One of my good high-school friends is Muslim, and the subject of "blood-sacrifices" was brought up. She said that such an idea is pagan. But, it got me thinking...
How is it that the idea of
sacrifice and
divine appeasement exist in so many pagan religions, unless it has something to do with Romans 1:18-23? If God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all sin, then not only is the idea that there is a God embedded in the conscience of man, but our conscience itself bears witnesses that we are sinners...until we try our best to quiet it. Is it possible that in many ancient cultures, unable to quiet the conscience of this natural awareness, men went to great lengths to address this problem they couldn't shake and resorted to their own idea of appeasing it?
Second, we read in Holy Writ that animal sacrifices (mainly whole burnt offerings) were done prior to Noah in the account of the fall and the event with Cain and Abel. They didn't eat sacrifices, since meat consumption didn't exist until after the flood.
I concluded, in my argument, that pagans have a concept of atonement from the beginning, because it existed prior to paganism, and that paganism still proves the idea that we need it. So really, pagans confirm the truth about the need for atonement from God's wrath rather than disproving it. They are evidence, from every
quarter of the world, that it is something embedded in the conscience. Sure, their practices were wrong, deluded, false, distorted, etc, but the concept still existed. Even tribal groups/societies in the Americas, far from Israel, believed in human sacrifices and the ordination/necessity of
priests in their religion. Where did this concept of a priest and sacrifice come from, unless it is taken from the original?
It seemed like the argument ended there
What are your guys' thoughts on this?
Obviously, the gospel spread during a time when such a concept was widely believed, by God's providence.