Atonement

Human Sleight

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Paul warned the Ephesians about the activities of deceivers  (4:14) the result of which, is that believers acting as juveniles are “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming”; it is a magician’s m.o. to have people believe everything they see.

Yahweh, God the Almighty and the Lamb are heaven’s temple

Old is not new!

The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 8). Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 9). Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. (10)

Hebrews 9:8-10 

Believe the Bible or believe in God

Cutting the fat from the spiritual diet simply means recognizing that there are things done and recommended in the Bible that we have no business embracing.

The separation of temporary measures from permanent arrangements often eludes us.  Accurately interpreting the messages in the Bible is not merely a function of separating the Old Testament from the New.  A kind of cowardly laziness has kept Christian witness from its blazing and pervasive perfection.  We dilute the wine by mixing it with every ancient liquid we can find. It is as if Moses did not say that the buck did not stop with himself.  Reducing the royal priesthood to a Davidide person executing levitical operations is perhaps the most deceptive of international approaches.

What is in heaven?

A structure with all the installations for dealing with sin located in heaven or on earth says the same thing: people are going to sin.  A temple in heaven is an outright fable.  The permanence of salvation never depended on created space, such as a laver, a lampstand, a covenant box. It most certainly has no need for the intervention of human agents. 

Access to God through Christ does not need the help of a building. Even if the Jewish people built another temple its functions would have nothing to with redeeming humans.  It would be desolate from the start because animal blood is inadequate.  Christ, in his atoning work, is all alone.

The devil gets a hold of our doctrine and turns it into a geography lesson, a nutrition regime, a priesthood system,  anything beside the actual work of God’s Only-Begotten; authorizing sonship for anyone who believes.

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 11) Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us,(12)

Hebrews 9:11-12

The trickery of men will always end up grounded, exposed as empty clanging, because Christ is not the Alpha and Omega of their reasoning.

One would have to be pretty messed up to think that the true place of atonement is a location where hands and feet are washed, where blood is sprinkled, where bread is laid out etc. The heaven of Hebrews 9:24 is more than God’s residence. It is the eternal fact of essential saving grace in the face of Christ.

One can read the fact in plain language in Revelation 21:22,
“I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple:.

Bloody Messiah

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Who would have thought that the ruler of the age to come would make himself an offering for sin? The princes of this world did not for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1 Corinthians 2:7-8.  The bloody component of divine wisdom is scandalous, necessary and diagnostic.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Isaiah 53:10

His soul an offering for sin

If we do not know what sin is we might have an excuse.  With the conscience accusing every one, and the law condemning everyone who looks into it, an offering for sin is the only answer.  We know what a sin offering looks like.   It is the holy and undefiled Son of God, incarnate and separate from sinners (all humans).  Sin, for which Christ suffered himself, is unbelief.  This is the universal failure of the human race.  There is no one who is exempt from God’s evaluation of humanity.

Comparing missions

I know that tombs were emptied the moment Christ died. In the Bible we find neither rumor nor speculation that the sick and diseased were affected by the Lord’s death. On the cross is where the atonement takes place, not before or after.  It is to honour the Son that this timing is precise and public.  Christ on the cross is God’s exclusive answer to the human problem, and that problem is not the kind of thing that a doctor, prophet, priest or king can treat.  Sin calls for a life – “blood”, not a beating.  The idea that the physical abuse our Lord endured is atonement for infirmity (sickness and disease) has no biblical support. To remove disease requires no offering, least of all the offering of God’s Son. The idea that Christ went to Golgotha to change the physical wellbeing of the human race is a mouldy piece of bread.

Trafficking in trademark trash

It is obvious that the mission of the original missionaries did not include forgiveness of sins.  Jesus stopped funerals, reversed the corruption of death (in one case after four days). At his death all kinds of ancient dead came back to life.


Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Matthew 10:8
  • The sick
  • The lepers
  • The dead
  • The demonized (those possessed by evil angels)
  • No price tag attached

Instead of believing the message we have turned the report into a set of fables.  Isaiah’s question still highly functional.  Who is believing the messsge of the evangelist?

Scandalous from the start

When the Hebrews slew a lamb and sprinkled its blood on their doorposts it saved their lives.  Noone questioned this use of blood.  There were no questions about the use of blood in the tabernacle day after day.  However, since a life is given to pay for sin, and the life is in the blood, there was no living link between the sinner and the animal that saved his life.  The priest sprinkled or poured the blood but that atoning blood never came into contact with the worshipper.  Blood was the last thing an Israelite wanted to handle.


26. Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. 27. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.



Leviticus 7:26-27