Perry,
Don’t behave like the slothful servant who hid the one talent in the ground. (Mathew 25:14-30) We are created in God’s “image.” (Genesis 1:26) Hence our thinking and reasoning should resemble that of God whose very basis is “reason” (Romans 12:1) as opposed to the commercial mind-set of priestly class who introduced the subject of sacrifice, says God’s faithful prophet Jeremiah himself (Jeremiah 8:8; 7:22, 31)
1) Take any of the OT verses that supposedly foretells about Jesus, and read the WHOLE chapter where that verse appears—you will find it as referring to either Israel in general, or to a particular individual in that nation!
2) When you hear Jesus died for our sins, you must ask ‘How is it possible?’
Jesus himself declared that he came to fulfill the Law, not to dilute or destroy it. (Mathew 5:17) KILLING AN INNOCENT PERSON IN A CRULEST MANNER to atone for the sins of others is in effect fighting sin with greater sin.
It is only pure reason that the Omniscient God Almighty will not be led into a situation where He will find Himself in utter helplessness that He will need the help of one of His children to come out of a crisis, or to find Himself in a situation that there is no other way than killing one innocent person—that too His own first born—longest loved son in the first place! Bringing the son through a virgin, and finally killing him through a cruelest manner, and making such a KILLING the basis of forgiveness of people’s sins CANNOT BE an idea originated with God, Jesus nor any prophet. Because fulfillment of such a scheme depends on God’s expectation of consistent behavior of hard-core sinners like Pharisees, which means God should depend on THE CO-OPERATION OF AVOWED SINNERS TO REMOVE SINS!? If it takes a greater sin (killing the innocent son) to remove lesser sins, what does God convey through ransom-teaching—SIN REMOVES SIN? Does it not back-fires on the very idea of arranging a sacrifice to atone for the sins? Would Almighty, All-wise God do such a thing? NEVER.
Christendom argues that Satan is the force behind your sins, hence another supernatural person, Jesus, can arrange forgiveness of your sins! However, Jesus simply DISMISSED such ideas—the roles Satan or Adam who are supposed to have played with regard to sin—when he categorically declared: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him,” and each one will reap proportionate and appropriate consequences. (Mathew 12:35-37) His half-brother with whom Jesus might have had more interaction declares: “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” And God is the source of “every good and perfect gift,” (James 1:14-17) HENCE HE WILL NOT PLANT A TREE TO ENSURE SIN AND DEATH OF HIS CHILDREN using a formula called “one man sinned, hence all became sinners.” God’s servants are very clear on this subject—one cannot take the responsibility of other’s sin, nor contribute to other’s purity: “The righteous person will live by his faithfulness.” (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 14:12) The unrighteous would suffer the consequences of their sin which means sin is obliterated through suffering of the sinner.” (Luke 6:38; Galatians 6:7)
If ransom teaching is true, then it only creates more problem than it supposedly solves
Jesus says some are “good,” (Mathew 12:35) hence not in need of any sacrifice like ransom sacrifice.
Those who die too do not need ransom sacrifice “as the wages sin pays is death,” (Romans 6:23) hence those who die are absolved of their sins because of the very fact they died: “He that is dead is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:7) Put it simply:
THE GOOD do not need ransom
THE DEAD do not need ransom (the living will also die at some point anyway)
Then for whom did Jesus die? The fact is that Jesus was a threat to the religious establishment of that time because of his simple teaching. Enmity was also aggravated by Jesus’s own scathing criticism of them calling them hypocrite, white-washed tombs, brood of vipers, and also publicly whipping them out of the temple—that too TWICE. And “they began for some way to kill Jesus” (Mark 11:18), they got rid of him! Here, where is the sacrifice? Or who sacrificed whom?—Compare John 7:28; Luke 22:42. If Jesus really came to give ransom, naturally all his talks would have been centered over this FUNDAMENTAL concept using all his skills and reasoning powers, explaining why and how of such an arrangement. On the contrary, the only passing, feeble comment he supposedly made in the context of contrasting the rulers of Gentile as found in Mathew 20:28, Luke himself, on close examination, found as interpolation, hence removed from his Gospel. (Luke 22:25-27) The portion you cite where Jesus supposedly speaks of him offering wine as symbol of his blood for the atonement of sins of the world, from John’s gospel, is obviously a later adoption made as a basis for Church’s holy mass arrangement, just like John 3:13 was put into Jesus’ mouth.
Reason why ransom teaching become popular?
Just like diseases spread, ransom teaching too spread like wild-fire, because of the nature of people in general who want teaching “pleasurable to their ears.” (2 Timothy 4:3) The very thought that ‘there is someone who takes care of our sins’ is not only pleasurable to the ears but also to the mind and heart! One’s ego will be thrilled over such prospect! Will it contribute to holiness of people? Look at the fruitage! (Mathew 7:16, 17) Did ransom teaching contribute to more holiness or to more loose-conduct? What does the moral climate of the Christians show?
If Teaching of Ransom sacrifice is true, there are some other things too must be true such as ‘earth is the center of universe, and God has ego-problem …etc because the very basis of ransom-teaching lies in the middle of the story of Adam and Eve which starts claiming earth is the center of the universe (Genesis 2:4); and ends with showing God is having ego-problem. (Genesis 3:22-24) [Adam and Eve account is actually a parallel creation account appearing after the original creation account which says all mankind were created SIMULTANEOUSLY in ‘God’s image’ (Genesis chapter 1), something Jesus confirmed in Mathew 23:9]
When you read the Bible you must also weed out from the Bible! Then only you will benefit from Jesus, the great ‘teacher,’ who was sent by God (John 8:28, compare Acts 3:13) to turn people “from evil to do good” (Psalm 37:27) and to restore us to the “image” of God, whose primary attribute is goodness. (Mark 10:18). Traces of sin are not in our body, it is in our egoistic thinking. When you change the thinking (good or bad), your destiny is changed accordingly. No one else can do that for you.