A_Perfect_Lady, is that you? The language and syntax seems to match...and you have not commented much in the 2 years you’ve been a Freeper.
As for John 3:16...it isn’t much without verse 17 and 18 to go with it. Yet, it is well enough to use when speaking with a 5 year old...or with a man named Nicodemus...” I am an old man..Shall a man twice enter his mother’s womb?”
Now as to your points 1. Yeah...original sin is a bummer...to have been born already “wide of the mark”. Christianity teaches it but also offers the remedy. Paul teaches the equivalence principle...As in Adam all die...even so in Christ we’ll all be made alive....Since by man came death..by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Do see the principle...death came to man, from man must come life....yet being sinners it is impossible for us on our own to be restored to spiritual life...yet the deep laws of heaven state that our restoration must come thru man. This is where God bridged the gap and got Satan and his demons howling...God came as a man who knew no sin and there for should not have been subject to sin’s deathly wage. Yet choosing to die for our sakes...Christ took death captive there-bye making it possible for men to be a part of Christ’s resurrection. Our outer man perishes but our inner man is renewed day by day. Whether you believe it or not matters not to me in the end that is for God and you to work out; I know for myself that I must speak it write it, live it and believe it . As for a Saviour born of a woman alone, what is harder to believe: that God can proceed from the womb of a woman having been begotten there by the holy Spirit, as God in flesh using “our God given intellects” or to believe God can make sons of Abraham from the very rocks of the mountains? God given intellects indeed, since seed faith is said to be “God Given”, your remark is very ironic.
2. All Christians honor Mary as the mother of God, there are “interesting discussions” as to the limits of her role
but I’ll never scoff at God’s mom.(I have a feeling she’s gotten very good at baking that most wondrous of 21st century confections....the toll house cookie!)
3. lets bring vs’s 16, 17, 18 together so we can discuss the ‘condenmnation of the world’:Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
You obviously disapprove of Organized religion with its “aggrandized catch phrases”. Can you introduce me to your source of higher morality by which you base your disapproval? A flying spaghetti monster whispers into your ear perhaps?
Both man and woman are tainted, hence what comes forth is a born sinner. But the one alleged to be sinless also came through a tainted woman. That’s my point and the reason I arranged the two statements to give the best contrast.
I am not the other poster; but seeing her courageous posts challenging the religious mainstream did give me the motivation to post mine.
I don’t think any mortal can convincingly answer the questions I raised, though I appreciate your trying. Since you seem happy and secure in your beliefs, I think you should just keep them the way they are regardless of what other posters believe.