so you think it essential that priests and the surroundings in which God is celebrated should show richness, gold, incense, oil, burning flesh - to me that seems more like a heathen celebration than a true appreciation of a rational God.No, I wasn't really saying that it's essential.
Man wanted to offer sacrifices. For some reason they wanted to.
Therefore if man wanted to take the breath of life out of an animal that God created, then God gave very elaborate instructions on how it should be done.
They could grab it, thrash it over a boulder or club it to death and offer it up for their sins or go through a ceremonial instruction giving more reverence to the life they take for the sins they wish to ask forgiveness for.
It's not essential unless the man sins and wants to make restitution to God. He wants to go into the tabernacle and have his sins washed away. This is giving reverence to an animal that will be slaughtered for sins committed. I don't know if I can portray the seriousness God was placing on having sins just washed away.
And we have to take into account how the biblical God revealed Himself to these people and they knew Him to be real.
They have a history. A considerably long history together.
I was asking for you to be one of those people, living that life and experience the God you experienced at that time.
I don't really see that as celebrated. It would seem to me to be deep reflection and intensively sorrowful and repentant.
But, they are men.
A God who it seems was not averse to subjecting his own son to the worst torture and most demeaning treatment which one could get at the time of Jesus' life - an execution Roman style, as a slave, a nobody.You may be touching on why God put that ritualistic seriousness on the sacrifice of animals for man's sin.
It would seem you may be dismissing why that crucifixion took place and what came after represents.
I'm not sure you are understanding the true relationship of Father and Son in those regards. We have men and we have God and we have sacrifice for sin.
It may be difficult with several beliefs on the matter.
a God who was unable to rescue his children from concentration camps in many countries, not just Germany, the Russian gulags, North Korea, Africa - and counting, and forgets the many who are nowadays dying from hunger and disease in so many countries of the world, but of, course, they do not believe in Our God - so that's o.k.I don't know why you think I would think it is ok.
Besides these kind of things weren't new to the Israelites nor other races and cultures.
Israel began as slaves, they had battles and were conquered and won battles. Similar things happened but not on such a grand scale and probably almost as horrid but their population wasn't as big and the technology, etc being a different period of time.
No, I don't think it's ok.
I'm not going to able to take you where I would prefer on this because it's about eternity.
It's not that time, time before, present or what ever amount of time man has left on this earth.
It's what is to come after as the biblical record.
Eternity.
That's longer than the earth has been here and humans have evolved and it certainly is much longer than a single solitary life.
How can you get a perspective on that?
I actually believe that we are still evolving and i also believe we will ditch this idea of blood sacrifice, or any sacrifice, which is so crudely enacted in the rituals of some Christian beliefs - we will find unity with a God, once we are worthy of him as truly evolved human beings.Let's just be decent to one another - is that a possible way to the heart of God?Evolving or not, we have our solitary life span and that's it.
I don't know much about these crudely enacted rituals you are talking about.
If this God is real then those Christian beliefs are not going to just vanish.
That biblical Holy Spirit can't be underestimated. Like, anyway.
I'm weird. Like really weird. I just say die before you die and live forever.
Just step out of your body and into eternity.
You are going to do it anyway.
And we're all there.
What do we do now?
You don't really have to worry about being decent or not. You're dead. We're all equal.
We kind of understand each other and perhaps love each other.
Or not, oblivion, nothing, all means nothing, dead.
“These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robesand made them white in the blood of the Lamb.15 Therefore,
“they are before the throne of God
and serve himday and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence.
16 ‘Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
Well or unwell, dead, it's dead. Eternity of something or nothing.
Maybe we will hangout with the neanderthals when we get there?
Exchange pleasantries and get a picture on what we thought we knew about anything and everything.
Or oblivion. I'm not too fussed about it.
I'm not sure if the animals sacrificed, Christ and the Jews of world war 11 or any particular time in their history are all that fussed either.
Can we ask them?
What would they say?
A cloud of witnesses?
Taurisk
insofar that it has allowed me a look into your psyche.I'm not really sure who I am.
I know I'm socially mal/adjusted in some way and have inherent characteristics from generations recent and long past.
I'd just say dead and rigor mortis hasn't quite set in, with a bit of the above and real experience of what's to come.
You may have a better perspective?
gumUnderfoot
