Peggy

Q3. Why is animal sacrifice repulsive to modern people? How much of this has to do with a city vs. a farming way of life? "Modern people" are usually not thought of as third world people or even farming people, but of City people. City people only have animals as pets, or buy their meat at the store, and I'm sure don't think of the meat they buy as being sacrificed (unless they are a vegetarian). Therefore any reference to animal sacrifice I think would be seen as something "wrong" with the person's thinking and cultic. Unless the "City" person has had biblical teaching from the Old Testament, they would not be aware of what it represented in the past. I'm sure that people who buy meat know the animal has been killed in order for them to purchase it, however once again, I believe the difference here is in the understanding of the word "sacrifice". Farming people don't sacrifice their animals, they kill them to provide food.

In sin, even according to the Bible, there is momentary pleasure, and the moment is not thought of in eternity thinking. We should be angry about the hold that momentary pleasure has on us, not truly believing that this "moment" has the possibility of separating us from God. We are all born sinners, so Christ is essential to spend eternity with God. However, we continue to sin and need daily cleansing. I believe it's the moment by moment that affects our walk with God. We need to be careful not to categorize sin into "what's more sinful" - sin is sin is sin - if the Bible states it as being in oposition to God it is sin, and we should be very angry at the "moments" we allow to creep into our lives. Uncontrolled anger is always self-centered and usually accomplishes harm, not good for anyone. Controlled anger is usually righteous, lining itself up with God thinking, and therefore God lead, and if that's the case, God's will will be accomplished. Example, Jesus in the temple!!!

Q1. Going past the fact that the Jews understood the slaying of a lamb to mean the removal of their sin in God's eyes, to take away something, means that something has to be used to do it; i.e., if you had a stain on your garment, soap would be used to remove it. The soap in a sense sacrifices itself for the sake of the stain removal; it gives of itself for a greater good. In Jesus' case, "the Lamb of God that take away the sins of the world" would mean that Jesus would have to give something of Himself in order to take away the sin. "Sins of the world" is radical in that the thinking to that day only applied individually - a lamb for a person. Now John is saying that Jesus would take away all sins for all people. Certainly we can say that initially Jesus only came to the Jews, however, the thought process was the same - one lamb for one person's sin. Now we have a Lamb for everybody's sins - not a continual sacrificing for each sin, but a once for all sins for everybody(cleansing on a daily basis is a different issue).

Hi, my name is Peggy and I live in Manitoba, Canada - and it's not true that we all live in igloos by the way I am married, have three married children, 7 2/9ths grandchildren, and work as a legal secretary. My prayer is that I will never be satisfied in my walk with God, that I would bring honour and glory to His name, and that others would see Jesus in me. I attend what I refer to as a "full-gospel" Church; my understanding in that regard is that all scripture is true for today, even if I don't understand it. I am hopeful that this study will meet the need of "spiritual food" that I have been crying out to God for lately.