Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Do you think a just punishment is one that is commensurate with the violation?
Consider that Jesus only had to suffer and die once, over the course of a few days, to pay for the sins of all of humanity. Yet your doctrine holds that even one individual non-Christian must spend an eternity in torment to pay for his sins alone. Doesn't this seem y for anybody else's sins, or at least earn them some time off from their eternal punishment?[/b]
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Do you think a just punishment is one that is commensurate with the violation?
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Yes.
But in this matter of the divine justice dispensed by God what I think is secondary. What the word of God says is what is most important.
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Consider that Jesus only had to suffer and die once, over the course of a few days, to pay for the sins of all of humanity.
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And you probably have no idea what it meant for Him to have done so.
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Yet your doctrine holds that even one individual non-Christian must spend an eternity in torment to pay for his sins alone.
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As you have no idea what it meant to God to have Christ bear the judgment of sin for the whole of humanity you also have no idea of the effect of your sins on the whole fabric of creation. You probably do not know what ripple effect on time and other persons your sins have.
Man is not in the position that he could judge what his penalty should be for his rebellion against God. In the same way that a congress of rapists could not be trusted to determine among themselves what the penalty for rape should be.
Sinners against the law of God cannot be trusted to decide what is a just penalty from God for their transgressions should be.
We should just believe God on this and thank Him that He has made gracious provision for our salvation from it.
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Doesn't this seem out of whack?
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What God's justice seems to me is not important. What His word says is what is important.
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I really struggle with the accounting here. If one lifetime of sin merits an actual eternity of punishment (that is, limitless punishment), how can Jesus have taken on the whole world's punishment over a weekend?
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Further, surely there are non-Christians who have suffered more horrible deaths than Jesus did. (Examples would include those burned at the stake at the hands of Christians.) Does their suffering pay for anybody else's sins, or at least earn them some time off from their eternal punishment?
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Whatever thier situation is that is probably not your situation.