Originally Posted by
John_and_Yoko
Really belongs in the other thread, but....
It sounds to me like you're thinking of God as though He were a human being. If God created, then only God has the authority to destroy His own creation--UNLESS He specifically grants that authority to creatures. And you'll notice that man sinned FIRST. Sin leads to death. God had to make sure those in covenant with Him understood that--BEFORE He reconciled humanity to Himself in the Sacrifice on the Cross. That changed everything. Again, God didn't change, our relationship with Him did.
No. That's impossible. God doesn't kill because He ENJOYS it--quite the contrary. Does He ever express JOY in killing human beings? And you just said it yourself--you're comparing God to human beings. God is NOT a human being. God is not A being at all. God IS being itself.
This is why I didn't know you'd read the Bible. Jesus IS God, first of all, and second of all, He said "I come not to destroy, but to fulfill." He came to give the definitive understanding of the Torah, and He did. He was simply saying that MAN had gotten caught up in, "Okay, it's this day so we have to do this thing this way at this time, otherwise we'll be an affront to God", and Jesus is saying no, the reasoning behind those rules is love of God and neighbor (which is IN the Old Testament).
You've read Genesis, right? Then you should know that the Mosaic covenant was NOT the "original" covenant. One was made with Noah after the Flood, and another was made with Abraham. And if man is imperfect, how is making the covenant perfect right from the start going to do any good? Imperfection can't comprehend that. Remember, in those days people practiced human SACRIFICES and had a lot of illicit sex and worshiped nature. It takes a long time for people to get out of those habits and take on new ones--and God has all the time in the universe. The Bible isn't even a document, it's a collection of books, and over time they perfect our knowledge of God.
But Professor Pakaluk completely missed the point of Christ's Sacrifice. His Sacrifice (which He went to of His own free will, remember) was precisely so that we could LIVE, so that the death penalty would become OBSOLETE. He took away the sins of the WORLD, not just of SOME people.
If you want to continue this, can we please move it to the religious discussion thread?