That's what the West says; its the result of mistranslating the NT Greek word for sin, "αμαρτια", which means "to miss the mark", the mark being Christ.
"and someone has to carry out the punishment ("pay the wages")."
Well, that's certainly consistent with the idea that God's offended dignity could only be assuaged by the bloody killing of His Son. Why does "someone", other than the sinner have to carry out the punishment. Why isn't it simply the inevitable result of sin?
"Man's transgression against the Creator's righteousness brought the soul's death sentence into effect; for when our forefathers forsook God and chose to do their own will, He abandoned them, not subjecting them to constraint. And for the reasons we have stated above, God lovingly forewarned them of this sentence. But he forbore and delayed in executing the sentence of death upon the body; and while He pronounced it, He relegated its fruition to the future in the abyss of His wisdom and the superabundance of His love for man. He did not say to Adam: 'return to whence thou wast taken,' but 'earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return' (Gen. 3:19). Those who hear this with understanding can also comprehend from these words that God 'did not make death' (Wisdom 1:13), either the soul's or the body's. For when He first gave the command, He did not say: 'in whatsoever day ye shall eat of it, die!,' but 'In whatsoever day ye shall eat of it, ye shall surely die' (Gen. 2:17). Nor did He afterwards say: 'return now unto earth,' but "Thou shalt return' (Gen. 3:19), in his manner forewarning, justly permitting and not obstructing what should come to pass." +Gregory Palamas, Physical Theological Moral and Practical Chapters
Tell me FK, when the tsunamis killed so many people out in the Indian Ocean, was that God punishing sin, just some random and tragic event or finally the result of sin's distortion of the natural order which God allows?
"So, do I take it that you don't think God did all those things the text says He did in the OT?"
I believe He did all sorts of things in the OT. I also think that He allowed other things to happen out of mercy because death can curb sin; I also think he sorrowed at other things and I firmly believe that, "Very often many things are said by the Holy Scriptures and in it many names are used not in a literal sense... those who have a mind understand this" +Isaac the Syrian, Homily 83 and "It is because fear edifies simpler people," +Basil the Great, That God is not the Cause of Evil.
God does not delight in anyone's suffering. Right decisions are often painful ones. I told you, FK, numerous times before, that God is not the source of death. No one ever died from God.
That's what the West says; its the result of mistranslating the NT Greek word for sin, "αμαρτια", which means "to miss the mark", the mark being Christ.
Even so, don't we then simply say: "The wages of missing the mark is death"? Or, "Therefore, just as missing the mark entered the world through one man, and death through missing the mark , and in this way death came to all men, because all missed the mark— (Rom 5:12). IOW, for these purposes does it really matter how we translate the word since the meaning of it is clear in Biblical context?
Why does "someone", other than the sinner have to carry out the punishment. Why isn't it simply the inevitable result of sin?
For most, it IS simply the inevitable result of sin. Most will pay for their own sins and die and go to hell. That is just. However, since God's desire was to save some, He decided to take their punishment for them, thus allowing them entry into Heaven to be with Him. That is also just.
Thanks for the Palamas quote, but of course I must disagree with him here. He apparently acknowledges the ultimate result of sin, but then seems to say that because God doesn't zap every person dead on the first sin, that this means that God doesn't have anything to say about when people die physically or where they go after that. That simply doesn't match the great weight of scripture. For example:
Gen 6:3 : Then the Lord said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
Doesn't this appear to say that every breath we take is by the will of God? When His plan for us is complete, then He ceases to sustain the physical body and we die physically. Then, our ultimate disposition is formally adjudicated.
Tell me FK, when the tsunamis killed so many people out in the Indian Ocean, was that God punishing sin, just some random and tragic event or finally the result of sin's distortion of the natural order which God allows?
I think God was behind it, but it is unknowable whether it was for the reason of punishment for sin. It would seem unlikely to us I think, since the group of people who died appeared to be indistinguishable "sinwise" from any other similar group of random people. I would just say that somehow, some way it served God's purpose, and we may very well never know what that purpose was while we are on earth. If anything, natural disasters remind the whole world that it is never too early to come to Christ.
I believe He did all sorts of things in the OT. I also think that He allowed other things to happen out of mercy because death can curb sin; I also think he sorrowed at other things and I firmly believe that ...... "It is because fear edifies simpler people," +Basil the Great, That God is not the Cause of Evil.
Take the story of Jericho. Now, we all know that trumpets do not bring walls down, so God either did that Himself or He didn't and the story never happened. Whether God ordered the slaughter or not, He certainly knew Joshua's full intention once the wall came down. So, it cannot be said here that God sat back and allowed something to happen. His fingerprints are all over this story if it really happened. So, do you think there really was a slaughter, and if so, was it an act of evil?