I have been told that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for infinite sin with a finite payment, eternal punishment being the required payment was paid in just 3 days by Jesus dying spiritually. I do not believe that Jesus Christ died spiritually, that’s a doctrine presented by Benny Hinn, Copeland, and the like.<br><br>Salvation, the defeat of death, is based upon a vicarious substitutionary atonement.<br><br>God’s righteousness demands that whoever sins must die, God will not be unrighteous in the way that He saves.<br><br>The human race was identified with Adam in his transgression (Rom.5:12). The "death" that came upon Adam passed unto all people.<br><br>The first step in salvation was Christ’s identification with our humanity. This took place in His Incarnation. He lived as Adam should have lived, in obedience to the Father.<br><br>(Oh, as an aside, when Adam and Eve fell and were giving their punishment, physical death, a return to the dust from which they came and a curse, hers, trouble in child birth, his, hard work there is no mention of eternal torment in the fires of “hell”! You would think that if that were going to be the punishment for most of Adam and Eve’s offspring that God would I mentioned it along with the other curses.)<br><br>1) Atonement required the “death” of a perfect man, Jesus, to pay the penalty of sin, death, against Adam.<br><br>2) If being burned alive forever is a part of “death,” the penalty could never be paid, there would be no resurrection, no salvation.<br><br>To get around this I’ve been told that Jesus Christ died spiritually. Impossible! I’ll get into this when I have the time to answer Pilgrim’s last post to me.<br><br>As for the verses used to “prove” that God is going to do the horrific acts Christians leaders describe to us I have studied them all, and they are not conclusive, I have found other explanations for all of them, intellect will let you find what you are looking for.<br><br>Paul did not preach that God was going to burn people alive forever, nether did any of the other Apostles. In the book of Acts, which covers the first 30 years of Christianity, there is no mention of God burning people alive forever. It really wasn’t a doctrine until the Roman Church took control of Christianity.<br><br>Now, you downplay emotion and elevate intellect, that’s a mistake. Intellect will allow you to justify anything, it will even allow you to call good evil, and evil good. Emotions can, at times, be clearer that intellect. With intellect you can convince yourself of just about anything, but “gut feelings”, conscience, along with intellect is now my preferred way of seeking the truth.<br><br>All of these millions of people that you say God is going to burn alive forever are mentally ill, sick, born with sin, and cannot not sin.<br><br>The Bible is full of emotional responses on the part of God, “Jesus wept” is one of my favorite verses.<br><br>God said that what they were doing in the valley of Gehenna (hell), burning their children alive in sacrifice, was an abomination to Him, I believe that it still is, and God will not do something so horid as your intellect will allow you to justify.<br><br>JER 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.<br>
