Animal sacrifice

[Wertbag]

One of the gory details in the bible is God's instructions on how to properly sacrifice creatures to him.  This is one area which is often skipped over, as trying to reconcile a blood smeared priest pouring blood over an altar, before burning the internal organs, is quite a horrific image.  Apparently the smell was pleasing to God, but Chrisitians are quick to distance themselves from such practices, usually saying "that was the old convenent" because God doesn't care about the smell anymore or something.

 

Exodus 29:

“Bring the bull to the front of the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head.  Slaughter it in the Lord’s presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting.  Take some of the bull’s blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest of it at the base of the altar.  Then take all the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar.  But burn the bull’s flesh and its hide and its intestines outside the camp. It is a sin offering.

“Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head.  Slaughter it and take the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar.  Cut the ram into pieces and wash the internal organs and the legs, putting them with the head and the other pieces.  Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.

“Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head.  Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then splash blood against the sides of the altar.  And take some blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.

 

Regardless of which convenent that was under, that is a horror scene.  What is with smearing fresh blood on ear lobes, thumbs and toes?  Why did this mess make God happy?  If God is unchanging and has objective eternal morals, then all of that which was good, still is.  Are modern day Christians less pious because they don't bathe in blood?

 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

No.  All of that was metaphor/foreshadowing of the shedding of christ's blood, in which the modern believer is now bathed.

[walterpthefirst]

Uh... no.

 

God enjoying the smell of burning flesh isn't just an Old Testament / Old Covenant thing.

 

 

Revelation 14 : 9 - 11

9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 

10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 

11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” 

 

 

Ok, this isn't the smell of the burning flesh of a sacrificed animal.  It's the smell of the burning flesh of everyone whose name isn't written in the Book of Life.

 

 

Revelation 13 : 8

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

 

Revelation 13 : 16 & 17

16 It  [the Beast] also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 

17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

 

 

So, if anything, God's New Testament liking for the smell of burning flesh is much, much worse than anything he enjoyed in the Old. 

 

In Old Testament times the aroma of the burning flesh of dead sacrificial animals was enough to please him.

 

But after Judgment Day he'll happily be in the presence of the smoke from the burning flesh of billions of people.

 

People burning forever and unable to die in the fires he created to torture them.

 

(Excuse me, I have to go and vomit.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Moonobserver]

The Jewish concept is that animal sacrifice was offered only for unintentional sins, which they regard as a disqualifier for Jesus as a sacrifice.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

The Pentecostal preachers I remember treated all these regulations as a sign of just how exacting and perfect things had to be or DEATH!!! They'd find (make up) meaning in every single bit of it, all revealed by God of course. One said "I want to teach you about the Tabernacle, but I don't know that you are ready for that." He was, of course. It was a constant hide and seek trying to find some secret that "really" would get god to show up. The spooky was always popular. I recall how more conservative believers found spooky in the Pentecostal women wearing long dresses with long hair and how they would dance in the services. Oooh, there must be something holy about that. No, it's just a different way of doing the same cult. (The more conservative Baptists wanted none of that hooey and spooky, because the Bible was the perfect outcome of all history, and even miracles were a no-no since that would mean the Bible wasn't done yet and we can't have that, nope. Essentially a dead god that behaves like the idols he mocks in the OT, replaced by a book.)

[Joshpantera]

9 hours ago, Moonobserver said:

The Jewish concept is that animal sacrifice was offered only for unintentional sins, which they regard as a disqualifier for Jesus as a sacrifice.

 

For myriad reasons the jews never bought into this silly myth. It was obviously a gentile-oriented creation. None of it makes sense. 

 

6 hours ago, Fuego said:

Oooh, there must be something holy about that.

 

There's something Hole about that. Which is that the entire thing beginning to end is full of holes...

[Wertbag]

It is incredibly specific.  I mean what changes if you take the blood and smear it on your left ear lobe rather than the right?  Does that invalidate the entire ceremony?  Will burning the spleen be less pleasing than the specific liver and kidney's that god requested?  Is this some kind of Chinese takeaway home delivery where the wrong order will get rejected and god will demand his money back?