Salvation/Justification Questions of Christian Denominations

[Andrewn]

What happens when people ask about salvation and Jesus? Is it the Catholic Jesus salvation? The Lutheran Jesus salvation? The Calvinist Jesus salvation? The Baptist Jesus salvation? The Mormon Jesus salvation? The Pentecostal Jesus salvation?

There is only one Jesus: the Jewish Messiah:

Joh 1:11 He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. 12 But whoever did receive Him, those trusting in His name, to these He gave the right to become children of God.

 

[Duvduv]

I'll never understand why participants can't go beyond talking points when discussing a theological issue.

 

[ChetSinger]

...Finally, traditional Christian doctrine has always blamed "the Jews" for the death of Jesus. But how can this be true since it is only by virtue of his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection that salvation could have ever been introduced into the world in the 1st century? One should argue the contrary, that the Jews who arranged for Jesus to be crucified did the supreme service to mankind according to Christian belief!

That's a fair question, I think.

First, I don't see anything in the New Testament where Christians are told to, or given license to, persecute Jews. I mean, the early church was completely Jewish. And Jesus himself was, and still is, Jewish on his mother's side. And Paul says:

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.​

So I see no New Testament justification for persecuting Jews.

Otoh regarding the people who were involved in actually killed Jesus, I see three instances where he does blame them for their deeds.

First, here are his words about Judas Iscariot:

The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.​

So even though a betrayer was part of the plan, the man himself was required to pay for his sin, just like anyone else would have.

Second, in the parable of the vineyard and the tenants he also blames the religious authorities in Jerusalem for his death. After all, they did instigate a riot to force Pilate's hand.

Third, he told Pilate that he was sinning, adding that his sins were lesser than Judas'.

So if Jesus himself pronounced them sinful, and he was the one who suffered, that's good enough for me.

 

[Andrewn]

I'll never understand why participants can't go beyond talking points when discussing a theological issue.

You accuse 5 different Christians of sitting around a table to agree about talking points!!!

So, now it is the Christians' fault for not agreeing with your warped understanding of Christianity!!!!

 

[Duvduv]

You don't understand what I meant. I asked a question of theology for which a direct explanation could be provided, but instead I'm offered scriptural verses that don't address my specific question.

 

[Duvduv]

It seems to me logically that given the belief in original sin in Christianity starting with Adam and affecting all mankind forever, that it was absolutely necessary that the sacrificial atonement for sins by Jesus on the cross was necessary from the start. It doesn't make any sense for Jesus and his atonement to appear in the 1st century, when mankind existed for thousands of years before that under the sin of Adam. There was no option until the 1st century, and even thereafter without instant mass communication for a person's sins to be paid for by the atonement of Jesus for mankind.