SACRIFICE AND JESUS

The Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is

the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

-Bertrand Russell

Cannibalism

When practicing Catholics go to the altar to receive their cracker and grape juice, they might be horrified to know that they are participating in a cannibalistic ritual. According to the Catholic Church, that cracker and juice they are eating does not symbolize Jesus' body and blood; it is Jesus' body and blood. I quote from paragraph 1333 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ." Ladies and Gentlemen, these people are serious.

This ritual for gaining favor with God is formally called The Sacrament of Eucharist. Lay Catholics know it simply as Holy Communion. The change that takes place, when the the bread and wine offered at the Eucharist is changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, is called "transubstantiation". It was introduced in 1215 at the Fourth Lateral Council.

This ritual is meant to celebrate Jesus' Last Supper when he broke bread and gave it to the disciples saying, "Take, eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup and gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant. It is repeated in each of the three synoptic gospels.

26Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."

27And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, < "Drink of it, all of you;

28<for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

29I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." (Mat. 26:26-29)

22And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body."

23And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.

24And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

25Truly, I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." (Mark 14:22-25)

19And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

20And likewise the cup after supper, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:19-20)

The Gospel of John aims to drive home the point about the consumption of flesh and blood even stronger. When questioned by the Jews about how he can give them flesh to eat, Jesus insisted that only those who eat his flesh and drink his blood can have eternal life.

52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood , you have no life in you;

54he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

55For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

56He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

57As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.

58This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."

59This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. (John 6:52:59)

When many of his disciples showed disgust at what they heard, Jesus tried again to convince them that this practice would give them life.

60Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"

61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, "Do you take offense at this?

62Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before?

63It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

64But there are some of you that do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him.

65And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." (John 6:60:65)

Except for the twelve, his disciples remained unconvinced and left.

66After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.

67Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?"

68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; (John 6:66:68)

Paul sanctions the practice twice in 1 Corinthians.

16The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

17Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Cor. 10:16-17)

23For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,

24and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

25In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Cor. 11:23-26)

According to Paul, many of those who have eaten the bread or drank the cup in an unworthy manner, have fallen weak and ill and died. Maybe it was food poisoning?

27Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.

29For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.

30That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. (1 Cor. 11:27, 29-30)

Human Sacrifice

Without doubt, the most celebrated human sacrifice of all is that of Jesus Christ; the Christian religion is founded upon it. The typical Christian finds nothing wrong this. Moreover, he is probably grateful because someone innocent atoned for his guilt. We will examine this subject in depth to show that it is arguably one of the greatest perversions of logic and justice ever perpetuated on mankind.

The passages below are frequently quoted from Christian sourcebooks on the doctrine of atonement. Except for one passage from John, they say that God sacrificed his only son to save the world from sin.

Readers should note that the popular passage from John 3:16-18 was said by Jesus while he was alive, not by someone else after he died. It makes a profound difference. In all four Gospels, Jesus has no inkling that his death was necessary to reconcile Adam's sin. He was Jewish. And like all Jews to this day, covenant law was the standard for judging sin, not the transgressions of Adam. Neither did Jesus believe in a permanent Hell. He saw himself as a living savior, not a dead savior.

16For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

17For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

18He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

(John 3:16-18)

The Christian doctrine of atonement for the 'sin' of Adam began with Paul. It is not to be found anywhere in the Old Testament or in the Gospels.

12Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned (Rom. 5:12)

32He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? (Rom. 8:32)

14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. (1John 4:14)

2and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:19)

27He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself. (Heb. 7:27)

1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

2And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph. 5:1-2)

7Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Cor. 5:7)

12But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, (Heb. 10:12)

Christian Paganism

When we compare Christianity with pagan religions, we will find that there are essentially no differences. What the Christian Fathers did, was invent a new language for the heathen practice of blood sacrifice. The authoritative Catholic Encyclopedia (CE) on sacrifice serves as our sourcebook.

CE tells us that the doctrine of Holy Communion is morally necessary for salvation.

The doctrine of the Church is that Holy Communion is morally necessary for salvation, that is to say, without the graces of this sacrament it would be very difficult to resist grave temptations and avoid grievous sin.

CE defines sacrifice as a way of attaining communion with God with a sacrificial blood offering.

By sacrifice in the real sense is universally understood the offering of a sense-perceptible gift to the Deity as an outward manifestation of our veneration for Him and with the object of attaining communion with Him. Strictly speaking however, this offering does not become a sacrifice until a real change has been effected in the visible gift (e. g. by slaying it, shedding its blood. burning it, or pouring it out).

It naively goes on to associate Christian sacrifice with the various forms of blood sacrifice among pagan religions.

The Indians went from humans to horses.

It was the acme, "the king of the sacrifices", the solemnities lasting three days and being accompanied by all kinds of public amusements. The idea of this sacrifice was to provide the gods of light with another steed for their heavenly yoke. At first, instead of the sacrifice of the horse, human sacrifice seems to have been in vogue, so that here also the idea of substitution found expression.

The Iranians had a drink concoction made of water and flesh which was believed to bring immortality.

In a roomy antechamber the intoxicating haoma (the counterpart of the Indian soma drink) was brewed, the holy water prepared, and the sacrifice of flesh (myazda) and cakes (darun) offered to the gods. The precious haoma, the drink of immortality, not only conduced in the case of mankind to eternal life, but was likewise a drink for the gods themselves.

The Greeks offered human food.

The sacrificial offerings, bloody and unbloody, were generally taken from articles of human food; to the gods above pastry, sacrificial cakes, pap, fruits, and wine were offered, but to the nether gods, cakes of honey and, as a drink, a mixture of milk, honey, and water.

The Romans offered sheep, pigs and oxen. There is evidence that humans were once offered.

Sacrifices of atonement (piacula) for perpetrated crimes and past errors were also scheduled. In the earliest times the ancient Indo-Germanic sacrifice of the horse, and also sacrifices of sheep, pigs, and oxen were known. That human sacrifices must have been once usual may be concluded from certain customs of a later period.

The Chinese offered vegetables, oxen, calves, sheep and pigs.

Before every table are set sacrificial offerings of soup, flesh, vegetables, etc. To the ancestors of the emperor, as well as to the sun and moon, a slaughtered ox is offered; to the planets and the stars a calf, a sheep, and a pig. Meanwhile, on a pyre to the south-east of the altar, a sacrifice of an ox lies ready to be burned to the highest god of heaven. While the ox is being consumed, the emperor offers to the soul-table of heaven and the tables of his predecessors a staff of incense, silk, and some meat broth.

The Semites, namely the Babylonians and Assyrians, offered a variety of animals and food.

Both burnt and aromatic offerings were common to the Babylonians and the Assyrians. The sacrificial gifts included wild and tame animals, fowl, fish, fruit, curds, honey, and oil. Sacrificial animals were usually of the male sex; they had to be without defects, strong and fat, for only the unblemished is worthy of the gods.

The Egyptians practiced human sacrifice.

The image of the god was entertained daily with food and drink, which were placed on the sacrificial table. At the laying of the foundation-stone of a new temple human sacrifices were offered, being abolished only in the era of the Ramassides; a trace of this repulsive custom survived in the later ceremony of impressing on the sacrificial victim a seal bearing the image of a man in chains with a knife in his throat.

The CE goes on to describe Jewish and Canaanite sacrifice. Then it boasts of its superiority because "Christianity knows but one sacrifice". Thus, Christians can continue the practice without experiencing the sight of blood.

Christianity knows but one sacrifice, the sacrifice which was once offered by Christ in a bloody manner on the tree of the Cross. But in order to apply to individual men in sacrificial form though a constant sacrifice the merits of redemption definitively won by the sacrifice of the Cross, the Redeemer Himself instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to be an unbloody continuation and representation of the bloody sacrifice of Calvary.

In conclusion, every religion is essentially pagan in its nature and function. Changing the language only alters its appearance; it does not change its form.

Biblical inanities

1. As shown above, the doctrine of atonement is of heathen origin. It is based on the assumption that no sin can be expiated without the shedding of blood. Christians might pause to wonder how it is that they can condemn human sacrifice in heathen religions yet glorify it in their own religion.

9Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood , much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Rom. 5:9-10)

2. Christians predicate their doctrine of atonement for sin upon the assumption that Jesus' death and suffering was a substitute for Adam's death incurred from the fall. But Adam did die, so such a notion is preposterous.

God threatened to kill Adam on the day he ate the fruit.

16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Gen. 2:16-17)

But Adam lived for 930 years. What was in that fruit?

5Thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. (Gen. 5:5)

3. If the penalty for sin was death and Christ suffered that penalty for man, then man should not die. But we still die, so his death accomplished nothing.

Paul says sin brought death into the world.

12Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned-

13sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. (Rom 5:12-13)

And all who believe in Christ shall be made alive.

22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:22)

But God never intended for man to live forever. This is evidenced when he explains that he kept Adam away from the tree of life because he never intended for him to live forever.

22Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"

23therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. (Gen. 3:22)

4. The curse had nothing to do with spiritual death either, because in the second part of the curse, Adam was to return to the ground from where he came.

Paul says Jesus was a life giving spirit.

45Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Cor. 15:45)

But God said Adam was to return to dust. There was no mention of his spirit dying because the Old Testament writers did not believe in spiritual life after death.

19In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Gen. 3:19)

5. God didn't curse Adam; he cursed the ground. So there was nothing for Jesus to atone for.

7And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you ; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; (Gen. 3:17)

6. The lie gets bigger when we realize that none of the four gospels mention Adam's sin or even hint towards it. Jesus took it upon himself to save the current generation of sinners before the end of the world came. In the Gospels, there is no evidence that suggests Christ died voluntarily or involuntarily for the future sins of mankind.

38For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

9:1And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power." (Mark 8:3-8-9:1)

If Jesus knew he was being sacrificed for the cause of Adam's so-called sin, he would not have renounced his god.

46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mat. 27:45, Mark 15:34)

7. Well then, where did original sin come from? There is not a word about Adam throughout the Old Testament and the Gospels until we reach the letters of Paul; this is why Jews don't subscribe to it. The list below constitutes every passage from Paul which connects Adam's name to sin. Remember, this is an event that supposedly happened 4,000 years before Paul in biblical time.

14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Rom. 5:14)

22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:22)

45Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Cor. 15:45)

13For Adam was formed first, then Eve;

14and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. (1 Tim. 2:13-14)

8. Noah is said to be righteous and blameless, meaning he wasn't tainted by Adam's sin.

9These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. (Gen. 6:9)

9. God intended for his flood to purge the human race of all sin because of violence. Adam's sin would have ended here.

13And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Gen. 6:13)

10. After the flood, God lifted the curse. He will never again curse the ground because of man. In paragraph 5 above, he cursed the ground because of Adam. He didn't curse Adam or humankind.

21And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. (Gen. 8:21)

11. The Father precluded salvation by the Son. Only the Father can save.

11I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. (Isa. 43:11)

6that men may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; (Isa. 45:6)

21.Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. (Isa. 45:21)

4I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no saviour. (Hosea 13:4)

12. Jesus is not a god. On a number of occasions, Jesus spoke of himself as separate from God.

17And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

18 And Jesus said to him, <"Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. (Mark 10:17-18)

16And behold, one came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?"

17And he said to him,<"Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." (Matt 19:16-17)

1When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, <"Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee,

2since thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him.

3And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. (John 17:1-3)

Even Paul saw Christ as separate from God the Father.

6yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Cor. 8:6)

13. Salvation cannot be achieved by following a strict ethical code. It can only be achieved by faith alone.

28For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. (Rom. 3:28)

1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. (Rom. 5:1-2)

14. All humans who lived between the time of Adam and Christ had no chance of being saved. Those who never heard of Christ cannot be saved. According to Paul, they are without excuse. This would have to include all Jews and every biblical hero in the Old Testament.

20Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse (Rom. 1:20)

Corruption of Justice

1. If crucifixion was necessary as a penalty, then the perpetrators, namely Adam and the serpent should have been nailed to the cross.

2. Sin is said to be infinite. Yet Adam, a finite being could not commit an infinite sin. Furthermore, Christ's sacrifice and sufferings could not be infinite unless he continues to suffer to all eternity.

3. To kill an innocent person for the sake of the guilty is more of a moral outrage then the nature of the sin which it is said to ameliorate.

4. It is as much a moral outrage when a divine father has his son killed as when a human father does the same.

5. People of true moral virtue would not be comforted knowing an innocent man died in their place. Only the guilty would.

6. It is like the culprit was sentenced to penalty by death and someone was substituted in his place. Punish the innocent and pardon the guilty.

7. Evil men can escape eternal punishment by believing and repenting on their deathbed.

8. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. One son eats some forbidden fruit, so another son has to pay for it with his life.

9. All humans are guilty of sin by virtue of being born. It is a sin to be alive.

10. Sin and moral behavior have no relevance. History is replete with people who have committed crimes when they thought they were doing God's will. Many crimes are sanctioned by the Bible.

11. Christianity is founded upon obedience, not moral behavior. In effect, slavery has a higher value then free will.

12. The evils for which man is condemned are morality, reason, curiosity, creativity, joy, sex-all the cardinal values humanity needs to survive.

Logical Absurdities

1. Christians have a long history of persecuting Jews for Christ's death. But if this crucifixion was choreographed by God to save mankind, then the perpetrators deserve praise, not condemnation.

2. If Christ was a man, then his death was of no consequence. If he was a God, then he couldn't die. If he didn't become a god until he died, then he wasn't the god of creation.

3. If the crucifixion was choreographed by God, then no credit goes to Jesus for heroics.

4. God the lawmaker punishes himself instead of the lawbreaker. Since when is a god subject to punishment by his own laws? Does this mean he faked his death to appease his own wrath?

5. Private Citizens can be justly grateful for the police and military personnel who have sacrificed their lives in defense against crime and foreign aggression. But for Christians to be grateful to Christ for saving them from their own God doesn't have the same ring to it.

6. The belief that God loves mankind and he is not the source of evil.

7. Since it takes belief to be saved, the curse will never be lifted.

8. The fallout from paragraphs 6 and 7 extends to the poverty and malnutrition in third world nations. It extends to all non-Christians who are ravaged by war and disease. It means that they had it coming to them because God didn't get his message out through the Church.

9. Life after death-death by definition means the end of life. The term is a corruption of language.

10. Belief in Jesus does not guarantee salvation. Assuming there is a God, no one can know if they will be saved because the requirements are arbitrary and capricious. You can't get your money back if the Church is wrong.

11. According to the Trinitarian doctrine, Christ the Son is the same as God the Father and the Spirit. This means that Christ had himself killed to protect us from himself. But of course, he is a god and gods can't die. So his death was a sham.

12. The idea of an infinite god means that he is the universe. That makes each human a part of God. Since we are parts of God, there can be no such thing as sin.

13. To say god is everything means the same as saying he is nothing.

14. Conversely, to call god an immaterial spirit is the same as saying he does not exist. Material things do not only include entities made up of matter and energy. They also include time and even empty space. Anything which is not energy, not matter and not space, cannot transcend time and thus does not have the properties of existence.

Conclusion

No category of thought has ever mangled and bungled language and ethics as much as theology has.