JESUS’ DEATH ACCOMPLISHED WHAT?

 

Christians have been told their whole lives that two great objectives were accomplished by Jesus' death as recorded in the New Testament.

ONE:  Jesus’ death and crucifixion was an act of atoning for all human sin. Along the same vein, this “atonement” was to be understood as a Christian’s "salvation." In other words, by a Christian accepting Jesus’ death for his sin would now allow ONLY him to enter into right relationship with G-d through Jesus’ death.

TWO:  Salvation requires G-d's forgiveness and that this in turn requires a human sacrifice as an adequate atonement to satisfy the divine righteousness and/or justice.  Jesus’ crucifixion was the atoning act that makes payment to wipe out Christians’ debt due to their sins and subsequently canceled their impending judgment by
G-d.

Christians are simply making up their own rules. As set forth in the Torah, the Source for all, the Christians way of atonement is impossible. Leviticus clearly says that it is the "soul" that makes atonement and not actually "the blood." People accomplished atonement long before any animal was taken to the Temple for sacrifice―through the spiritual actions of the "sinner” by repentance, confession, prayer, alms, etc.

From an early age, Christians are taught that the shedding of Jesus’ blood was for the removal of the curse under which mankind labored as a result of the disobedience and fall in the Garden of Eden. Along with these teachings they were assured that the blood of Jesus was essential to their salvation. All that was needed for a Christian to do was accept this teaching as true and, presto, THEY WERE “SAVED."

There is only one problem with the Christian doctrine of “atonement” says Pastor Craig Lyons1. “Sadly few understand correctly this very important doctrine correctly since most Christians have been taught to accept the above accounts of Jesus’ death over what the Jewish Bible, Moses, and the Prophets teach. Again, even if one studies atonement as taught in the Hebrew Scriptures, it usually is misunderstood without a proper understanding of the Hebraic roots from which it came.”

If I as a Christian, and an ordained Pastor no less, had understood the "Sacrificial System of the Bible correctly" in the first place, before ever reading the New Testament, then I would have spotted right away the "false atonement" teaching in the New Testament and would not have wasted the first thirty years of my life as an idolator.”

Why were such false teachings written into the Christian texts about Jesus and where did the pagan-Gentile writers of the New Testament got such ideas?  Such pagan ideas of atonement have long existed in the pagan-Gentiles' beliefs in crucified sun-G-dmen that find their origins in astral, cosmic, and solar religions that evolved basically from sun-worship

Christian must ask themselves, who was given the doctrine of atonement first – the Jews or the pagan-Gentiles? Did G-d give the  Christian doctrine of atonement?  The answer is simple. NO!  Christians should realize that the teachings of the Jewish Scriptures directly  contradict the passages in the New Testament attributed to Paul and the writer of the Gospel of John (another Gentile writing under a Jewish name). This presents a major problem for any Christian that becomes aware of what the Jewish Scriptures teach from Genesis to Malachi concerning atonement.

Biblical ignorance of the Hebrew Scriptures by Christians is a stumbling stone of huge proportions when it comes to discerning Biblical truth from lies written into the New Testament by anti-Semites centuries ago. Christians should think logically - If the New Testament is wholly dependent upon the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) for its credibility and foundation, then how can the New Testament teach doctrines contrary to what the Jewish Scriptures taught for 4,000 years and be considered correct? This is a question which can not be ignored and must be answered by any Christian searching for truth.

Back to the original question – What if anything did Jesus’ death accomplish?   Let us continue under the assumption that Jesus is a historical person. With such an assumption then let us consider the possibility of the following concerning the death of Jesus and what if anything it accomplished:

FIRST - Was the death of Jesus the result of our sins or did his death atoned for sins? SECOND - Did such a death atone for ALL our sins or did such a death  atone only for PART of our sins (Yom Kippur/The Day of Atonement teaches us the truth in this regard)...or did his death atone for NONE of our sins? THIRD – Is it death or rather life which actually atones for sin? FOURTH – Are all sins forever taken care of, yes those 1,000 or 5,000 years years from now? If so, why didn’t Jesus come 3,000 years earlier and help those people?

Before Christians ever hope to get to the very heart of the issue, they must come to a better understanding of the sacrificial system to correctly know if Jesus’ death can be a proper sacrifice within the Law and the dynamics within it that affects the forgiveness of sin. Just what is the truth about the sacrificial system in which blood was shed?

When the Divine Presence (“Shechinah”) of G-d had entered the tabernacle in a cloud, G-d revealed Himself to Moses from this place where He would put His Name, according to His promise in Exodud 25:22 , to make known His will through him to the people. The first of these revelations related to the sacrifices, in which the Israelites were to draw near (korban) to G-d, that they might become partakers of His grace.

The subject of sacrificial laws in the book of Leviticus was not to enforce sacrificial worship upon the Israelites, nor to apply some sort of a theory concerning the Hebrew sacrifices, but simply to organize and expand the sacrificial worship of the Israelites into an institution in harmony with the covenant between G-d and His people, and adapt and promote the end for which it was established.

Moses also received a further intimation as to the meaning of the animal sacrifices, in the prohibition which G-d appended to the permission to make use of animals as well as green herbs for food. As G-d told Noah; "flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat” (Gen. 9:4-5). This prohibition is because the flesh still contained the blood as the animal's soul (the soul resides in the blood of the animal). In this there was already an intimation, that in the bleeding sacrifice the soul of the animal was given up to G-d with the blood; and therefore; that by virtue of its blood as the vehicle of the soul, animal sacrifice was the most fitting means of representing the surrender of the soul (i.e. the human soul) to G-d. This is told again in Leviticus.

Christians boast that they are not under this "Law" of G-d but under "Grace.” Then why do they point out a misinterpreted verse in Leviticus to try to make their point about Jesus’ death? How do they justify picking and choosing certain verses in the “Laws” if they are not under these “Laws?” If they were under the laws of G-d, they would know that Leviticus 17:11 while saying; “for the soul of the flesh is in the blood,” the entire chapter was on the prohibition against eating blood. They would know that if they would read the entire chapter.  The blood was not important; it was the soul in the blood that was important and this is something that a New Testament believer must come to understand because it will have a dramatic effect when we get to the death of Jesus.

This is an aspect of the death of Jesus that the church has not ever considered nor ever heard. This truth may possibly have been only dimly surmised by Noah and his sons; but it must have been clearly revealed to the patriarch Abraham, when G-d demanded the sacrifice of his only son, with whom his whole heart was bound up, as a proof of his obedience of faith, and after he had attested his faith in his readiness to offer this sacrifice, supplied him with a ram to offer as a burnt-offering instead of his own (Gen. 22). In this the truth was practically revealed to him, that the true G-d did not require human sacrifice from His worshipers, but the surrender of heart/soul and the denial of the natural life, even thought it should amount to a submission to death itself. Also this act of surrender was to be perfected in the animal sacrifice and that it was only when presented with these motives that sacrifice could be will pleasing to G-d.

What is the purpose of these offerings? Does G-d need offerings? The word "korban" is commonly translated either "sacrifice" or "offering.” but the truth is that the English language does not possess a word that accurately expresses the concept contained in the word. The Hebrew word "korban" means to draw near as in drawing near to G-d. The word "sacrifice" implies that the person bringing it is required to deprive himself of something to satisfy someone else's need, but G-d finds no satisfaction in inflicting pain or deprivation upon His children. The word "offering" is closer to the mark, but it too fails to convey the true meaning of a "korban.” "Offering" implies that the recipient of the gift must be appeased, that He requires a tribute that will somehow appease His wrath or make Him receptive to the entreaties of a supplicant, or that He has a need that can only be satisfied by someone other than Himself. As if G-d required our gifts!

Which concepts has Christianity drawn from in its understanding of "offerings," drawing near to G-d as the Jews did, or deprivation of self or appeasement of an angry G-d? That should not be hard to answer as deprivation and appeasement are major themes within Christianity. Unfortunately, such Christian understanding misses the point entirely as you now have seen in the Hebrew definition of "Korban." The Hebrew word "korban" itself provides the answer. The root of "korban" means "to come near."

Again the idea carries the concept of fellowship as we have seen in the sacrifices between Adam to Moses. The person bringing an offering does so to come closer to G-d, to elevate his level of spirituality thereby approaching G-d in the Spirit. So, what does this have to do with Jesus dying or the shedding of Jesus’ blood?

Isaiah 53:10 states “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin…KJV.” In one of the greatest passages in the Bible, we are told by Isaiah the prophet that it is the “soul” and not the blood of any suffering servant that atones for sin.

WHAT? Christians are told that this verse supposedly refers to Jesus; but hold on for a shock!  Amazingly, but Christianity has been misled, for they are not aware that there is a major problem with this verse as quoted from the KJV. It is a gross mistranslation of what the Hebrew really said. Here is but one example of the falsification of the Jewish Scriptures by Christians. What does the Jewish Scriptures say?

The Jewish Bible, Tanakh (Stone Edition) says that Isaiah wrote: 53:10 And the Lord desired to oppress him and He afflicted him; IF his soul would acknowledge guilt, he shall see seed, and live long days and the desire of the Lord would succeed in his hand.

Did you notice a completely different rendering? Did you notice the conditional statement "if" which alludes to one's personal responsibility to make restitution for one's own sin? It was only after one repented, confessed his sin, prayed, made atonement, etc., that he received atonement and this was done prior to any animal being selected or killed and the blood collected according to the Hebrew Scriptures.

Now do you see the importance of the "if" word in the real Isaiah 53:10 which is missing in the Greek and English versions? “If his soul would acknowledge guilt” – Christians claim that Jesus was sinless – this is why the Early Christian Church had to alter  Isaiah to make it "Jesusized.” The problem is not one of Christianity’s inability to translate Hebrew, but one that goes much deeper―.a gross theological fraud which, when discovered, renders the whole of Christianity’s beliefs on atonement inaccurate.

Contrary to Christianity today, Isaiah was teaching that when the Jews go into captivity as a punishment for their sin, that when in captivity, if they repent and turn from their sins, their lives following their repentance will atone for their prior sins. This is Biblical Judaism, directly from G-d, regardless of how Gentile Christianity wants to paint the picture. Christians have not been told the truth because they carry a corrupted Christian Bible, which slanders the Old Testament text, the Hebrew Bible as well as created religious lies in the New Testament that Christians unwittingly believe.

In summary, Christians can now see how Jesus is in no way a part of  this procedure―of placing the animal’s soul contained in its blood on the alter in substitute for the human offer's soul. It is only G-d's kindness that permits the animal to become his substitute (soul for soul as a representative example). Then, parts of the offering are given to the Kohanim (priests), so that those who dedicate their lives to study and teach the Torah are sustained through him and so that they will pray for him. It is an act of supreme graciousness that G-d is prepared to accept an offering from us instead of punishing us directly for our misdeeds. This is why the offerings are described throughout Leviticus as a satisfying aroma to G-d, because G-d is pleased when His children repent and seek to change their lives for the better. What is forgotten in all of this is that before an animal is ever brought and his blood sprinkled on the altar (representing the soul of the sacrificer), the offerer of the sacrifice MUST HAVE PREVIOUSLY prayed, and repented before G-d and made confession of his sin before any animal could be brought.

Blood of the sacrifice, containing the soul, never brought fellowship with G-d without the prior repentance of the offerer. This repentance was both before G-d and his fellow man prior to bringing the animal.  To do otherwise brings the rebuke of G-d  as seen in Isaiah 1 where G-d is weary of the blood of bulls and goats without the contrite and brokenness of the hearts of those who bring such offerings. Contrary to what many Christians think, G-d is not, in Isaiah chapter 1, abolishing the sacrificial system in lieu of Jesus’ death, but calling people back to the basics, repentance and prayer and restitution when needed. Such has always been an effective atonement and remains so today.

When one brings an offering with such noble thoughts he has truly made himself an offering and has the right to be with G-d in oneness on the altar of communion and fellowship. The Sages have said of one who brings a humble meal-offering, it is as if he had offered his own life upon the Altar. He thereby raised his mundane desires and makes them worthy of being placed on the heavenly Altar.

Now, if Christians apply what we have just learned to the death of Jesus’ they find many problems accepting what they have been taught by both Paul and the Church. Nowhere is Paul's concept of atonement written in the Hebrew Scriptures, the so-called Old Testament. But it was canonized in the New Testament in 380 C.E., along with the many admissions of the early church to the alteration of manuscripts. It is easy to see how the concept of atonement was changed to what we have today.

Jesus never practiced or taught what Christians do today. Sadly Christians have never been taught the truth of G-d, but have been deliberately misled from the pulpits across the world for two thousand years. Besides this, Christians boast that they are not under this "Law" of G-d but under "Grace.” Most Christians think according to this false teaching that they have a huge "gray area" where then can sin and don't need to worry for another moment since their sins have already been oaid for. Sorry, this is just not true!!!

This is hard to deal with especially in light that Christians grew up in churches which continually taught that believers were no longer under the Law, but under grace―all you need to do is accept that Jesus died for you. Otherwise know as “blind faith.”

The bottom line is that, as Pastor Craig Lyons has said, Christians have been deliberately deceived about the whole thing by men who deliberately preached corrupted Hebrew doctrines and provided corrupted documents which were sadly inherited unknowingly today in Christian Bibles.

NOTES:

1. Pastor Craig Lyons, M.Div: 902 Cardigan, Garland, Texas 75040

 


RETURN