Wesley Huff

And that's where the whole concept of mercy and grace are so central to the Christian message is Buddhism and Hinduism are based on fairness, right?

solely based on fairness, right?

The cycle of samsara, of life, death, birth, and rebirth, the karmic cycles, that's fair.

In one sense, what God does when he intervenes in humanity, when he incarnates, becomes flesh, steps into humanity, and actually experiences pain and hurt and suffering and death in a way that makes the God of the Bible unique and actually experiential to what you and I go through when we have those struggles and doubts.

He then takes on the punishment that we deserve and the fairness is not actually what is then given because the fairness is Wes Huff getting what he actually deserves for the weight and the penalty of his cosmic rebellion in choosing a life that is against and away from God.

Yes, insofar as you're either taking on your sin, and that's the punishment, or Christ is taking on your sin, and then you are then covered in his intercession.

But it's not about believing or not believing.

I mean, it also kind of begs the question of what we think prayer is.

Is prayer incantations to placate God?

What does that mean?

Like is God a genie, right?

So I say the right prayers and he gives me what I want.

Yeah.

Now there are some religious systems that that is kind of what prayer is.

It's all the agricultural deities of the ancient Near East.

Like you say the right things and you give the right sacrifices and the hope is that the gods would accept that and then they –

then, you know, in the reciprocal nature of that, they give you good crops.

I think prayer in Christianity is a give and take in that it's a relational thing.

It's God desiring to have communication with you.

If you read the Psalms, a lot of which are prayers, even, you know, I mentioned the Lament Psalms.