Why did god create Jesus?

Great Debates
#1

My own interpretation is based off me reading the bible and various media and cultural osmosis.

Jesus is some kind of trojan horse/poison apple for satan, satan has the keys or power of life and death down in hell. Satan knows something is off about Jesus but can’t resist taking his soul on death which him being divine allows him to grab the keys and stroll right out of hell. Satan screams in impotent rage(see the end of Passion Of The Christ) and having learned mortal life is HARD god gets soft.

Theologians and christians? Please be gentle!:stuck_out_tongue:

#2

Is this a joke? 'Cause I’m not getting it.

#3

Why did the Christian god create Jesus, religious and academic answers welcome.

Not a joke.

#4

Well firstly, according to mainstream christianity God didn’t creation Jesus, according to the trinity doctrine Jesus has always existed eternally. People were burnt as heretics or excommunicated for believing otherwise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism

#5

As coremelt said, Jesus always existed.

Perhaps your question is why did Jesus come to walk the earth in the form of a man?

I was trying to follow what you were saying until you got to the end of the last sentence “… and having learned mortal life is HARD god gets soft.” Could you rephrase that perhaps? Who learned mortal life is hard? Jesus or Satan? Could you be more specific about what “god gets soft” means? If Satan was the one that learned life is hard, why would that cause God to get soft? I guess I’m just not following the last sentence.

#6

The best way to understand Christianity is to realize that it’s really a polytheistic religion with rationalizations.

(This is intended sincerely as an answer to the OP, and not a snide attack at religion.)

#7

I meant that after experiencing mortal life there is now a much kinder god, compared to the old testament.

#8

If you want a theologically more orthodox explanation of the role of Jesus that still has a little narrative/epic zing to it, I recommend Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Don’t miss Superhero Jesus in Book 6 riding in his divine war chariot to do battle with Satan, either.

#9

Yeah, so much so that to me (as a non-believer) it really doesn’t seem plausible that they are the same deity at all. The wrathful vengeance stuff that JHVH does doesn’t cut with the “god is infinite love” message in the new testament. If it was a movie script you’d chuck it out for inconsistent characterizations.

And hang on, so god was all wrathful and jealous, and so he sent himself to earth, where we crucified him and that made him calm down and be more merciful towards humans? How does that work again?

#10

Trying to make it work in my head I figured god incarnated in the avatar Jesus without realizing how affecting it would be and the new perspective changed everything. But the god is omniscient thing scuttles that:smack:

#11

Seems a little at odds with mainstream Christian belief. Most Christians are pretty firm in the belief that God and Satan are not equal in power - God is omnipotent and Satan isn’t. So Jesus wouldn’t need to trick Satan for any reason - if he wanted some keys he just walk into Hell and take them. And maybe while he was there, he’d flirt with Satan’s wife and Satan’s teenage daughter, drink the last beer out of Satan’s fridge, and take a big dump in Satan’s toilet and not flush it. Just to remind Satan who’s the butch and who’s the bitch.

Of course, they’d clean up the language on all this in the biblical account.

#12

Given that god is omniscient, he couldn’t “learn” something from experiencing mortal life. He already knew how hard i was. In fact, he made it so (look at his statements when he kicks Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden. He promises them a life of hardship)

#13

Well then you see my issue? If god is omnipotent, then why was Jesus needed at all? A agreement with satan to abide by certain rules, which god is loopholing?

I can buy that god won’t uncreate satan, but tricking satan to steal something makes no sense.

I admitted I am coming at this from the outside.

Another thing that bugged me was how demons and other supernatural evils are fallen angels, so god lets renegade beings he created torture humanity? This would be like me loosing rabid dogs in my neighborhood and saying whatever happens I am not responsible.

#14

picking logical holes in christianity is not much challenge and you won’t get many people on this board trying to defend it. The need to send an avatar of yourself to get crucified in order to suddenly realise you’ve been a prick for the last 3000 years and now you need to be kinder is only one of many.

#15

I’m not trying to point out that christianity makes no sense, I was just wondering what if anything explains certain things. I wasn’t trying to be an ass or disrespectful of anyone, unless just a question offends them. I don’t like the omnipotent or omniscient cop outs is all.

#16

if you want to get the standard answers google “difference between old and new covenant” “why new covenant” and “why did god send jesus when he did”.

There is rationalizations for everything, you may or may not find them convincing. One of the biggest problems I have is why would a universal god pick one nation and one people (Israel) as his chosen people for 3000 years, then change his mind and say oops sorry I guess I’m for all of you. The only explanation that makes sense is that a local tribal god eventually got promoted to universal sky father by an accident of history, it was the right meme at the right time with the right way of spreading itself.

#17

My own rationalization of this issue is that they were being manipulated basically, it is simply that they were in the right place at the right time, and needed to be manipulated into changing the world. Like if god wanted or needed something to happen 200 years from now some currently living people will experience divine intervention to set it up. If your grandson needs to have inherited wealth you will experience a divine vision that sets you on the path to riches etc.

#18

Jesus is man in oneness with the Father. It is God bringing divinity to humanity and a power over Satan’s power to man. This is why it’s not just Jesus the man, but that Jesus lives inside us, we are conformed by God to be Jesus. At which point we are placed in power above Satan, bypassing Satan’s plans for humanity. This is also why we are given the name of Jesus (as it is common in prayer to pray in the name of Jesus - but what it means is we are Jesus to the Father). We are given the name with power higher then the archangels.

It is God not abandoning us, even though Satan never wanted us to know God, tried everything he could to stop us from knowing God including restricting access to the holy of holies under penalty of death. But God simply sidestepped Satan’s plan and gave humanity His power.

#19

Looking at it through a cultural lens, which may not answer the OP at all, Jesus/Christianity is a moderately good parallel with Gautama/Buddhism, in that they both represent a reform of an old religion by the strong new emphasis on compassion and selflessness, arguably lacking in the original.

Theology aside, one of the big things that Jesus represents for Christians is the example of what God would be like in human form, and hence the perfect guide for behavior. As in the famous medieval text, Imitatio Christi. Modern version: WWJD? bracelets.

As a Catholic who cannot manage to want to understand theology (or any other philosophy) (can’t read Milton either), the above is what stands out for me.

#20

First of all, there’s no factual answer to this question as stated, so I’m going to report it to be moved to Great Debates.

Second, while the standard Christian belief is that Jesus always existed and was not created, I assume you are asking why God decided to become human. As far as I know, the standard answer is because, by dying Himself, he could create a new covenant with humanity, and thus save them from Hell. His sacrifice allowed God to take on all the sins of the world.

And if you want to get into why an omnipotent God would have to do that, you get into concepts like God’s mercy versus his judgement. To put it as simply as I can, without the trappings of theology: God has two contradictory personas: one that is merciful, and one that is just. By saying that he paid the price for your sins, he can now justify to just side that being merciful is okay.