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On the Jesus as human sacrifice fallacy

I know not what leads certain people contact me, why they take on the issue which they do or why they suddenly stop replying—which is usually the case.

In this case, a statement I made within the evilbiblecom section lead to a question. Here is the key statement from that section:

Whilst besmirching the Bible for allegedly commanding human sacrifice evilbible.com, for some odd reason, neglects to mention that the Bible does not command but condemns human sacrifice. Evilbible.com, for some odd reason, neglects to mention that when the Bible reports that human sacrifices did take place they were carried out by Gentile Pagans who were not worshiping the God of the Bible but various false gods. When “Jews” were performing human sacrifices it was only when they turned away from the God of the Bible and joined Gentile Pagans in worshiping various false gods. Yet, in typical militant activist atheist fashion, evilbible.com does not condemn Gentile Pagans but only condemns the Jews.

atheist_atheism_evilbible_bible_god_jesus-7420560

Note the specifics, the category of data being considered: evilbible.com besmirches the Bible for the specific issue of commanding human sacrifice and the specific context is human sacrifices carried out by Gentile Pagans and “Jews.” You will see why context is key and is ignored.

Here is the comments sent me to about this:

“Whilst besmirching the Bible for allegedly commanding human sacrifice evilbible.com, for some odd reason, neglects to mention that the Bible does not command but condemns human sacrifice” — Aw … Sorry but the fact is in the holy book the story goes that the God of the Bible chose for Jesus to be executed, so he was offered as a human sacrifice instead of an animal, the lamb of God, to redeem believers. God’s wiil, God’s word. [sic., ellipses in original]

Considering the specific context noted above you should instantly discern the problem. The issue was human sacrifice performed by other humans to false gods. Yet, the comment was about how God “chose for Jesus to be executed…a human sacrifice instead of an animal.”

Thus, here is my reply:

Thank you for your input. However, your proposition is a classic category error. On the one hand the issue is humans ritualistically offering other humans on altars to gods. On the other hand Jesus was not offered by humans upon an altar to God. In other words, one is a human sacrifice and the other is a God sacrifice.

One is humans seeking to please their gods and the other is God seeking to reconcile humans to Himself.

Here is the reply back to me:

Revelation 13:8 … to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. (NIV) – The scriptures reveals in Revelations 13:8 that “the Lamb was slain from the creation of the world” 4. John 1:29 – Jesus, the Lamb of God, is sacrificed, and His blood is shed for the world. God has all along been revealing the “lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world” Jesus is presented as a human sacrifice in atonement, his altar represented by the weight of sin on the cross. The God of the Bible hated human sacrifice to Moloc, but enjoyed the smell of burnt animal sacrifice to adore Him, and commanded Abraham to offer him his only son Isaac. — Yes I know, the story goes that an angel stopped the execution and a goat came along — My point is : The supposed moral lesson of this tale is since God said do this, if nothing had been done to stop it Abraham would have obeyed, cut his child’s throat and burnt him on the altar to prove his faithfulness to his God.

Even if jesus execution is explained as God’s way of reconcilition, it is still the blood of a human being required in exchange of salvation. “a lamb slain, sacrificed” … [sic., ellipses in original]

Here is my reply in turn:

Thank you for following up. I am curious as to why any of this is an issue for you. Now, allow me to review your claims since they are based on a category error and also your subjective views. Evilbible.com’s category was human sacrifice of humans to god(s). They condemn the Jews who only did it in direct contradiction to God’s commands but said nothing about Pagans who did it in keeping with their gods’ commands. Thus, mentioning Jesus’ sacrifice by God Himself is a category errors: logically, philosophically, theologically, ethically, etc. That you subjectively interpret an “altar” to be “represented by the weight of sin on the cross” is just that: a subjective assertion. As to Abraham and Isaac: it is literally impossible that “The supposed moral lesson of this tale is” that “if nothing had been done to stop it Abraham would have obeyed, cut his child’s throat and burnt him on the altar” which is why no one in the millennia since it happened understood it the way you are subjectively putting it.

One moral lesson that came out of it is that which the cultural and historical context tells us: that Abraham was just getting to know God, human sacrifice was common in those days so Abraham thought nothing of being asked to do that, yet God proves that He wants no such thing which is why when loyal to God, Jews, Christians and by extension Muslims never engaged in ritual human sacrifice—while Pagan have and people such as the evilbible.com author have nothing to say against that.

Then, for whatever reason, the final reply was:

Sorry to have bothered you, thank you and goodbye

I replied:

I appreciate your kind words. However, I am not in the least bit bothered.
I am curious as to why any of this is an issue for you.

Yet, there was no reply and I got no answer as to why they wanted to tackle this (non) issue.

As you can see, my general modus operandi is to dissect the question or argument before offering an answer or counterargument and I tend to go presuppositional with a little dose of evidentialism.

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