Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Mic 6:7)
The Shepherd that never sacrificed sheep!
Very few people actually know that Jesus was a high priest (Heb 10:21). Besides the fact that he came from the Father with a message of Truth for the world, he also knew that message would get him killed. He knew that to bring this message would cost him his life, but he laid down his life — no one took it from him.
One of the functions of priests was to do animal sacrifices that was believed to take away the sins of people. In fact it is believed that all the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were “types and shadows” of the last great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for the sins of all humanity. However, Jesus being a high priest, NEVER practiced animal sacrifice. The reason? Because he didn’t believe in it. In fact, he said that he came to put an end to this inhumane practice, that God NEVER commanded and even hated.
The real message of salvation
Micah the prophet, addresses this very idea of sacrificing the firstborn son for sins when God wasn’t even pleased with animal sacrifice. God DID NOT sacrifice his firstborn son!
Then he tells them what God actually DOES require:
- Do justice
- Love kindness
- Walk humbly with your God
Mic 6:6-8 With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
God was against parents sacrificing their children, it was an abomination to him. So how is it that anyone could say that God sacrificed his own son?
Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire…
Jer 7:31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
Jesus was not sacrificed, he laid down his life, he gave it voluntarily
Contrary to what many think, Jesus was not sacrificed. Animal sacrifice was a religious ritual that was practiced by not only the Jews but many heathen cultures also. This practice was thought to be a means of pacifying the Gods and changing the course of natural events. In Judaism an animal was sacrificed was to take the place of the one who actually did the sins, it was like a person’s sins were placed on an innocent animal and it was killed in the place of the person. This ritual was thought to vicariously take away his sins. In the same way it is thought by Christians to be the act of God sacrificing his only son that literally takes away the sins of the world.
Jesus came to lay down his life, not to be sacrificed. There is a big difference. A soldier going to war knows of the danger and the possibility that he may lay down his life, it may even be a sacrifice for him. But you couldn’t say that his country or his family are sacrificing him. In the same way, God did not sacrifice Jesus on the cross, contrary to popular opinion and contrary to what the church would have us believe and what Paul taught. Jesus knew what he would do would cost him his life, but he did it voluntarily in order to bring the Message of the Truth to the world. An animal that is sacrificed does not come to lay down its life of its own accord, someone else subjects it to be sacrificed, and that for an ignorant motive. God NEVER commanded this, it was the commandments of men which Jesus also condemned.
This sacrifice meant nothing to God nor could it even take away sins. Moreover, this practice did in no way appease God. In fact, he hated it. It is believed that Jesus’ crucifixion was a sacrifice that served as an atonement for all men’s sins. If God hated animal sacrifice, never commanded it and wanted to put an end to this horrible practice, how could anyone even think that he would sacrifice his own son and let people think that all they had to do was believe in this horrendous act of God and their sins would be somehow miraculously taken away — literally?
Joh 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
Joh 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Heb 10:6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Jesus came to end the inhuman animal sacrifices
 Did God sacrifice Jesus?
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Jesus declared: “I have come to end the sacrifices and feasts of blood” (Nazarenes 21:8). And that is mainly what he did by giving his life — not ONLY to save the world, but also to save the animals from inhumane slaughter by pagan religionists!
What does God require?
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Neither the sacrifice of an animal nor what people believe to be God’s sacrifice of Jesus could take away sins.
Isa 1:11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Hos 8:13 Though they offer choice sacrifices, though they eat flesh, the Lord does not accept them.
God hates animal sacrifice and does not accept them
Amo 5:21-24 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon.
Isa 66:3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck, he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
I find it interesting but most evangelicals would agree with alot of what you posted here. I wonder though…If Jesus wasn’t ‘sacrificed’, then is he still the ‘lamb of God’? If Jesus simply ‘laid down his life’, what does that mean for our sins? Very interesting.
By the way, I wanted to tell you something. I ripped up my bible into three parts. The OT, the Gospels & Acts, and the rest of the NT. I wish they made a book with a collection of ALL the gospels. That’d be cool.
You didn’t have to rip up your bible… but it’s your bible. Yes, that does make sense — they should have just let us have all the gospels and let us make up our own minds, instead of deciding for us and them leaving out the scriptures that weren’t agreeable with them.
You’re right his is a very interesting concept. But after all, when it comes right down to it you pay for your own sins. The doctrine of expiatory sacrifice in respect to Jesus was created by the church. For the Jews, prior to Jesus, animal sacrifice was supposed to take away sins, but according to God this was NOT true.
Now if animal sacrifice couldn’t take away sins, and God considered human sacrifice an abomination and prohibited it, how could anyone actually think that God made a human sacrifice of one his own sons and that was to take away the sins of the whole world, past present and future! Think about it! Is that a crazy idea or what!
Even Jesus said that no one took his life away, which would be sacrificing him, but that he laid it down voluntarily. There is no animal that lays his life down voluntarily, sacrifice is something that is forced. Jesus was called the lamb of God — but it was MEN who sacrificed him not God. And they couldn’t have sacrificed him if Jesus hadn’t LET them.
The reality is this: when men confess their sins, God forgives them. But if they continue in their unrepentant state, they pay for their own sins — “saved” or not. That’s why there is a reincarnation, to give another chance for those to repent and make amends and break their servitude to sin. It’s only those who overcome sins and do his commandments that become pillars in the house of God and no longer have to go out, and be born again and die again and repeat the cycle.
A great observation that I just observed;
John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Christians (myself included at one time)take the word “gave” to mean “sacrificed”. That’s is how I always used to take it. But What if it doesn’t mean that at all!! It just means that he gave us access to Jesus, his teachings, his knowledge. And whoever believes and does his message and commandments, then he shall not perish.
neato.
Great observation, Josh. Another thing is that the book of John was obviously written by a Greek in probably the first half of the second century — nearly 100 years after Jesus. How is it that it says he “gave his one and only son” when Jesus was actually his first begotten son? We are all sons of God. Jesus was the first, so there was a second, a third and so on. And to be the Messiah Jesus had to have a biological father descended from king Solomon and that was Joseph. So the “holy ghost” could not possibly have been his father.
Furthermore, Jesus spoke so much about doing his commandments and doing the will of His Father etc. If believing was all that was needed then why did Jesus go to all the trouble?
If all this is as you say Doug then as satan is a tool of God, so is the coruption of scripture, for if we truely believe “God” is not fully in control of all things and that He did not see these things coming we are following a god that is not all knowing all powerful etc. I can understand that the bible could have been corrupted and that is why there was such a strong warning in Rev not to change a word of this book (Rev) So for now the safest thing is to have two or three witnesses, the new must not contradict the old. “God was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice (lamb) and rejected Cain’s (plant) Read Isaiah 53:10 God new and planed this sacrifice for sin (The Lamb of God) I have ran out of time to say more as I have to get ready for work. By for now, Peter
Yes, it does seem that Satan is a tool of God. And why he has allowed the corruption of scripture, is beyond me. But the fact still remains, it is obviously corrupted as is easily proven. There are many, many contradictions, inconsistencies, forgeries, etc. It’s obvious to me that many things in the bible that many suppose to be the “words of God” are most likely not.
I’m sure God did see these things coming and why he allows these things, I sure can’t tell — but He does. He allows a lot of other horrible things in the world and I haven’t the slightest idea why an all-powerful, all-knowing God would allow such things — the truth of the matter is, He does. I wonder sometimes…
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I really don’t get what you’re saying about the sacrifices of Abel and Cain, but it’s clear from the prophets that God never did like animal sacrifices and never commended it.
God HATED animal sacrifice and he NEVER commanded it.
See: What was Jesus Sacrificed for?
Hi Doug, thank you for your reply. I will explain more on the “Cain Abel” My problem is that I am quite a slow typest and my spelling is not so good, does this program allow me to save and come back to it? Not that I am going to write book it’s just good to be able to meditate on what to say and look up scriture. I am always open to what God is revealing in these last days (3rd Day) As I see it, the New Testiment could have been tampered with, but the Old has remained the same as the Dead Sea Scrolls have proven, but when you see that the Old is Christ concealed and the New Christ revealed, (Same message) The book of Genesis in itself gives us a detaled picture of His (God’s) first desire to make man in His Image and Likeness, He started by forming man from the dust of the ground (carnality) From the first Adam to Christ (Joseph) In the first few sentences of the bible we see the same picture “In the beginning God formed fashioned, created the heavens and the earth was without form and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said “Let there be Light” then He seperated the Light from the darkness, (our story once again) Just another few quick eg; What was the first bird released from the ark? and see what it did until the waters had receeded, it was a raven and it went to and fro until the waters (God’s Judgement) had ceast, we see when God asked satan in the book of Job “where have you been? satan answered “going to and fro over the earth” now God picked the fight with satan and Job, why? even though God saw Job as righteous there was still a work that needed to be done in Job. Last one for thought who “caused Isaac’s desendants to go into Egypt? We can see how God made provision for them in having Joseph second in charge of Egypt at the time, but that was not God’s plan, his plan was to bring them into bondage, then to raise them up to be a mighty nation Holy seperated unto Him so that the whole world would know that there was only one true God and that He and He alone is to be worshiped. (our story again) The story of Christ, for we are the body of Christ being formed and fashined into the image and likeness of His son (the only begotten Son the risen Christ) From carnality to Glory, Praise God!
1) The problem with this is that there is just too much interpretation going on here. You can MAKE the bible mean whatever you want it to mean. So since each one has his/her own interpretation there are literally thousands of interpretations. So whose is the correct one? That is impossible.
2) I have seen the Dead Sea Scrolls. The problem here is that it only proves that those few books that were found were translated correctly. (The DSS dos not contain all of the OT books.) That’s fine. But it doesn’t address the fact that the prophets themselves were blasting the false priests for writing down false laws and prophecies. It also doesn’t address the fact (but only reinforces) that the OT contradicts itself in many places. It doesn’t address the fact that there are absurdities (only reinforces) that could not possibly have been commands of God since they were immoral things that a holy God would never do.
3) You also haven’t taken into account the fact that Jesus himself blasted some of the writers of the OT saying that they made the law of God of no effect by their traditions, which they actually lead people to believe that they were commandments of God! The OT is just full of lies — Jesus himself spend a good part of his ministry criticizing those evil men for doing that. He even spent a lot of time teaching the correct doctrines. This is UNDENIABLE.
4) Another thing is that Jesus sided with the prophets in their criticism of the OT priests and scribes. Just for an example: God was against the sacrifice of animals as the offering for sin. God HATED animal sacrifice and he NEVER commanded it.
Jesus violently cast out of the temple those that sold animals for this purpose. It was one of the things that infuriated the Jewish leadership since this was a great money-maker for them. Jesus was very effective in putting an end to this practice since from that time to this very day animal sacrifice is not practiced by either the Christians or the Jews.
5) About Cain and Abel. It wasn’t the Cain’s sacrifice that God was not pleased with, it was Cain’s sin. It doesn’t say what Cain’s sin was, but the fact remains that God was pleased with Abel’s behavior and he was not pleased with Cain’s.
This story has nothing to do with the so-called sacrifice of Jesus. There is no “type and shadow or things to come” here. The focus here is not on the sacrifice, which God care nothing for, it was the behavior of these two. There was something that Cain did that made God unhappy with him. One thing this story does show however is that Cain had the sin of jealousy that caused him to murder his brother. What’s more Cain lied to God saying that he didn’t know where Able was. Cain was a lying, jealous murderer in the least. So it was his sin that God was displeased with not his sacrifice. And in the same way, it was not Abel’s sacrifice that God was pleased with it was Abel’s behavior that pleased God.
So it is not the so-called “sacrifice of Christ” that God is pleased with it is our behavior.
Jesus came to get people to change their ways not to get them to accept any kind of sacrifice. He put an END to sacrifice and this ended up costing him his life (which he expected).