seebs
16th August 2004, 07:20 PM
This post (http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?p=8832377#post8832377) by the lovely Chartreuse contains a little dialogue.
God: You know the world? The one you keep using for toilet paper? I made that.
Man: ...oh.
God: Yeah. And those other humans, the ones you keep kicking when they're down? I made those.
Man: Oh. Um.
God: Uh-huh. And that self, the one you puff up and misrepresent and secretly hate? I made that too, and I really like it.
Man: I'm screwed. I suck. *sits down and cries*
God: No, I like you. I'm just saying. You keep wrecking my stuff.
Man: Um... I'm a pay for that.
God: You can't afford it.
Man: Can't you just take my sheep?
God: Fraid not.
Man: *cries harder*
God: But look, don't cry, little guy. I still like you.
Man: *wails*
God: Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna write you a blank check, and then you can pay me back with it. Here, look, there's my signature and everything.
Man: *stops crying* Oo! Shiny!
God: There, take it. Write in whatever. Write in 'the whole world'.
Man: *uses blank check for toilet paper*
God: Um... yeah. Okay. Now look, I'm ripping it up. Never gonna cash this check. See? I really do still like you.
Man: Wow, God, you're the greatest! *skips away singing, to use the world for toilet paper some more*
Totally flippant, I know. That's just how it came to me. Anyway, now it looks like the question is, why'd God have to give us a blank check? Or maybe, why'd he have to rip up the check? Or maybe, why do we have to pay for the stuff we broke? Can't answer the last one without getting into the PoE, which is another discussion entirely. As for the first two, what else would people have believed? Not another Hercules; power heroes don't demonstrate anything but simple might. In this scenario, God wanted to demonstrate something more complex, and people already had a structure in place by which they could understand this thing.
This is actually somewhat different from simple scapegoating; I'm hypothesizing, here, that it wasn't humans who made a scapegoat for themselves, but God who used the human need for a scapegoat to make his point.
If what the OP really wants answered is, "If there's a debt called Sin which can be bought off, why's it balanced by a single act rather than a permanent loss?" then my little play is the closest I can get to concieving of an answer.
I love this dialogue. I love it because we have some portion of that every day. Every time we decide to atone for our sins, that's our brave little voice. "Um. I'm a pay for that." We know, somehow, that we can't quite afford it, but we have to try. That's the thing; salvation by works is impossible, because we can't afford the things we've broken... But if you didn't even want to pay for them, there would be no way forwards.
God: You know the world? The one you keep using for toilet paper? I made that.
Man: ...oh.
God: Yeah. And those other humans, the ones you keep kicking when they're down? I made those.
Man: Oh. Um.
God: Uh-huh. And that self, the one you puff up and misrepresent and secretly hate? I made that too, and I really like it.
Man: I'm screwed. I suck. *sits down and cries*
God: No, I like you. I'm just saying. You keep wrecking my stuff.
Man: Um... I'm a pay for that.
God: You can't afford it.
Man: Can't you just take my sheep?
God: Fraid not.
Man: *cries harder*
God: But look, don't cry, little guy. I still like you.
Man: *wails*
God: Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna write you a blank check, and then you can pay me back with it. Here, look, there's my signature and everything.
Man: *stops crying* Oo! Shiny!
God: There, take it. Write in whatever. Write in 'the whole world'.
Man: *uses blank check for toilet paper*
God: Um... yeah. Okay. Now look, I'm ripping it up. Never gonna cash this check. See? I really do still like you.
Man: Wow, God, you're the greatest! *skips away singing, to use the world for toilet paper some more*
Totally flippant, I know. That's just how it came to me. Anyway, now it looks like the question is, why'd God have to give us a blank check? Or maybe, why'd he have to rip up the check? Or maybe, why do we have to pay for the stuff we broke? Can't answer the last one without getting into the PoE, which is another discussion entirely. As for the first two, what else would people have believed? Not another Hercules; power heroes don't demonstrate anything but simple might. In this scenario, God wanted to demonstrate something more complex, and people already had a structure in place by which they could understand this thing.
This is actually somewhat different from simple scapegoating; I'm hypothesizing, here, that it wasn't humans who made a scapegoat for themselves, but God who used the human need for a scapegoat to make his point.
If what the OP really wants answered is, "If there's a debt called Sin which can be bought off, why's it balanced by a single act rather than a permanent loss?" then my little play is the closest I can get to concieving of an answer.
I love this dialogue. I love it because we have some portion of that every day. Every time we decide to atone for our sins, that's our brave little voice. "Um. I'm a pay for that." We know, somehow, that we can't quite afford it, but we have to try. That's the thing; salvation by works is impossible, because we can't afford the things we've broken... But if you didn't even want to pay for them, there would be no way forwards.