Problem Category 4: Sacrifices
16. The Bible never teaches
that a human sacrifice was needed to pay for sin. The belief of needing to pay
God for sin was not a part of historical biblical Judaism. Peter even rebuked Jesus
for saying he was going to die (Mat. 16:21-23), and when he did die, they were
not rejoicing that their sins had now been paid for. Read Peter’s teaching just
a few weeks after the crucifixion and notice the complete absence of a payment
idea:
“When the people hard this, they were cut to
the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.” Acts
3:37-38
“Unto you first God, having raised up his Son
Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
Acts 3:26
Peter’s theology likely was based on passages such as,
“Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sins of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does
the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with your God?” Micah 6:7-8. Notice in this passage that a human
sacrifice is explicitly not acceptable, rather, God accepts a change of
heart and behavior.
17. PSA ignores the underlying
relational component of covenants in the Old Testament in exchange for a cold
judicial procedure. PSA also confuses the relational blood covenant of Christ
in exchange for it becoming a blood payment. PSA makes the same error that many
people of ancient Israel sometimes made, by thinking that they could cover
their sin by merely making a sacrifice, without reconciling the relationship by
genuinely turning from sin and loving God.
God repeatedly begged ancient Israel to stop making
sacrifices because they were done as a substitute for reconciling their
relationship with Him. If sacrifices are intended to literally pay for sin, why
did God call for stopping the sacrifices when Israel was in rebellion? If blood
sacrifices are what He really wants, shouldn’t God have demanded more sacrifices
to make up, or pay more, for the increase in sin?
[author quotes 1 Sam 15:22; Prov 21:3; Psa 40:6; Hos 6:6;
Isa 1:11-18]
18. Blood was not the only
substance allowed for sin in sin sacrifices. Flour was also acceptable! [author
quotes Lev 5:11-12]
19. Old Testament sin sacrifices
were only for minor or unintentional sin, but greater sins.
[author quotes Num 15:22-31; Heb 9:7]
20. Ephesians 5:2 states that
the death of Jesus was “an offering of a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God.”
However, if our sins were literally transferred to Jesus, he would have been a
polluted sacrifice and this verse should have stated, “an offering of a
repulsive-smelling sacrifice to God.” (Kevin George, Atonement and Reconciliation: On what basis can a holy
God forgive sin? A search for the original meaning, contrasted with Penal Substitutionary
Atonement [2023], 18-20)
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