How do christians rationalize the following: only answers from serious scholars required?

Question

As a skeptic I find it curious why the Hebrew God requires blood sacrifice as compensation for displeasing him, or why misdeeds are blamed on successive generations. For instance, imagine a law that said if your parents had been convicted of a felony the children would also serve jail time. As absurd as that seems, the justice standard practiced by the Hebrew God seems to operate under similar principles.

The parsing of the answer Charles gave arises on the use of the term justice. Remove justice from the last sentence and it reads; "The standard practiced by the Hebrew God appears to operate analogous to such a system." Either way, your response contained nothing regarding the central logic of the question and is unsatisfactory.

Answer 1

"As absurd as that seems..."

Absurd to who? It is important not to export back to the text which manifestly does not presuppose what you and I presuppose when talking about Justice. You comment is similar to physics students who complain about Aristotle's defective notion of momentum. Of course Aristotle has no notion of momentum, so the complaints can't really be brought to bear.

This is important. Ancient Hebrew (and Greek, too) has no notion of either morality, ethics or politics as we 21st century westerns generally hold. Indeed, the 21st century concepts do not exist. So, you have a little work to do before making your claim that the text is absurd.

What is the concept of Justice displayed in the text, *AND* what is the concept of Justice that ancient Jews would have been familiar with and is intended to be rejected by accepting the concept of Justice presented in the text? This is a non-trivial question; but attempting to answer it will get you started down the road of grasping what the ancient writers wanted to capture before you actually reject it.

HTH

Charles

Answer 2

First blood sacrifices were in similitude of the Christ, It was to remind the people only the Blood of a perfect person would save them. When Jesus offered him self his blood was spilled for all and done away with the lesser law of sacrifice. We are now however commanded to drink wine or water and eat bread to show the same things a blood sacrifice use to do which is truly just to bring us into remembrance. It is Gods way of bringing us into remembrance often of his atonement and help us to become better. Second it was how the children were brought up that cursed them not god he just was stating what the parents would do if they turned from him not that he would do that to the children himself. For an example how long has it taken the Black People in the United States to achieve the same status as the white people? It is peoples hearts that extend the curse not God. Every one knows that color of the person has no inward bearing on how they feel or how smart they are or the worth of an Individual. But yet many people still hold on to the values of their parents.

Answer 3

Space does not permit a complete answer so I will refer you to an excellent site.

Why did God institute animal sacrifices in the Old Testament? What was their purpose? Are they required today?

Some of the Jewish faith believe that they should be reinstituted. Many Christians believe Jesus Christ in the New Testament abolished the laws of the Old Testament and that we no longer have to keep any of them because "Jesus did it for us." Do they have a purpose and meaning for us today?

What does the Bible say?

The purpose of this study is to learn, from both the Old and New Testaments, the purpose and meaning contained in the law of the sacrifices and offerings, especially as they were fulfilled by Jesus Christ and as they apply to Christians today.........
http://home.earthlink.net/~serfpub/sacrifices.htm

Answer 4

Well since I am not a scholar, I will not answer you even though I could, But since it takes a scholar to answer something, that leaves me out, I have only 12 years of school, & been a Christian for 37 yrs. Sorry I don't qualify. Oh by the way I am 57 yrs. old But I still have not been here on this earth long enough to suit you, sorry.

Answer 5

the pracitice of retribution is indeed a popular one
in many ways our justice system punishes the children of felons and misdemeanors similarly
the detriment to the family when the person is removed form contact is substantial and affects generations to come with the reverberations
we ought t0 consider how casually we use our own power to inact "justice" as we like to call it befor e we attack any other form of it
the practice of the fear of not letting go even of life is also seen as very honorable in our society when done for certain purposes
in the days where it was popular they figured that to do so for god showed ultimate devotion and trust

Answer 6

God laid out those laws for the Jewish people because they would have disobeyed without strict guidelines. I don't think that needs any Christian rationalizing, because God according to Jews and God according to Christians are two different things.

Answer 7

In old times things were very different.

Just because we have become soft and spoiled today does not mean that life was always so easy.

People in 2000 BC would not have responded to a "Time out"

Peace!

Answer 8

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and obeyed Satan and ate of the tree of good and evil, sin came into the world. God killed an animal and covered their nakedness with the animal skin. God set the absolute that blood is required to cover sin.
Years of blood animal sacrifice was done to COVER sin so man could be acceptable to God. BUT JESUS a sinless Lamb of God was the final sacrifice because Jesus took away the sins of the world. Believing in Jesus we are no longer dead to sin, but He pardoned sin and gave us eternal life back that Adam lost in the Garden of Eden.

What is passed down to successive generations is sin. The sin of alcohol passes from father to son. Sin of pornography passes from father to son. Sin of whoredom passes from mother to daughter. Sin of wife beating passes down from the father to the son and on down through the generations.

Answer 9

i'm pretty sure in some countries that actually still goes on. children are born into debt, into slavery, for things their parents and even grandparent owe.

it is sad, but it happens.
as for your question, yes, it seems a little silly

Answer 10

It's the worst possible punishment you can give someone.. Punishing children they may not even have yet.