Trying To Make God Happy

My daughter Tatiana came running into my office one day, just itching to get Brody in trouble. “Mommy, Brody just hit me!” she tattled. Fortunately for Brody, he was quietly drawing in the next room and I knew it. Tatiana was caught in a lie and it wasn’t the first time.

I realized that it was really important to drive the point home with Tatiana about how serious it was to break God’s law. Figuring that if it worked in the olden days when Jewish priests were in charge of religion it could work now, I sent Tatiana outside to get her favorite cat, Harley. He innocently sauntered in and rubbed against me, delighted to be receiving attention. Because he trusted me, he didn’t even struggle when I tied him down to the kitchen island. I took a deep breath, instructed Tatiana to hold him tightly so he couldn’t escape, grabbed my sharpest kitchen knife, and quickly slit his throat before I lost my nerve.

As he gasped and took his last breath, his life-blood running down the island to the floor, I dropped to my knees with a sobbing Tatiana and approached the Throne of Grace. “Oh Father, please forgive Tatiana for her sin. Help her not to lie in the future. Thank You for Your blessings. Amen.”

Tatiana and I then had a discussion on how important it is to always tell the truth. I don’t think that she got much of it – she was way too distraught at the fact that I had just killed noble Harley because she had been naughty. But I felt pretty positive about the fact that I had illustrated God’s plan of salvation to her just like they had in Bible times. Tatiana was no longer oblivious to the cost of sin.

We celebrated my daughter’s spiritual breakthrough by inviting the rest of the family over and holding a feast. After that, we assembled a makeshift altar in the back yard and burned Harley’s lifeless body. As the smoke from our sacrifice ascended to heaven, we were quite certain that if certain Bible accounts were any indication, God likely smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, “Never again will I curse this family because of the sacrifice that they have offered.”[1] [2]

If you even believed this fictitious story for a second, you are very likely overcome with shock and horror about how horribly pagan and evil I am to even think about this type of scenario, much less write about it as if it happened. Good! Keep that feeling, because you know what? I have no doubt that you would have felt the exact same way if you had observed any of the sacrifices that took place in Bible times! If you were an actual spectator at just one of these abominable animal sacrificial “worship services”, watching it first-hand, you would know instantly in your compassionate heart that such an act was not in any way fulfilling the will or desire of the Eternal One.

One softhearted friend confided that she thinks she might have just killed herself if she had lived back in Bible times and had been forced to sacrifice animals. I completely understand her point, and am quite certain that a god that you honor by sawing into the neck of a helpless animal is not a god that I want to be worshiping. However, this horrific action was carried out millions of times in both paganism and Judaism with the priestly directive, “This is what God wants – blood sacrifice!”

We in Christianity have indeed distanced ourselves from the horrific reality of such a monstrous teaching about God. In doing this, we have totally sanitized what people taught and did “in the name of God” and then wrote into the ancient Scriptures as being somehow “inspired truth”.  Furthermore, when we are confronted about the illogicality of such a doctrine, we justify our beliefs by saying, “God made the Israelites go through the horror of sacrifice so they would realize how heinous their sin was.” Sounds like sage advice – until you confront the dismal, bloody reality of what you are really saying “God” wanted. [3]

Christendom as a whole has become very accustomed to ignoring an obvious disconnect between our definition of love and God’s definition of love. We somewhat obliviously and self-righteously cite John 3:16 as the ultimate example of love;

“For God so loved the world, that he gave [sacrificed, murdered] his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

We define our Christian self-worth with the thought, “Jesus loved me so much that he was willing to die for me! That is the ultimate love!” And indeed, self-sacrifice for the benefit of others is the ultimate act of love. But that’s not what John 3:16 is all about. It’s about a god who demands a ‘perfect’ human blood sacrifice in order to forgive us, His sinful and presumably wretched children.

While we comfort ourselves with the selfless personal sacrifice of Jesus, we don’t really allow ourselves to question the motivation of a “god” who requires either animal sacrifice or even worse, human blood sacrifice in order to forgive in the first place! For one reason, our Church teaches us that even questioning such a horrific character trait would be an affront to God! Who wants to do that? But in reality, questioning such character is not so much questioning God—it’s merely questioning those who have brought us this blood-drenched “gospel” in the first place.

At the dedication of Solomon’s temple, so many sheep and cattle were sacrificed that “they could not be recorded or counted.”[4] At times in Israel’s violent past, the bloodlust of these fervent believers would escalate to the point that merely shedding the blood of an innocent animal was not enough, so they would offer up their very own children—again something God had specifically prohibited! So egregious was the carnage that the hand of God brought destruction to Solomon’s Temple. When the Israelites rebuilt their Temple once again, blood sacrifices resumed because that was the sin that had been passed on to the priesthood from their fathers. Once again, the sins of the fathers were passed on to their children through the “lying pen of the elders”[6] and history would again repeat itself via the lie of the written word.

In first century Jerusalem before the destruction of the second Temple, the blood of innocent animals ran so thickly from the temple altar that there were literally rivers of blood gushing from what was supposed to be God’s “House of Prayer” but was in fact nothing more than a butcher shop of epic proportions! The Jewish historian Josephus wrote of this wholesale slaughter around the time of the destruction of the second Temple:

“So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves), and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two million seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy; …”[7]

Various historians have noted that the impact and intensity of this collective sacrificial carnage was mind-numbingly stunning. So intense was the slaughter by the priests that a veritable river of blood ran out the back of the temple and into the Kidron Valley. One need necessarily ask: Was such a brutal slaughter of the innocent really the mechanism of forgiveness of a compassionate and loving God—the very same God who is mindful and cares about the fall and death of a single sparrow?[8]

We need to analyze what our doctrines are actually communicating. On the one hand, people can forgive others if those who have wronged us repent of their actions and apologize. Yet, on the other hand, we believe that our even more “loving” Heavenly Father cannot forgive that easily—He somehow must have blood. Why do we in Christianity never stop to ask ourselves why we call this kind of Sovereign Monarch “loving” and “perfect” when we can apparently forgive more easily than we believe He can? Again, to raise such questions is not to question God but rather to question a religious institution that has perpetrated and propagated a terrible error about what our own Creator is really like. Because of Christianity’s insistence on this requirement of blood, our Father’s reputation is being sacrificed on the altar of the Bible.

A very dear friend of mine, Shelly, has grown up in generational Satanism. Many people have pushed her to “accept Christ’s sacrifice” but refuse to look at this blood atonement issue from her perspective. From where she sits, how is Christianity really any different from the paganism she was raised with? After all, when she was involved in the cult, they offered human sacrifices. They even made her offer human sacrifices; the more innocent the victim, the more power was to be had. Their reasoning postulated that the more innocent and perfect the victim, the more it appeased Satan.

Christianity looks at Jesus in the exact same manner.  He is seen as a perfect and innocent blood sacrifice that is pleasing and ultimately appeasing to our “god”. This doctrine is abysmal. How can we really believe that a totally sinless, “spotless” victim had to be sacrificed in order to somehow “appease” Father God’s wrath?

From Shelly’s perspective, how is our version of “God” any different than Satan? The way we preach it, it wasn’t until orthodox Christianity’s “god” was placated and appeased with the blood of his own son that he was willing to forgive us sinners!

Why can we in Christianity not see the utter and sheer hypocrisy of our actions in this regard!?

The blood of animals or humans “atones” for the adherents of Satanism, and the blood of animals or Jesus “atones” for the adherents of Christianity. In Satanism, they literally eat and drink the flesh and blood of the slain victims. In Christianity, we symbolically eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ in Communion. (In Catholicism, the doctrine of Transubstantiation states that those participating in “Holy Communion” are actually eating Jesus’ literal body and drinking his literal blood, i.e., making this “blessing” a holy form of cannibalism.)

Even worse, we teach / brainwash / indoctrinate our children to do likewise, just like the cult did with my friend. In Satanism, the children and believers are literally washed in the blood of a lamb; in Christianity we are symbolically ‘washed in the blood of the Lamb.’ We rejoice about this and sing songs[9] about it; and we teach our children to do the same from the time that they are very young.

In Satanism, the power is all about the blood. In Christianity, it’s no different.  How many times have you sung enthusiastically at the top of your lungs, “There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb!” We also sing about “eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood” – cannibalistic practices – and don’t think twice about it. One popular worship song from a few decades ago had the following lyrics set to a perky, catchy melody:

 

“Sons of God hear his holy word;

gather ‘round the table of the Lord.

Eat his body; drink his blood.

and we’ll sing a song of love.

Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia![10]

 

We preach that God is a God of love, but to someone who grew up in paganism, the God of Christianity looks like a god of bloodlust and violence just like all the rest! The only difference is that at this point, our actions are symbolic. Satanism’s actions are actually literal.

Once we really look at it from both sides, it is easy to see what the traditions and customs of Christianity might look like to someone who has grown up in paganism. It is true, there are many, many Bible verses calling for blood; however, there are also many verses condemning blood and showing what God really desires from His children—repentance. I guess it comes down to which verses you believe reflect the real character of the God you worship; the passages that reflect a bloodthirsty god or the ones that speak of a merciful, compassionate one?

I believe that the true Character, the true Word of God is simply this:

“I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.” ’[11]

And in Isaiah 1:11-13,

“Your sacrifices mean nothing to me. I am sick of your offerings of rams and choice cattle; I don’t like the blood of bulls or lambs or goats. Who asked you to bring all this when you come to worship me? Stay out of my temple! Your sacrifices are worthless, and incense is disgusting. I can’t stand the evil you do on your New Moon Festivals or on your Sabbaths and other times of worship.”

And in First Samuel 15:22,

“To obey is better than sacrifice.”

If we continue searching the Scriptures, we find that,

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Take your burnt offerings and your other sacrifices and eat them yourselves! When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings and sacrifices I wanted from them. This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’’ [12]

God said through the prophet Isaiah,

“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol. They have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in their abominations.” [13]

Did God really allow or bless the practice of sacrifice in the first place?

God looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if there is even one with real understanding, one who seeks for God.” Psalm 53:2 NLT

After 400 years of living with the Egyptians, the Israelites had fully assimilated into the Egyptian culture. During these centuries of living among these pagan religions they had become completely convinced that the only way to “worship” one’s god was to offer blood sacrifices.  By bringing this heinous practice out of Egypt with them, they were attempting to honor the Creator in the way all their Egyptian friends honored their gods, despite the fact that they were repeatedly instructed by Moses not to do so.

Could these simple people, who had been slaves for as long as they could remember, adequately understand Moses’ instruction on how God really wanted to be worshiped? Perhaps; perhaps not. They were, in a spiritual sense, children. They needed to get to know the difference between the vile, pagan, bloodthirsty gods of the Egyptians, and the compassionate God of their fathers.

Sadly, this lesson was not easily learned. The early Israelites were given a simple choice: obey God’s clear instruction that was simple enough to be already written in their hearts and minds, or disobey God’s true law and get kicked out of the Promised Land. (Deut 30:11-20) Willful and disobedient, they chose the latter path. Their initial disobedience led them to wander around the wilderness for 40 years. Their persistent disobedience led to repeated exile from their homeland. It  led to eventual destruction of their Temple not just once, but twice. It even resulted in the eventual destruction of Jerusalem itself.

However, through all of the chaos and tumult of the pagan practices instituted by a corrupt priesthood, there still remained those whose hearts drew near to God. In return, the God of their Fathers drew near to them. Even though they may not have had every “doctrine” about God correct, these righteous individuals inherently knew that God was a God of love and compassion, not a god of bloodlust and violence. Did they know everything there was to know about God? No! But they lived their lives as best they could amidst the evil that took place all around them.

From this we can learn a very valuable lesson. We need to realize that the Presence of God drawing near to us is not actually validation and verification that what we believe about God is 100% true. Rather, God’s Spirit and God’s approval is not tied to the “rightness” of our beliefs, but the purity of our hearts and the “fruits” of our actions.

Understanding God’s relationship with us is most easily understood by looking at our relationships with our children. How many times will we tell our eager, trusting child, ”Yes sweetie, that picture you have drawn of me is beautiful!” when it is merely a few crayoned scribbles that don’t resemble us at all?

At the time, we reward our children with pats and accolades because of their heartfelt efforts. We kindly realize that “they can’t handle the truth!”; that is, that their depiction of us is no more accurate than if they drew a three-headed horse and called it Mommy. However, their hearts are pure and they are offering us the best that they have, so we reward their efforts with hugs, attaboys, and affirmations.

In like manner, our best efforts at reaching out to God and portraying God to others will fall far short of what God is actually like. We might not realize that our very actions or cherished doctrines may repulse God, like the practice of sacrifice clearly did in Israel’s day. But God judged them – and judges us – on the purity of our hearts, not on the accuracy or truthfulness of our various, cherished doctrines.

 

“AHEYEH detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness.” Proverbs 15:9