If one believes in a God, then why did God send "his son" (himself??) down to earth in order to cleanse mankind of his sins.. When, in fact, he knew that man would sin again????[
He made the plan to send his son before he ever created man in the first place. Read Ephesians 1:3-6 without any preconceived ideas if that is possible. He had already set up a plan of redemption before the foundation of the world.
Does his action make any sense to anyone?
Yes.
How about this? Maybe if he wanted to free us of sin.. Do it, and then say, “OK, everyone come on into heaven!
Yes, God could have done this. However, He did not so that should tell us something. Have you ever thought that this is not only about us, and our sin, and God’s desire to forgive our sin? I would reason that God has a purpose for this set of events that we see as life beyond what has been revealed. Deut 29:29 tells us that “the secret things belong to the Lord.” God has only revealed to us what we need to know.
There is no point in making you “suffer” your way into heaven.
That is not true if the purpose for the suffering is to prepare you for some future task. There are many Scriptures in the Bible that see suffering in a positive light. Look at the book of James in the beginning of the first chapter for example, here James tells us we should take joy in these sufferings because they test and strengthen our faith.
Just come on up and give praise to me for all eternity.
Now you are looking in the right direction. What is God’s purpose? Here you have given a purpose. As you suggest, God has created us to give praise to him for all of eternity.
” After all, doesn't He want all of his "children" with him in heaven?
Yes. God desires that all of the people in the world spend eternity in heaven with Him. However that is not possible. Only those who are without sin are considered God’s children and will go to heaven. The Bible states that all have sinned. When a person sins, he dies spiritually. He must be born again to become a child of God. Young children have not sinned, and are not dead spiritually, so this does not apply to them. When a person is born again, the blood of Jesus washes them of their sin.
With all that said, let us look at your original question and surmise what God’s purpose would be in this entire state of affairs. I do not have the answers, but I would like to give a possible suggestion of why God has chosen to do things this way.
Let us suppose that God wanted to create a group of beings to serve and worship Him for eternity. Who would be the perfect servant? Suppose that God determined that a being that possessed the characteristics of God Himself would be the perfect servant. Therefore, God creates a being in His own image. God gives this being free will. They have the choice to follow God or reject God. God provides the evidence that He exists and then allows this being to choose whether or not to believe that evidence and obey Him. He wants complete and undivided loyalty. He wants those who can completely accept, and obey HIS WORD without question, and without wavering. He does not want those who will take HIS WORD and attempt to change it to meet their own desires or expectations. Let us suppose that HIS WORD tells us exactly what must be done to qualify for this position of eternal servant that God is attempting to fill. If you do not meet the requirements then you do not get the position of eternal servant.
These potential servants are required to live in a world that is screaming that the God that they are worshiping is not real, or not the true God. The world is screaming that the Bible is not the absolute truth. The world is screaming that you are a fool to waste your short life on the promise of a God that may not even exist. The pressure and temptation is strong for a person to turn away from God. However, those that do not waver become stronger in their faith, and their faith proves that they love God. Just as Abraham proved his faith through works in Gen 22:12. Have they proven themselves worthy through their works? No. They have proven themselves by believing in God, believing in the promises of God, and holding true to that belief (by keeping the commandments of God) until the end. They have proven their faith, and by faith they are justified.
Do you see where this is leading? This has nothing to do about us, and all to do about God. Does God love us? Yes. Does he love all of us? Yes. Will all of us spend eternity in heaven with God? No. Do we all have the ability to spend eternity in heaven with God? Yes. Can a person who is in a state of sin be in the presence of God? No. Therefore, God had to offer the forgiveness of sins to those who would be in His presence. This could only be done with a sufficient sacrifice. That sacrifice was God Himself in bodily form. Why did God forgive our sins? God wants us to have the opportunity to choose whether to spend eternity in heaven with Him. Without forgiveness of sins, this choice would not be possible.
It seems to me to be a perfect plan, from a perfect God. It is entirely up to us. We have the choice. As I said earlier, I do not know the mind of God. God has revealed to us what we need to know to spend eternity in heaven with Him. The ultimate purpose behind God’s plan is unknown. However, we do know that God desires that we all do what is necessary to allow Him to forgive our sins so that we may spend eternity with Him.
"There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be." - Charles Sanders Pierce
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