone else, there's nothing they could do to harm me, or stop me from doing that I want. In fact the only reason anyone is able to do anything is because I allow them to, so what excuse do I have for being offended? If I don't want it to happen again, it won't happen. If it does, it's because I am not bothered by it. Preventing people from raping children doesn't take away their free will. keeping someone from starving because of other people in power doesn't interfere with anyone's free will. Not that Yahweh never interferes with free will.

He came down, but never really spent time as one of us. Maybe if he did, he'd understand Human nature better, and realize thoughts don't equal action, slavery is wrong, and a few other things. Maybe if he got sold to someone who beat him half to death for not working hard enough, he wouldn't go telling slaves to obey cruel masters. He did get himself brutally murdered, but he came back and gets to rule in heaven. Sign me up for crucifixion.

No one made him create hell, and sentence everyone to it just for being born. Living a gifted life for thirty years, and having a horrible week to save us from himself doesn't make him a hero.

[Rekeisha]

You are inconsistent with your thinking about who God is and your judgment of God. Depending on the people around you, you feel one way about God and then another. That shows me that your judgment is unstable.

[Chad32]

Well, nobody's perfect.

[Rekeisha]

Humm, I am going to guess you are half way joking. When you say no one is perfect then your measurement is perfection. Since no person is perfect and never has been perfect (except one) so why point to that as an excuse. There is perfection and you know in our heart that you haven't met the mark. You admit you are wrong so why reject the remedy?

[Chad32]

I'm not satisfied that anything is perfect. Certainly not a god that constantly fails at what he's supposedly trying to do. I know many christians will say it's our fault that most people aren't getting into heaven, but how many billion people and thousands of years does it take before you start thinking it's not the followers that are the problem? It's the leader.

[Rekeisha]

So if nothing is perfect why do we even have the concept of perfection.