Originally posted by 667joe
Can some one explain to me how God allowing his only begotten son to be tortured to death absolves believers of their sins? What is the connection? Is God not bright enough to have been able to figure out a less sadistic way to accomplish the same task?
In my way of thinking , (I'm assuming this story is true, which it may not be, but let's just say it is), "God" was showing us how tuff his "Son" was, how he could get tortured to the point of near death and still not convert. "God" showed us that JC was so tuff that he would take everything they could dish up and still not 'give God up'.
JC is supposed to be an example of how tuff we need to be to get to heaven.
It's a spiritual strength, not a physical one.
Have you seen the Mel Gibson movie, I think it was called "The Last temptation of Christ". (I could be wrong with the title here, but I'm sure someone will correct me.)
In that movie Mel Gibson tries to depict EXACTLY what christ went through in the last days of his life. He was repeatedly whipped by the cat 'o' nine tails ,(ripping hunks of flesh as they slammed it into him) and other tortures that no human could possibly bear.
What I am trying to get at hear is that JC would've needed to be a super human to stand that sort of treatment and then still have enough strength left to carry that huge cross up that hill.
Uh-uh. NO WAY. Absolutely no way a normal human could stand that . So either he had extra strength (from God) to stand up to that punishment or some of the story was embellished . (I am assuming that Gibson tried to make that movie as accurate as possible, as he had done with "Apocalypto" and "Braveheart" )
So which was it (christians)? Was Mel going too far in his depiction, was the whole thing just made up, or did JC have super human strength? It has to be one of these options because there is absolutely no way even the most hardy and stongest person alive could've withstood that cat 'o' nine tails, let alone all the other punishments he was subject to.