Does the Christian God thrive on death?

Question

As something of a curious individual, I find the bible to be a highly interesting text. However, one thing I keep returning to is the bizarre character of God. From Cain, the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the choice of Moses as his mouthpiece and the slaughter of Egypt's firstborn, through the sacrificial and murderous laws of Leviticus and the trials of the Jewish people to Jesus himself and his sacrifice on the Cross and Paul's theories of what that sacrifice means in terms of Afterlife (never mind the Church's own escapades), the entire history of the Christian faith seems to rest on the back of people who have killed or died violent deaths.

Does the Christian God benefit from death?
Is the point of Christianity that Jesus satisfies this need?
If so, is this a problem?
If not, why is God's history so filled with violence?

If I may tag on a little question, why was Jesus's death, specifically, needed as the intermediatory step? Could God, in all of his mercy and power, not have merely said "Alright, fine, here's a backdoor for anyone who believes in me enough to risk using it", rather than requiring some elaborate self-sacrifice? Why did a death need to be the catalyst?

Answer 1

I believe that the vast majority of religion is based on death. It's the only time that God apparently has any influence. Until then, he doesn't do any favours for Christians - he just accepts their adoration. Without death there would be no religion.

Answer 2

The world was never meant to be this way. God created everything to be perfect. God gave Adam and Eve a rule, one "Do Not". They had everything but they didn't listen and did the one thing God told them not to do. This disobedience ruined what was perfect and ever since then death came into the world Man was meant to live forever and even after Adam and Eve first sinned, people lived a very long time. Read Genesis and see. Some lived to be 1000. To die at age 300 was early. Since the advent of impure blood lines and many sorts of problems, old is now considered to be ??70? 80? 90? 100? After the first sins God desired a BLOOD sacrifice to atone, receive forgiveness, for sins. A blood sacrifice of course means death. Unblemished animals were the offering for this blood sacrifice. When Jesus came into the world aka The New Testament, He being perfect, sinless, holy, the Son of God, offered Himself as the blood sacrifice when He suffered, bled, died on the cross for our redemption. Blood, blood sacra fices are no longer necessary. Jesus did it once and for all and by His nature, God is forever satisfied, pleased and can forgive man of sin. Forgiveness will lead to eternal life in heaven where there will be no such thing as sin and it's consequences. Benefit from death? No. He never ment it to be that way in the first place. After death, man can benefit via Gods plan for salvation..heaven. Yes, Jesus did satisify the need (see above.) Not a problem any more. God is not the author of violence. God doesn't tell a person to go out and kill, rape, cheat, someone etc. . Man tells himself to do these things

Answer 3

I too have often wondered why a deity who is omnipotent would need such sacrifices. If he created everything then surely destroying any part of it would be wrong. How can death be a gift if it belonged to him anyway? It would be like buying a younger sibling a present then expecting them to break it. Anyway, I just see no point to it. When I was a church going christian I ignored, like a lot of christians I imagine, the violence and horror in the bible. It didn't fit in with what I was being told who god was. I then read some of the old testament and I too asked similar questions that you have brought up. Ironic how reading the bible was supposed to bring me closer to god but it ended up making me rethink my beliefs and stop attending mass. I have christian friends and I am thankful that they don't try to re-convert me, they couldn't anyway.
Keep asking these questions, it is good that you are doing so as it shows you will not accept things just on what you are told.
Good luck to you.

Answer 4

You are lumping a whole lot of different things together there. Looking at the bible as a whole is tricky at best, useless at worst, as the old testament was the Jewish bible (or a version of) it is markedly different to the new testament which was written much much later. And in both cases they reflect the times they were written in. For example, parts of the new testament involve violence and death because it was written in a time of violence and persecution. The history of Christianity does use people who were martyred as examples of people who believe and as a justification for their faith, and why shouldn't they, if people were willing to die for what they believed maybe we should take notice (you see where they are coming from) And on a religious point Christians believe in free will and so the death and violence is as much to do with them as it is with god

Answer 5

Death, we are told that the wadges of sin IS death, you live on a planet that has A total death rate, when Adam and Eve sinned they brought sin and death to everyone, it was like pulling the plug on life, so Jesus Christ the second member of The Godhead died in our place, the santuary services that offered killing A lamb in the place of the sinner to "take the place" of the sinner pointed us to Jesus "the Lamb of God" death is the natural Jesus and Live everlasting is the supernatural you will end up in one of two resurections either eternal life or eternal death, there is NO middle ground and sometimes He had to get folks attention in hard ways, we do gain something from death, Jesus took your place at death so YOU could have His place at life, He paid A debt He did not owe because YOU owe A debt you can not pay, free bible lessons learn more www.itiswritten.com God bless. bible questions www.bibleinfo.com EMAIL me also [e-mail] visit A Seventh day Adventist Church on sabbath [saturday is the seventh day sabbath sunday is the first day and is NEVER called sabbath or holy in all the bible] again God bless.

Answer 6

Hi, I am Rational Spirituality,

First of all, there is only one God, but many interpretations of him. Christianity is just one of these many, and the endless reference to violence that the bible, in particular the Old Testament contain, is a reflection on the culture and the thinking of those who wrote it. It has nothing to do with God.

I believe that the bible is in many respects an insult to God, and to Christ. The name of the latter, and of his mission, are particularly misinterpreted and abused. Christ was a highly advanced Soul that came to teach humanity, and to show with his own example how to live. For that he was crucified by humans. Bad enough, but still not enough for humanity. 325 years after his life, the establishments found that his legacy had a growing number of followers, who had Christ and his teachings in their hearts. This was becoming a politically untenable situation, so the solution that was chosen was, to usurp Christ's movement. An official Christian church was established, and Christ was declared the son of God who died for the sins of others. Now, this was a clever ploy of manipulation: Whereas Christ taught selfresponsibilty, the Church, and with the sole aim of securing the subservience of the masses declared that OBEDIENCE is the way to the rewards "in heaven". And that meant obedience to the emperor, king and the church, jointly referred to as the church/state alliance. They declared themselves to be the representatives of God on Earth: a blasphemy of the highest possible order. And what were the most outstanding fruits of their power: The inquisition, the crusades, and the annihilation of the Cathars. God tolerated this situation for nearly 2000 years, because it was a lesson and a test for people. Occasionally, some tried to restore the truth and the ruling "representatives" of God on Earth usually burnt them at the stake, or annihilated their whole communities, i.e. the annihilation of the Cathars in 1244. The Cathars were the only holders of the true teachings of Christ, sometimes referred to as the Holy Grail.

We have now entered the Spiritual Age, and the process had already started, in which God will make an end to the lies and to the abuse of Christ's name by those who thrive on violence and injustice. The technology is changing, but Christianity is today abused by evil people as much as it was a thousand of years ago. The answer is in educating the masses. Christianity can be the messenger of violence only for as long as there are gullible and naive people who believe that the establishment represents the will of God. God can be found in people's hearts, if they are sincere enough.

What Iam writing here, is in no way intended as an offence to those genuine Christians who live as Christ would expect them to. Indeed, I consider myself to be one of them. I was born into a catholic background, but got soon, already as a child, disenchanted by the church's hypocrisy.

If everyone connected to God through their hearts, and felt his love and generosity that way, no violence would ever have entered the scriptures, or would have been perpetrated in God's name.

Ignorance is dangerous, and combined with hate, it leads to evil.

Christs's true teachings were channelled in February 2006, and are already a major force amongst the genuine and thinking people.

Anyone can access them in "Rational Spirituality" on the Dhaxem website.

Answer 7

This is a good question.... does God benefit from death ??? my response would be what is death to Him? nothing...God did have a different way of dealing with mankind before Jesus..that is pretty obvious... but with the sacrifice of His own Son..came a new covenant... i would also submit that considering whatever He takes He can return (including life) ...death really is kind of a joke to Him

Answer 8

All the deaths you talk about are as a result of mistake and a lesson of the reality of life and this shows. God only makes us learn from the mistakes never to repeat.

Answer 9

Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived.

Weeks passed and the twins developed. As their awareness grew, they laughed for joy: "Isn't it great that we were conceived? Isn't it great to be alive? "

Together the twins explored their worlds. When they found their mother's cord that gave them life, they sang for joy! "How great our mother's love is, that she shares her own life with us!"

As weeks stretched into months, the twins noticed how much each was changing.

"What does it mean?" one asked.

"It means our stay in this world is drawing to an end." said the other.

"But I don't want to go," said one. "I want to stay here always."

"We have no choice," said the other. "But maybe there is life after birth."

"But how can there be?" responded one. "We will shed our life cord and how can life be pos sible without it? Besides, we have seen evidence that others were here before us, and none of them has returned to tell us there is life after birth. No, this is the end. Maybe there is no mother after all."

"But there has to be," protested the other. "How else did we get here? How do we remain alive?"

"Have you ever seen our mother?" said one.

"Maybe she only lives in our minds. Maybe we made her up because the idea made us feel good."

So the last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fear.

Finally, the moment of birth arrived. When the twins had passed from their world, they opened their eyes and cried for joy - for what they saw exceeded their fondest dreams.

That is birth ... and that is death.

Unknown author

Answer 10

Violence is only justified in the case of self defense. The Jewish and Christian God don't believe in this concept, which makes them immoral criminals. They don't stand for fair trade and reason based on recognition of the individual human as inviolate as the only method of solving problems. Instead they stand for mysticism and the use of force and therefore their ultimate goal is death and destruction for us all.