Blood Sacrifice

Christians need to be aware that the outside world does not understand the most basic of things when it comes to the spiritual world. Those eyes have been blinded and therefore they are incapable of comprehending things believers take for granted. In order to understand exactly where these misunderstandings or misconceptions lie, we must listen and watch carefully. I was asked once,

‘Why are the Christians and Jews always talking about sacrifice and suffering? Temple altars, death and sacrifice makes me think of satanic ritual instead of a god of love.’

A fairly straight forward question, but then they topped it off with, ‘Who in their right mind would base any sort of morality on the kind of god that demands bloodshed? That is more pagan and violent than any god I’ve ever heard of!’
As strange and un-Christian as it sounds, it is a very valid question. Let me rephrase it a bit,

“Why does the God of the Bible demand blood sacrifice and especially that of Christ on the cross?”

Sacrifice

There is no easy way around this. The fact of the matter is, a lot of atheists practically revel in the fact that Judeo-Christian morals are grounded in a deity that demands blood, and they love to shove it in our faces. Dawkins is famous for this in his book, The God Delusion. Sadly many Christians don’t know what to make of the issue of a blood-demanding-god, or at least they don’t know how to answer without using “Christianese.” The book of Romans, particularly Romans 3:23Romans 3:23
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
23 All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.

WP-Bible plugin and Romans 6:23Romans 6:23
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
23 Sin pays off with death. But God's gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord.

WP-Bible plugin are the usual excellent responses (roll over the scripture to see read it, click on the pop-up to make it go away) In Matthew 9:10-13Matthew 9:10-13
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
10 . Later, Jesus and his disciples were having dinner at Matthew's house. r Matthew's house: Or “Jesus' house.” Many tax collectors and other sinners were also there. ¹¹ Some Pharisees asked Jesus' disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and other sinners?” ¹² Jesus heard them and answered, “Healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do. ¹³ a ; b . Go and learn what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others.’ I didn't come to invite good people to be my followers. I came to invite sinners.”

WP-Bible plugin, Jesus quotes Old Testament Hosea 6:6Hosea 6:6
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
6 . I'd rather for you to be faithful and to know me than to offer sacrifices.

WP-Bible plugin in answer to those who test Him on the demands of God. Yet sacrifice was still needed and one wonders why it requires blood to pay that debt?

Let us take an apparent digression.
What do you like to do? Have any hobbies? A sport? Stamp collecting? Time with family or friends? Anything really. These things too demand sacrifice. You have to sacrifice time out of your schedule. You must sacrifice earned money/time in the office or workshop to spend with the family. Conversely, you must sacrifice time with your family in order to work to earn bread to eat. These things require that you give something up to complete them. Something that is yours. Your time. Now, time is not really yours. It is a gift of God to be used as tool, rather like money. But it is a good analogy nonetheless.

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