Section 1 - A logical Challenge
This is an old enough challenge to the omnipotence of God.
At first glance I don’t think it is such a serious problem, if we just concede
that God can be limited by His own ability, and then it is ok.
Of course, a sneaky way would be to claim that “He can, but
He chooses not to”. Because doing so would violate His principles.
Section 2 – Free Will
There is a closely related question, “Can God create
creatures which can command free will, and can choose not to obey Him?” The
answer of course is yes, God created Mankind, which committed sin and lost Eternal Life, out of their own accord.
This was Eden lost, in contrast to Eden regained with Jesus
dying on the cross.
Section 3 – Redemption, a Free Will special case
Natural enough to pose the third question, “Was Jesus out
of his own free will, to follow the plan of God, namely to be crucified, so
that Man’s sin can be atoned and paradise can be regained?”
Of course, we like to say the answer is yes, so we may cheer
at Christ’ triumph over death. But if there was free will it meant there was a
chance it didn’t happen, and Man’s sin was not atoned. And how can God be so
sure that it indeed would happen?
One can come to rescue and say that indeed it was Jesus free
will at play, but God is omniscient, He knows all causes and can figure out all
outcomes, and can predict exactly what happens, like the precogs in the
Minority Report.
So God is a hundred percent sure that Jesus would be up to his
mission.
Section 4 – Salvation through mercy or good deeds?
But was this accomplished mission already the golden ticket to
resurrection?
As someone can raise a question: If Jesus was so sure that
He could rise from death -Did God raise him from death, or did he rise up from
death by his own? – then dying on the cross seemed to be tricky. It seemed to
be a good trade, even though the process of crucifixion was real painful.
Is it like an explicit contract, that if everybody fulfills
his own terms, that he will be saved?
Is salvation out of mercy from God, or is it out of good
deeds?
If it’s out of good deeds, it seems we can be in control,
and also we can blame nothing else if we fail.
The parable of the prodigal son implies it’s out of mercy.
Paul’s epistle implies otherwise:
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God
has called heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)
Section 5 - Unnerving case of Ananias and Sapphira
Was it as heavy a sin to lie about temple money/covetousness/hypocrisy?
Or was it a punishment to their half-heartedness, that they were having a backup
plan and only invested part of their proceeds in this “startup”? Once again, it
shows that “good deeds” alone are not enough, that you heart must be pure
before you are considered to be righteous in God’s eyes. So one may further infer
that not only Jesus must follow God’s plan that he was resurrected, he must also
love God wholeheartedly, without thinking of his own advantage.
//On the outside, Ananias and Sapphira
look just like another church member named Barnabas (introduced in Acts 4).
Barnabas had just sold his property and brought the money to the apostles, and
to the casual observer, Ananias and Sapphira were doing the same thing.
But deep in their heart lingered a love
of money and a desire for people’s praise. So they conspired together to
present a portion of their money while passing it
off as the entire amount. This is worlds apart from the
attitude of Barnabas, but looks very similar.//
(see http://www.jdgreear.com/my_weblog/2013/11/5-things-god-teaches-us-in-the-tragic-deaths-of-ananias-sapphira.html)Section 6 - Others
1) God makes us this way! He knows
our weaknesses, and that we are prone to fail. Why not makes us stronger? Is
this His problem or our problem?
2) God makes Jesus that way!
3) What if someone so bad luck that
throughout his entire life he has never heard about the Good News? Is it fair
to send such a guy to hell?
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