@GreatestIam2 Said
Where is it written that God can sacrifice himself to himself to appease his own wrath?
Where does it say God can die?
Regards
DL
The Bible is open to interpretation.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
So it's up to each person to derive from it what they will.
Basically you make the Bible say whatever you want it too.
The bible is a book about God, but written by people who often make mistakes. Even now under the new covenant how many Christians still make mistakes?! So why do people find it too difficult to imagine that writers of the bible (under the Old covenant) got it wrong sometimes also? There are many contradictions in the Bible.
I mean you can find many passages saying that God does not want sacrifices of any kind, and many say He does...It's open for interpretation.
My view is that God is love...the force of love, the power of love, the all of love and St Paul gives this definition of love...
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.
And as God IS love, you can change the words love above with the word 'God'. (God is patient, God is kind, God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud, God does not dishonor others, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs....etc etc.
Through personal experience of 'love' and it's power, that is my belief.
There are so many ins and outs to the sacrifice thing we would be here debating for months and I don't have the time for that.
If you are looking for answers on this, check out the universalism websites, they have a greater knowledge of the bible than your traditional Christians and a much more loving (or GODLY) approach.
https://www.thebeautifulheresy.com/2005/08/why-did-jesus-have-to-die.html
Who Killed Jesus?
OK, here's a major point that deserves a new paragraph. Brace yourself because this might be very new to you. G-d didn't kill Jesus. We did. We've been taught G-d sent Yeshua to die. That's true. We've been taught this was the will of the Father. That is also true. But, it's man that killed Yeshua. Our ridiculous judicial system, our religious rules, our pompousness, our hardheartedness, our anger, killed Him. We drove the nails into Him and hung Him up; not G-d. G-d allowed Himself (or His agent) to be murdered by us to show us how much He loves us. He allowed us to torture and kill Him without missing a beat of showing how much He loved us. He broke our hard stubborn hearts and showed us the Way to salvation. We have to die (to ourselves) and be resurrected to experience the Kingdom of Heaven. Yeshua's death was the ultimate act that showed man just how wrong we had been about G-d. Our projections of His anger and disgust with us were just that, projecting our own anger and disgust on Him. The G-d and Father of Yeshua is the ultimate friend of sinners. G-d is not the one who demands blood. G-d is the one who gives blood ”I have given you the blood upon the altar (Leviticus 17:11).
Was Jesus' Death Necessary?
Someone on a message board just told me that I don't believe in the necessity of the cross, therefore, I am not a true Christian. I have never said I do not believe in the necessity of Yeshua's sacrifice. What I have said is I do not believe that G-d killed the innocent and submitted His Son to torment to pay a penalty for the sake of the guilty. I think this is a grossly unfair characterization of G-d. I do honor Yeshua's sacrifice and I'm glad that He did what He did to show us the heart of the Father. I think it was absolutely necessary, but not in a transactional sense. It was not necessary so that G-d could forgive. It was necessary to show us that G-d had already forgiven! I think what we witnessed was the ultimate in sacrifice (on the part of G-d in Yeshua freely giving of Himself) to show us a few things:
He was willing and able to accept us back home any time we were ready to return. G-d has never been far from us. It's that we perceive Him as far from us. The Kingdom of Heaven (really the Kingdom of G-d) is, and always has been at hand.
Yeshua showed us the metaphorical path in a very literal way. We have to be willing to die, to take up our cross and follow Him to be born again. All of these metaphors, He acted out on the cross.
Yeshua showed us how to give sacrificially in a big way. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friend (John 15:13)
FROM...
https://www.thebeautifulheresy.com/2005/08/why-did-jesus-have-to-die.html