My apologies everyone,
I am away from home at the other end of Australia for a few days and without the opportunity of answering in detail. I will be home again on monday and will try and answer some of your questions from there Lady Fatima and others,
But, a couple of questions to add to this discussion
1. When anyone says God is not just by asking someone to die for others sins, arn't we actually reducing God to something or someone who is human in our understanding? You see, when any human says to anyone what is right and wrong with the things He has ordained, we are reducing God to our own understanding of right and wrong. I may not fully understand why Jesus had to die for my sin, but I know some things about the character of God.
More than once, the prophets who came into personal contact with God were warned that no one could see Him and live. There is something so transcendant and so magnificant about God, that we humans cannot stand in His presence in our natural state. God always provided a way for that to occur. From the time of the fall, he provided a covering for Adam and Eve, and later, he warned Moses to not allow anyone to try and come up the Holy Mountain or they would die.
God, has provided the ONLY way for man to draw near to God. His character demands many things for Him to be true to Himself. He is Holy, He is Righteous, He is Merciful, He is the Judge, He is full of Truth and Grace... As God, who set up the morals of humanity, the unchanging principal has always been.. if you sin you CANNOT enter the presence of God. The Holiness of God can have nothing sinful in His presence. The love of God cannot see the creation He loves sent to hell. The Moral Character of God cannot let sin go unpunished. The Mercy of God provided a way to enable man's sin to be punished, and man to receive forgiveness and for the Justice of God to be upheld. How? By God Himself taking our sins, and becoming sin for us, and dieing in our place, but not staying dead..
Now, I know Muslims all disagree on what is sin.. what for me is sin, may not be for you. However, to understand the concept of sin, please no longer thing of sin as behaviour, but as a stain that cannot be removed. Muslims have a number of intricate ceremonial clensings, to ensure that that in approaching God, they have nothing corrupting them.
This is what sin is.. it's not the action, it's that I am ceremonial unclean in my nature. Woe is me said Isaiah when he saw his uncleaness next to the holiness of God. Jesus did die for the sins of man, but the Bible says that in our old nature we are stained in a way that no amount of ceremonial clensing will change. Only as Jesus comes and renews our mind and changes our nature, can that uncleaness be removed.
Lack of sleep is making it difficult to write clearly and for that I apologize, but please think of Jesus' death on the cross as to remove the uncleaness, and the shame of our uncleaness.
Muslims do know of a state of uncleaness which cannot be forgiven, and it's this state that every human being possesses and for whic Jesus died. When I return home on Monday, I'll give you it's name.. unless you discuss it before then.
I asked a Muslim in the forums once how you deal with the shame of not being properly cleansed ceremonially, and he never fully answered. Maybe someone else could over the weekend?
In peace
Carol