To attempt to briefly several of Ed s questions from what I can only hope is an Eastern Orthodox Christian POV Nothing compels a just God to enforce a person s separation from Him save the principle of the person s free will If a person chooses not to love God or chooses a life separate from God that amounts to the same as choosing death since they are cutting themselves off from the ultimate source of life Looking at the word perish in John 3 16 in Greek it is in neither active nor passive voice but rather middle voice which means a better translation would be whoever does not believe in him will destroy himself Living in the presence of an all loving God while rejecting that love is how some Orthodox theologians describe Hell hence God s love is sometimes described as a river of fire Hence both God s goodness and justice are preserved as well as each person s free will Also Jesus did not have to die To say that he was forced to die would imply that some external force or law is greater than God and forced God to act against His will Eastern Orthodoxy has always rejected this notion and rather says that Jesus chose to lay down his life in order trample down death by death When Death tried to swallow up the the Giver of Life Death s power was overcome As for alternative plans none are discussed but that s not the same as saying that God had no choice or was compelled by something or someone else Some Church Fathers speak of Christ triumphantly mounting the Cross like a steed The Jews did not have to accept Jesus as their Messiah He simply was their Messiah it was not an elected office and their choices did not change this fact did not prevent his triumphant death or his resurrection Many Jews did believe in him many more did not Hope this helps I ll have to look another time at whether or how any of this should affect the article as I m obviously coming in very late to an old discussion 17 15 Sep 9 2002 UTC