Yes for over 2,000 years we have been taught that scarcity is a universal timeless problem. Scarcity is what allows the monetary system to exist. We are also indoctrinated from birth that mankind's capabilities are limited or scarce. Jesus time after time would get frustrated with his apostles when they would ask Him for more of something like food to feed people. Jesus would say have you not learned yet how 5 loaves and 5 fish fed over 4,00 people! In other words you can do this too if you had enough faith! Also , yes we are taught God is in the institutions not within ourselves. A lot of our greatest saints lived for long periods of time in caves alone only with themselves looking and learning from within/ God is within all of us. Thank you again for another great article!
I will never forget the day I stood at an internal decision…so much of my life was invested in it and I had built my life within the framework of….
It was clear to me the possible cousin loss of familial bonds…but I knew that my free will would hold and therefore there was a choice….
That Sunday morning I chose to walk in the cathedral of the world and found it very good…never ever felt so closely held in love….NO FEAR
PS. I always tell my grown children that God could not possibly be less merciful than me…or them…so look into your heart and soul to reclaim that FIRM FOUNDATION
I hear you loud and clear and understand. Humanity bought the lies long ago that have kept us in prison and we don't even acknowledge the key to the door is sitting right in our own hand.
Does this mean you don’t believe what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah?
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
• “The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
Yeshua came to bring the lost house of Israel back to the FATHER. HE came to pay the death penalty for sin. Forgiveness-grace- was always there but you have to humble yourself, acknowledge the wrong and ask to be forgiven. Yeshua also by HIS sacrifice destroyed the curtain separating the people from direct access to the FATHER. We can now go to the FATHER directly using Yeshua's name because we believe and acknowledge who HE is..the only begotten son who paid tge death penalty of our sins. Forgiveness was there from the beginning when ADAM first sinned by eating the fruit disobeying the FATHER, all he had to do was humble himself, acknowledge the disobedience and ask forgiveness. Except he didn't. He hid. And the he blamed GOD for "the woman You gave me". Hmmmm...
"Is this God's plan, to become a human being and die, so that God won't have to destroy us instead? Is it God's prescription to have Jesus suffer for sins he did not commit so God can forgive the sins we do commit? That's the wrong side of the razor. Jesus was already preaching the forgiveness of sins and forgiving sins before he died. He did not have to wait until after the resurrection to do that. Blood is not acceptable to God as a means of uniting human community or a price for God's favor. Christ sheds his own blood to end that way of trying to mend our divisions. Jesus' death isn't necessary because God has to have innocent blood to solve the guilt equation. Redemptive violence is our equation. Jesus didn't volunteer to get into God's justice machine. God volunteered to get into ours. God used our own sin to save us."
Eko you either believe all of Scripture is God breathed or none of it. There is so much that God told us and also that Jesus told us that is being overlooked. Jesus warned us about hell, he spoke more about hell than heaven. God made no secret that he is a God of justice and that he hates sin. Jesus willingly laid down his life for us, he made the choice before he ever came down to this earth as a child. God didn't force him to do any of it. God gave us free will, he knew what would happen and he already had the way of escape mapped out. He promised a messiah. The crucifixion is the heart of the Bible. The old testament points forward to Christ and the new testament points back to him. Over and over throughout the old testament you see God instructing the people about what sacrifices he would accept for atonement for sin. It's what caused Cain to murder his brother, he decided he would determine what to sacrifice instead of obeying what God had told him to do. Then he got jealous because God accepted Abels and not his. Yes God created us to live in perfect harmony with him and as he said, he is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to him. Which implies that there will be those that perish. Jesus said the road to destruction is wide and most people will take that road and the road to life is narrow and few will find it. Yes mankind in his sin nature will try to twist God's truths for their own purposes, so maybe you have had bad experiences with churches which is unfortunate, but God's word is the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow and we are warned not to add to it or take away from what it is teaching us. God said there will be a judgement for the unbelievers and many will cry Abba Father and he will say depart from me you workers if iniquity I never knew you. The only patterns I see are man trying to be God, man trying to fit God in a box to justify their sinful behaviors, man using and twisting God's word to control and manipulate others, and man denying God exists. All results of the sin nature we are born with since the fall. God demands justice, sin creates injustice and wickedness. Just like an earthly judge imposes a sentence for criminal behavior, God has told us what the sentence is for sin. A lot of people, myself included, wrestle with why God wanted a blood sacrifice. But life is in the blood. You cannot live without blood, you would die. Our eternal life rests solely in the shed blood of Christ. Everything God does has meaning. We just have to see it.
I believe what the early church believed that Jesus descended into hell, vanquished the princes of this world, and rose drawing the good to him, reorganizing the dynamics to enable humanity to actually choose good over evil. I do not believe the out of whole cloth invention of Anselm about substitutionary atonement he invented a 1,000 years later based upon feudal morality.
Jesus had the power to descend into hell without being crucified, so what was the purpose of his laying down his life on the cross? What good did he draw to himself when he rose? None of us are good, we all sin. Its why we need him. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin actually means to miss the mark. Nothing we do can brings us to the level of righteousness of God. There are many verses in scripture that talk about sacrifice and atonement and Jesus being the final sacrifice. Anselm didn't make that up, there is plenty of scripture to support it. The early church understood this, you don't read about the early church performing animal sacrifice to make atonement to God, they understood that Jesus' death on the cross replaced the need for it. Good discussion by the way, hopefully I'm not coming across as argumentative.
Jesus had to die "hung on wood" (the cross) so he would be cursed by God and sent to the deepest hell. This enabled him to preach to everyone who was dead and give them a real opportunity to choose good over evil and follow Jesus on his ascent to heaven. The good he drew were those who chose good, but also, he reorganized a chaotic mix of good and evil to better align heavenly and hellish influences on humans. This last is not Scriptural but is from the early Father writings as to the "Harrowing of Hell".
Yes, we all "miss the mark" often. But that's why Jesus said to invite the Holy Spirit to indwell and to listen for the truth that would make you free.
The early church didn't have any notion of substitutionary atonement only following the example and teaching of Jesus.
I have already purchased these two books and will be reading them next. Thank you EKO, sending you love!
So many have been sold the bill of goods and will not turn away from the corruption. The Church, His Bride, is not a building, any building, plain or fancy. It is not anyone who claims they must be intercessor for you; Christ gave us all a direct line through Him. Every believer combined makes His Church. Every one of you; YOU have a direct line to our Lord inside of you. Stop turning down the volume on His voice and His WORD. Listen. Pray. Learn. Reflect. Ask Him questions, but you must listen to hear the answers.
And please pray for our President, VP and the cabinet. That they are not filled with pride, that they do not listen to evil voices or those with evil in their hearts. Pray they are led to only listen to good & wise council and that they receive our Lord into their own hearts, and resist temptations.
When I was perhaps 15, I became aware of this passage in scripture: "Without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin."
It never made any sense. If God is love, why would He need blood? He created blood. Totally nonsensical.
Sin means "missing the mark." Repentance means "turning around." That's all. If you become aware that you have missed the mark, turn around. If murder is wrong (Thou shalt not kill), how would shedding blood change anything - it's just another sin. And a large one.
Agree! It’s a shifting-the-burden structure, and is not intelligent or loving. I never understood why would a loving Father would require a scapegoat. Nothing can be learned. We must each restore the original connection to our Source (at-one-ment.) The old doctrine was institutionalized.
The idea of sacrifice implies eliminating the lesser to make way for the greater. We are each called upon to grow out of our lesser selves, into our spiritual identity in the body of Christ.
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Yes for over 2,000 years we have been taught that scarcity is a universal timeless problem. Scarcity is what allows the monetary system to exist. We are also indoctrinated from birth that mankind's capabilities are limited or scarce. Jesus time after time would get frustrated with his apostles when they would ask Him for more of something like food to feed people. Jesus would say have you not learned yet how 5 loaves and 5 fish fed over 4,00 people! In other words you can do this too if you had enough faith! Also , yes we are taught God is in the institutions not within ourselves. A lot of our greatest saints lived for long periods of time in caves alone only with themselves looking and learning from within/ God is within all of us. Thank you again for another great article!
I will never forget the day I stood at an internal decision…so much of my life was invested in it and I had built my life within the framework of….
It was clear to me the possible cousin loss of familial bonds…but I knew that my free will would hold and therefore there was a choice….
That Sunday morning I chose to walk in the cathedral of the world and found it very good…never ever felt so closely held in love….NO FEAR
PS. I always tell my grown children that God could not possibly be less merciful than me…or them…so look into your heart and soul to reclaim that FIRM FOUNDATION
Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Rev. 13: 8
I hear you loud and clear and understand. Humanity bought the lies long ago that have kept us in prison and we don't even acknowledge the key to the door is sitting right in our own hand.
Does this mean you don’t believe what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah?
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
• “The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
Beautiful message 🙏❤️🕊
Thank you, EKO
Yeshua came to bring the lost house of Israel back to the FATHER. HE came to pay the death penalty for sin. Forgiveness-grace- was always there but you have to humble yourself, acknowledge the wrong and ask to be forgiven. Yeshua also by HIS sacrifice destroyed the curtain separating the people from direct access to the FATHER. We can now go to the FATHER directly using Yeshua's name because we believe and acknowledge who HE is..the only begotten son who paid tge death penalty of our sins. Forgiveness was there from the beginning when ADAM first sinned by eating the fruit disobeying the FATHER, all he had to do was humble himself, acknowledge the disobedience and ask forgiveness. Except he didn't. He hid. And the he blamed GOD for "the woman You gave me". Hmmmm...
.
Four books (and others) by René Girard build a case much like this:
Violence and the Sacred
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
The Scapegoat
Job, The Victim of His People
Another builds on Girard:
S. Mark Heim, Saved from Sacrifice
There are many others, but these get to the idea that Jesus's work on the cross exposed the Lie that you have identified here.
Here is an excerpt from Heim's preface (pg. xi):
"Is this God's plan, to become a human being and die, so that God won't have to destroy us instead? Is it God's prescription to have Jesus suffer for sins he did not commit so God can forgive the sins we do commit? That's the wrong side of the razor. Jesus was already preaching the forgiveness of sins and forgiving sins before he died. He did not have to wait until after the resurrection to do that. Blood is not acceptable to God as a means of uniting human community or a price for God's favor. Christ sheds his own blood to end that way of trying to mend our divisions. Jesus' death isn't necessary because God has to have innocent blood to solve the guilt equation. Redemptive violence is our equation. Jesus didn't volunteer to get into God's justice machine. God volunteered to get into ours. God used our own sin to save us."
Eko you either believe all of Scripture is God breathed or none of it. There is so much that God told us and also that Jesus told us that is being overlooked. Jesus warned us about hell, he spoke more about hell than heaven. God made no secret that he is a God of justice and that he hates sin. Jesus willingly laid down his life for us, he made the choice before he ever came down to this earth as a child. God didn't force him to do any of it. God gave us free will, he knew what would happen and he already had the way of escape mapped out. He promised a messiah. The crucifixion is the heart of the Bible. The old testament points forward to Christ and the new testament points back to him. Over and over throughout the old testament you see God instructing the people about what sacrifices he would accept for atonement for sin. It's what caused Cain to murder his brother, he decided he would determine what to sacrifice instead of obeying what God had told him to do. Then he got jealous because God accepted Abels and not his. Yes God created us to live in perfect harmony with him and as he said, he is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to him. Which implies that there will be those that perish. Jesus said the road to destruction is wide and most people will take that road and the road to life is narrow and few will find it. Yes mankind in his sin nature will try to twist God's truths for their own purposes, so maybe you have had bad experiences with churches which is unfortunate, but God's word is the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow and we are warned not to add to it or take away from what it is teaching us. God said there will be a judgement for the unbelievers and many will cry Abba Father and he will say depart from me you workers if iniquity I never knew you. The only patterns I see are man trying to be God, man trying to fit God in a box to justify their sinful behaviors, man using and twisting God's word to control and manipulate others, and man denying God exists. All results of the sin nature we are born with since the fall. God demands justice, sin creates injustice and wickedness. Just like an earthly judge imposes a sentence for criminal behavior, God has told us what the sentence is for sin. A lot of people, myself included, wrestle with why God wanted a blood sacrifice. But life is in the blood. You cannot live without blood, you would die. Our eternal life rests solely in the shed blood of Christ. Everything God does has meaning. We just have to see it.
https://grokipedia.com/page/Christus_Victor
great Tim, a lesson from Grokopedia, but what do you believe? In your own words?
I believe what the early church believed that Jesus descended into hell, vanquished the princes of this world, and rose drawing the good to him, reorganizing the dynamics to enable humanity to actually choose good over evil. I do not believe the out of whole cloth invention of Anselm about substitutionary atonement he invented a 1,000 years later based upon feudal morality.
Jesus had the power to descend into hell without being crucified, so what was the purpose of his laying down his life on the cross? What good did he draw to himself when he rose? None of us are good, we all sin. Its why we need him. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin actually means to miss the mark. Nothing we do can brings us to the level of righteousness of God. There are many verses in scripture that talk about sacrifice and atonement and Jesus being the final sacrifice. Anselm didn't make that up, there is plenty of scripture to support it. The early church understood this, you don't read about the early church performing animal sacrifice to make atonement to God, they understood that Jesus' death on the cross replaced the need for it. Good discussion by the way, hopefully I'm not coming across as argumentative.
Jesus had to die "hung on wood" (the cross) so he would be cursed by God and sent to the deepest hell. This enabled him to preach to everyone who was dead and give them a real opportunity to choose good over evil and follow Jesus on his ascent to heaven. The good he drew were those who chose good, but also, he reorganized a chaotic mix of good and evil to better align heavenly and hellish influences on humans. This last is not Scriptural but is from the early Father writings as to the "Harrowing of Hell".
Yes, we all "miss the mark" often. But that's why Jesus said to invite the Holy Spirit to indwell and to listen for the truth that would make you free.
The early church didn't have any notion of substitutionary atonement only following the example and teaching of Jesus.
Ms D Marie...thank you for your Holy Spirit laden words...I think EKO concurs! Praise our Blessed Lird& Saviour...
🎯
“The whisper that said: you don’t need the Source. You can be your own source.”
🐍🍎🤷♀️🤷♂️
I have already purchased these two books and will be reading them next. Thank you EKO, sending you love!
So many have been sold the bill of goods and will not turn away from the corruption. The Church, His Bride, is not a building, any building, plain or fancy. It is not anyone who claims they must be intercessor for you; Christ gave us all a direct line through Him. Every believer combined makes His Church. Every one of you; YOU have a direct line to our Lord inside of you. Stop turning down the volume on His voice and His WORD. Listen. Pray. Learn. Reflect. Ask Him questions, but you must listen to hear the answers.
And please pray for our President, VP and the cabinet. That they are not filled with pride, that they do not listen to evil voices or those with evil in their hearts. Pray they are led to only listen to good & wise council and that they receive our Lord into their own hearts, and resist temptations.
YES.
When I was perhaps 15, I became aware of this passage in scripture: "Without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin."
It never made any sense. If God is love, why would He need blood? He created blood. Totally nonsensical.
Sin means "missing the mark." Repentance means "turning around." That's all. If you become aware that you have missed the mark, turn around. If murder is wrong (Thou shalt not kill), how would shedding blood change anything - it's just another sin. And a large one.
In my opinion, the universe runs on love.
Agree! It’s a shifting-the-burden structure, and is not intelligent or loving. I never understood why would a loving Father would require a scapegoat. Nothing can be learned. We must each restore the original connection to our Source (at-one-ment.) The old doctrine was institutionalized.
The idea of sacrifice implies eliminating the lesser to make way for the greater. We are each called upon to grow out of our lesser selves, into our spiritual identity in the body of Christ.
💒🕊️💕 May God bless you and keep you, EKO ! 💕🕊️💒
Your marvelous, and obvious text let me voiceless!
I thank you so much! 🇫🇷🙏🏻💕🫂🇺🇲
Either I misunderstand you or you misunderstand orthodox Christianity. I hope it is the former.