Expert: Mr. McClellan - 10/20/2009

Question
QUESTION: Mr. McClellan,

         Hello again sir. I was wondering how is it that Christ had no sin when he was born of the seed of a sinful woman in nature? I understand the bible says he COMMITTED no sin, but I don't understand when the bible explains how he was fully God and fully man. How can that be if he didn't have the sinful nature of man, but was born of the sinful nature of a woman? How can he be fully God in nature and fully (sinful) man in nature at tyhe same time? How does the bible explain this?

ANSWER: Hello Zacchai,

[The following was added after what is below it.]
I forgot to mention a couple of important things.
Read Romans 1 to see that what said below in my first response is correct but Paul just says it with fewer words.
Read Hebrews to see that while Jesus was God, he had given up his divine nature to become completely human. He had to do this to demonstrate to self deceived humanity that they can avoid sin just as he did, they do not have to sin, that they are not born sinners and that God is totally just in punishing sinners. Jesus did not perform miracles by his own power. He was just as powerless as the rest of us and he had to depend on another member of God, a member that could be called "the father" because one of the members, Jesus, had put himself in the position of a son. Remember that God said, "Let US make man in OUR image.." It's like the word "God" is a family name though it's actually not. It's a title for a group of beings (at least three in number) that cooperated in creating the universe, Jesus being one of them. See John 1:1-18. When Jesus became a human, he was just like the rest of us in every respect. That's what it says. So, how did Jesus avoid sinning? He did it by making a firm committment to obey God. In doing that, he demonstrated that the rest of us are without a justifiable excuse for the wrongs we do. He earned the right to eternal life. He was given the right to forgive anyone that would obey him. Because he was resurrected to life from death that was witnessed by a large number of people, it proved his teachings were true and from God and God keeps his promises though they always have conditions that absolutely must be met by those who want eternal life beginning with repenting and being immersed in water (required only of Isralites before Jesus died except in instances when Jesus personally forgave them on the basis of some other act demonstrating their faith, then required of everyone, no exceptions, from the day of Pentecost following his resurrection onward.). Read the books of Acts, Romans, Colossians, Galatians, Ephesians, Peter's letters, and John's three little letters to confirm all these things. You can do it. It isn't hard at all.

[the beginning of my original message]
There has been a great amount of false teaching on the topic of sin and the nature of humans. So much so that it is quite amazing and it's no wonder that so many can't believe in a God that would punish people for sinning when it is their nature to sin, and when God created them that way. Such a God as that is not a loving God but an evil maniacal tyrant instead.

First, one of God's characteristics is that he is perfectly just. This is one of the most plainly stated things in the Bible. This means several things. 1. It means that He has to make himself known to humans in a way that he cannot be mistaken for a false god by honest people. 2. He has to make his will knowable to humans in such a way that honest people cannot mistake it for false doctrine. 3. He cannot punish anyone for doing something that they could not avoid doing because of the way he created them. Justice absolutely requires these things.

Second, humans become sinners by disobeying God. They are not born sinners, they don't inherit a sinful nature from their parents. They acquire a sinful nature from habitually ignoring God once they have gotten old enough to recognize the will of God. Babies are born totally innocent no matter how evil their parents might have been. Scientists are now able to examine the chromosomes of humans and their genes and they are never going to find a "sin gene." Sin is not inherited. It can't be because of what sin is. It is an attitude of mind that results in wrong behavior and it is a free choice you make, it is not unavoidable. You can say "no" to sin the same way Jesus did when he was tempted by Satan. It's this simple fact that makes God just, or fair, in punishing those that disobey him. Think of a baby, a new born, or one that is older. Pretend its parents commanded it not to dirty its diaper saying that they would spank it if it did. What would you think of such parents? Would that not be a total injustice for them to command that baby not to do something that it could not do even if it could understand what they said? Absolutely! They would be tyrants of the worst kind. That's simple to understand, isn't it? Well, God is not like those parents. He is totally fair with humans and he does not require of them things that they cannot know about nor does he command them not to do things that they cannot avoid, or command them to do things that they cannot do and then punish them when they don't.
Is this making sense to you? It should. A lot of twisting the scriptures to make them seem to mean things that they do not say has been going on for a long time and lots of people have fallen for those false doctrines for some reason and gotten cought up in following a lot of false gods in the process that they mistakenly think the Bible describes as the true God. It must be because they cannot read very well, or because they trust too much in others to read and understand the scriptures for them or something. People like this are easily mislead by ignorant preachers who want people to think of them as an authority, they love the feeling of power it gives them. Or, maybe (and this happens a lot too) they're listening to someone who is just making up his own twisted teachings by misunderstanding the scriptures because he doesn't care to know what the truth is anyway, he's just found an easy way to get money from other ignorant, lazy minded, insincere people like himself, people who will listen to what they already think is true even if it isn't. A favorite saying goes like this, "One of the most peculiar things about humans is that so much of what they think is true isn't." This certainly is true when it comes to religion as well as just about everything else.

In conclusion, sinners are not born. People become sinners when they are able to recognize that God exists, what his will is, and then don't do it. Let me remind you that sin is determined by the motive with which you do something, it is not in the act alone. And, sin can only be comitted by a person who is able to recognize God and do what he requires and then refuses to do it. This is why God can justly punish sinners. It's why his mercy can be appreciated by people who realize that they have no excuse for disobeying him. It's why sinners deserve to be punished. It's why it makes sense that God can forgive sinners. What sense does it make to forgive a baby for dirtying its diaper when it could not have avoided doing it to begin with? And, what sense does it make to think that a person could appreciate being forgiven for something that they could not have avoided in the first place? Such notions are totally irrational and impossible to understand. It's such ignorant ideas as this that keep a lot of people from believing in God because he is being so totally misrepresented by ignorant people who seem to love the feeling of power it gives them over the ignorant people that follow their false teachings.

Go back and read the story of Adam and Eve. God was totally justified in what he did because, 1. They knew God and what he required. They were not guessing about his existence nor did they have to guess about what he required. 2. They could have obeyed him without ever sinning even once, but they chose not to. They started thinking that God had some evil motive in telling them not to eat the fruit of a particular tree (not a real tree) even though he'd created them, given them the whole world, and had never done anything to hurt them. They decided that they were better and smarter than their maker and that they could continue living forever and do whatever they wanted. Sounds a lot like most teenagers who mistakenly think that they are smarter than their parents who gave them birth and fed and clothed them doesn't it?

I hope this is helping.
Sincerely,
Mr. McClellan


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Mr McClellan,

         Thank you for your continued insight. Your response tickled me, not because it was questionable, but because when I posed this question to you, I also asked some proposed Deacons and Religious Church going folk the same question. Funny how they thought Mary had something to do with his righteousness. I know better than that and don't profess all knowledge as they do. Very funny to me. Anyway, how is it that many preachers teach financially that if you follow some ridiculous seed faith God will honor it every time? If I am not mistaking the bible does say if you ask with nothing wavering, than according to your faith be it unto you, however, it also says, if it be according to his will. So how are these preachers justified in teaching the way they do? It seems that what they are saying is that if 5 people contribute a significant financial pledge that  because all believe they all will receive, but when this does not happen it gives the indication that God has respect of persons, and the bible says he doesn't? How does the bible explain this?

Answer
Hello Zacchai,
Why am I not surprised at the replies you got from other "experts"?

The only thing that Mary may have had to do with Jesus' righteousness would be that she was a good mother who was very devoted to trying her best to follow "the truth" about what God requires of everyone and to raise morally good children. I'm sure that Joseph had a hand in that too since he was still alive when Jesus was twelve.

As for the false teaching about a "seed faith" goes, that's part of a different gospel that's commonly known as the gospel of prosperity. It says, in essence, that if you are faithful enough and are very generous with your money, God will make you a rich person too. What did Peter say about people who preach any other gospel, even if it's an angel from heaven, than he and the other apostles had already preached? Oh, by the way, who (supposedly) revealed another gospel to Joseph Smith Jr. who prophesied, among many other things, that Jesus was going to return by 1880 (I think it was about that time) and that he, Joseph Smith, and many other Mormons would live to see it? Smith was shot trying to escape from Jail and killed about a year after he said that but his followers number in the millions today and his church is extreamly wealthy. What does that say about how willing people are to believe a lie? Another old saying is that, "A lie can circle the earth while the truth is still trying to put its boots on." And, something that has been attributed to one of Hitler's top generals was that, "The bigger the lie and the more often it's told, the more likely it will be accepted as the truth." What do you think?

One of the many things that Jesus told his disciples was that if they really wanted to be his disciples they were going to have to take up their cross and follow him and that if they did that, he warned, they were going to be persecuted even more than he had been. When Jesus said that the meek were going to inherit the earth, he was not talking about this life time. If that had been the case, he would have died a very rich man in terms of financial wealth. But, when he died, he did not own a house nor more clothing than he was wearing. What do you think about the account of the devil tempting Jesus and offering to give him the world? Do you think that Satan was offering him something that Satan could not deliver on? Someone once said that "God may be the boss but the devil is his executive secretary and business manager and God is not ready to fire him yet." Now, this may sound amusing but if you've been paying any attention to life then you must be able to see that people who try to be really serious about being morally good, not stealing, cheating, deceiving, taking unfair advantage of others, etc. do not get far in business. It's a "dog eat dog" world "out there" and you don't survive long unless you can be like others beat them at their own game. I've had many religious leaders who were also fairly successful in business say, one way or another, that Christianity and business don't mix, that you should keep your Christianity at home and maybe practice it on your days off among your closest friends, but don't make the mistake of trying to be a devout Christian in business because business and Christian ethics, like oil and water, are two different things that simply do not go together.
Now, for Acts chapter two. When  "the Church" first began, it practiced a form of communism, but unlike the supposed communist regimes of today that play God and force people to obey their demands (including forced abortions as they do in China for example), being a member of the Church was entirely voluntary. The attitude of church members was that everything belonged to God and that they should generously share what they had been blessed with. This was according to what Jesus had taught his disciples. So, in that instance, the poorer Christians were made "richer," at least for a while until their belongings were confiscated by persecutors or they were executed or put in prison by people like Paul before he was converted. And, of course Paul was persecuted for converting and for preaching Christ as savior. Steven was stoned to death, Peter was crucified it is said, and at a later time, according to eye witness accounts including that of Josephus, Christians were slaughtered and enslaved by the thousands and horribly tortured in large numbers at the order of the emporers of Rome. Can you imagine how confused those poor unfortunate people would have been had they believed the gospel of prosperity that's being preached today?
Well, any simpleton can see that God's promise of great wealth for the truly faithful, according to the Bible, was not intended to be fulfilled in this life.
There's an old saying, "Every great fortune was obtained by theft, by cheating and misleading others, or by inheriting it from someone else who got it that way. No one ever got extreamly rich by being 'saintly' and working hard."
I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Mr. McClellan