WHAT’S IN A NAME?

[Curtis]

So, can we shake hands on it then? If you and I are ever together and we come across someone being murdered or tortured, we’ll do what we can to save them. No matter who it is?

I would hope everyone would do what is "right" in any given situation.

Jas 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

 

[Sue D.]

The question that you guys have been 'debating' seems to be IF the cruficixion of Christ could have been prevented would you have done everything possible To prevent it? My answer would be No. His death/ crucifixion on that cross was Necessary and Jesus Christ knew it. His shed blood was necessary for our salvation. His death on the cross was necessary and His bodily resurrection Did take place. Just as Scripture says it did.

The circumstances of His death were that the people Demanded His execution. All part of what Had to happen.

You're last comment Kirby D.P. -- chances are that If that were to happen, it would be 'common knowledge' as to the why's and wherefore's Of.

And, yes, Curtis -- there Is a 'right' in any given situation.

 

[Kirby D. P.]

I would hope everyone would do what is "right" in any given situation.

Jas 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Beautifully put, Curtis.

 

[Kirby D. P.]

The question that you guys have been 'debating' seems to be IF the cruficixion of Christ could have been prevented would you have done everything possible To prevent it? My answer would be No. His death/ crucifixion on that cross was Necessary and Jesus Christ knew it. His shed blood was necessary for our salvation. His death on the cross was necessary and His bodily resurrection Did take place. Just as Scripture says it did.

The circumstances of His death were that the people Demanded His execution. All part of what Had to happen.

You're last comment Kirby D.P. -- chances are that If that were to happen, it would be 'common knowledge' as to the why's and wherefore's Of.

And, yes, Curtis -- there Is a 'right' in any given situation.

Hi, Sue.

I beg to differ. If God in any way resembles his portrayal in the Holy Bible, there is literally nothing I could possibly do to thwart his will. If the Crucifixion MUST have happened, then it SHALL have happened, no matter how clever or earnestly I work to prevent it. Nonetheless, if I’m a Christian, I am charged with doing what is right, as Curtis (and James) so succinctly points out. The inevitability of the torture and murder of Jesus doesn’t let me off the hook to ponder, “Is it okay for me to overlook evil in this one instance?”

It reminds me, as so many of my conversations here, of my all-time favorite verse in all the Bible, Gen 2:15 (I’m wearing a t-shirt of it right now), “And the LORD God took the man, and put him in the Garden to dress it and to tend it.”

I happen to think the crisis of our age is the slow-roll disaster of climate change. I won’t attempt to preach it here, but I think any observant Christian, Jew or Muslim who doesn’t take fighting climate change as their original mission from God betrays his scripture. Yes, Christians are ALSO charged with other, more selfish obligations like eschewing sin and accepting Christ. But, at least according the Bible, our FIRST job as humans is to “dress and to tend” the Creation. We’ve done a pretty good job of “dressing” it, subduing and harnessing it, bending Nature to our will (constructing mountains of glass and steel, leveling mountains of rock and earth, diverting rivers and digging new ones where there were none) and holding dominion over all other creatures (cattle are now the most numerous non-human large animal on Earth –– and that’s all our doing, for our own selfish wants), but we are all but derelict in tending it, preserving it.

Note that Gen 2:15 does NOT say, “…to dress it and to tend it IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT.” Nor, “…if it looks like it needs it,” nor even, “…unless God will preserve it himself, come what may.”

At any rate, I’ll bet my bottom dollar you can’t find a single “jot nor tittle” of scripture that even HINTS we can be picky and choosy about which evils we confront. When I used to believe in God, the conundrum of what to do witnessing the Crucifixion never occurred to me. But I did consider other similar fraught dilemmas and the resolution I always came to was: do what you know is right and trust God to work his will.

Obviously, my view on things has evolved since then, so I can’t tell you what to think. But it’s a position I think any good Christian could justify.