irateplatypus

here is what i believe, i know that this is consistent with Wesleyan interpretations of scripture. Unsure how it compares with other traditions...

God the Father, the smiter mentioned in previous posts from the Old Testament is inifinitely holy and powerful. His very nature is incompatible with the notion of sin, oil and water. If heaven is being near to the presence of God, then sinning excludes you from his presence.

God knew that man could never live up to this ideal, but loves and wants to fellowship with his creations. So, he sent his son to take our sins upon him in order that we may fellowship with God the Father.

Jesus was God's son. He lived a mortal life while being subjected to all the temptations, pain, and opportunity to sin that every human person deals with. In accepting a perfect sacrifice (someone paying a debt for you, even though they themselves were debt-free), we are justified in our hope for eternal salvation from our sins... though we are still imperfect.

separate from issues of agreement, i hope that made sense.

__________________
If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill