OK...lets say that we went to a department store. You had an item that you needed to bring back for a refund. You were told that in order to get a refund, you would have to go through the store manager. Would you then say to the clerk that if you were able to get a refund from the clerk than you would not need to go through the manager? Yes. You would expect service as you were the customer.
well. let me use your example to specifically mimic your original argument.
1: i want to go to sears. they have some pants on sale. how do i get there?
2: simple, you just cut through sears, and you're there.
1: yes, but how do i get to sears?
2: you just go through sears to get there.
see how that kind of doesn't make sense? i know all of the standard christian philosophy. trust me. i'm just saying that it doesn't make sense. i get the part about god coming to us, though. and i think i agree.
then there is no way to really understand God nor draw any closer to Him through wisdom and scholastics alone. God is not some puzzle to be figured out.
no, but at the same time, i shouldn't have to go to relationship counseling to know my wife. you know? if it's a personal relationship, it's a personal relationship.
Could your inability to rectify christianity (or Christ) with the old testament be a similar sort of stumbling block as Paul described?
yes. but paul is trying to basically get people to have blind faith. i have faith, but i will not be blind.
he's covering up the fact that his arguments have no weight. saying "no man is righteous on his own" is preposterous if you've read samuel or genesis or job. "the wages of sin are death" is preposterous if you've read exodus or leviticus. "christ was a sacrifice" is ridiculous if you've read leviticus, or are at familiar with what a sacrifice even is, and how it atones for sins.
What was the purpose of the gesture
that god loves us, and he'll give up anything for us. i think if anything, christ was a symbolic sacrfice made by god TO US. made by god to god doesn't make any sense. and teh resurrection makes no sense in the context of sacrifice. if christ didn't actually die and remain dead, what essentially was god giving up? and from us to god makes no sense either. what are giving up at all?
like i said, i think his life and his teachings are more important. i think it was god trying to tell us something. but that essentially makes him a prophet. which, btw, is convenient, considering how that's actually what "son of man" connotates, aside from it's literal meaning, "mortal."
So are you saying that christ was a mere token?
no precisely. i meant it in terms of "gift."
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