Why did god willingly accept human sacrifice and condone the murder of innocents?

Question

According to Christians, Joshua Bar Yusef ( the real name of Jesus Christ) is the same enitity as the Old Testament Jewish god(s) YHWY and/or El who Chrsitians refer to as God the father.
From reading the bible it seems that JBY was a peaceful, and rather good entity, epitimised by his turn the other cheek attitude. I don't understand how he can be the same entity as the Old testament God who seems rather violent and evil. For example in Judges 11 (28-39) Jepthah makes a deal with God to make a human sacrifice by burning in exchange for a military victory, and God ends up accepting the sacrifice by burning of Jepthah's only daughter. From memory I also remember that when the Old Testament Joshua was battling the Cannanites God instructed him to kill them all, women and children too. To you Christians who accept the Bible literally how can you explain how the Peceful and rather loving enity you call Jesus is the same enitity as the Old Testament God, who seems a cruel viceous bastard

To Mr Mister.. you are a boring idiot.
To JP Poolplayer I don't pray as I am agnostic.
To Denon Cad 99 this is not symbolic it is supposed to be historical Jusges is that kind of book.
To alohachief77 he appears to have accepted this sacrifice unless the Bible is lying

to Maranath132- The quote says the sacrifice was carried out

Answer 1

I am an agnostic student of religion but will answer this because I am sure you will not get anything meaningful from our fundamentalist cross wagglers.
JBY never claimed to be God or divine, he saw himself as a teacher of the Jewish faith. The claim of his divinity was invented by Paul of Tarsus who never met him. Paul who was greatly influenced by the Roman mystery cults, invented a large part of the dogma of Christianity, including the trinity and resurrection. Paul did this because he was a power junkie and made a good easy living promoting these self serving lies. His version of Christianity prevailed however because JBY's followers in Jerusalem, the real Christians were wiped out in the revolt against Roman rule or were later executed as heretics by what became the catholic church.

Answer 2

First of all...God the Father is a JUST God. While Jesus Christ is more like what you might say is the Heart of God. (thus we see His more sacrificial loving side in Christ) There is no evidence that Jepthah "burned" his daughter. It was her ability to become a wife that was sacrificed. Not her life. As for the killing of the people in the book of Joshua....first one must concider the FACT that there are NO "innocents". God can see the heart of a man even before he is born! Therefore if you do alittle research into the customs of those ppl that you are calling "innocents" you will find that they willing sacrificed their children to the various gods of their nation...along with a load of other "objectionable" human behavior. If a person is allowed to be in that type of environment it is not long before even the most "righteous" man will begin to do abominations. (see lot) The bible is a written account of the reasons WHY God does what He does, so that we can learn to understand WHY we must be obedient & trusting to what He calls us to be.

Answer 3

Jepthah made a foolish vow to the Lord. She bewailed her virginity for two months, then returned to her father, and he carried out his vow. Does that mean he sacrificed her as a burnt offering? Certainly not. Such would be contrary to God's will. She was given to the Lord, remaining a virgin, and perhaps serving in the temple the remainder of her life.

As to your last question, Jesus was God's "New Covenant" with man. Jesus died for mankind's sins eliminating the Mosaic laws and allowing mankind redemption not death for sin. This was a defeat of the Devil and man's victory.

As far as your comments about Jesus being the same as Jaweh, you don't understand the concept of the trinity.

Answer 4

God does not need this kind of sacrifices, God needs us to sacrifice our vices and evil tendencies. Its not a actually a sacrifice but called as a sacrifice, since they are hard to leave. Know about God's wisdom.

God’s Wisdom, Love and Power
People may wonder why, if God exists, He doesn’t wave a magic wand and fix things, making or at least influencing everyone so that they do exactly what they ‘should’ do. But God never takes away anyone’s freedom of choice. God’s wisdom is to recognize and respect each soul’s individual identity, freedom and inherent goodness. God shares knowledge – a profound understanding of the dualities and dilemmas of love and hatred, happiness and sorrow, victory and defeat, etc. – but He does not make our choices for us. The soul is free to choose ‘to be or not to be’, ‘to love or not to love’. God’s love strengthens the soul’s will to free itself from the distresses caused by vices such as selfish desire, anger, fear, ego and attachment. God’s power helps the soul to recognize its highest potential and to aim for perfection by practising the art of simple living and high thinking. Such practice by a significant number of souls eventually brings about positive change in the whole of humanity.
When you learn to tune your mind in meditation to the mind of God, then whatever the situation, you always have a source of help and strength to draw upon – an infinite reservoir of power and virtues that is only a thought away

Answer 5

Jesus was a human sacrifice. He had to bear the sins of an entire human race. With his death, God's followers no longer had to sacrifice animals but rather participate in the Eucharist to remind us of Jesus's sacrifice. The Bible is rich with symbols (like the book of Psalms) and metaphors- not all of it is to be taken seriously.

Answer 6

The Lord did.does not accept human sacrifice. In Genesis, Abraham is directed to sacrifice Issac as a test of his faith. At the last moment, the Lord stops him and instructs him that Abraham's descendants are not to offer human sacrifices

Answer 7

I have wondered the same and have come to this conclusion...

God is a Just God, he can not go against himself or His Word. He believes and I assume created order and righteousness. His Law, in the OT, could not be used when he pleased, but always no matter the circumstances, like when David sinned w/Bathsheba and killed her husband, God removed Davids sin, but still Davids baby boy had to die, because of the sin. I think it is like when my son does wrong, he has to be punished, sometimes those punishments hurt me to watch, but they still have to be done.

Another reason, is the blood. Blood is so significant to God and his lawful ways, in the OT when people sinned against God the whole blood-line had to be destroyed, because the sin would live on in the blood, the only way to expunge the sin lawfully was to get rid of all the tainted blood. I believe that is why God killed men, their women and their children, their livestock, their servants and their servants children. The blood of sacrifice was pleasing to God and atoned for sins, that is why God gave us the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ, so His Blood could cover all sins. You see God hated having to kill off the entire blood line, too, but had to find a "legal" way to atone for sin, because he can not go against himself, He is a just and righteous God

Answer 8

Well dying is apart of life, and people did write the bible and maybe god knew that... when people communicate they say things different... God could see death as the cycle of life, we are never killed in spirit, so how can god be mean by something that just happens in life happens early... Its not what we do, But WHY we do it... for our safety or life, or greed... We get punished..
My view and good luck!!!

Answer 9

not all christians believe in the trinity, i do not , Jesus and Jehovah God are 2 seprate persons however in regards to the human sacrifice

Some critics and scholars have condemned Jephthah for his vow, having the view that Jephthah followed the practice of other nations, offering up his daughter by fire as a human burnt offering.

But this is not the case. It would be an insult to Jehovah, a disgusting thing in violation of his law, to make a literal human sacrifice.

He strictly commanded Israel: “You must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations. There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire . . . For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable things Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you.” (De 18:9-12)

Jehovah would curse, not bless, such a person. The very ones Jephthah was fighting, the Ammonites, practiced human sacrifice to their god Molech.—Compare 2Ki 17:17; 21:6; 23:10; Jer 7:31, 32; 19:5, 6.

When Jephthah said: “It must also occur that the one coming out, who comes out of the doors of my house to meet me . . . must also become Jehovah’s,” Jephthah knew that it might well be his daughter who would come out to meet him.

It must be borne in mind that Jehovah’s spirit was on Jephthah at the time; this would prevent any rash vow on Jephthah’s part.

How, then, would the person coming out to meet Jephthah to congratulate him on his victory “become Jehovah’s” and be offered up “as a burnt offering”?—Jg 11:31.

When Jephthah brought his daughter to the sanctuary, which was in Shiloh at that time, he undoubtedly accompanied his presentation of her with an animal burnt offering.


It was a real sacrifice on the part of both Jephthah and his daughter, for he had no other child. (Jg 11:34)

Therefore no descendant of his would carry on his name and his inheritance in Israel. Jephthah’s daughter was his only hope for this.

She wept, not over her death, but over her “virginity,” for it was the desire of every Israelite man and woman to have children and to keep the family name and inheritance alive. (Jg 11:37, 38)

Barrenness was a calamity. But Jephthah’s daughter “never had relations with a man.” Had these words applied only to the time prior to the carrying out of the vow, they would have been superfluous, for she is specifically said to have been a virgin.

That the statement has reference to the fulfilling of the vow is shown in that it follows the expression, “He carried out his vow that he had made toward her.”

Actually, the record is pointing out that also after the vow was carried out she maintained her virginity.—Jg 11:39; compare renderings in KJ; Dy; Yg; NW.

Moreover, Jephthah’s daughter was visited “from year to year” by her companions to ‘give her commendation.’ (Jg 11:40)

i'm still doing research on the joshua account

Answer 10

First of all, there are no "innocents". That's why Yeshua said this...

Luke 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Secondly, your example from the book of Judges is flawed. Jepthah made a rash vow without praying to God about it and said that he would sacrifice whatever came out of the door of his house when he got home if God would give him the victory. Unfortunately for him, it was his young daughter who came out of the door. The Bible doesn't say a thing about what God was doing while all of this went on, but Yeshua told us this...

Matthew 5:33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

As to your blaspheming the character of God, the Holy Spirit said this through the Apostle Paul when he was saddened by the Jewish people who were going to miss out on God's salvation because of their hard hearts and stiff necks...

Romans 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?