Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Patrina,

> Someone please tell me how this would "demonstrate his justice" (Rom
> 3:25b)?  The issue is that any system of "justice" basing its premise on
> "sacrifice" of the innocent on behalf of the guilty is absurd.  If this
> is a "holy" practice, then why can't we use these same premises in our
> own systems of justice?  Our consciences wouldn't permit it, so why
> would a god?  At least Judaism has moved forward from its ANE roots in
> this regard since they no longer slaughter innocent animals to atone for
> their sins, although some fundamentalists still want to bring back the
> sacrificial system in a third temple scenario.
>
> Harold, I don't want to offend anyone, but I feel that real "justice" is
> an important issue that shouldn't be side-stepped  by spiritual
> truth-seekers (I do note that what you write is perfectly sound exegesis
> of NT texts.). I don't see how anyone can accept such behaviour from any
> so-called "god" as 'true justice'.  Even Abraham understood that a
> righteous god wouldn't destroy innocent people when he said in Genesis
> 18:25 "Far be it from you to act in this way, to slay the righteous with
> the wicked so that the righteous should be as the wicked.  Far be it
> from you!  Does the Judge of all the earth not do justice?"

HH: You raise some good questions. Normally, God would not ask human 
sacrifice because it would not do any good, since human beings are 
sinful. But in this case, the claim is that God Himself came to earth 
as a human being and provided the sacrifice needed in heaven. I'd 
rather not take this any further, please, unless privately.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard