Sister Cariad, Assalam-o-alikum, Peace be upon you,
As you and I agree that discussing name is not important. It is a fruitless discussion and waste of energy in writing the posts. Last year I met a official of a Jehovah witness church. He was very adamant about the name Jehovah. He said all other names are incorrect and only Jehovah is the right name. I said OK, and asked him to pronounce a couple of middle eastern names... He couldn't pronounce any one of them correctly. So I said to him "You couldn't pronounce any of these names correctly and yet you are telling me that your European tongue can speak this middle-eastern name of God most accurately?". He couldn't answer. I then said "Here in US we say Japan, in India-Pakistan they say Jaa-Paan, in Arab world they say Al-Aiyabaan, and the Japanese people call their country name as Nee-phon (or a similar sound). And if you call Jesus when he was around he would not have turned towards you as his name was Yeshue or Eshue or Eessa, he would never have recognized as Jasus as hid name. And here you are stuck on the sound coming from your own mouth as the only correct sound for God Almighty's name."
I then said to him "If I have to chose a name it will be Allah as this is the name in Quran and in Hebrew they refer God as Ellohim (Christians prefer to write this name with E instead of A) and in this name Elloh (or Alloh) is the name and "him" is for respect. And in Matthew 27:46 Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?". In older version of Bibles it was written Alloi but lately it is written with E.
Having said all this, I believe this is not a very beneficial point to discuss. And I will end my part of discussion by saying that when the concept of God will be in place then all other things will also fall in right places.
Now, the main discussion: Sister I hope you will not get offended as I do not mean to offend anyone but I have to say what is needed. And if you do get offended then I apologize in advance.
As far as the original sin and blood atonement is concerned, you are wrong sister that this existed before Paul. I know Christians try to stretch some verses of OT to try to prove these points. You see this is the beauty of human mind. We see it happening all the times in the court rooms when lawyers try to stretch and shrink interpretation of laws to fit so that a guilty person can go free or vise versa. Same thing Christians do... In the presence of clear and unambiguous verses they prefer to take some ambiguous verses and then stretch them to try to fit for their purpose.
In Old Testament it is written:
Ezekiel 18:19 “Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live.
Ezekiel 18:20 The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.
And if we look at what Jesus says even in these existing Gospels which we don't know who wrote (sister don't get upset as this is true) this whole concept of original sin and blood atonement just vanishes.
If these two things were the most important things for which Jesus came then he pretty much failed to communicate it.
When he was asked “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” He didn't say my blood atonement will remove your sin. Instead he said:
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
When he was asked
“Good teacher,” what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said:
“Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother."
In this respect Jesus really goofed didn't he? He blew away the perfect opportunities to tell the world that he came to remove the original sin by blood atonement and people needed to believe in it in order to get salvation. But he didn't tell anyone that.
Instead what he told them:
In
Matthew 15 Jesus did not want to help a gentile woman.
Matthew 15:22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
Matthew 15:23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
Matthew 15:24 He answered,
"I was sent only to help God's lost sheep--the people of Israel."
Matthew 15:25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
Matthew 15:26 He replied,
“It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Matthew 15:27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
This is the God Almighty who was sent only to the Jews. And a woman softens his heart by saying “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Some
'sacrificial lamb' ... Haan!
Then when he sends his disciples:
Matthew 10:5 These twelve (disciples) Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.
Matthew 10:6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
And as per your Gospels Jesus said the following (and these are just samples):
Matthew 10:34-37
Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Luke 22:36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
Why I presented these verses and other quotations from Jesus above is to show that how clearly Jesus has expressed things. This shows that he certainly knew how to forcefully say things. But the things which were most important, millions of times more important, which was the key reason for which he was here, as no one can get salvation until that person believes that Jesus was son of god and believe on the original sin and blood sacrifice (as per church and Paul). Jesus didn't make any clear statement about these things. If this was the key reason for which he was here then instead of making unambiguous and crystal clear statements on other not so important subjects he would have and should have made unambiguous and crystal clear statements on original sin and blood atonement, so that Christians wouldn't have to struggle and twist and turn and stretch other ambiguous and non related statements to try to fit.
And if Jesus was god, then who was he praying to?
Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
So my dear sister, read Quran where you will find your creator and His words. You don't need to buy one. Just go to this website where it has Quran and the explanation of verses also.
http://www.tafheem.net/tafheem.html
(This is a Quran explanation website. One nice feature is the "Intro" button which provides the background of each Surah/Chapter).
And this site is where you can read the background and life history of our Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)
http://mohammad.islamway.com/
(This website appears like a book and provides the life history of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).)
Peace.
