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Not what I said. Quite the opposite. A mere sinless man could NEVER be an adequate sacrifice. My point was that your characterization of Christ as a "proxy" for the Father necessarily excludes the adequacy of a "sinless man" sacrifice. I exclude it as well. If a mere man won't fit the bill...

Do you see how close we are, @APAK? You cast Christ as the Father's proxy. While I disagree with that characterization, something I think we can agree on follows logically from your claim: There would be no need for a proxy at all if a mere sinless man's death on the cross could be salvific...

One of the ways that courts determine whether someone entered into a contract that he later denies making is by looking at his subsequent behavior -- the thinking being that what he later says and does which is inconsistent with there being no contract would be exhibiting irrational behavior...

How do you know this is a direct quote?

I think all Christians agree that God cannot die, PERIOD. So a fortiori God as God "could never have died for our sins personally, and his being to not exist even for a moment." That much is noncontroversial. It was Christ as a human being whose human body died on the cross. Whatever other...

So, why the story I have quoted from at length above? Here’s my thinking in more academic terms: All Christians pay attention to the role played by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in their salvation. Some favor the “ransom” theory (Matthew 20:28/Mark 10:45) that by sinning, mankind became...

I may have been guilty of not paying close enough attention when I was taught in Catholic high school 50 years ago, but I honestly thought Catholic doctrine held that "works" (= things one does) wasn't the key to justification at all, nor even to sanctification (which, by the way, I was taught...

@grace, As one Trinitarian to another, I ask a favor: Please don't hijack my post. Your "160 Scriptural Reasons" will just draw fire from anti-Trinitarians, and the OP will just devolve from there. Take it elsewhere, please.

Although I was anxious to continue our dialogue, Timothy was preparing for this final leg of our sea voyage with an extended time of silent prayer, and I had no wish to disturb him. I waited until we were well underway and the sun fully above the eastern hills before pressing him. At length...

Today, Timothy seemed even more anxious to open the conversation than I—albeit with a question that I did not expect. “Do you feel the love of God, Mark?” My hesitation in answering so simple yet disarming a question was fueled by equal parts of surprise and embarrassment. “I . . . I . . ...

I had practically roused Timothy from his sleep, and he could hardly have helped sensing how anxious I was to continue our discussion. Yet he maintained his unhurried composure, as serene as ever. As he went aft to stretch his legs, I turned and leaned against the top wale of the ship, gazing...

Timothy sat next to me in the stern, silently watching the sail billowing, appearing deep in thought. I knew that look—and knew not to interrupt it. At length he spoke. “I have been thinking through the night,” he said, “of how best to describe Jesus’ nature. It is difficult to do, for I am...

In this second Part – the first Part is not yet complete, but I have been asked by a poster there to explain why I think Jesus is God – I am moving from the logical to the theological. I always intended to explain my thinking in this second Part after concluding the first Part, which focuses on...

We agree that God is not physical. But the "person" of the eternally-existent Son, through some process that Paul vaguely thought of as "emptying" himself, did become physical for a little over thirty years some two millennia ago, when taking on flesh and when given to humanity as our Savior...

Good advice.

I think being married can aid one's clerical insights, and enhance rather than detract from clerical service. (As it happens, my wife is an ordained Episcopal priest. I'm pretty sure she would agree.) But I don't see marriage as a prequalification of being clergy. Among the myriad possible...

I completely agree.

While I think everyone, clergy and laity alike, should be permitted to marry -- and I disagree with Paul's suggestion in 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 that remaining unmarried is "better" -- I don't see that forbidding its clergy to marry renders Catholicism "not following biblical teachings." Is that...

"Jesus" is the name given to the incarnate Son of God, and upon becoming incarnate he was human. Humans physically die. That particular human we call Jesus Christ physically died on the cross. I certainly agree with you that "God cannot die," but God is not physical (John 4:24), so that...

It's actually the opposite assumption that I (and, I think, all intellectually honest Trinitarians) must adopt. The Trinity is a facially irrational concept (as your bolded sentence above perhaps concedes). Therefore, the support that it does find in Scripture (equivocal though it be) means...