I wrote a whole response and then I deleted it by accident. This new response is a lot shorter but gets to the point regardless. You say 'you can't just trangress God's moral Law and say I'm sorry' and I say if He's Just and Merciful why not?
How does it make sense that God would create man only for him to inevitably make a mistake and the only thing he can offer is genuine repentance but for it not to be accepted even though God claims to them that He's really merciful?
Exactly, otherwise we wouldn't have the Day of Judgement. EVERYONE will be held accountable for their own actions and this is where God's Justice comes in.
A Just and Merciful God wouldn't need a ransom because it's contradictory to Him then being merciful, just, and all powerful. Now I'm really confused. Why would Satan, a creation that is entirely separate from us humans, be our representative?
No offense but this sounds absolutely ridiculous. What you just said makes it looks like Satan has the power to negotiate with God with the sin of Adam(pbuh) being his bargaining chips.
This is the main problem with a ransom. If God truly needed a ransom then He's not All-Powerful, He's not All-Merciful, and He's definitely not All-Just. With this all means is God screwed up so bad with His creation that He needed to fix His own mistake and that I do not buy for even a second. Exalted is He.
Thanks for the response Karly nonetheless.
I was really tired yesterday, so couldn't come online to respond.
A&E repented and were forgiven but the problem of sin is very complicated. Saying 'iam sorry' doesn't undo the damage.
So i'll ask you this: from an Islamic pov, if A&E were forgiven, why do we all die? I mean, you don't believe in hereditary sin. Since they were forgiven, why the death, woe, and misery that fills this world?
The need for a ransom doesn't change the facts about Him being all powerful, just and merciful. God respects His own laws. If He didn't, it becomes unjust of Him to require us to respect laws that He doesn't respect.
From a christian pov, it would all look like it does in Islam. Problem is the sacrificial rites, culminating in the Cross. Which are historical facts. So as someone studying the subject, one is left asking: since A&E were forgiven in Eden, why the cross? You can't understand the sin question until you examine the cross and vice versa. That's why the bible provides sufficient details on that question.
Our ideas about Satan are totally different. Iam curious though, does the quran have the heavenly discourse depicted in the book of Job?
Anyway, i already explained this but... Adam was made a regent. And as you are well aware, regents report to the King from time to time. That's the scene depicted in Job (1&2).
In Eden, Adam cast the die in favour of independence from God....in effect he joined the rebels, at whose head stands Satan. So the regency passed onto his leader, Satan. So everytime the regents from other worlds were summoned to heaven, Satan showed up, as the earthlings' rep. Christ acknowledged this so many times (John 12:31)
Ofcourse God could have destroyed Satan and Adam, and taken back His earth by installing a new regent but things aren't so easy. If you are going to have an intelligent regent, taking care of your creation, said-regent needs free-will. And free-will makes rebellion possible.
No offense taken.
God doesn't make mistakes. He is all-knowing. Free-will guarantees rebellion and everything that comes along with it. God is only prepared to deal with the results of free-will: rebellion or loyalty.
Unfortunately, our world turned out to be a theatre for this ageless contest between God and Satan.
Adam lost so much that recovering his losses required alot more than 'iam sorry'.
The opening chapters of the book of Job reveal to us just how extensive Adam's loss was. As we are given a glimpse into the throne room of the universe,
we can also see how subordinate to nature the human race has become since the Fall.
Think about that next time you are *afraid* of a snake/bear/shark.