Why animal or human sacrifice in the old days?

Question

Surely this is man thinking this was the right thing to do? What kind of crazy god would want this?

twincrier: sounds a bit brutal to me.

consiglieri: Jesus was an educated animal, if he existed. IMO.

Answer 1

I don`t think he ever did. Man was heathen,uneducated and superstitious.

Answer 2

Many cultures from all over the world believed that sacrifice brought one close to God. Judaism started the process of eliminating sacrifice by starting with human sacrifice. We learned from the near sacrifice of Isaac that human sacrifice is NEVER acceptable to God. Israelites were to be God's "holy" people (separate/apart). They were the first culture to forbid human sacrifice. As well as eliminating human sacrifice, other sacrifices were also limited as you can see in the Bible. Sacrifices were LIMITED to grains, oils, incense, and a few little critters. Eventually the Temple was destroyed and becoming closer to God was achieved by prayer instead of sacrifice.

The reason sacrifice seems to be such an abominable practice is the thought of human sacrifie. Without human sacrifice, there is nothing objectionable about sacrifice. Some people still do it today as we offer a prayer before enjoying a delicious BBQd meal.

Shalom
.

Answer 3

Early man, reveared life, so believed that taking it was a magical event.

Blood sacrifice became a logical substitute to pay for mistakes and sin. Its interesting that most ancient cultures practiced it in one form or another.

Christians and Jews love to justify the genocide of the gentiles in the Old Testament claiming they were pagans that sacrificed babies. But that ignores the fact that the Jews we sacrificing animals, and then going out and slaughtering villages in the name of God. They dispatched captives unless they were virgin girls.

The whole story of Jesus, revolves around blood sacrifice, we just pretty it up with big words, but at the end of the day, it is what it is.

GOD being all powerful decided that Blood was the only payment for sin. God dictates what constitutes justice, if you believe in Him, so he determined that animals and Jesus had to die for Eve's inability to determine right from wrong.

Answer 4

Jeremiah 7:29-31 says....Shear off your uncut hair and throw [it] away, and upon the bare hills raise a dirge, for Jehovah has rejected and will desert the generation with which he is furious. 30 ‘For the sons of Judah have done what is bad in my eyes,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘They have set their disgusting things in the house upon which my name has been called, in order to defile it. 31 And they have built the high places of To′pheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hin′nom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart.’ So burning people isn't something God approves of, which means there's no fire in hell, mankind's command grave.
and animal sacrifices were for forgiveness of sins until Jesus came and died for our sins, for one time for all. no more sacrifices needed.

Answer 5

Depends what you mean by 'old days'. If you mean the 'old' testament/Tanakh, then human sacrifice was ALWAYS forbidden. Animal sacrifices did take place sometimes but the animals were usually eaten afterwards.

Answer 6

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me (at least the human sacrifice part) but in many cultures, that's the way things were done... I guess you couldn't fight city hall then, either.

Answer 7

You cannot sacrifice something you can easily replace. That kind of flies in the face of what sacrifice means. Blood sacrifice is required because the life is in the blood and it's a life you are attempting to redeem. That's why Jesus had to be crucified, as the sacrificial lamb for all mankind.

Answer 8

There are still many people who believe that the harder the thing is to give up, the better sacrifice it makes; and that HAS to please God, right?

Answer 9

One that could not figure out what else to do for lunch, that is what kind of God would do that.

(It is a bit hard for him to just order pizza)

Answer 10

The same god that has created hell for 85% of humanity.