8 Ways The Gospel Message (does not) Contradict Itself
Debunking Lilith Helstrom of “Deconstructing Christianity” in 5 minutes
Lilith says:
- God is so deeply forgiving that he couldn’t forgive anyone without an extremely violent sacrifice.
Response:
God is not Joe Biden who forgives people without an recourse to justice. God is deeply forgiving but is also deeply just. The same God said the “soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4), so if there is a sin, there has to be a death for the sin to be justly forgiven hence the Old Testament sacrifices which were pointing to Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for sin. In that way, God can both be forgiving and just.
See also two other articles on this:
Lilith says:
2. Jesus died on the cross for your sins and that’s why he’s still alive millennia later, longer than humanly possible.
Response
This makes me think Lilith does not have a clue what the gospel is. Has she ever heard of the resurrection? This is what the entire gospel rests on, as Paul says,
“And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!”
(1 Corinthians 15:17)
This, by the way, is what makes the historical case for the gospel compelling. We have extra-Biblical evidence that Jesus was put to death on the cross and that His disciples went about boldly proclaiming that He had risen from the dead. Jesus Himself explained that this is precisely for the purpose of forgiving sin,
“Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
(Luke 24:46–47)
So the gospel is whenever a person believes in Jesus Christ, His death becomes their death (thus paying for their sin) and His resurrection life becomes their own life (thus they rise with Christ, a new man, free from the sin they earlier died to). However if Lilith and the fine chaps over at deconstructing Christianity do not believe this, they are still stuck with explaining the historical fact that Jesus died on the cross and almost immediately after (some 50 days if we go with Biblical record), His disciples (as well as “haters” and “doubters” like Paul and James) were utterly convinced they had seen Him alive again and went around boldly proclaiming this even if it meant being persecuted and being put to death!
Lilith says:
3. Jesus died for three days. Starting on Friday evening and ending early Sunday morning. You know how less than forty-eight hours equals three days.
Response:
This is an application of modern timing conventions to ancient Jewish culture. It is as silly as saying Paul admitted doing drugs because he said in 2 Corinthians 11:25,
“… once I was stoned…”
In Jewish culture, any part of the day was a day and days started in the evening (here’s a nugget for you, it is because Genesis 1 refrains “The evening and the morning were the xth day”). We have precedent for this in Esther 4 when she says she would fast for three days and broke her fast on the third day so she would not have fasted for three “twenty-four-hour” days.
PS: Even in English, we have a figure of speech called “Synecdoche”, where we use a part of a whole to refer to a whole or a whole to refer to part of a whole. For example, when we say USA is playing Mexico in a basketball game, we do not mean the entire population would be on the court!
Lilith says:
4. The payment for sin is eternal torment, that’s why Jesus had to pay it only temporarily.
Response:
This fundamentally fails to appreciate who Jesus is. Jesus is literally the eternal God taking on human flesh to dwell among men, let that sink in.
The only reason the eternal God would take on human flesh is so that He could be mortal and experience death.
The quality of the person (i.e. the eternal God) paying for sin is the reason why the payment itself is eternal and ransoms a person from eternal punishment.
To simplify this, an eternal God paying for eternal sin to save man’s eternal soul from eternal punishment.
Lilith says:
5. Committing suicide is a sin, but when Jesus kills himself, it’s because he’s sinless.
Response:
No Christian believes that Jesus killed Himself. He was sentenced to death by the Romans on the instigation of His own people. The fact He knowingly submitted to this does not mean He killed Himself. For example, Tommy Robinson, willingly re-entered the UK and submitted himself to the police knowing fully well he would be imprisoned, did he therefore imprison himself?
Lilith says:
6. When Judas kills himself, it’s because he’s one of the worst human beings to have ever lived, but when Jesus kills himself, it’s because he’s perfect.
Response:
Heck does this have to do with the gospel? How is Judas killing himself part of the gospel message? Running out of steam Lilith?
Lilith says:
7. God is his own son and his own father and he does this without having sex.
Response:
This shows utter ignorance of the concept of the trinity and the nature of God. Why does God who created the universe and all things within it need to have sex to have a child?
Lilith says:
8. God and Jesus are the same being, but in a separate being sort of way.
Response:
Funny how this contradicts point 7 but at least our friend Lilith is getting closer to articulating, in her own puerile and unrefined way, something resembling the trinity. Christians believe that the trinity is made up of three persons who have the same divine essence. The persons are all God in terms of essence but different in terms of roles. Again, it is a complicated doctrine but it would be stupid to think God who created this complex world and complex cells and complex scientific laws would be simple and straightforward to understand. God has revealed Himself to us as a triune being and we will grapple to understand that as best we can until we stand before Him face to face but what we cannot do is not try to understand the doctrine at all and then make very ignorant and childish statements like this one.
And please don’t go thinking the trinity was invented by Christians at the Council of Nicaea, the concept is in the Old and New Testament,
For as many as she has not blocked, please be sure to say hi to our friend Lilith. I will continue to respond to both her posts and that of her authors on “Deconstructing Christianity”. That is my solemn promise to them this year. :)
