The Statement:
The Problem with the basic premise of Christianity is that God was wrong and created the Savior institution to fix his mistake.
As it was explained to me, His error was accepting only the perfect into Heaven, but Man cannot be perfect. But – GOD CANNOT BE WRONG – or everything else falls apart.
Summary of The Response:
- God created man to live in perfect fellowship with Him in love.
- Man rebelled and choose to live according to his own will and not God’s.
- In Jesus, God choose to take man’s just punishment upon Himself to restore the loving relationship we were designed to have with Him.
The Response:
I agree that God cannot be wrong. He also cannot be a liar, unjust or evil. If He is any of these things, “everything else falls apart.” Therefore, the basic premise of Christianity cannot be that “God was wrong.”
God has certain characteristics that are part of His nature. Just like a person cannot choose the color of their eyes (baring surgery), God cannot change those characteristics that are part of who He is. Christians, along with other religions, profess that one of those characteristics is holiness. God is holy. Because of this, what is unholy or unrighteous cannot enter his presence.
It is said, “to err is human.” It is painfully obvious that people are not perfect. Human history is full of examples of us not living up to a standard of righteousness that, deep in our hearts, we know is real. It is evident in that feeling of injustice when, having stood up for a moment, we return to our seat only to find someone else sitting in it. But were we always like that?
Perhaps a distinction should be made between errors caused by lack of knowledge and ones resulting from an act of will. We all have gotten a chuckle from a child who has said something cute because they don’t know better, but when that child is stubbornly refusing to follow direction, that is another matter altogether. The same is true for us. Making a mistake due to a lack of information usually result in humor for those privileged to witness it. Yet, exercising our will in a way contrary societal standards can only result in a breaking of fellowship and, if caught, some sort of punishment. How then, can a Holy God, whose righteous standard comes from His very nature, have fellowship with people live contrary to His standard? How can a just God not act and meet out the justice rightly deserved?
So why would God create a race of people which His very nature would require Him to punish? Setting aside the notion that God created us for some sadistic pleasure (such a god would be too horrible to contemplate), the short answer is, He didn’t. Since God is perfect and his nature requires moral perfection, then God would have created us morally perfect in an intimate relationship with Himself (which is what Genesis testifies). But something went wrong.
What is it that God wants from us? John writes that “God is Love,” and love needs an object of affection. How can a person be loving if they are stranded alone on a deserted island? Yet, strand one more person on that island and there can be love… or not. Love is also an act of will, a choice. So God gave us a free will so we could exercise the option to love God… or not. We choose “not.”
We exercised our free will and disaster followed. Families estranged from each other, nations at war with each other, selfishness, greed, mistrust, and hatred. The list goes on. Have you ever had a friend hurt by someone else? How did you feel? What did you want to do? Now think of a time you hurt someone else. Know that God loves that person that you hurt. What is God to do?
This is the dilemma. God, whose very nature is love, is a just being. He cannot turn a blind eye to our rebellion (make no mistake, when we assert our own wills above God’s we are being as rebellious as any child who will not follow their parent’s instructions). Jesus’ disciple John wrote, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” Yet God, in His foreknowledge, knew the choices we would make and had a plan. A plan to reconcile a rebellious people to Himself, a plan to restore the love between God and man. That plan is the Gospel of Jesus.
