God's grace to forgive and transform is not conditioned to recognizing Jesus' deity, blood atonement or physical resurrection

[Pancho Frijoles]

That's exactly what happened but with the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek OT, not the Hebrew Text. All Diaspora Jews spoke and read Greek so it was the Greek OT that the Diaspora Jews consulted to critique Paul.

I agree. Yet the Septuagint is just a translation, and as any other translation, subject to limitations and errors.
Of course, Limitations and errors do not mean evil. The Holy Spirit acts despite human limitations and errors.
I don’t want to be misinterpreted as depreciatimg the value of the Septuagint, but I also don’t want to be misinterpreted as overlooking the higher value of the Hebrew text, which should come first in an scholarly study of God’s revelation.
By the way, do you accept as inspired the deuterocanonical books contained in the Septuagint?
I haven’t reviewd them for teachings about God forgiveness and mercy.

Paul passed the test and the rest is history.

I agree.

 

[Pancho Frijoles]

Why did you abandon the Catholic faith? What happened? I'm not Catholic so I'm just asking out of interest.

I like you my brother, 90% of the time. The other 10% is my responsibility, so it is for me to bear with it
I abandoned the Cathoic faith in 1992, out of Sola Scriptura, a concept taught to me by a Seventh Day Adventist man who walked trough the streets of my neighborhood selling iced popsicles. He was a man in his fifties, very humble, very enthusiastic and smart, even though he had just completed the Elementary School. His name was Antonio and he must be accomplishing some mission in God’s spiritual realm. May God keep blessing him forever.

I became a Seven Day Adventist and a staunch defender of Sola Scriptura.

 

[synergy]

I agree. Yet the Septuagint is just a translation, and as any other translation, subject to limitations and errors.
Of course, Limitations and errors do not mean evil. The Holy Spirit acts despite human limitations and errors.
I don’t want to be misinterpreted as depreciatimg the value of the Septuagint, but I also don’t want to be misinterpreted as overlooking the higher value of the Hebrew text, which should come first in an scholarly study of God’s revelation.

The Septuagint (LXX) is the OT that the Apostles overwhelmingly quoted from to write their NT Epistles so it's officially endorsed. No doubt about that.

By the way, do you accept as inspired the deuterocanonical books contained in the Septuagint?

They have their value. I particularly like the Maccabees. Many of them were written in Greek so they were the first to go when the Jews wanted to vent their frustrations against Christians who were using the LXX to prove Christ is the Messiah professed in the OT.

I haven’t reviewd them for teachings about God forgiveness and mercy.

Look also to the Jewish Temple and its Blood Sacrifices as conditions for God's forgiveness in OT times.

 

[synergy]

I like you my brother, 90% of the time.

I appreciate whatever percentage you can give me.

The other 10% is my responsibility, so it is for me to bear with it

I have a tendency to hammer people with what I think is the truth. I'm sorry about that. That's because I crave the truth and I always go for the juggernaut to communicate the truth.

I abandoned the Cathoic faith in 1992, out of Sola Scriptura, a concept taught to me by a Seventh Day Adventist man who walked trough the streets of my neighborhood selling iced popsicles. He was a man in his fifties, very humble, very enthusiastic and smart, even though he had just completed the Elementary School. His name was Antonio and he must be accomplishing some mission in God’s spiritual realm. May God keep blessing him forever.

I became a Seven Day Adventist and a staunch defender of Sola Scriptura.

Scripture points to the Lord's Supper and several other Sacraments. Why didn't Paul dedicate more material for the Sacraments? That's because they were already practiced properly so there was no need to fix what was working already.

 

[Pancho Frijoles]

I'm not retracting anything-every verse has its context. I'm not sure what you mean by 'Core Block,' but I have my e-Sword ready and can search through it in just a couple of seconds.

By "Core Block" I mean the collection of 20 passages from Scripture that I quoted here: https://berean-apologetics.communit...ent-or-physical-resurrection.2218/post-130745

I understand your approach to reading the Scriptures, but I won’t allow you to deflect from directly addressing the literal crucifixion, death, resurrection, and virgin birth of Jesus Christ, brother. These are foundational truths in Christian doctrine, and I’m seeking a clear answer from you on these points.

The clear answer you're seeking I may provide in other threads, Johann.
In this tread I'm focusing on the conditions God has set to forgive and transform the life of a person.

 

[Pancho Frijoles]

The Septuagint (LXX) is the OT that the Apostles overwhelmingly quoted from to write their NT Epistles so it's officially endorsed. No doubt about that.

I guess that for people who rely on Sola Scriptura, it is very important to know what is "officially endorsed" and what is not.
For those who don't rely in Sola Scriptura, like me, it is not as relevant.
I think inspired authors used the tools they had at hand, regardless of the imperfections of such tools (imperfections in language, scientific knowledge, historical facts, political circumstances, social habits, etc. )

So, if the Flood was not a worldwide event, that doesn't destroy its spiritual significance.
If the Urim and Tumim were stones that were rolled like dice to say "Yes" or "No", or if the apostles believed in ghosts, that doesn't change our faith in God and his Christ.
If the verses of Mark 16:9-20 were not part of the original inspired writing, or if the epistles of Peter were not written by Peter, or if there are portions of the Book of Enoch that were inspired by God, or if a letter from Paul got lost, nothing of that prevent us from following the essential message from the gospel.

That allow us to remain open in a scholarly debate and pay attention to new discoveries with confidence. God invented the Bible, and not the other way around. We may discuss more about that in a different thread... a debate on Sola Scriptura.

 

[Pancho Frijoles]

Scripture points to the Lord's Supper and several other Sacraments. Why didn't Paul dedicate more material for the Sacraments? That's because they were already practiced properly so there was no need to fix what was working already.

Well... the point you are bringing is very interesting... since we can make all kind of arguments, valid and invalid, based on the silence of the Bible over a particular point.
"If doctrine X is not explained, it is because almost everyone already believed doctrine X and explanation was not needed".

That argument, to be valid, must be accompanied with good evidence that almost everyone believed doctrine X.
For example:
Jesus never abolished the Sabbath. Was it because almost everybody took for granted that Sabbath was going to be abolished after his death? Some could say that Jesus wanted Sabbath to continue. Some could say Jesus didn't want it to continue, but knew that practice would cease naturally with time. Some could say Jesus just didn't bother to raise debate on a topic that was not essential for his mission. It is open to debate.

However, when we talk about matters like repentance and forgiveness, we are talking about a BIG TOPIC, and a BIG TOPIC that Hebrew Scriptures had already dealt with many times (see the 20 passages of my "Core Block").
We are talking about a BIG TOPIC because Jesus came as Savior and the very first imperative of Jesus ever recorded in the Bible was "Repent" (Mark 1:14, considering Mark as the oldest of the gospels and probable source of the other synoptics).

So, if Jesus made a point of addressing the BIG TOPIC several times and in several ways during 3 years of preaching, and He never bothered to explain that the belief in his deity, blood atonement and future physical resurrection was a condition for a person to be forgiven... boy... we have two alternatives: Jesus did not do a good job preaching repentance, or we are wrong in thinking that such beliefs (even if correct) are a condition for repentance.

 

[Pancho Frijoles]

Look also to the Jewish Temple and its Blood Sacrifices as conditions for God's forgiveness in OT times.

Did God really required blood sacrifices as a condition to forgive?
I don't think so. This is why

1. We have explicit statements in the Tanakh that God didn't forgive based on sacrifices, but based on a broken, contrite heart.
2. We have a statement in the Epistle of Hebrews (10:4) that such animal sacrifices didn't really erase sins
3. It is against reason to think that Our God behave as the pagan gods who demanded sacrifices. Such thinking was most likely useful as a model in primitive minds, but you and I know that God does not need blood (or vegetable offerings, or inciense, or songs, or recitations, or dances, or shrines).
4. Israelites sinned every day, just as you and me, and knew it was unfeasible to leave aside their flocks or fields and travel to the Temple every day or every week to offer a sacrifice. And yet, they did not bother to build sanctuaries and recruit levites or priests at every village. Why don't we find in the Bible prophets urging Hebrews to build hundreds of those sanctuaries?
5. As per item# 4, the Jews in the Diaspora, who needed a lot of money and time (and courage) to travel to distant Jerusalem, did not build temples in their cities to perform animal sacrifices. We find synagogues across the Mediterranean world... but never sanctuaries or priests. Why?

 

[Johann]

Did God really required blood sacrifices as a condition to forgive?

Absolutely-I take it you knowlegde of our Scriptures is 10x better than the average believer?


Where’s the Blood? Responding to Another Muslim Ruse Pt. 2
I continue from where I previously left off (https://answeringislamblog.wordpres...blood-responding-to-another-muslim-ruse-pt-1/).

The Lord Jesus continued the tradition of the Hebrew Bible by pointing to the need of substitutionary atonement for the remission of sins. This can be from the following parable of our Lord:

“And he spake also unto certain who have been trusting in themselves that they were righteous, and have been despising the rest, this simile: `Two men went up TO THE TEMPLE to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer; the Pharisee having stood by himself, thus prayed: God, I thank Thee that I am not as the rest of men, rapacious, unrighteous, adulterers, or even as this tax-gatherer; I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all things — as many as I possess. `And the tax-gatherer, having stood afar off, would not even the eyes lift up to the heaven, but was smiting on his breast, saying, God be propitious (hilastheti) to me — the sinner! I say to you, this one went down declared righteous, to his house, rather than that one: for every one who is exalting himself shall be humbled, and he who is humbling himself shall be exalted.’” Luke 18:9-14 YLT

The word translated as “be propitious” is the Greek hilaskomai. This is how one lexical source defines the term:

Cognate: 2433 hiláskomai (akin to 2434 /hilasmós, “propitiation, appeasement/satisfaction of divine wrath on sin”) – properly, to extend propitiation, showing mercy by satisfying (literally, propitiating) the wrath of God on sin; “to conciliate, appease, propitiate (so the LXX; see also Thackeray, Gr., 270f quoting from inscriptions and Deiss., BS, 224f)” (Abbott-Smith). See 2434 /hilasmos (“propitiation”). (Biblehub https://biblehub.com/greek/2433.htm).

And here are two additional renderings of the specific part of our Lord’s parable pertaining to the sinful man’s request for atonement:

“The tax collector stood off alone in the corner, away from the Holy Place, and covered his face in his hands, feeling that he was unworthy to even look up to God. Beating his breast, he sobbed with brokenness and tears saying, ‘God, please, in your mercy AND BECAUSE OF THE BLOOD SACRIFICE, forgive me, for I am nothing but the most miserable of all sinners!’ Luke 18:13 The Passion Translation (TPT)

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest[a] and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!’”

Footnotes:

a. Luke 18:13 = mourning

b. Luke 18:13 Lit God, be propitious to me; = May Your wrath be turned aside by the sacrifice Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

It is quite clear from our Lord’s own words that God showed mercy to the tax collector by accepting and/or making atonement for the man’s sins, which resulted in God justifying or making the tax collector righteous in God’s sight.

This isn’t the only place where the New Testament employs this specific Greek term:

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels to suffer death, crowned with glory and honor, so that He, by the grace of God, should experience death for everyone… Therefore, in all things it was necessary for Him to be made like His brothers, so that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, to make atonement (hilaskesthai) for the sins of the people.” Hebrews 2:9, 17 MEV

Note the following rendering of v. 17:

“This is why he had to become like his brothers in every respect — so that he might become a merciful and faithful cohen gadol in the service of God, making a kapparah for the sins of the people.” Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

Here it is Jesus himself who makes atonement for the sins of God’s people.

And as the foregoing lexical source I cited indicated, there is another related Greek word, which the NT writings employ in respect to the necessity of atonement for the remission of sins:

2434 hilasmós – properly, propitiation; an offering to appease (satisfy) an angry, offended party. 2434 (hilasmós) is only used twice (1 Jn 2:2, 4:10) – both times of Christ’s atoning blood that appeases God’s wrath, on all confessed sin. By the sacrifice of Himself, Jesus Christ provided the ultimate 2434 /hilasmós (“propitiation”). (Biblehub https://biblehub.com/greek/2434.htm)

The following is also related to this Greek term:

2435 hilastḗrion (a substantival adjective, derived from 2433 /hiláskomai, “to propitiate”) – the place of propitiation; the lid of the golden ark (the mercy-seat) where the blood of a vicarious lamb appeased God’s wrath on sin. See also 2434 (hilasmós). (Biblehub https://biblehub.com/greek/2435.htm)

Here’s how the NT uses these two phrases:

“whom God offered as a place where atonement (hilasterion) by the Messiah’s blood would occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past.” Romans 3:25 ISV

Compare:

“God put Yeshua forward as the kapparah for sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death…” CJB

And:

“My little children, I am writing these things to you, so that you do not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice (hilasmos) for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2 MEV

“Also, he is the kapparah for our sins — and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2 CJB

Finally:

“In this way the love of God was revealed to us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice (hilasmon) for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 MEV

“Here is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the kapparah for our sins.” CJB

Hence, the teaching of Christ and his spokespersons concerning the need for atonement is perfectly consistent with the message of the Hebrew prophets. This is why Christ entered into the world, namely, to offer his life as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of all those who would turn to God through faith in the Son:

“This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.” John 6:50-51 MEV

“This is far more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who becomes a priest not by a law pertaining to ancestry, but by the power of an endless life… And the former priests were numerous because they were hindered from serving because of death. But He, because He lives forever, has an everlasting priesthood. Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, because He at all times lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, for He is holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners, and is higher than the heavens. Unlike those high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices—first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for He did this once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints men who are weak as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son who is made perfect forever.” Hebrews 7:15-16, 23-28 MEV

“And according to the law almost everything must be cleansed with blood; without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was therefore necessary that the replicas of heavenly things be cleansed with these sacrifices, but that the heavenly things themselves be cleansed with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, which are patterned after the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor did He enter to offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. For then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the world was created, but now He has appeared once at the end of the ages to put away sin by sacrificing Himself. As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this comes the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to save those who eagerly wait for Him.” Hebrews 9:22-28 MEV

“For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifices and offerings You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do Your will, O God,’ as it is written of Me in the volume of the book.’ Previously when He said, ‘You did not desire sacrifices and offerings. You have had no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin,’ which are offered in accordance with the law, then He said, ‘See, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. But every priest stands daily ministering and repetitively offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time He has been waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one offering He has forever perfected those who are sanctified…Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” Hebrews 10:4-14, 18 MEV

Ironically, and in spite of the NT’s explicit teaching on this subject, these same Muhammadan polemicists will quote the following words of our Lord,

“When He set out on His way, a man came running and knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone. You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ He answered Him, ‘Teacher, all these have I observed from my youth.’” Mark 10:17-20 MEV
That person’s sins will be forgiven on the basis of Jesus’ sacrificial death, which is precisely what our Lord and his inspired emissaries taught:

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45 ESV – cf. Matthew 20:28

“As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take and eat. This is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and after He gave thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’” Matthew 26:26-28 MEV – cf. Mark 14:22-24

Then He took the bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.’ In like manner, He took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you.’” Luke 22:19-20 MEV – cf. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

“There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all. This was the testimony given at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:5-6 MEV

Astonishingly, Christ and his Apostles ascribe to the Lord a function and ability, which the Hebrew Bible explicitly attributes to God alone, namely the power to redeem human lives from everlasting destruction:

“none of them can by any means redeem the other, nor give to God a ransom for anyone, for the redemption of their souls is costly; even so people cease to exist forever, making efforts to live eternally, and not see the pit… But God shall redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He shall receive me. Selah” Psalm 49:7-9, 15 MEV

Hence, not only do Jesus and his inspired disciples emphatically teach that salvation is granted on the basis of Christ’s atoning death, but they also affirm the perfect Deity of our Lord and his essential unity with God the Father.

After all, since God alone is able to save human beings, Christ must, therefore, be God Almighty in the flesh since it is his sacrificial death that results in the salvation of the world, in fact of the entire creation:

“No one has ascended to heaven except He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man who is in heaven. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:13-18

“If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” John 12:47

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him ALL THINGS were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; ALL THINGS have been created through him and for him. He IS before ALL THINGS, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself ALL THINGS, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:13-20 NIV

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.” 1 Timothy 1:15 MEV

“and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Revelation 1:5-6 MEV

“And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests unto our God; and we shall reign on the earth.’” Revelation 5:9-10 MEV

“Then I looked. And there was a great multitude which no one could count, from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out with a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’ Then one of the elders asked me, ‘Who are these clothed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ He said to me, ‘These are those who came out of great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. “They shall neither hunger any more, nor shall they thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them,” nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and “He will lead them to springs of living water.” “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”’” Revelation 7:9-17 MEV

So much for the shameless Muslim mishandling of God’s Word in order to make the Holy Bible agree with their Islamic theology, which can never be done. The fact is, God’s Word condemns Muhammad as a false prophet and antichrist sent to mislead the world from the only hope of salvation, namely, by believing in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s uniquely begotten Son (Cf. Matthew 24:23-25; John 10:1-18; Romans 1:1-4, 16-17; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4, 13-15; Galatians 1:6-9; 1 John 2:22-23; 4:1-14).

Where’s the Blood? Responding to Another Muslim Ruse Pt. 2

I continue from where I previously left off ( The Lord Jesus continued the tradition of the Hebrew Bible by pointing to the need of substitutionary atonement for the remission of sins. This can be …

answeringislamblog.wordpress.com

J.

 

[Johann]

Did God really required blood sacrifices as a condition to forgive?

Absolutely!
What the Bible teaches about the sin offering.

The doctrine of Blood Atonement was fully developed in the Taurat centuries before the birth of Paul.

Leviticus 17:

11 "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

This verse is identical in the Jewish scriptures as well, and there is no way Paul or anybody else could insert it in the Taurat in order to develop a new doctrine!

The practical way in wich Blood Atonement was done was through the Sin Offering:

Leviticus 5:

17 "And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of theLORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.
18 And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him.
19 It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD. "

The sin offering was one of the main pillars of the deen of all the prophets after Moses. It was the most important cultic ritual of their religion, in exactly the same way as the Hajj, prayer, fasting and alms giving are important in Islam. To give you an idea of how important it is in the Bible, and in the culture of all the prophets after Moses, I have made the following comparison with the most important cultic rituals of Islam:

The words "sin offering" appear one hundred and seven times in the Taurat, Zabur and Prophetic writings. The words "tresspass offering" appear thirty three times. That gives a total of one hundred and forty times! (King James translation).

In the Jusuf Ali translation of the Qur'an, "pilgrimage" appears 7 times, "alms" appears 3 times, "fast" or "fasting" appears 21 times, and "prayer" appears 85 times.

Yet nobody can dispute the importance of say, the Hajj, in the religion of Islam. In the same way it would be dishonest to dispute the importance of the sin offering in the religion of the Old Testament.

Here is an example of how the sin offering was practised in the day to day life of the believers of Old Testament times:

2 Chronicles 29

20 Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.
21 And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the LORD.
22 So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: likewise, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar: they killed also the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar.
23 And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them:
24 And the priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

The meaning of the sin offering.

Leviticus 5:

17 "And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of theLORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.
18 And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him.
19 It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD. "
1) God says that there is no escape from the guilt of sin:
"... he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. "

We will say more later on why this is so. For the moment you may just accept it for arguments sake.

2) Because God loves us, He provided a way for the guilt to be removed.

Please take note: The way He provides, according to this verse, is not that the sinner should do good works or prove himself in any way worthy of forgiveness, but to bring a sacrifice.
This implies something very important: Good deeds, or even good intentions cannot remove the guilt of sin, because then the sin offering would have been totally unnecessary!
The reason for this is simple: The law of God demands complete obedience to the law. Even though it is in theory possible to go to heaven becaused you have never sinned, the harsh reality is that since Adam was cast from paradise, no human being has ever been without sin. (Except one...) There can be no salvation through keeping the law simply because no one can keep the law!

3) The process of atonement through sin offering is initiated by God. It is an act of God. In this sense, there is absolutely no cost involved for the sinner.
The only prerequisites for forgiveness of sin by sin offering are:

You must realise that you are a sinner and in need of atonement. Somebody who believes that he is sinless or can save himself by good works will not feel the need for atonement, and therefore would not bring the offering. Somebody who does not realise or refuses to accept that he is ill will not visit the hospital, and therefore will not be cured. This is why so much emphasis is laid in the Bible on confession of sin.

You must believe and trust God when He says that He will forgive your sin. In the Old Testament, the act of bringing an animal to slaughter was the external sign of this faith.

4)The symbolism of the sacrifice is important, and the following verse gives an important clue:
Leviticus 16:

21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:

22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
The ritual of the scapegoat is very similar in function to that of the sin offering, here it is stated explicitly that the sin of the people is transferred to the goat: The people become blameless and the goat becomes the sinner.
It is very clear that the sacrificial animal bears the punishment of the sinner's sin in his place. The life of the sinner is substituted for that of the sacrificial animal!

It is extremely important to realize that it is not the ritual that saves the sinner, (we do not believe in magic) but that it is God who forgives the sinner freely, out of loving grace, based on the symbolism of the ritual. Since the life of an animal can never pay for the life of a human being, the ritual is a symbol of something else: If you read Isaiah 53, you will see that the Messiah would be the Perfect Sin Offering.

5) The outcome of this meeting between sinner and God is always absolutely certain:

"... and it shall be forgiven him."
This is the word of God, it cannot be otherwise! The redeemed sinner has complete certainty of salvation! This is in stark contrast to Islam according to which one can never know.

6) The result of this free forgiveness is always the conversion of the sinner. Being confronted with his own sin, and then with the unimagineable love and mercy of God will bring the redeemed to enter into a relationship of love with his Redeemer. The seperation between man and God that happened when Adam sinned in Paradise is removed. Turning to God to accept His forgiveness always means turning away from sin! Living in the grace of the Blood Atonement, man becomes what God had always intended Him to be: Holy.

If the life of the person does not reflect this new relationship with God it is safe to say that his faith was not real: The sacrifice was not brought because he wanted to be cleansed of his sin, but for some selfish reason. In the same manner one cannot bring the sacrifice and try to earn your salvation by being "good". This would nullify the whole point of the sacrifice!


Mr. Al-Kadhi's quotations from the old Testament to "prove" that blood atonement is not needed for the forgiving of sin.

I have to stress the point, that the sin offering had the same prominence in the cultic life of Israel that the Shahada, Saum, Salaat, Zakaat, and Hajj has in Islam today. I will not adress every one of the quotations, and the following one I will use to illustrate my point further. The verse in green is the one quoted.

Isaiah 43:

21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
In verse 21 God says that He created Israel, and the reason why He did it: "...they shall shew forth my praise."
22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
But Israel was in a state of rebellion, they ignored God.
23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
God reproaches them because after they sinned, they did not bring the sin offering so that they could be forgiven.
24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
It is ironic that Mr. Al-Kadhi should use this verse to prove his point, while in reality it proves exactly the opposite: In verse 25 God gives the reason why He forgives sins. Not because of good works, good intentions, or anything done by the sinner, but for His own sake!!!
Misha'al, this is what God tells you in this verse: I forgive you your sin not because of who you are, but because of who I am. Because I love you more than you can ever imagine. And even though you can never deserve My Love or forgiveness, I offer it to you freely "...for mine own sake..."!

So come and accept it, so that you may be justified. (Verse 26)

This verse is an open invitation to Israel of the Old Testament, and everybody who reads it today to accept to unconditional love and forgiveness that God offers on the basis of the sin offering!


Jeremiah 36:3

"It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin."
Isaiah 55:7

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
Psalm 32:5
"I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah."
Returning to God and confessing your sin is all that is needed to receive the forgiveness! Turn from your evil way, turn to God. Please note: in every case forgiveness is guaranteed! The reason why it is guaranteed is because it is not based on the good works of the sinner, but as you saw in the scripture above, on the caracter of God. To say that the blood atonement does not play a roll just because it is not mentioned in these specific verses is ridiculous: The whole religious cult revolved around the blood atonement!
In the following verses it may seem as if God does not want the sacrifice. If you read carefully, you will see that He did not want the sacrifices because they were brought for the wrong reasons! There was no acknowledgement of sin, no repentance and no real plea for forgiveness. The acts were hipocritical: they were empty ritual!

Isaiah 1:11-18


"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. When ye come to
appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an
abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity(sin), even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from
before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
And yet the invitation remains: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool"
Has Islam ever taught that one can be that certain of forgiveness of sin?

The above quotation is from the prophet Isaiah, so let us have a quick look ar what this same prophet taught about the sin offering, or blood atonement:

Isaiah 53:

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Did Jesus teach the doctrine of Blood Atonement?
The night before his crucifixion, Jesus celebrated the passover with his disciples. This is what he told them:

Matthew 26:

26 "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
28 For this is my blood of the new testament (or covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
The next day Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and rose from death on the third day.

So, why won't God forgive sin without sacrifice?

Response to Misha'al'al Al-Kadhi: Does God need a 'blood atonement'?

J.

 

[Johann]

Did God really required blood sacrifices as a condition to forgive?

Absolutely!
The whole of the Old Testament, every book, points toward the Great Sacrifice that was to come—that of Jesus’ sacrificial giving of His own life on our behalf. Leviticus 17:11 is the Old Testament’s central statement about the significance of blood in the sacrificial system. God, speaking to Moses, declares: “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”

A “sacrifice” is defined as the offering up of something precious for a cause or a reason. Making atonement is satisfying someone or something for an offense committed. The Leviticus verse can be read more clearly now: God said, “I have given it to you (the creature’s life, which is in its blood) to make atonement for yourselves (covering the offense you have committed against Me).” In other words, those who are covered by the blood sacrifice are set free from the consequences of sin.

Of course, the Israelites did not know of Jesus per se, or how He would die on their behalf and then rise again, but they did believe God would be sending them a Savior. All of the many, many blood sacrifices seen throughout the Old Testament were foreshadowing the true, once-for-all-time sacrifice to come so that the Israelites would never forget that, without the blood, there is no forgiveness. This shedding of blood is a substitutionary act. Therefore, the last clause of Leviticus 17:11 could be read either “the blood ‘makes atonement’ at the cost of the life” (i.e., the animal’s life) or “makes atonement in the place of the life” (i.e., the sinner’s life, with Jesus Christ being the One giving life through His shed blood).

Hebrews 9:11-18 confirms the symbolism of blood as life and applies Leviticus 17:11 to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12 states clearly that the Old Testament blood sacrifices were temporary and only atoned for sin partially and for a short time, hence the need to repeat the sacrifices yearly. But when Christ entered the Most Holy Place, He did so to offer His own blood once for all time, making future sacrifices unnecessary. This is what Jesus meant by His dying words on the cross: “It is finished” (John 19:30). Never again would the blood of bulls and goats cleanse men from their sin. Only by accepting Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross for the remission of sins, can we stand before God covered in the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Why did the sacrificial system require a blood sacrifice? | GotQuestions.org

Why did the sacrificial system require a blood sacrifice? What is the importance of blood in atoning for sins?

www.gotquestions.org

J.

 

[Johann]

Did God really required blood sacrifices as a condition to forgive?
I don't think so. This is why

1. We have explicit statements in the Tanakh that God didn't forgive based on sacrifices, but based on a broken, contrite heart.
2. We have a statement in the Epistle of Hebrews (10:4) that such animal sacrifices didn't really erase sins
3. It is against reason to think that Our God behave as the pagan gods who demanded sacrifices. Such thinking was most likely useful as a model in primitive minds, but you and I know that God does not need blood (or vegetable offerings, or inciense, or songs, or recitations, or dances, or shrines).
4. Israelites sinned every day, just as you and me, and knew it was unfeasible to leave aside their flocks or fields and travel to the Temple every day or every week to offer a sacrifice. And yet, they did not bother to build sanctuaries and recruit levites or priests at every village. Why don't we find in the Bible prophets urging Hebrews to build hundreds of those sanctuaries?
5. As per item# 4, the Jews in the Diaspora, who needed a lot of money and time (and courage) to travel to distant Jerusalem, did not build temples in their cities to perform animal sacrifices. We find synagogues across the Mediterranean world... but never sanctuaries or priests. Why?

God Required a Contrite Heart but Also Instituted Blood Sacrifices

In Psalm 51:16-17, David says,
Hebrew Text: “כִּי לֹא תַחְפֹּץ זֶבַח וְאֶתֵּנָה עוֹלָה לֹא תִרְצֶה. זִבְחֵי אֱלֹהִים רוּחַ נִשְׁבָּרָה”
Translation: "For you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; a burnt offering you do not desire. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart-O God, you will not despise."

David acknowledges that a contrite heart is essential to true repentance. However, this does not nullify the requirement of blood sacrifices. David himself offered sacrifices when the Temple stood (2 Samuel 24:25). The Hebrew Bible emphasizes that sacrifices were ineffective when offered without genuine repentance (Isaiah 1:11–17), but this does not negate their God-ordained role in atonement.

In Leviticus 17:11, we see the divine principle:
Hebrew Text: “כִּי נֶפֶשׁ הַבָּשָׂר בַּדָּם הִוא... וַאֲנִי נְתַתִּיו לָכֶם עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְכַפֵּר עַל נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם כִּי הַדָּם הוּא בַּנֶּפֶשׁ יְכַפֵּר.”
Translation: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, because it is the blood that makes atonement by means of the life."

God explicitly declared blood sacrifices necessary for atonement because blood symbolizes life, a life given in substitution for sin.

2. Animal Sacrifices Did Not Fully Remove Sin, But They Foreshadowed Jesus

Hebrews 10:4 states,
Greek Text: “ἀδύνατον γὰρ αἷμα ταύρων καὶ τράγων ἀφαιρεῖν ἁμαρτίας.”
Translation: "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

This verse does not deny the purpose of animal sacrifices but clarifies their limitations. They provided temporary ceremonial cleansing and pointed to the need for a perfect, final atonement in Christ (Hebrews 10:10). The Greek word “ἀφαιρεῖν” (to remove completely) indicates that animal sacrifices could not accomplish eternal forgiveness, a role fulfilled only through Jesus' sacrifice.

3. God’s System of Sacrifices Is Not Pagan
Your argument that sacrifices mimic pagan systems overlooks a key distinction: biblical sacrifices were not meant to appease an angry deity but to restore fellowship with a holy God. Unlike pagan sacrifices, which sought to manipulate gods, Israel’s system emphasized God’s initiative. In Exodus 12:13, God says of the Passover sacrifice:
Hebrew Text: “וְרָאִיתִי אֶת־הַדָּם וּפָסַחְתִּי עֲלֵכֶם”
Translation: "And when I see the blood, I will pass over you."
The blood symbolized protection and atonement, highlighting God's provision rather than human effort to placate.

4. The Centralization of Sacrifice Was God’s Design
The absence of altars and priests in every village reflects God's explicit command to centralize worship at the Temple:
Deuteronomy 12:5-6
Hebrew Text: “כִּי אִם־אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם... שָׁם תָּבִיאוּ עֹלֹתֵיכֶם.”
Translation: "But only to the place that Yahweh your God will choose... there you shall bring your burnt offerings."
The single sanctuary emphasized God's unity and prevented idolatry. Prophets did not urge the building of local sanctuaries because such actions would contradict Torah.

5. Diaspora Jews and Sacrifices
While Jews in the Diaspora built synagogues for teaching and prayer, they understood the central role of the Jerusalem Temple for sacrifices. Synagogues were not replacements for the sacrificial system but supplements for worship and instruction. After the Temple’s destruction in A.D. 70, rabbinic Judaism shifted its focus away from sacrifices out of necessity, not biblical precedent.

J.

 

[Johann]

Did God really required blood sacrifices as a condition to forgive?

Absolutely!

What About John 3:16

Justin Johnson
When rainbow man Rollen Stewart held up signs behind field goals at football games, the verse he chose to display was John 3:16.

When Tim Tebow painted John 3:16 on his cheeks, it became a trending Google search. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association called it the Gospel in succinct form, others have called it the gospel in a nutshell.

Would it surprise you that despite all its popularity in evangelism, John 3:16 does not contain the gospel that saves today?

No verse is more loved by the evangelicals than John 3:16, but like the watered down evangelical message, John 3:16 is missing key elements of the gospel for today.

That may sound provocative, but if you would google John 3:16 and the verses in its context, you will find this to be true.

The Cross

Paul calls the preaching of the cross the power of God unto salvation (1 Cor 1:18-21). Without the cross the gospel is vain, but a trained bloodhound could not find the cross in John 3.

Jesus is talking about his origin from heaven in John 3:13 and shows that God sent his Son from heaven into the world in John 3:16. When God “gave his only begotten Son” in John 3:16, he was not speaking about his crucifixion.

The serpent in the wilderness did not die, and was lifted up on a pole. The parallel between the serpent and Jesus is that the nation needed to look on them with belief.

The Blood

Speaking of the cross, there is no mention of the blood of Jesus or the forgiveness of sins in John 3 either. Forgiveness of sins is spoken about at other times in Jesus ministry, but John 3 contains neither.

If the gospel is to be preached, ought we not at some point speak about forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ?

All this for you to consider that John 3:16 may be too succinct as a gospel verse. Without the blood, propitiation, or substitionary atonement, John 3:16 is incomplete regarding the gospel that saves.

The Resurrection

Accompanying the death, blood, and burial of Christ in the gospel that saves is the resurrection of Christ.

John 3:16 is not speaking about resurrection of Christ or anyone else. If John 3:16 can stand alone as the gospel, are we to neglect this important event? Paul says that if Christ did not raise from the dead, then our preaching is vain (1 Cor 15:14).

It is no coincidence that John 3 is one of only two chapters that speak of being “born again”, and no where in the vicinity is the death, blood, or resurrection of Christ.

Both John 3:16 and being “born again” were messages to Israel before the mystery was revealed.

Grace

It is agreed upon by all true Christians that we are saved by the gospel of the grace of God. Without God’s grace through Christ’s finished work by the cross, we are left fending for ourselves where righteousness is concerned.

However, John 3:16 does not say anything about what Jesus did for us, but only who Jesus is. It is true that he is the Son of God, but without his finished work, works were still required within Israel’s covenant system.

This is why Jesus spoke of Israel “doing truth” so that their “deeds may be made manifest” (John 3:21), and two chapters later speaks about their resurrection being contingent on what “they have done” (John 5:29).

God’s abounding grace to the church through the finished work of Christ had not yet been revealed (Eph 3:1-2).

A Good Message … for Nicodemus

John 3:16 is a wonderful verse… if you are Israel looking for your Messiah. It speaks of God’s love, Jesus as the prophesied Christ, and the necessity of belief in Him for everlasting life. It says everything John (and Jesus) intended to identify for Israel who was their Messiah (John 20:31).

It is a tremendous verse to communicate the person of Jesus being Christ, but reducing the gospel we preach today to merely the person of Christ, removes the most important aspect of His finished work. This work had not yet been done, and would not be explained until it was revealed later to the church.

Not every verse or any single verse is required to have all the gospel elements missing from John 3:16, but what is more significant is that the elements above were not the message of Christ at all during his earthly ministry to Israel (Rom 15:8).

The church of today, the gospel for today, and our preaching of Jesus Christ for today was a mystery that had not yet been revealed in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. We now know the gospel of Christ that saves through the writings of the apostle Paul in such passages as Romans 3, or succinctly stated in 1 Cor 15:1-4:

“I declare unto you the gospel… by which also ye are saved… how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” – 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

John 3:16 is a good verse unless you are trying to preach the cross of Christ, the power of God unto salvation. Then, you might consider something in Paul’s epistles like Romans 5:8.

J.

 

[Johann]

By "Core Block" I mean the collection of 20 passages from Scripture that I quoted here: https://berean-apologetics.communit...ent-or-physical-resurrection.2218/post-130745

Here is my Core block

Joh_1:13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a husband, but of God.

Joh_6:53 Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves!

Joh_6:54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Joh_6:55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Joh_6:56 The one who eats [This term is somewhat graphic and typically used for animals feeding, but the distinction from other Greek verbs for eating is difficult to convey in English] my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me and I in him.

Joh_19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water came out immediately.

Act_1:19 And it became known to all who live in Jerusalem, so that that field was called in their own language [That is, Aramaic] “Akeldama,” that is, “Field of Blood.”)

Act_2:19 And I will cause wonders in the heaven [Or “sky”] above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

Act_2:20 The sun will be changed to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

Act_5:28 saying, “Did we not strictly command [Literally “command with a commandment”] you not to teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching! And you are intending to bring upon us the blood of this man!”

Act_15:20 but we should write a letter to them to abstain from the pollution of idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.

Act_15:29 (+) that you abstain from food sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. (+) If you [Here “if” is supplied as a component of the participle (“keep”) which is understood as conditional] keep yourselves from these things [Literally “which things”] you will do well. Farewell.

Act_18:6 And (+) when [Here “when” is supplied as a component of the temporal genitive absolute participle (“resisted”)] they resisted and reviled (+) him, [Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation] he shook out (+) his [Literally “the”; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun] clothes (+) and [Here “and” is supplied because the previous participle (“shook out”) has been translated as a finite verb] said to them, “Your blood (+) be on your (+) own heads! I (+) am guiltless! From now on I will go to the Gentiles!”

Act_20:26 Therefore I testify to you on this very day that I am guiltless of the blood of all (+) of you, [The words “of you” are not in the Greek text but are implied]

Act_20:28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has appointed you (+) as overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he obtained through the blood of his own (+) Son. [Or “through his own blood”; the Greek construction can be taken either way, with “Son” implied if the meaning is “through the blood of his own”]

Act_21:25 But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter (+) after [Here “after” is supplied as a component of the participle (“deciding”) which is understood as temporal] deciding they should avoid food sacrificed to idols and blood and (+) what has been strangled and sexual immorality.”

Act_22:20 And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I myself also was standing near and was approving, and was guarding the cloaks of those who were killing him.’

Rom_3:15 Their feet (+) are swift to shed blood;

Rom_3:25 whom God made publicly available as the mercy seat [Or “as the place of propitiation”] through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness, because of the passing over of previously committed sins,

Rom_5:9 Therefore, by much more, (+) because we [Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“have been declared righteous”) which is understood as causal] have been declared righteous now by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath.

1Co_10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

1Co_11:25 Likewise also the cup, after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink (+) it, in remembrance of me.”

1Co_11:27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

1Co_15:50 But I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruptibility.

Gal_1:16 to reveal his Son in me, in order that I would proclaim the gospel (+) about him among the Gentiles, immediately I did not consult with flesh and blood,

Eph_1:7 in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace,

Eph_2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ.

Eph_6:12 because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual (+) forces of wickedness in the heavenly (+) places.

Col_1:20 and through him to reconcile all (+) things to himself, (+) by [Here “by” is supplied as a component of the participle (“making peace”) which is understood as means] making peace through the blood of his cross, through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Heb_2:14 Therefore, since the children share in blood and flesh, he also in like manner shared in these (+) same things, in order that through death he could destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

Heb_9:7 but only the high priest (+) enters into the second (+) tent once a year, not without blood, which he offers on behalf of himself and the (+) sins of the people committed in ignorance.

Heb_9:12 and not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered once for all into the (+) most holy place, obtaining eternal redemption.

Heb_9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled sanctify (+) them for the ritual purity of the flesh,

Heb_9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve (+) the living God?

Heb_9:18 Therefore not even the first (+) covenant was ratified without blood.

Heb_9:19 For (+) when [Here “when” is supplied as a component of the temporal participle (“had been spoken”)] every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, (+) he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop (+) and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people,

Heb_9:20 saying, “This (+) is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you.” [A quotation from Exod 24:8]

Heb_9:21 And likewise he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the utensils of service with the blood.

Heb_9:22 Indeed, nearly everything is purified with blood according to the law, and apart from the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Heb_9:25 and not in order that he can offer himself many times, as the high priest enters into the sanctuary year by year [Literally “according to year”] with blood not his own,

Heb_10:4 For (+) it is impossible (+) for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Heb_10:19 Hold Fast the Confession of Our Hope
Therefore, brothers, (+) since we [Here “since” is supplied as a component of the participle (“have”) which is understood as causal] have confidence for the entrance into the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,

Heb_10:29 How much worse punishment do you think the person will be considered worthy of who treats with disdain the Son of God and who considers ordinary the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy and who insults the Spirit of grace?

Heb_11:28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, in order that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

Heb_12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of (+) shedding your [The words “shedding your” are not in the Greek text but are supplied for clarity] blood (+) as you [Here “as” is supplied as a component of the temporal participle (“struggle”)] struggle against sin.

Heb_12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood [Literally “to the blood of sprinkling”] that speaks better than Abel’s (+) does.

Heb_13:11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sins are burned up outside the camp.

Heb_13:12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, in order that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.

Heb_13:20 Benediction
Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

1Pe_1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and (+) for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

1Pe_1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like (+) that of an umblemished and spotless lamb

1Jn_1:7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1Jn_5:6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

1Jn_5:8 the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement [Literally “for the one”] .

Rev_1:5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood

Rev_5:9 And they were singing a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and bought (+) people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation,

Rev_6:10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long [Literally “until when”] , holy and true Lord, will you not judge and avenge our blood from those who live on the earth?”

Rev_6:12 And I watched when he opened the sixth seal, and a great earthquake took place, and the sun became black like sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood,

Rev_7:14 And I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Rev_8:7 And the first blew the trumpet, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

Rev_8:8 And the second angel blew the trumpet, and (+) something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood,

Rev_11:6 These have the authority to shut the sky, so that it does not rain [Literally “it does not rain rain”; the redundancy is removed in the translation] during the days of their prophecy. And they have authority over the waters, to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they wish.

Rev_12:11 And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives until death.

Rev_14:20 And the winepress was stomped outside the city, and blood went out from the winepress up to the bridles of the horses, about one thousand six hundred stadia. [That is, about 300 km (200 mi); a stade (plural stadia) was a measure of distance about 192 m (607 ft)]

Rev_16:3 And the second poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood, like (+) that of a dead person, and every living thing (+) that was in the sea died.

Rev_16:4 And the third poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.

Rev_16:6 because they have poured out the blood of the saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink; they are deserving!”

Rev_17:6 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. And I was greatly astonished when I saw her [Literally “I marveled a great marvel seeing her”] .

Rev_18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and all those who had been slaughtered on the earth.

Rev_19:2 because his judgments (+) are true and righteous, because he has passed judgment on the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and has avenged the blood of his slaves shed by [Literally “from”] her hand!”

Rev_19:13 And (+) he was dressed in an outer garment dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.

J.

 

[Johann]

Did God really required blood sacrifices as a condition to forgive?

Did God really say--?
1. Everyone needs forgiveness of sins because our sins have alienated us from God.
As I said last week, you can deny guilt and become hardened to the point that your conscience no longer bothers you, but if God is holy and if you have violated His holy standards, you stand legally guilty in His courtroom. So the main issue with guilt is not just guilty feelings, but actual forensic liability. If God condemns you in the day of judgment, your guilt becomes eternal. God’s decreed final penalty for sin is eternal separation from Him in the lake of fire (called “the second death,” Rev. 20:14).

Sinners usually deny their need for God’s forgiveness by diminishing the holiness and justice of God and by magnifying their own goodness or merits. They wrongly think, “Surely God is love, and a loving God wouldn’t send a good person like me to hell.” But the Bible is clear that God is absolutely holy and just. He will punish all sin. His love does not mean that He sets aside His holiness or His justice. The Bible is also clear that we are far more sinful in God’s presence than we ever imagined. We are born alienated from God because Adam’s guilt was imputed to us. We quickly added our own sins to Adam’s guilt! We incurred guilt by violating God’s holy standards, both by our deeds and thoughts.

Being alienated from God, we need a mediator to reconcile us to Him. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). “He is the mediator of a new covenant” (Heb. 9:15). If you have ever been involved in a legal dispute, a mediator may help the two sides come to a satisfactory agreement. He listens to the terms of both sides and tries to work out a solution. Christ knew God’s absolute holiness. He also knew man’s enormous debt of sin. He took on human flesh, lived in complete conformity to God’s holy standards, and then offered Himself as the price of redemption that God’s justice demands. In so doing, He brought both sides together (see 2 Cor. 5:18-21).

Sometimes people wonder how those who lived before Christ were saved. The answer is, they were saved in the same way that we are saved, through faith in the shed blood of Christ. The sacrifices that they offered symbolized or pictured the sacrifice of Christ who would offer Himself as their substitute. Isaiah (53:5-6, 11) wrote,

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him…. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.

Thus the Old Testament sacrifices postponed the penalty for sins until Christ paid for them at the cross. The salvation of the saints before Christ was, so to speak, on credit, until Christ paid the bill. Paul says the same thing in Romans 3:23-26,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The fact that everyone is a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness means that you can offer the gospel to every person knowing that it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. You may feel intimidated because the person you’re talking to is highly educated and intelligent. He may launch off into philosophy or science to try to prove that there is no God. Don’t be threatened. Just keep in mind that this guy is a sinner who is going to die and stand before a holy God. He needs a mediator to reconcile him to God before that day. Jesus Christ is the only such mediator. His shed blood is the price of redemption for sinners who trust in Him.

2. God’s uniform method for the forgiveness of sins has been the shedding of blood.
God decreed that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). In Leviticus 17:11, God explains why blood must be shed: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” God’s justice demands the payment of the penalty, which is death. In His mercy, He will accept the death of an acceptable substitute in place of the death of the sinner. The system of animal sacrifices under the old covenant pictured and pointed ahead to Christ, the lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Note three things:

A. SIN LEADS TO PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL DEATH.
God told Adam and Eve that in the day that they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die (Gen. 2:17). But they ate of the fruit and did not drop dead that day. Why not? At the moment that they ate of the fruit, they died spiritually. Previously, they had enjoyed intimate fellowship with God, with no barriers between them. But instantly they were alienated from Him and tried to hide themselves from His holy presence.

On that same day, the process of physical death set in. Although in God’s providence and purpose, those early humans lived for hundreds of years, they all died. Their bodies became subject to aging and disease. Sin resulted in death through murder and war. All of the ugly horrors of the world, whether the ravages of disease, the atrocities of crime, terrorism, and war, or the environmental devastation of the world’s resources, are the result of sin.

When I have read stories about missionaries going into savage tribes with the gospel, I have marveled that these tribes had not annihilated themselves centuries before. Their histories are one long account of one tribe wronging the other tribe, and then that tribe taking revenge in brutal ways. Then the other tribe retaliates and the cycle goes on and on. The same thing is true, however, in more “civilized” parts of the world. The entire history of the world is a history of battles over territory or resources. Proud men lord it over other proud men, until they are overthrown. Sin is at the root of all of the physical death in the world. And sin results in every person being spiritually dead, alienated from the life of God.

B. BLOOD GRAPHICALLY PICTURES THE COSTLINESS OF SIN.
The word “blood” occurs six times in verses 18-22, plus “death” or “dead” three times in verses 15-17. Have you ever thought about how gory and messy the Jewish religion was? Everything was sprinkled with blood. The priests slaughtered dozens and sometimes hundreds or thousands of animals at the altar. They took bowls full of blood and sprinkled it on the altar. The carcasses were burned on the altar, so that the smell would have been constant and overwhelming. I’ve never seen the slaughter of a bull or sheep or goat. I buy my meat pre-cut and shrink-wrapped in cellophane at the grocery store. To be transported back in time and witness the sacrifices at the tabernacle would be a shocking experience for most of us. The blood graphically pictured the cost of sin.

C. THE OLD COVENANT WAS INAUGURATED WITH BLOOD, BECAUSE DEATH IS GOD’S DECREED PENALTY FOR SIN.
The author mentions details in 9:19 that are not included in the account in Exodus 24.There is no mention there of goats, water, scarlet wool, hyssop, or the sprinkling of the book. Other texts mention some of these things in other rituals (Lev. 1:10; 14:4-6; Num. 19:6, 18). Either the author is collectively gathering up all of these rituals into one, since he is dealing with the general subject of all things in the Old Testament being cleansed by blood (so Calvin and John Owen). Or, he may be relying on oral tradition, with which all of the Jews were familiar. But, his point is, “according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood” (9:22). The exception was that a poor man could offer a grain offering instead of an animal sacrifice (Lev. 5:11-13). But the exception did not negate the rule, that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” God was making the point that death is His decreed penalty for our sins.

Thus every person needs forgiveness of sins. God’s uniform method for the forgiveness of sins has been the shedding of blood.

3. The death of Jesus inaugurated the new covenant with blood.
Jesus’ blood, of course, is a figure of speech referring to His death. While Jesus’ physical sufferings were bloody and awful, it was what He went through spiritually that redeemed us from the curse of the Law. As Paul put it, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ’s worst agony on the cross was to be separated from the Father as He bore our punishment.

In 9:16-17, the author uses the analogy of a last will and testament to show that forgiveness comes to us as heirs of Christ and that forgiveness comes to us through His blood.

A. FORGIVENESS COMES TO US AS HEIRS OF CHRIST.
To receive an inheritance, you have to be included in the will, and the person making the will must die. Those whom God calls (9:15) are the heirs. The emphasis here is not on men calling upon God, but on God’s calling of men. In other words, He is the owner of the estate, and He makes up the will, choosing the heirs. He has a specific list, not a sign-up sheet. But once the will has been drawn up, it is not put into effect until the death of the testator.

We all know this principle. Ray Stedman (What More Can God Say? [G/L Regal], p. 139) tells how he was at a meeting with a group of people where the director of a Christian conference center was explaining the procedures for securing additional properties to expand the ministry. He described an arrangement that the center had with a widow, where they paid her an annuity until her death, and on her death her property would be deeded over to the conference center. One man immediately raised his hand and facetiously asked, “How healthy is she?” The question was in bad taste, but it illustrates the truth that wills are of no value to the beneficiaries until the death of the testator.

So the question you need to answer is, “Have you heard God’s call in the gospel and responded with faith in Jesus’ death?” He died to inaugurate the benefits of the will for the heirs. If you are an heir of Christ through faith in His blood, you have the benefit of forgiveness that His death secured.

B. FORGIVENESS COMES ONLY THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.
If there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood, then the opposite is also true: with the shedding of blood, there is forgiveness! As we saw from 9:9, these Old Testament sacrifices could not make the worshiper perfect in conscience. They sanctified for the cleansing of the flesh, but “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:13-14)!

We would not associate sprinkling blood on things as cleansing them (9:13, 22), but rather, as staining them. If you’ve ever gotten blood on a nice shirt, you know that you need to rinse it out quickly or it will permanently stain your shirt. To think of taking blood and sprinkling the book, the people, the tabernacle, and all the sacred vessels seems like it would dirty them, not cleanse them.

But modern medicine (of which the ancient Hebrews had no clue) has revealed how accurate it is to speak of the cleansing property of blood. Dr. Paul Brand, who specialized in the treatment of leprosy, wrote (with Philip Yancey, Christianity Today [2/18/83], p. 13) about how the blood is designed to cleanse the body of toxins and wastes that are built up in the tissues:

No cell lies more than a hair’s breadth from a blood capillary, lest poisonous by-products pile up…. Through a basic chemical process of gas diffusion and transfer, individual red blood cells, traveling slowly inside narrow capillaries, simultaneously release their cargoes of fresh oxygen and absorb waste products (carbon dioxide, urea, and uric acid). The red cells deliver these potentially hazardous chemicals to organs that can dump them outside the body.

He goes on to tell how the lungs and kidneys, plus the liver and spleen, work to cleanse the blood of these poisons to keep our system cleansed and healthy. Each red blood cell can only sustain the sequence of loading and unloading these chemicals for about a quarter million circuits. Then they are broken down and recycled by the liver, while the bone marrow releases new red cells to continue the process (about four million cells per second!).

God designed this as a beautiful picture to show that just as blood cleanses our bodies from poisons, so the blood of Christ, applied to our hearts by faith, cleanses our souls from the poison of sin. Regarding the spiritual cleansing that we need, someone wrote, “The blood of animals cannot cleanse from sin because it is non-moral. The blood of sinning man cannot cleanse because it is immoral. The blood of Christ itself alone can cleanse because it is moral” (cited by W. H. Griffith Thomas, Hebrews: A Devotional Commentary [Eerdmans] pp. 117-118). The blood of Christ was shed to provide the cleansing from sin and forgiveness that we all need. Have you applied it to your soul? It is God’s only way for forgiveness of sins.

Conclusion
A legend says that during a serious illness, the devil came into Martin Luther’s sick room, looked at him with a triumphant smile, and unrolled a big scroll, which unwound by itself. Luther read from the scroll the long, fearful record of his own sins, one by one. At first, he reeled in despair.

But then, suddenly, Luther cried out, “One thing you have forgotten. The rest is all true, but one thing you left out: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin’” As Luther said this, the accuser of the brethren and his long scroll disappeared (Paul Tan, Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations [Assurance Publishers], # 480).

Luther also said (cited by R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel [Augsburg Publishing House], p. 130),

Sin has but two places where it may be; either it may be with you, so that it lies upon your neck, or upon Christ, the Lamb of God. If now it lies upon your neck, you are lost; if, however, it lies upon Christ, you are free and will be saved. Take now whichever you prefer.

Forgiveness of your sins comes only through the blood of Jesus Christ. Make sure that you have applied His blood to your heart by faith!

Discussion Questions
Why is the substitutionary atonement of Christ an essential doctrine of the Christian faith?
Why is there no cleansing from sin apart from Christ’s blood?
How would you counsel a person who says that he has trusted in Christ, but he still feels guilty over his past sins?
Someone asks, “Why can’t God just say, ‘I forgive you’? Why the need for blood?” Your response?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2004, All Rights Reserved.

Lesson 26: Forgiveness Through Christ’s Blood (Hebrews 9:15-22) | Bible.org

Expository study of Hebrews: Forgiveness of sins comes only through the blood of Christ.

bible.org

J.

 

[synergy]

Did God really required blood sacrifices as a condition to forgive?
I don't think so. This is why

1. We have explicit statements in the Tanakh that God didn't forgive based on sacrifices, but based on a broken, contrite heart.
2. We have a statement in the Epistle of Hebrews (10:4) that such animal sacrifices didn't really erase sins
3. It is against reason to think that Our God behave as the pagan gods who demanded sacrifices. Such thinking was most likely useful as a model in primitive minds, but you and I know that God does not need blood (or vegetable offerings, or inciense, or songs, or recitations, or dances, or shrines).
4. Israelites sinned every day, just as you and me, and knew it was unfeasible to leave aside their flocks or fields and travel to the Temple every day or every week to offer a sacrifice. And yet, they did not bother to build sanctuaries and recruit levites or priests at every village. Why don't we find in the Bible prophets urging Hebrews to build hundreds of those sanctuaries?
5. As per item# 4, the Jews in the Diaspora, who needed a lot of money and time (and courage) to travel to distant Jerusalem, did not build temples in their cities to perform animal sacrifices. We find synagogues across the Mediterranean world... but never sanctuaries or priests. Why?

My friend Pancho. It's too bad we don't have a time machine where we can transport ourselves into Old Testament times when the Jewish Temple and its blood sacrifices for the people's forgiveness of their sins reigned supreme in the life of Jewish Believers.

The Temple blood sacrifice was central to the ancient Jewish understanding of forgiveness from God, serving as both the ritual means of atonement and a profound symbol of future messianic redemption. Additionally, the Temple itself was visually, positionally, and spiritually central to Jewish life and worship.

1. The Centrality of Blood Sacrifice in Forgiveness

Biblical Foundation of Atonement: The Torah explicitly connects blood sacrifices with the forgiveness of sins. Leviticus 17:11 states:

> "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life." This verse highlights the role of blood as a substitutionary offering, symbolizing life given in exchange for sin.

Types of Sacrifices: The sacrificial system detailed in Leviticus (e.g., sin offerings, guilt offerings, and burnt offerings) was instituted to restore fellowship between God and humanity. These sacrifices symbolized repentance, purification, and reconciliation.

Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement): On Yom Kippur, the High Priest would offer the blood of a bull and a goat in the Holy of Holies to atone for the sins of the entire nation (Leviticus 16). This ritual emphasized the collective need for forgiveness and God's provision through sacrifice.

2. The Temple’s Visual and Positional Centrality

Geographical and Spiritual Focus: The Temple in Jerusalem was the focal point of Jewish worship and life, fulfilling Deuteronomy 12:5-6, which commanded the Israelites to bring sacrifices to "the place the Lord your God will choose." Its location on Mount Zion reinforced its status as the spiritual heart of the nation.

Pilgrimage and Community: Three major festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot) required pilgrimage to the Temple, emphasizing its central role in uniting the Jewish people in worship and covenant renewal.

Visual Symbolism: As a magnificent structure, the Temple stood as a visible reminder of God's presence among His people. Its design and rituals proclaimed God's holiness and the importance of maintaining purity in the covenant relationship.

3. Sacrifice as a Symbol of the Future Messiah

Foreshadowing the Ultimate Sacrifice: The sacrificial system was seen by later Jewish and Christian interpreters as a shadow of the ultimate redemption to be accomplished by the Messiah.

The Passover lamb (Exodus 12) symbolized deliverance, foreshadowing the Messiah as the "Lamb of God" who would take away sin.

Isaiah 53 speaks of a "suffering servant" who bears the sins of others, echoing the substitutionary nature of Temple sacrifices.

Messianic Hope in Temple Worship: Many traditions viewed the Temple sacrifices as anticipations of the Messiah's atoning work. The blood of animals symbolized the temporary covering of sin, while the Messiah’s work was expected to bring ultimate and eternal reconciliation with God.

The Eternal Redemption: Prophetic writings like Jeremiah 31:31-34 spoke of a "new covenant" in which sin would be fully forgiven, a hope intertwined with the messianic expectations reflected in the sacrificial system.

4. Integration of the Temple’s Roles

The Temple blood sacrifices were not only practical rituals for achieving forgiveness but also powerful symbols of God's covenant and promise of redemption. As the visual and positional center of Jewish life, the Temple reinforced the people’s reliance on God’s mercy. At the same time, the sacrificial system pointed toward the future Messiah, who would provide the ultimate atonement for humanity's sin.

In summary, the Temple and its sacrifices were indispensable to the Jewish understanding of forgiveness, worship, and messianic hope. Together, they formed the heart of Israel's relationship with God, offering both immediate atonement and the promise of future redemption.

 

[synergy]

Well... the point you are bringing is very interesting... since we can make all kind of arguments, valid and invalid, based on the silence of the Bible over a particular point.
"If doctrine X is not explained, it is because almost everyone already believed doctrine X and explanation was not needed".

That argument, to be valid, must be accompanied with good evidence that almost everyone believed doctrine X.
For example:
Jesus never abolished the Sabbath. Was it because almost everybody took for granted that Sabbath was going to be abolished after his death? Some could say that Jesus wanted Sabbath to continue. Some could say Jesus didn't want it to continue, but knew that practice would cease naturally with time. Some could say Jesus just didn't bother to raise debate on a topic that was not essential for his mission. It is open to debate.

However, when we talk about matters like repentance and forgiveness, we are talking about a BIG TOPIC, and a BIG TOPIC that Hebrew Scriptures had already dealt with many times (see the 20 passages of my "Core Block").
We are talking about a BIG TOPIC because Jesus came as Savior and the very first imperative of Jesus ever recorded in the Bible was "Repent" (Mark 1:14, considering Mark as the oldest of the gospels and probable source of the other synoptics).

So, if Jesus made a point of addressing the BIG TOPIC several times and in several ways during 3 years of preaching, and He never bothered to explain that the belief in his deity, blood atonement and future physical resurrection was a condition for a person to be forgiven... boy... we have two alternatives: Jesus did not do a good job preaching repentance, or we are wrong in thinking that such beliefs (even if correct) are a condition for repentance.

The Lord's Supper occupies a central and foundational role in the Early Church, serving as both a symbol of Christ's sacrifice and as a practice deeply rooted in the early Christian community's worship and identity. This sacrament, which Christians believe to be the body and blood of Christ, was instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper and became an essential expression of the faith in the years following his death and resurrection.

Centrality of the Eucharist in the Early Church

In the Early Church, the Eucharist was not just a ritual or liturgical practice; it was an essential part of Christian life. The New Testament reveals that the early Christian community continued to "break bread" in remembrance of Jesus (Acts 2:42-46). This act of communal sharing was integral to their worship and understanding of Jesus' teachings. The Eucharist was also a means of spiritual nourishment, strengthening the bond between the believer and Christ, as well as among the members of the community. The apostle Paul emphasizes its importance in his letters, particularly in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, where he recounts the institution of the Eucharist and its central role in proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The Eucharist was seen as an essential means of connecting with the divine, receiving grace, and uniting believers with Christ. Early Christian writings such as the Didache (a first-century manual for Christian teachings and practices) also speak of the Eucharist as a vital part of Christian worship and community life. It was understood as not just a symbol, but a real participation in the body and blood of Christ, aligning believers with the Paschal Mystery—the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Symbolism of Christ's Sacrifice

The Eucharist powerfully symbolizes Christ’s sacrifice, and its significance goes beyond remembrance. Early Christians believed that in the act of consuming the bread and wine, they were participating in the very sacrifice that secured their salvation. This was not understood merely as a symbolic reenactment of Christ's actions at the Last Supper, but as a mystical participation in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. As Jesus said, "This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19), the Eucharist became an enduring sign of the sacrifice that Christians believed brought redemption to humanity.

Early Christian theologians such as Ignatius of Antioch, who was martyred around 107 AD, wrote eloquently about the significance of the Eucharist, calling it the "medicine of immortality" and describing the bread and wine as "the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ" (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 7:1). For Ignatius, the Eucharist was not only a remembrance but also a participation in the divine life that Jesus’ sacrifice made possible.

The symbolism of Christ’s sacrifice was reinforced by the theological understanding that the Eucharist was an act of thanksgiving (the word "Eucharist" itself means "thanksgiving"), a communal offering of praise and worship in recognition of what Christ accomplished on the cross.

Historical Evidence in the Roman Catacombs

Archaeological evidence found in the Roman catacombs further underscores the centrality of the Eucharist in Early Christianity. The catacombs, underground burial sites used by early Christians, contain numerous symbols and depictions that highlight the Eucharist’s importance. One of the most common and significant symbols is the "chalice with bread," which appears frequently in the catacomb artwork. These depictions of the Eucharist demonstrate that early Christians not only viewed the sacrament as central to their worship, but also associated it with the hope of eternal life—an essential element of Christian faith and eschatology.

The catacombs of Rome, dating from the second to the fourth centuries, contain images of the Good Shepherd, the fish, and the bread and wine, all of which point to the Eucharistic symbolism. The Good Shepherd, for instance, is often depicted with a lamb, symbolizing Christ as the sacrificial Lamb of God. The fish, a symbol of Christ, also hints at the feeding of the faithful, reminiscent of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand and the Last Supper. The Eucharistic symbolism in these catacomb paintings reflects an early Christian understanding of the Eucharist as central to the faith and its connection to Christ's sacrifice.

Furthermore, the early Christian practice of celebrating the Eucharist in the catacombs during times of persecution highlights the sacrament’s role in fostering community and spiritual endurance. Even in the face of danger, Christians gathered to partake in the Eucharist as a way to maintain their connection to Christ and to each other, reinforcing the significance of the Eucharist as an expression of faith, community, and the hope of resurrection.

Conclusion

The centrality of the Eucharist in the Early Church is evidenced not only in the New Testament writings and early Christian theology but also in the archaeological record, particularly in the Roman catacombs. The Eucharist was understood as a means of participating in the sacrifice of Christ, symbolizing both his death and the hope of eternal life. This sacrament was not merely a symbol but a vital means of grace, community, and spiritual nourishment that held a central place in the lives of early Christians. The images found in the catacombs and the theological reflections of the time testify to the enduring significance of the Eucharist as a central and transformative act in the Christian faith.

 

[Johann]

My friend Pancho. It's too bad we don't have a time machine where we can transport ourselves into Old Testament times when the Jewish Temple and its blood sacrifices for the people's forgiveness of their sins reigned supreme in the life of Jewish Believers.

The Temple blood sacrifice was central to the ancient Jewish understanding of forgiveness from God, serving as both the ritual means of atonement and a profound symbol of future messianic redemption. Additionally, the Temple itself was visually, positionally, and spiritually central to Jewish life and worship.

1. The Centrality of Blood Sacrifice in Forgiveness

Biblical Foundation of Atonement: The Torah explicitly connects blood sacrifices with the forgiveness of sins. Leviticus 17:11 states:

> "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life." This verse highlights the role of blood as a substitutionary offering, symbolizing life given in exchange for sin.

Types of Sacrifices: The sacrificial system detailed in Leviticus (e.g., sin offerings, guilt offerings, and burnt offerings) was instituted to restore fellowship between God and humanity. These sacrifices symbolized repentance, purification, and reconciliation.

Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement): On Yom Kippur, the High Priest would offer the blood of a bull and a goat in the Holy of Holies to atone for the sins of the entire nation (Leviticus 16). This ritual emphasized the collective need for forgiveness and God's provision through sacrifice.

2. The Temple’s Visual and Positional Centrality

Geographical and Spiritual Focus: The Temple in Jerusalem was the focal point of Jewish worship and life, fulfilling Deuteronomy 12:5-6, which commanded the Israelites to bring sacrifices to "the place the Lord your God will choose." Its location on Mount Zion reinforced its status as the spiritual heart of the nation.

Pilgrimage and Community: Three major festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot) required pilgrimage to the Temple, emphasizing its central role in uniting the Jewish people in worship and covenant renewal.

Visual Symbolism: As a magnificent structure, the Temple stood as a visible reminder of God's presence among His people. Its design and rituals proclaimed God's holiness and the importance of maintaining purity in the covenant relationship.

3. Sacrifice as a Symbol of the Future Messiah

Foreshadowing the Ultimate Sacrifice: The sacrificial system was seen by later Jewish and Christian interpreters as a shadow of the ultimate redemption to be accomplished by the Messiah.

The Passover lamb (Exodus 12) symbolized deliverance, foreshadowing the Messiah as the "Lamb of God" who would take away sin.

Isaiah 53 speaks of a "suffering servant" who bears the sins of others, echoing the substitutionary nature of Temple sacrifices.

Messianic Hope in Temple Worship: Many traditions viewed the Temple sacrifices as anticipations of the Messiah's atoning work. The blood of animals symbolized the temporary covering of sin, while the Messiah’s work was expected to bring ultimate and eternal reconciliation with God.

The Eternal Redemption: Prophetic writings like Jeremiah 31:31-34 spoke of a "new covenant" in which sin would be fully forgiven, a hope intertwined with the messianic expectations reflected in the sacrificial system.

4. Integration of the Temple’s Roles

The Temple blood sacrifices were not only practical rituals for achieving forgiveness but also powerful symbols of God's covenant and promise of redemption. As the visual and positional center of Jewish life, the Temple reinforced the people’s reliance on God’s mercy. At the same time, the sacrificial system pointed toward the future Messiah, who would provide the ultimate atonement for humanity's sin.

In summary, the Temple and its sacrifices were indispensable to the Jewish understanding of forgiveness, worship, and messianic hope. Together, they formed the heart of Israel's relationship with God, offering both immediate atonement and the promise of future redemption.

LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD
Picture of ONE FOR ISRAEL
ONE FOR ISRAEL






God could, theoretically, have made blood green, couldn’t He? Or any color, come to that. He is the Creator, it’s all His design, He could do whatever He liked. But He made blood red. Red, sticky, and with a propensity to stain things. God communicates to us through so much of creation and He designed it that way. The way He made male and female, father and mother, and reproduction. The way seeds die to give way to new life. Sowing and reaping, springtime and harvest. The remarkable and instructive lifecycle of butterflies. All of it. So there are no people with blue blood, despite what you may have heard. When you cut any one of us, we all bleed red blood. It’s a powerful metaphor and it’s packed with meaning. And life.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17:11)



PASSOVER AND THOSE DAM DOORFRAMES
blood on the doorframeThe word for blood in Hebrew is “dam” (דם). The Israelites had to paint “dam” on the doorframes in order to ward off the Destroyer who was coming for everyone’s firstborn. It worked. But have you ever considered just how much faith it must have taken? Moses had come back from Medina and the Burning Bush experience with an exhilarating message: God was going to set them free from 400 years of slavery. Moses just had to go up to Pharaoh and deliver the message: LET MY PEOPLE GO. If he didn’t agree? There would be consequences! You would have thought that the first plague would do the trick, but no. The water was contaminated as far as the eye could see. Life-giving waters were replaced with the stench of death. Entire rivers of blood and nothing.

This brings us to an important point. We want things done now. Especially if we’re suffering. But God has His own ways and His own timetable. The rivers of blood were not only a sign to Pharaoh but they were also a teaching point for everyone around, from that point and forever. This story is has been handed down to millions upon millions, for millennia. You have killed my people, you have drowned their babies in this river, and the blood cries out. The water did not cover it. The Nile spoke out about the murder of innocent baby boys, and turned into a river of blood. God saw to it later on that the water covered Pharaoh’s army in poetic justice.

But that was just the start. There were ten refusals, and ten plagues—each one deeply symbolic. Just imagine how with each plague, the people would pin their hopes on the miracle, willing it to work. Surely now, surely this time Pharaoh will relent. But no. It must have seemed that each plague was an utter failure from their perspective. They were a broken people, crushed and oppressed by the bitterness of slavery (Exodus 6:9). By the time it got to the tenth plague, it would have taken a lot of faith to believe they would ever get out of there. But there is power in the blood. Wonder working power.

The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)

That blood saved their lives.

That blood was their ticket to freedom.

ADAMA AND ADAM, DAM AND ADOM
The Hebrew for red is from the same root word: dam (דם) is blood and adom (אדום) is red. You should also know that the word for man, or humanity, is adam (אדם), hence Adam’s name. And the word for earth, from which he was created, is adama (אדמה). These words are all related, and come from the same root. Earth came first, then man was formed out of that earth (Adam came from adama), with blood, which is red (adom). And doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, Inuit or African, it’s gonna be red. Whether you’re ninety or nine weeks old, slave or free, Jew or Gentile. It’s all the same. Adam, dam, and adom. We all bleed the same. If we lose too much blood, we will die. God created us in this manner, with the message: The life is in the blood. It’s very serious in God’s eyes. It’s not just symbolic, it’s a matter of life and death.

Adam and Eve didn’t take long to disobey God, and sin slithered into God’s garden. The whole of creation fell. But even as God sacrificed an animal to provide cover for Adam and Eve (the word for cover and atonement are the same: kapara) the skinned beast lost its life in the process.

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Genesis 3:20-21)

Life and death. Sin and sacrifice. Blood was spilled, and covering was provided.

As Paul explained to the Romans, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sacrifice, the spilling of blood, is the only way to atone for sin.

A life for a life.

God set up the Sinai Covenant full of symbols and metaphors to help His people understand the deep spiritual realities of sin and slavery, freedom and forgiveness, sacrifice, death, and eternal life. Like a child’s toy till with plastic coins, the sacrificial system illustrated the terrible price that had to be paid for sin. So many animals were slaughtered in accordance with the instructions given to Moses, and so much blood was spilled it must have looked like a Tarantino movie. Seeing the abattoir-style sacrificial system in action must have been stomach churning. Certainly not for the faint-hearted. It seems so profoundly unfair—all those innocent animals. Reading Leviticus in the twenty-first century, it all sounds so utterly outrageous. But it’s supposed to be. It is an outrage. God clearly values us getting this point even more highly than the lives of all those animals we know He cares for.1

BLOOD SACRIFICE
The Passover lamb - Jesus is the passover lamb according to scriptureI went to a Samaritan village for their version of Passover one year, and every household brought their own lamb to slaughter. They did it together as a community, all at the same time. Hundreds of throats cut in unison. I can hardly describe the visceral sense of devastation and shock I felt. It’s hard for us to imagine the sight, the smell, the horror. It was a powerful visual aid, necessary to help the Israelites understand…

For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:19-22)

This rite described here in Hebrews refers to the perfect red heifer that is killed: together with its ashes a red strand of wool and some hyssop are put in water which goes to purify everything. But as perfect as those specimens may be, those animals were also part of the fallen world. They were part of the broken system. They cannot actually take away sin.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4)

They provided a necessary lesson, but they didn’t actually remove sin, just covered it over for a while. To properly deal with the problem of sin for good, you need someone from outside the system, the Creator himself, to come and give His blood. It’s the only way.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:2-28)

THE BLOOD CRIES OUT
When Cain killed Abel in Genesis 4, God said that Abel’s blood was “crying out”. The very ground, the adama, decries the blood of the innocent.

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
(Proverbs 6:16-19)

We are seeing a lot of lies breathed out in this time of conflict, blood libels against Israel, as well as murder and mayhem from terrorist savages. Israelis are not sinless, no more than any other nation at any rate, but cruelty of the killing spree on October 7 and the barrage from Iran will not go unnoticed by God.

The day after that Iranian attack there were terrible storms in Iran and the whole area. In Hormuz the floods led to what looks like a river of blood. This phenomenon is known to happen from time to time, but it was still a striking image. The color is due to high concentration of iron oxide in the sand, which colors the waters—but the result is reminiscent of the first plague.

It’s all very well assuming that the Middle East fits neatly into good guys and bad guys, but there is innocent blood shed here in Israel too. Abortion is rife, and babies in the womb couldn’t be any more innocent. There have been grievous injustices on this soil. This land is soaked with more than its fair share of innocent blood. The earth shakes. Life is so precious.

God is a God of justice, and He will see to it that justice is done. He has absorbed the sin in his body and defeated it on the cross. His blood shed for us transformed the entire cosmos, the whole created order now has an outlet, an escape from death. We can be made clean. Freedom and forgiveness is offered even to the vilest offender: the head of Hamas, the murderous abortionist, the corrupt politician, the wicked militant, the evil liar. No matter how scarlet our sin, we can look up at this time of redemption, the year of the Lord’s favor, and be acquitted forever. Just one drop of His blood is terrifying to the terrifier. The Accuser has nothing on us once we’re safe under His blood. The wages of sin may be death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord.

God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son… and that Son loved us so much that He willingly laid down His life.

His blood has set us free.

Life is in the Blood

Our ministry, ONE FOR ISRAEL, is a movement of Jewish and Arab Israeli followers of Jesus with a commission to reach their country and the nations with the Gospel. We see our call to equip believers in Israel and around the world with the tools of ministry through our media outreach, and to...

www.oneforisrael.org

 

[Johann]

LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD
Picture of ONE FOR ISRAEL
ONE FOR ISRAEL


View attachment 1139



God could, theoretically, have made blood green, couldn’t He? Or any color, come to that. He is the Creator, it’s all His design, He could do whatever He liked. But He made blood red. Red, sticky, and with a propensity to stain things. God communicates to us through so much of creation and He designed it that way. The way He made male and female, father and mother, and reproduction. The way seeds die to give way to new life. Sowing and reaping, springtime and harvest. The remarkable and instructive lifecycle of butterflies. All of it. So there are no people with blue blood, despite what you may have heard. When you cut any one of us, we all bleed red blood. It’s a powerful metaphor and it’s packed with meaning. And life.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17:11)

View attachment 1140

PASSOVER AND THOSE DAM DOORFRAMES
blood on the doorframeThe word for blood in Hebrew is “dam” (דם). The Israelites had to paint “dam” on the doorframes in order to ward off the Destroyer who was coming for everyone’s firstborn. It worked. But have you ever considered just how much faith it must have taken? Moses had come back from Medina and the Burning Bush experience with an exhilarating message: God was going to set them free from 400 years of slavery. Moses just had to go up to Pharaoh and deliver the message: LET MY PEOPLE GO. If he didn’t agree? There would be consequences! You would have thought that the first plague would do the trick, but no. The water was contaminated as far as the eye could see. Life-giving waters were replaced with the stench of death. Entire rivers of blood and nothing.

This brings us to an important point. We want things done now. Especially if we’re suffering. But God has His own ways and His own timetable. The rivers of blood were not only a sign to Pharaoh but they were also a teaching point for everyone around, from that point and forever. This story is has been handed down to millions upon millions, for millennia. You have killed my people, you have drowned their babies in this river, and the blood cries out. The water did not cover it. The Nile spoke out about the murder of innocent baby boys, and turned into a river of blood. God saw to it later on that the water covered Pharaoh’s army in poetic justice.

But that was just the start. There were ten refusals, and ten plagues—each one deeply symbolic. Just imagine how with each plague, the people would pin their hopes on the miracle, willing it to work. Surely now, surely this time Pharaoh will relent. But no. It must have seemed that each plague was an utter failure from their perspective. They were a broken people, crushed and oppressed by the bitterness of slavery (Exodus 6:9). By the time it got to the tenth plague, it would have taken a lot of faith to believe they would ever get out of there. But there is power in the blood. Wonder working power.

The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)

That blood saved their lives.

That blood was their ticket to freedom.

ADAMA AND ADAM, DAM AND ADOM
The Hebrew for red is from the same root word: dam (דם) is blood and adom (אדום) is red. You should also know that the word for man, or humanity, is adam (אדם), hence Adam’s name. And the word for earth, from which he was created, is adama (אדמה). These words are all related, and come from the same root. Earth came first, then man was formed out of that earth (Adam came from adama), with blood, which is red (adom). And doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, Inuit or African, it’s gonna be red. Whether you’re ninety or nine weeks old, slave or free, Jew or Gentile. It’s all the same. Adam, dam, and adom. We all bleed the same. If we lose too much blood, we will die. God created us in this manner, with the message: The life is in the blood. It’s very serious in God’s eyes. It’s not just symbolic, it’s a matter of life and death.

Adam and Eve didn’t take long to disobey God, and sin slithered into God’s garden. The whole of creation fell. But even as God sacrificed an animal to provide cover for Adam and Eve (the word for cover and atonement are the same: kapara) the skinned beast lost its life in the process.

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Genesis 3:20-21)

Life and death. Sin and sacrifice. Blood was spilled, and covering was provided.

As Paul explained to the Romans, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sacrifice, the spilling of blood, is the only way to atone for sin.

A life for a life.

God set up the Sinai Covenant full of symbols and metaphors to help His people understand the deep spiritual realities of sin and slavery, freedom and forgiveness, sacrifice, death, and eternal life. Like a child’s toy till with plastic coins, the sacrificial system illustrated the terrible price that had to be paid for sin. So many animals were slaughtered in accordance with the instructions given to Moses, and so much blood was spilled it must have looked like a Tarantino movie. Seeing the abattoir-style sacrificial system in action must have been stomach churning. Certainly not for the faint-hearted. It seems so profoundly unfair—all those innocent animals. Reading Leviticus in the twenty-first century, it all sounds so utterly outrageous. But it’s supposed to be. It is an outrage. God clearly values us getting this point even more highly than the lives of all those animals we know He cares for.1

BLOOD SACRIFICE
The Passover lamb - Jesus is the passover lamb according to scriptureI went to a Samaritan village for their version of Passover one year, and every household brought their own lamb to slaughter. They did it together as a community, all at the same time. Hundreds of throats cut in unison. I can hardly describe the visceral sense of devastation and shock I felt. It’s hard for us to imagine the sight, the smell, the horror. It was a powerful visual aid, necessary to help the Israelites understand…

For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:19-22)

This rite described here in Hebrews refers to the perfect red heifer that is killed: together with its ashes a red strand of wool and some hyssop are put in water which goes to purify everything. But as perfect as those specimens may be, those animals were also part of the fallen world. They were part of the broken system. They cannot actually take away sin.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4)

They provided a necessary lesson, but they didn’t actually remove sin, just covered it over for a while. To properly deal with the problem of sin for good, you need someone from outside the system, the Creator himself, to come and give His blood. It’s the only way.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:2-28)

THE BLOOD CRIES OUT
When Cain killed Abel in Genesis 4, God said that Abel’s blood was “crying out”. The very ground, the adama, decries the blood of the innocent.

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
(Proverbs 6:16-19)

We are seeing a lot of lies breathed out in this time of conflict, blood libels against Israel, as well as murder and mayhem from terrorist savages. Israelis are not sinless, no more than any other nation at any rate, but cruelty of the killing spree on October 7 and the barrage from Iran will not go unnoticed by God.

The day after that Iranian attack there were terrible storms in Iran and the whole area. In Hormuz the floods led to what looks like a river of blood. This phenomenon is known to happen from time to time, but it was still a striking image. The color is due to high concentration of iron oxide in the sand, which colors the waters—but the result is reminiscent of the first plague.

It’s all very well assuming that the Middle East fits neatly into good guys and bad guys, but there is innocent blood shed here in Israel too. Abortion is rife, and babies in the womb couldn’t be any more innocent. There have been grievous injustices on this soil. This land is soaked with more than its fair share of innocent blood. The earth shakes. Life is so precious.

God is a God of justice, and He will see to it that justice is done. He has absorbed the sin in his body and defeated it on the cross. His blood shed for us transformed the entire cosmos, the whole created order now has an outlet, an escape from death. We can be made clean. Freedom and forgiveness is offered even to the vilest offender: the head of Hamas, the murderous abortionist, the corrupt politician, the wicked militant, the evil liar. No matter how scarlet our sin, we can look up at this time of redemption, the year of the Lord’s favor, and be acquitted forever. Just one drop of His blood is terrifying to the terrifier. The Accuser has nothing on us once we’re safe under His blood. The wages of sin may be death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord.

God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son… and that Son loved us so much that He willingly laid down His life.

His blood has set us free.

Life is in the Blood

Our ministry, ONE FOR ISRAEL, is a movement of Jewish and Arab Israeli followers of Jesus with a commission to reach their country and the nations with the Gospel. We see our call to equip believers in Israel and around the world with the tools of ministry through our media outreach, and to...

www.oneforisrael.org

Noted @synergy.

Keep the faith.

J.

 

[synergy]

Noted @synergy.

Keep the faith.

J.

What does "One for Israel" say about the Lord's Supper?