Lies Preachers Tell #2

Probably the second- most- repeated lie told by preachers is: "When the children of Israel observed the first Passover, they had to put blood on the doorways of their houses so the angel of death would know which houses were theirs and would kill none of them."

Wrong answer.

Jeremiah 7:22 & 23 says of this, "I [God] spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices [meaning no blood of lambs, goats, or bullocks]: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."

Why, then, do preachers say there had to be blood on the door? Because that's what Moses said was necessary, and preachers give more credence to Moses than to God: every time. Moses-- speaking always presumptively for God-- said (Exodus 12:7 & 13), "And they shall take of the blood [of the Passover sacrifice], and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it... And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt."

It's not germaine to this subject, perhaps, to wonder why Moses would deem it necessary to-- under cover of the power of darkness-- "sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes," (Exodus 8:26) but what is germaine is the recent existential knowledge all the children of Israel had with which to debunk this preposterous claim of Moses' that God couldn't properly identify the Israelites from the Egyptians without blood to help him in making this identification.

The children of Israel had seen the Lord demonstrate time and again (as he promised to do in Exodus 8:22 & 23) his ability to properly discern the Jews from the Egyptians; and likewise to differentiate the livestock of the Jews from the livestock of the Egyptians, as he said he would in Exodus 9:4 .

The Israelites didn't choke on the swarms of flies which corrupted the land of Egypt. Their livestock weren't afflicted with the grievous murrains which killed all the Egyptians' livestock. The Israelites and their livestock were spared the torment of the boils with blains that tortured man and beast of Egypt. They suffered no damage from the fiery hail that killed man and beast, flax and barley in the fields of Egypt. They weren't lost in the darkness which could be felt as the Egyptians were. Yet, they, like Cain, found bloodshed reasonable and practicable, though unprescribed by the God of the prophets.

So, who ordered the "bloodbath?" Amos gives two possibilities, though there may be more: "Have ye offered unto me [God] sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." (Amos 5:25 & 26)

Lies Preachers Tell #1

Here's the lie I've heard most from preachers: "Jesus had to die to save you from the wages of your sins."

This is wrong.

Before Jesus was born, God said: "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live." (Ezekiel 18:21 & 22)

This means that by the simple act of repentance -- minus any mention of confession-- the old ways of a man are forgotten. Thus, condemnation is forgotten. Things not mentioned don't come up in court proceedings. I offer this as the simplest explanation for why the thing the preacher says is false. There are many more such reasons.

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, (a long time before Jesus of Nazareth was born) "was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him." (Hebrews 11:5) Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire, (2 Kings 2:11) unlike Moses who was put down in an unmarked grave. (Deuteronomy 34:5 & 6) The way to God was always available, as was the way to hell. Jesus didn't have to die to open those doors or pave those ways. They've always been extant.

What, then, should these preachers say? What is the way to God? Jesus is the way, but his cold- blooded murder through false witness and false accusation is not the way. Jesus' life is the way. How did he live? He said of himself, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17)

If we are to live as he did, we should-- like he did-- fulfill the law and the prophets with the living sacrifice of our lives. How, then, is this life's work of fulfilling the law and the prophets accomplIshed? The answer, in a word, is: love. Christ said, (Matthew 22:37- 40) "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

So did Christ die to save you from your sins? Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." What this means respective of the present subject is, John 8:58 and John 14:6 can be married, without either of them losing their meaning, and without a lie being told, thusly: "Jesus said unto them, Verily,verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." If he is the savior, he was the savior, and always will be the savior, according to Hebrews 13:8. Nothing about him changed at his death. God's esteem of his murderers, on the other hand, did.