I understand it may not make full sense to you as an unbeliever. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)
God must maintain a delicate balance between showing himself and allowing us to have a free will to choose. He will show himself at the end of this age, but when he does every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that HE is Lord (Isaiah 45:23). He doesn't want you to love him because he forces you to. And he doesn't want you to love him because he has lots of stuff. He wants you to love him because you love HIM.
Hell is not a reason to choose to be saved. Many people say that Christians are trying to scare them by preaching that there is a place of eternal punishment. However, if you are not a believer then the concept of heaven or hell should not matter to you anyway. Nevertheless, Heaven and Hell exist regardless of whether you "believe" in them or not. When you come to the realization that the Bible is true and you make the decision to become "saved" it is not the fear of Hell that will overwhelm you but rather the goodness of God (Romans 2:4). For his goodness far outweighs the depths of hell.
Jesus could have come down from the cross in an instant, but it was his love for you and me that held him to that tree.
You and those that believe as you do are certainly certifiable mental cases.
The basis for your religion is absolute nonsense.
You make a hell of a lot of excuses for your god.
If he was as perfect as you suggest there would be no need for wackjobs like you to interpret or explain his actions or why all of the accounts you trust in are several generations after the fact.
The only benefit I can see modern man has received from the bible is that heresay evidense is not allowed as fact....for obvious good reason.
Light is absolutely correct. Christ could have left that cross at any time. He created the wood He was hung on, but then He wouldn't have been able to say that His mission was finished. He never made any attempt to bypass that cross. It was His objective.
The Bible is the most accurate culmination of facts there is, bar none. It is the go to tool for secular archaeologists, identifying such ancient figures as Sargon (Isaiah 20:1); Sennacherib (Isaiah 37:37); Horam of Gazer (Joshua 10:33); Hazar (Joshua 15:27); and the nation of the Hittites (Genesis 15:20).
The biblical record, unlike others, is historically set, and stands up to testing and verification. This is what two of the greatest archeologists of our time say about it:
William F. Albright and Nelson Glueck, both lauded the Bible (even though they were non-Christian and secular in their training and personal beliefs) as being the single most accurate source document from history. Over and over again, the Bible has been found to be accurate in its places, dates, and records of events. No other “religious” document comes even close.
It stands up to scrutiny:
The names of over 40 different kings of various countries mentioned in the Bible have all been found in contemporary documents and inscriptions outside of the Old Testament, and
are always consistent with the times and places associated with them in the Bible.
Nothing exists in ancient literature that has been even remotely as well-confirmed in accuracy as has the Bible.