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Being that you don't know God or Jesus Christ - your response is understandable.
Jesus said...
John 8:58 - “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
There were plenty of blood sacrifices in the OT as well that involved animals.
My contention (and the contention of a few hundred secular scholars as well) is that the concept of God requiring a blood sacrifice to appease his anger and grant mortals a favor is nothing original. It was very popular at the time of Jesus and thousands of centuries before him so it wouldn't be irrational to the normal mind to ask, "Who stole from who?" the operative word being "normal" of course.
Did the gospel writers steal the idea of Jesus being a blood sacrifice to an angry God from customs and practices that originated thousands of years before Jesus, or did primitive cultures that existed thousands of years before Jesus steal the idea of blood sacrifices to appease their angry gods from Jesus?
Did the gospel writers steal the idea of Jesus being a blood sacrifice to an angry God from customs and practices that originated thousands of years before Jesus, or did primitive cultures that existed thousands of years before Jesus steal the idea of blood sacrifices to appease their angry gods from Jesus?
Did the gospel writers steal the idea of Jesus being a blood sacrifice to an angry God from customs and practices that originated thousands of years before Jesus, or did primitive cultures that existed thousands of years before Jesus steal the idea of blood sacrifices to appease their angry gods from Jesus?
Well, there are various levels of crime. I did not mention anything specific. Perhaps you did, to evade my comment?
I think what I tried to imply was that under Christian law I committed a crime against God when I committed adultery in my heart. What sentence do you think the civil justice system should impose on me for that crime, Horn?
Anyone ever noticed the incredible similarities in the story of Jesus' blood sacrifice to God to the pagan sacrifices of humans to pagan gods?
Think about it.
What was the purpose of Jesus sacrifice?
Answer: to appease the anger of God and to bring about a benefit for humanity.
What was the purpose of ancient human sacrifice?
Answer: to appease the anger of the gods and to bring about a benefit to their tribe.
What was needed for Jesus' sacrifice?
Answer: an innocent human standing in for humanity.
What was needed for an ancient human sacrifice?
Answer: an innocent human standing in for the tribe.
It should be obvious to anyone with half a brain that the Jesus human sacrifice was just a reworking of the old Hebrew animal sacrifice which in turn was just a reworking of the ancient ritual practice of sacrificing humans to the gods to appease their anger and to obtain favors from them--attributes all present in the Jesus human sacrifice model.
The general concept is one of substitutionary atonement. Even human sacrifice is providing a stand-in for the wrath of the gods. Shifting it to an animal was a refinement and more sustainable because it was hard to gaslight people into giving up their children as blood sacrifices; it was easier to rationalize losing one of your goats. Then making it once-for-all with Jesus was yet another refinement -- no need for a complicated sacrificial system at all. Just believe by faith in the efficacy of the one-time atonement.
You would be rightfully upset if our civil courts dismissed crimes so easily.
You assume too much.
In the US (not so much in most of the rest of the West) rates of incarceration and the disproportionate incarceration of the disadvanataged coupled with the increasing use of private for-profit prisons means that I would be rightfully delighted if our civil courts suddenly became oriented to actually helping miscreants to reform rather than brutally punishing them.
I think what I tried to imply was that under Christian law I committed a crime against God when I committed adultery in my heart. What sentence do you think the civil justice system should impose on me for that crime, Horn?
I saw nothing in your post about adultery. ??? I was commenting on you saying, “Why can’t God just say, ‘I forgive you’”? Well, for the same reason our secular courts can’t just dismiss crimes.
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