can anyone explain the mechanics of how someone like this believes Jesus “saved” us? it has never made an ounce of sense to me
According to evangelicals… all humans are sinful. We’ve all violated God’s laws in some way. And since God is a perfect being and his laws are perfect, all humans are deserving of basically infinite punishment i.e. being tortured beyond comprehension for eternity in hell. But because God loves humans so much, he decided to sacrifice… himself… to pay the debt we owe him. So Jesus comes to earth and died to be the “sacrifice for our sins”.
Now logically, you would think that Jesus doing this would save everyone, right? It would still be a fucked-up system but everyone gets to heaven so no harm, no foul. Buuuuuut no, that’s not how evangelicals see it. Jesus dying was only half of the equation. The other half is, we as people need “accept” this. Meaning, we have to admit to God that we are sinners and deserve hell. And we have to believe Jesus’ sacrifice is the only thing that can save us and we put our faith in that to save us. Only THEN do we get our ticket to heaven punched. Everyone else still gets hell. Why it HAS to be this way… dunno it’s just God’s arbitrary rules.
(NOTE: I’ve taken more of an Arminian approach to explaining this - that’s the school of evangelicalism that emphasizes human choice in this whole thing. There’s also Calvinism, which states it’s not about human choice so much as God picks who he will save and who he will condemn. It’s even more fucked up IMO but probably more accurate biblically. John Calvin himself is rumored to have said “there are babies a span long in hell”, and while it’s not a fashionable view now Calvinists historically have had no problem thinking that God condemns children and babies to hell).
Yeah, if anyone really thinks about this its clear God had to be playing by someone else’s rules. Its just too fucked in the head to create a sinful creation and then make up a rule that you have to sacrifice your son (and self) to save everyone. You could just save everyone if you were calling the shots.
That’s what’s annoys me most about it. Like why should I be thankful if he saves me from a system he intentionally architected.
Definitely - if Hitler accepted Jesus in the bunker he is in heaven, but the kindest, sweetest grandpa in the world who was only ever kind and generous to everyone but not a Christian is in hell.
do other denominations have the same basic understanding or is it different depending on how insane your church is? The idea that Jesus died for our sins isn’t just evangelicals, it’s universal in christianity
The weirdest part is that it’s presented as a grave sacrifice. Like, what? What did God or Jesus lose? Jesus didn’t die for anyone’s sins - he’s like, fine! He was invincible the whole time. He’s right there! Religious fanatics literally group-cry at the concept of the sacrifice. But how is it a sacrifice if you don’t fucking lose something?
Mary accepted being Jesus’s mother this isn’t even accurate
God didn’t plan Jesus?
God had unprotected sex with mary?
What’s going on here?
Lol right? Like its fucking god… wouldn’t it just like… make it happen one way or the other? Pigeon-holing your modern values into ancient legend is such a weird mental leap
