answers to questions in comments, because the comment back was becoming very long

whoo. here's some things, which may serve as answers. thanks for thinking with me

i think there are always regrets, no matter who you are, and to be able to look back on your life and the consequences you brought on, or even see the possibilities of doing something different? wild child. how can a life that is such a small spot on your existence of forever (if you believe that sort of thing) mean so much?


"I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me." i forgot to mention this ever popular Jesus quote in my posting, but will do so soon.
The way I understand it, prior to Jesus' appearance, people who worshipped God (and by this i mean only the people of God, The Israelites - yes i know, what about everyone else who existed during these, i dont know, thousands upon thousands of years) ... people who worshipped God were required to sacrifice a 'clean' animal in proportion to the sins they had committed in order to cover for them. Jesus came forward as the ultimate clean sacrifice because He had led a perfect life (no sin by way of being the son of God) and as such no more sacrifices were needed, just acceptance of that final sacrifice. This is what people mean when they say accepting 'Jesus as their Savior' - accepting that his perfect sacrifice is the end all and covers their ass for the rest of all of their sinning, which was inherent in them from birth (dont get me started on the idea of sin nature, or wait, do.)
Jesus did seem to say that it was His way or the highway in regards to believeing in anyone but Him. If you really think he was/is God, this seems like a justifiable thing, because hey, He can do what He wants, He made us. The sticky thing is that God also says He loves everyone that He has ever made, though He hates the sin they commit, the one thing He said - "hey guys, please dont do that." , and yet we did it anyway. I would be pissed as well.
It's God's nature to not be able to 'allow' sin in His presence, and anyone who has it, cannot be with God, and instead is forever separated (hell). "The sacrifice that covers your ass" takes away all of the sin and allows you to be in that presence (heaven).
Blind faith is difficult (extremely), if we are honest with ourselves. I think it's absolutely true that many people use Christianity as a fire escape from feeling lost in the world, esp. in the west. I would hesitate to say any of these people are not genuinely changed and /or 'saved'. But there is alot more to think about, and I think God wants us to question Him, wants us to try and figure out what it is He is up to, because in doing this we understand better the world and become closer with Him, the whole point of becoming a Christian in the first place.
Jesus was met with mixed reviews when he showed up. Jewish people were currently under Roman rule and were hoping for a warrior messiah to show up and kick them out. But what the prophets in the old testament meant when they said that a messiah was coming that would change everything, they didnt mean anything military, but someone who would change people and the way they live, which come on, is way more important. So naturally alot of people were like 'This Jesus cat is just some poor guy who's telling us we should love each other, come on.' and Him claiming to be God was kind of a problem if you didn't think He was, so they went ahead and killed Him. This was the sacrifice. Something innocent in exchange for someone like me. It was necessary for Him to die if we were to ever be completely free of ourselves, and it was necessary for Him to come back to life to prove that He was who He said He was and to show that things were changed.
.....So that's why Jesus was important, according to how my beliefs work. I was raised on this stuff since I was little, but when I hit college I saw that there was indeed alot of other things going on in the world . I started to back down off my high horse and realize that I wasn't quite so sure of what I thought I was while I had attended a conservative Christian high school, church and home. I think it's so important to know the world, and be a part of it, and to understand and empathize with everyone (isn't that what 'love everyone as yourself' really means?) These questions I have have been boiling in me for quite awhile and I have been struck with how very very important this information is recently (read last few posts). Pursuing God can never be a bad thing, I am thinking.
This probably did a bad job of answering the questions, or maybe it did a good job when I was wasn't looking. In the meantime, i'll keep reading about zoroastrianism (joke) and again thanks for keeping up.