I've posted a bit about this kind of thing before, so I'll make my introduction quick.
I'm an Atheist who has been deconverted from Catholicism for two years. As a bisexual, I was really turned off (no pun intended) by the way I was treated at my church. Additionally, I started to have massive doubts on the content of the Bible and I was going through a very hard time.
I suffer from depression and anxiety, as well as intrusive thoughts. I cannot shake the idea out of my head that God hates me. I miss the community of my church, and I miss being able to feel truly at peace. Furthermore, I have a massive fear of the Christian and Islamic Hell, and I'm scared that I will someday be persecuted and killed over what I end up believing.
I feel stuck between Christianity, Atheism, and Islam, and I'm not sure which is right. What can I do?
I miss having the presence of God and a Church-like community. But I also fear the possibility of me having incorrect beliefs; for example, I'm worried that I will become a Christian, but Islam will be right and I'll go to Hell. I'm also afraid of being delusional, and I don't want to waste my life believing a false religion. Additionally, I'm concerned that becoming religious will cause me even more stress in the end, especially if I'm once again deconverted and can't build another worldview. I'm even worried that ISIS might have the truest interpretation of Islam, that I'll be killed by Muslims or Christians, or that I'll be discriminated upon if I go to any place of worship.
Furthermore, I'm still worried that, if there's a God, he hates me and is making me suffer intentionally, and wants me to go to an eternal Hell. I'm still just so damn confused and scared.
"Why did Messiah have to die?" Peter's objection to the revelation that Messiah had to die (Mathew 16:22-23 and John 6:61-64)
And
"The unity of Believers"
Paul's teaching on unity of believers (Romans 15:1- 7)
Paul in chapter 15 of the book of Romans quotes Psalm 69. Paul tells us we aught to follow the example of Messiah's suffering by enduring one another's wrong doings. And the gospels record the reaction of the disciples concerning the coming death and suffering of Messiah.
Peter was rebuked by Yeshua sharply when Peter thought that by defending Messiah he would be honoring Messiah. Yeshua calls Peter the devil. When Yeshua explained to the disciples that He was going to suffer and die Peter stood up and protested it. Only after God opened Peter's eyes could he come to the understanding of the truth about Messiah's death. The Father had to first draw Peter.
In order for us to embrace Messiah the Father must draw us. Otherwise we would be like Peter and say the same thing, "far be it from me, I would die for you etc."
Yeshua asked Peter; What would be the case if Messiah did not come? If the Messiah did not come down what would have happened?
The answer is that redemption would not have been possible for any of us.
So why did Messiah have to die? There are two reasons.
Number one is because we are beings that have been created that need love. We are individuals that need to experience unconditional, all accepting love.
Paul quotes Psalm 69 in his book of Romans 15:1-7. Paul is teaching us to follow in Yeshua's footsteps of bearing the insults of His enemies by coming to our world as pictured in Psalm 69. Why did He come and bear these insults?
Because we need love. We need not only to give it but to experience it.
The problem is none of us can give the kind of love we all need because all of our love is ultimately conditional in some regard and it also is self serving - we need to receive a love that we can just receive all of it from.
Only one can give that kind of love, and that is God. Why? Because He embodies all of love - God is love and therefore God does not need love. Thus He can fully give love.
So why does Messiah come? Because we crave love. And we need love in order to go on in our lives. And we also need to be ones who can give love but we can't give it and therefore we can't receive that kind of love from each other. So where can we get that kind of love? We have to get it from the one who is love and that is God. But we can't get it from Him unless we are united to Him. That's how we receive it. We have to be in Messiah as it were. And how do we get in Messiah? He must die for us.
If He does not do that (what Peter objected to), then we can not get what we need in order to be the kind of human beings God created us to be. And thus we are without love in the world. And we are of all people's most miserable.
But because Messiah came as a servant, because He gave His life a ransom for many, because He can provide the atonement that can unite us to the One who is love we can for the first time receive the kind of love we all crave. And because of His Spirit that dwells within us we can be empowered to give the kind of love we all need to receive from each other at least in small kind of way.
But it is not just this personal need for love that we have. The second reason Messiah had to die is that we have a judicial need, legal need. We stand guilty before God. And something has to remedy it.
All debt has a price. Here's an illustration; If you walk into someone's home and you knock over their lamp, you are in debt to whoever owns the lamp. Only one of two things can happen. You are going to go out and buy a new lamp in which case you have born the debt for that lamp. Or the owner can say I forgive you, you don't have to pay for a new lamp. In which case the owner bears the debt for the lamp. They're either going to go without light in that part of the home and suffer without light or pay for a new lamp from their own pockets. In either case wrong doing incurs a debt and the debt is always paid.
That's what forgiveness is about. When you forgive another person you are telling the other person "I will pay the debt, you do not have to pay the debt."
When we do not forgive others and we become vengeful or retaliatory or even rejoice in their suffering we are making them pay the debt. And they are experiencing the suffering for their wrong doing.
Someone pays the debt for wrong doing. Either the wrong doer pays the debt because we do not let them off the hook, or we pay the debt because we do. In either case debt paying incurs suffering and a great deal of agony. Inside we churn for what we just experienced. We forgive the individual but it does not necessarily take away the pain that we experience.
Just as Messiah went to the cross, for He provided forgiveness for us why? Because He bore our debt and He suffered our debt He paid it so that we don't have to pay for it ourselves.
Why Messiah had to die.
Again firstly why Christ had to die: He became a servant suffering as He did because we need love and without Him suffering we can not be united to the God of the universe who is love.
And secondly we've incurred a debt by our wrong doing. And someone is going to pay for our debt. And if Messiah's debt paying is not applicable to your sin, you will pay for that debt. And it is a debt that cannot be paid off in time. And that is why Yeshua tells us it is a place of eternal separation from the one to whom we are indebted but if Messiah has paid the debt for us and we've received that debt payment then we no longer need to bear the debt for ourselves and for all of eternity we will be forgiven and therefore united to Him.
Why unity, how is unity amongst us.
Paul is telling us in Romans 15 that we are to be one. And being one with Messiah means to follow His example of enduring all of those insults from those that opposed Him in Psalm 69.
And Paul uses that to say to we, who are ones who love one another, we who are ones who are brothers and sisters in Messiah, we who are ones who are children of God together, are to learn from that example of debt paying, of owning all of that stuff from one another that we would glorify God.
Because if people see individuals that truly love one another and bear one another's burdens they will glorify God.
