TAYA ~ Teens and Young Adults

Thanks for sharing Eric! It is so hard to wrap our head around this topic because we haven’t wrapped our head around how perfect and flawless our God is.

So when we think something is perfect and innocent we are comparing it to ourselves our flawed sinful selves not the perfect Holy God.

It is amazing if you take a problem and trace it back, you will always find that the problem is rooted in sin. Illness, war, poverty..

Thanks for another well written explanation Eric!

So many things with this article do not sit right with me. The claim that all bad things in the world are connected to Sin and that the root of all Sin started with Adam and eve in the Garden. Why do you stop back tracking sin to that point? Who Created Satan? If he is the first evil of the world who made him?

Also I think Saying Jesus had to be born of a virgin to be sin free is a silly statement. If he was born like any other man but was imbued with the power of God to be sinless would that not have worked as well? Sounds like God had to use a loop hole in the sin inheritance system to make sure Jesus would be born without sin. God can make anyone sin free if he chooses, regardless of circumstances of birth.

It’s easy to be an American or someone in a 1st world country and claim to be a christian. But if your kids were being Raped in front of you and hands cut off and starving to death because of cruel dictators, it might be harder to say God wants nothing but the best for you at all times and this is ALL part of his plan.

In your final note you say it is impossible for God to do anything that isn’t good. 1st its odd to hear a person say there are things that God cannot do and 2nd You can look up a few passages in the bible that show you some acts of God that i’m not sure anyone would say were pure good.

Nahum 1:2-8
Zephaniah 3:6-10
Jeremiah 50:21-22
1 Kings 20:35-36

My suggestion to anyone reading this article is to make sure you get out there and do some research on the subject. Whether you identify yourself as a Christian, Atheist, or Undecided, make sure that you really educate yourself before you dig your heels in. Most Churches don’t read from all sections of the bible, you’ll have to do that for yourself.

Love and Peace!!

Hi Dustin!

In Isiah 14:12-14 The bible details the origin of Satin. Satin was originally a beautiful angle name Lucifer who became jealous of God and wanted to take his place. He decided to leave the service of God and do everything he could to become a new God. At that point in time sin was born of the struggle for the attention of all creation.

When Lucifer left Gods service several other angles followed him. This is the origin of demons. Lucifer is a very powerful angle and has power over many things but he is not omnipresent like God so he can only be in one place at a time so his demons also help carry out his work.

When God created humans he gave them free will. He did this because he wanted a relationship with them. To have a relationship you must have love and choices. God did NOT want to make us creations that were pre-programmed to be perfect incapable of not loving him and sinning. How much would it mean to you if your child was a robot that only loved you because that is all can do. When your child loves you out of their own free will it actually means something.

God gave the new humans one instruction not to eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and evil. Satin (Lucifer) saw this as an opportunity to gain the worship of humans so he took the form of a serpent and drew the Woman’s attention to him from God. This was when Sin entered the Human Race.

To address your statement of why Jesus had to be born of a virgin is that Jesus was God. So he had to be 100% God. The reason he had to be born of a virgin was so there was no doubt that this was Gods son not simply a man who appeared on earth, or simply another “good” human. He also had to be born so he could experience the entire human life cycle. There is not one thing that Humans encounter that Jesus did not experience, except for sin.

The reason for Jesus coming was to replace the bloody sacrifice system that God set up after man sinned. God required a complex sacrifice systems of animals for various types of sins. You can find this details throughout the old testament. When you research this you will see that these animals had to be perfect and free of defect. As we spoke about in the discussion below “Jesus Loves the Gays” blog no man is without defect. So it could not be a man it had to be God. It required the blood of Jesus to be spilled to cover all sin and eliminate the need for animal sacrifices.

Various other parts of Jesus’ life where to fulfill prophecies that are in the Bible simply to give us more proof that he was in fact who is said he was.

I know Eric will have more good stuff for you coming soon also!

Dustin thank you also for your ending paragraph you are absolutely correct you should always research what you believe. God does not expect us to blindly believe him, he wants us to learn and study him and know why we believe in him.

Thank you for the challenging debates and allowing me to dig deeper into why I believe what I believe!

I really enjoyed your comment Ali and I’m glad that you are well educated in your beliefs. Although I don’t agree with parts of it or better yet I should say I don’t understand parts of it I do think that you put your thoughts down in a very good format. I can now better see where you are coming from and more easily understand why.

I understand that if there is a God we would not be able to know all the why’s or hows of his doings. That is the biggest issue i have when doing research in the bible and having discussions on the subject. I am such a “why would God do that” kind of thinker, but I have to accept that if there is a God then I cannot begin to understand him because I don’t have a drop of knowledge in comparison to him.

Biblically I think you are spot on with your take and understanding of the facts on the topic of Original sin. The 2 questions I would ask you on this would be:
1: Why was it in Gods plan for Satan to leave him and then for man to be temped by Satan? If God knows all and can interview and make changes in the outcome of events why did he let Satan go to Adam and Eve knowing that if he did it would be the introduction of sin into the world. Also if God did know that this would introduce Sin into the world but choose not to stop it then God wanted Sin to enter into man.

So I just had a revelation while writing that question. Without the temptation of sin we cannot prove our love to God. So without Satan giving us sin we would have been the All good pre-programmed people you mentioned.

2: Will there be sin in heaven? In a perfect place without sin or temptation how would you be able to show God your love? I’m amusing you can do no wrong in heaven. Wouldn’t earth have been like Heaven had Satan not introduced Sin?

Sorry but one more thing popped into my head. Did God make the earth with intentions for it to be perfect?

I really do ask all of these question because I do not understand why any of this would happen if there were a perfect God looking out for the interest of all mankind.

Thanks again for commenting back Ali.

Wow, Dustin. You just asked a handful of questions that I myself have never thought about. Seriously, thank you. Keep on making us dig deeper!

I’m a bit confused about original sin. I’ve always been taught that God is forgiving and that we may all ask for forgiveness for our wrongdoings. From Genesis 3:17-19, God expresses his disappointment in Adam and Eve and determines his punishment immediately. Why weren’t Adam and Eve given the chance for forgiveness? Just a little thing that’s been bugging me.

First and foremost welcome to our conversation Jake!

God does offer forgiveness for sin but it all comes at a cost. When Adam and Eve sinned God introduced the animal sacrifice system so they were forgiven for their sins.

God now offers forgiveness for sins through the sacrifice of his son. The only stipulation for the forgiveness of our sin is that we accept the sacrifice he has given. Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Keep the questions coming!

Dustin!!

As promised Erick will be jumping on here in the next day or two to clarify some points in his blog above! He will more than likely expound on things we already talked about.

Thanks for the props on my accurate bible knowledge! Its always good to know if we can’t agree we can still be friends.. I will attempt to field your questions, if I miss one just ask it again!!

You are correct God is a God and there are things that he does and can do because he can. If you were God I’m sure you would take the same liberties.

In the time that I have been a Christian I have learned that God is a dramatic God. He also is an amazing story teller. He also does not allow anything to happen outside of his plan. Nothing surprises him. He allowed Satan to live after he fell and created a very dramatic plan on how to rescue his creation after they fell. (I’m very interested to hear what Eric’s take is on this, He has a little different back ground on his studies and might be able to shed different light on the subject)

He allowed Satan to interact with his creation and gave is creation the free will to obey God or to fall to sin. Once they fell to sin He created a complex systems of sacrifices that included his son. If you keep reading the Bible through Revelation you will find that God builds intensity in his story, He teases Satan with power and ultimately casts him into a lake of fire to his final demise.

Those too paragraphs just to say, yes Dustin, without sin and Satan we could never prove our love to God. (I’m sorry I’m so wordy, its been a trait I’ve had since I was young)

#2) Will there be sin in heaven? No there will not be. While we are on Earth we are given the chance to follow God or not. Once everything is all said and done God is going to destroy everything he has created and create a new heaven and a new earth. Isaiah 65:17 or Revelations 21:1. This will be a perfect creation, with no sin. WE will even be given glorified bodies Philippians 3:20-21.

We will have already been through this life on earth with God. We will already have proven our love to God while we were here and have absolutely fallen in love with God. When we get to heaven it will be like finally meeting the love of your life who has only been a pen pal, we will see his face for the first time in person so we will be able to pour out our and Worship to him. I think we will only be able to do this because of what he hasdone in this sin filled world. Thus taking out any need to keep having sin to prove our love.

I think I covered today’s questions!

If you have any more let me know!!No need to apologize about questions, I am happy to help you sort out any further questions you have about my beliefs!

Thanks again for the challenge!!

Ali

@Jake,

Thanks for commenting, and joining the conversation.

Yes, God introduced the animal sacrifice system when Adam and Eve gave into their sin nature, and ate the apple.

In Genesis 3:21 God killed an animal, in order to make clothing for Adam and Eve. Because of their sin an animal had to die to cover their sin (funny how literal it is). In that instance there was also the first punishment for sin, when they were banished from the garden (v23).

Now, even though God punished Adam and Eve, he didn’t kill them for their sin. Yes he punished them, but he did forgive them and take care of them by giving them away to atone for their sin.

Hi Dustin!

Thanks for reading and responding! Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I’ve been pretty swamped this week with school. Anyways, I’m going to try and distill all your comments so far into a paragraph-form response. I have found that quoting individual things can become cumbersome, disconnected and trivial, so if I don’t answer a comment you made, but it was something you wished I replied to, let me know. As for the original sin, I’m not going to beat a dead horse here. Ali and Jimmy covered it quite well!

The point of Jesus coming to earth wasn’t to show that He was God or try to prove anything. He came as the perfect sacrifice that could be a substitution for all the sin in the world. Previously, animals, specifically animals in their prime, were offered as sin sacrifices, because the consequences of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Sin entered the world in a variety of ways (such as entropy), but in humans it manifest itself in our DNA — literally! And those mutations are then passed on to each child generation and so forth. By a biological reasoning, it is clear to see how the sin of Adam and Eve was spread to all humans. But Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for all sin, so that sin can leave through one person. So he couldn’t be blemished in any way, or it defeats the whole purpose of a sacrifice. If Jesus was born a natural birth, he couldn’t possibly be sinless, because sin permeates every piece of genetic code. Even though He would still be fully God and Human, he would be sinful by association with Adam as his ancestor.

I definitely agree with you that it is certainly easier to be a Christian in a very safe country such as America, but only in some aspects. True, people in America (hopefully) will never have to suffer through the event you described, but they definitely have many more distractions to keep them from God, while people in poorer countries have less things to keep them from God. Often times God works in dire situations like that because the people simply wouldn’t acknowledge him in nicer circumstances (Look at Israel. They completely ignored God for so long, but it took an exile and razing of their temple to bring them back to God). I won’t say being a Christian is easy in any way. It is hard, and there will be hard events in your life that make you really question your faith. But often times these hard parts in your life makes your faith stronger. For me personally, it was what confirmed my faith, and began my spark for apologetics.

God is quite capable of doing evil, but then His essence would change and he wouldn’t be a God anymore. Think of it this way: A circle is a 2D shape without any corners. You can change that circle into a square, no problem, but it can’t possibly be considered a circle because its essence has changed. If God committed evil, He could no longer be called the Christian God. It is also incredibly, absolutely and imperative that God is also a righteous God and will judge the world as He sees fit. The final judgement is the only period of judgement that we know will happen in the future, but that doesn’t take away from God’s right to judge people and nations whenever. God cannot coexist with sin (it’s against his nature) and the punishment for sin is death. It is the righteous punishment the nations and people in those verses were getting.

Thanks Eric and Jimmy!! Both of your comments were very enlightening!!

My brother suggested I might like this blog. He was entirely right. This post truly made my day. You can not imagine just how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!

I’m glad to hear that this was such a help to you!

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