The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

by Timothy J. Keller

But at the end of his life he was cut off from the Father.

Wrong. The Father and Jesus are one. Jesus experienced suffering at the hands of His own creation. I cannot imagine a deeper pain than that- your own children taking their anger out on you and putting you through an excruciating death. I would want that cup to pass too. The agony was not in Jesus losing touch with His Father, but His own creation turning on Him. The cross is the revelation of God's love for humanity.

He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us.

Pay who? We were never in debt. We owed him nothing. He is not an angry tax collector who demands someone to pay off his wrath. I don't know what the hell this kind of statement is supposed to mean and how it could bring anyone anykind of comfort or hope in life.

if we embrace the Christian teaching that Jesus is God and that he went to the Cross, then we have deep consolation and strength to face the brutal realities of life on earth. We can know that God is truly Immanuel—God with us—even in our worst sufferings.

Good... But not what you just said. You said the Father forsook the son? But Jesus is God? How can He forsake Himself? The Father, Son, and Spirit all experienced Calvary.

The Biblical picture is that sin separates us from the presence of God,

Wrong. It separates us from God in our minds.

Fire disintegrates.

It also purifies. God's presence is hell to those who reject His acceptance of them.

for our sins

Yes, Jesus died for our sins- to rescue us fron the crushing weight of it in our conscience and restore to us the knowledge of God so that we might experience eternal life (Jn 17:3).

Jesus dies so that God can forgive sins.

Again this kind of language pins Jesus against God, as if Jesus is not God. God has been forgiving sins for a long time. Jesus is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus did not die so God could forgive us. Jesus died to show us that God has indeed forgiven us in our deepest darkness, His light still shines on.