I'm actually pleased with your reply, as I was afraid I was in for tongue lashing. Daydreaming at work, at wondered if I was perhaps being too forward in asking you something like that. I could have easily suggested thinking of a time when
you were wronged. Nevertheless, I only wish to explore as many avenues a debate can take me. A lot of the things I discuss here, not that I hide my core beliefs, I would never share with the people around me in my everyday life. I also have a strange goal of one day, people around water coolers saying "Did you read that online debate between that alley and Dex guy? Boy, did they ever take that topic to new heights eh?! Maybe now, somebody might act on those ideas." (sorry, in a rambling mood tonite I think)
Yes, I've done that twice that I know of, I still feel a keen regret and sorrow about those events, and I've tried to patch them up as best I could, but some things you really can't fix. But those weren't sins. They were just mistakes, errors in judgment, failures to understand something. We all do such things and carry the burdens of them, and I simply cannot see how some deity forgiving me for them lets me off the hook. It doesn't help the people I wronged, so to me it means nothing. The wrong still exists. It's relationships with people, not some fictitious deity, that matter.
Fortunately, I was able to track this down. I hope your willing to read it. Please do.
THE JUDGE
A young man is brought before a judge for drunk driving. When his name is announced by the bailiff, there’s a gasp in the courtroom—the defendant is the judge’s son! The judge hopes his son is innocent, but the evidence is irrefutable. He’s guilty.
What can the judge do? He’s caught in a dilemma between justice and love. Since his son is guilty, he deserves punishment. But the judge doesn’t want to punish his son because of his great love for him.
He reluctantly announces the sentence: “Son, you can either pay a $5,000 fine or go to jail.”
The son looks up at the judge and says, “But, Dad, I promise to be good from now on! I’ll volunteer at soup kitchens. I’ll visit the elderly. I’ll even open a home to care for abused children. And I’ll never do anything wrong again! Please let me go!”
At this point, the judge asks, “Are you still drunk? You can’t do all of that. But even if you could, your future good deeds can’t change the fact that you’re already guilty of drunk driving.” Indeed, the judge realizes that good works cannot cancel bad works! Perfect justice demands that his son be punished for what he has done.
So the judge repeats, “I’m sorry, Son. As much as I’d like to allow you to go, I’m bound by the law. The punishment for this crime is $5,000 or you go to jail.”
The son pleads with his father, “But, Dad, you know I don’t have $5,000. There has to be another way to avoid jail!”
The judge stands up and takes off his robe. He walks down from his raised bench and gets down to his son’s level. Standing eye to eye next to his son, he reaches into his pocket, pulls out $5,000, and holds it out. The son is startled, but he understands there’s only one thing he can do to be free—take the money. There’s nothing else he can do. Good works or promises of good works cannot set him free. Only the acceptance of his father’s free gift can save the son from certain punishment.
God is in a situation similar to that of the judge—he’s caught in a dilemma between his justice and his love. Since we’ve all sinned at one time in our lives, God’s infinite justice demands that he punish that sin. But because of his infinite love, God wants to find a way to avoid punishing us.
and... obviously, the $5000 would represent whom?;-)
:smile:
