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When I was Protestant, I used to believe it was about God demanding sacrifice like a pagan god, what was the real reason for sacrifices then?
For many reason. For showing gratitude, making supplication, expressing love, atoning for sin, glorifying God...
You can always create a thread here. If you notice, God never asked Abel and Cain for a sacrifice.In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices mainly dealt with the transgressions committed under the covenant. The sacrificial system of the covenant dealt with the transgressions of the covenant. However, these things could not truly atone for sin in the real sense before a holy God. They foreshadowed and typologically pointed forward to the one True Sacrifice, Jesus Christ. Jews who saw Christ in these things retrospectively were saved by looking forward, as we are saved looking back, by faith.
Thank you for posting this in the debate forum
I always felt they did it vecbeca that was the only way they understood how things work.Sacrifice was part of the "sacramental system" of ancient religion. It was by nature premodern and prerational. Looking for a singular reason for sacrifice is going to be a fools errand. Much better to try to actually understand the premodern mindset before we go asking those questions.
When I was Protestant, I used to believe it was about God demanding sacrifice like a pagan god, what was the real reason for sacrifices then?
You can always create a thread here. If you notice, God never asked Abel and Cain for a sacrifice.
I always felt they did it vecbeca that was the only way they understood how things work.
Can't help but think it's the opposite. You could only get the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, etc. from people who were much more reflective and conscious than we are.It was not the self-reflective, self-conscious world of modern humanity.
Can't help but think it's the opposite. You could only get the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, etc. from people who were much more reflective and conscious than we are.
So was it only symbolic?the sacrifices of the OT, going back to Abel, were prototypes of the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. every one finds its fulfillment in Calvary.
So was it only symbolic?
The perception of the self existed with the ancient Chinese as well as the ancient Greeks.The notion of an autonomous self did not exist quite as starkly as it does today, it was arguably a product of western culture in the late middle ages. This is why questions of personal salvation are largely absent in the oldest parts of the Old Testament.
Same with us today. You can't avoid that.Another thing I'd note about the Psalms and most of the OT is an absence of abstract thought. For the Hebrews, abstractions had to be represented concretely through some kind of poetic image.
What were the sacrifices needed for?no, it was real and needed prior to the Incarnation. but one of the reasons it was needed was it helped prepare the Jews for the Messiah.
There was never a commandment from God for a sacrifice that time.Could you explain this to me?
There was never a commandment from God for a sacrifice that time.