Posted by Jaypeeto on March 21, 1999 at 14:24:08 {MWfZlKV6ncg82}:
In Reply to: Just Thinking posted by Ginny Tosken on March 21, 1999 at 12:59:46:
In Christian theology,
mankind sold himself into sin,
both in the "beginning" as well as our own
individual acts.
Our God foresaw that this would happen, together with all it's attendant ills and woes.
The God of
Christianity,
is both
a) just and
b) merciful
The concept of a "ransom" must be seen within that context, as well as the concept that the God of Christianity is a TRIUNE God, eternal "father" to his eternal "word/son" and source of eternal "spirit."
It is this eternal "word" of the "father" which
acts creatively within the material order together with the eternal spirit.
This triune God of traditional Christianity both FORESAW man's sins and
INTENDED, via the "word" to unite with the nature of humanity to restore humanity to justice and holiness through
a) incarnation into our very essence, wedding
our nature to his own and
b) actually experiencing within
himself
through this incarnation
the pains and agonies which sin brings upon
us, without being "guilty" of sin himself
and in this way, being infinite deity united to finite man,
c) redeeming/ransoming man from
eternal sin.
I cannot speak for the sacrifices of all the pagan religions, but I will say what I know from what a one-time friend of mine told me, who is a "priest" of Santeria. They believe that the elemental spirits can be harnessed
to do their bidding provided certain conditions are met which enable that elemental to carry out the request, namely
by slaughtering a living animal, the elemental spirit is thereby "fed" by the "energy" of the suffering animal, and
thus, from that "energy" is enabled to carry out the request made.
The "sacrifice" of Christ was made voluntarily, before all time ever even began, by the One Will of the Father, the Word/Son, and the Eternal Spirit. In our theology,
the "victim" IS ALSO
the Priest, and the Priest IS the "victim."
And, our sacrifice is, himself, GOD THE WORD.
This is interesting, because in the old testament, when the animal was slaughtered, the Priest
PUT ON THE SKIN OF
ANIMAL as a garment.
We believe this is a "type" of Christ's sacrifice and resurrection in a glorified BODY.
The Priest is, in Christ, himself also the "sacrifice" and receives his body back, glorified, in the resurrection.
All of this is very complex, I admit, and I don't know if I have done a good job even in giving you the rudiments.
Some of the Early Fathers felt that perhaps
the "ransom" was paid to "Satan," not because God "owed" him anything, but in
the sense that mankind once in sin was in bondage to Satan and that the death of Christ, willingly offered to the Father,
"broke", representatively, the dominion of Satan over sin-oriented people.
In any case, the christian concept of
sacrifice
is not like a case of "feeding" a "hungry" god or spirit. In our theology, Christ did what he did out of pure condescenscion, empathy, and charity, even though it hurt intensely.
Our God does not ask us to suffer for
righteousness' sake, any humiliation which
He the Lord of All, was not willing to literally
endure HIMSELF. As "maker," he did not "owe" us
that, nor did he "need" to do that, either.
Our God is empathetic.
That doesn't
come across in a faith which describes Jesus as a ***created*** being who was
ordered to come down here, be placed in a world full of sin and temptation, go through all kinds of slander, torture, emotional hell, and finally death, to
make God look "vindicated".
In Arian theology, it is inescapable to come to the realization that the Arian Jesus, being a creature, and originally "perfect", would have been condemned to eternal damnation had he not come down here and
agreed to be put through all that agony. Also, since the Arian Jesus was merely a "perfect man," and nothing more,
had he failed or cracked under the hellish pressure infinitely more awful than the simple little test given to Adam in
the Genesis account, God would have sent him to Gehenna for failing.
The condescension of the God of Christianity
cannot be seen in the God of the Arians because it is a 100% innocent CREATURE who has been forced to come down here,
divest himself of all his spiritual awareness, be born as a man of two
decent but sin-prone parents, and be subjected to ridicule, abuse, libel, false arrest, torture, and a horrifying death, to "prove" that the Father is "sovereign",
as well as to pay an exactly-corresponding ransom for the SIN of
Adam himself. And again, if this merely perfect
man had cracked under this horrible pressure, his "God" would have sent him to Gehenna because he was a "perfect" man
who cracked.
I'm going off in too many directions here,
and I apologize. I hope I have been at least
a little-bit helpful.
Love to you,
Jaypeeto :)