Orthodoxbridge: Contra Paul Vendredi Book 4

We are now at claim number 7 which Paul Vendredi breaks down over three episodes. Claim 7 has numerous sub-arguments which must be refuted. But the main argument is critiqued in part 61.

Claim 7 states "God instituted the Old Testament animal sacrifices because our debt to him must be paid in blood."

This claim is wrong because it fails to distinguish between the original and limited set of animal sacrifices prior to golden calf incident and the extensive array of sacrifices imposed upon Israel after the golden calf incident.

The demarcation line within the law

The pre-golden calf sacrifices serve as anti-Egyptian iconoclasm while the post-golden calf sacrifices serve to punish the Aaronic priests for making the golden calf and to punish the ordinary Israelites for convincing the priests into making this false idol.

There are six pre-golden calf sacrifices.

1. The original onetime passover sacrifice of Exodus 12.

2. The once a year commemoration of the Passover.

3. The sacrifices of first born male animals to commemorate the 10th plague of Egypt.

4. The one time sacrifice of young bulls at the foot of Mount Sinai to mark the ratification of God's covenant with Israel in Exodus 24.

5. The sacrifices of bulls, lambs, and rams at the ordination of the priests in Exodus 29.

6. The once a year sacrifice of a bullock to atone for the altar of incense in Exodus 30:10.

The primary purpose of the Passover, according to Mr. Vendredi, was to destroy symbolically the creator gods of Egypt.

In all his discussion he does not once bring up the prefigurement of Christ in this sacrifice or in any of the sacrifices in the Old Testament. He does not discuss the Passover meal and Christ's institution of the supper or verses that tell us Christ is our Passover sacrificed for us. Nor does he discuss any of the explanations offered for the sacrifices given in the letter to the Hebrews.

Mark 14:22: ¶And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.

Mark 14:23: And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it.

Mark 14:24: And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.

I Corinthians 5:7: Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Hebrews 7:26: For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Hebrews 7:27: Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

Mr. Vendredi tells us there were only three things happening at the passover in Exodus 12.

1. They were destroying the god Herishef.

2. They were destroying the god Khonsu.

3. Most importantly they were destroying the god Khnum.

The angel of death brought the 10th plague upon the firstborn in all of Egypt. Khnum is the creator of the childs force and is a protector of children. By killing a juvenile ram the Isrealites are killing the protector of Egpyt's babies making way for the angel of death to come and kill the firstborn.

And the Bible tell us this!

Exodus 12:12: For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

One problem. The intricate mythology Mr. Vednredi painstakingly draws out is not to be found in this passage. Nor is it to be found anywhere else in the Old Testament or in the New Testament. The New Testament interprets the Old in light of Christ. But he does not discuss Christ at all. It may be that Mr. Vendredi is correct about the gods of Egypt. But so what? The primary purpose for us is the prefigurement of Christ. In light of the topic of the whole series, which is the atonement and the nature of Christ's death, a thorough discussion of Christ is what is needed, not a mythology lesson. He needs to prove that Christ is not prefigured in the Passover. Or if Christ is prefigured in the Passover, how is he prefigured? He does not do this. He ignores Christ altogether.

And what about the deaths of all the firstborn of the animals? How does that figure into Mr. Vendredi's explanation of the Passover? He does not say.

Exodus 12:12: For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

Exodus 12:29: ¶And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

So the purpose of the first three of the six sacrifices is to desecrate the ram gods of Egypt while the purpose of the latter three is to desecrate the bull gods of Egypt. The reason being to cleanse Israel from the idolatrous religion that surrounded them during their sojourn in Egypt. Mr. Vendredi offers no proof that Israel was defiled by the religion of Egypt. He offers no proof that Israel forgot the promises of Abraham or the rest of its past or that they were defiled in any way.

Exodus 2:23: ¶And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

Exodus 3:7: ¶And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

Exodus 5:8: And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

Here we have verses telling us that the Israelites cried to God for deliverance and that they wished to make sacrifices to their God. It seems as if they did not forget God at all and were not defiled by the religion of Egypt. What sacrifices did they wish to make when God had not ordained any yet and if indeed sacrifices were for the purpose of desecrating the Egyptian gods? Apparently none of this is important because Mr. Vendredi fails to mention any of these verses. He makes assertions with no proof whatsoever.

The Lord gives an explanation of the Passover but Mr. Vendredi chooses to pass over it.

Exodus 12:23: For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

Exodus 12:24: And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.

Exodus 12:25: And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

Exodus 12:26: And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?

Exodus 12:27: That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.

Does that line up with everything Mr. Vendredi has been teaching? Is the Passover primarily to desecrate the gods of Egypt or is it a memorial meal dedicated for the remembrance of God"s delivering the Israelites from bondage?

How is it that the Passover and the other sacrifices desecrate gods who do not exist by sacrificing animals which correspond to those gods? This sounds a whole lot like sympathetic magic.

Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathetic_magic

He does not tell us.

He also neglects to explain why it is that Jews in the first century were in need of continuing to defile the gods of Egypt through the yearly sacrifice of the Passover if that was its primary purpose. Those gods were long dead by the time of Christ. If the primary purpose of the Passover is iconoclastic then why continue the farce when all the gods are dead?

Moving on to the sacrifices instituted post-golden calf or after Exodus 32 we are told that their purpose was twofold: to punish Aaron and his sons for their role in the golden calf apostasy and to punish rank and file Israelites for forcing Aaron to make the calf.

Huh-what??

Punishment? For Aaron and his sons? And for the Israelites? That's right. After spending so much time telling his audience that God does not punish the sons for the sins of the fathers Mr. Vendredi now tells us that the ongoing punishment for apostasy was to be the never-ending cycle of animal sacrifice as described in Leviticus and Numbers and that animal sacrifice is a special punishment reserved for the Jews.

He neither offers proof from the Bible for his suggestion that the sacrifices are punishments for the golden calf incident and are a secondary law nor does he attempt to reconcile his position, that the Israelites are being punished for the sins of their fathers via the cycle of animal sacrifices, with his previous statements that men are punished for their own sins and not for another's. Not even to say that by punishment he means the ramifications of sin and not the guilt of sin. Mr. Vendredi passes by every argument he made against punishment and flatly contradicts himself.

Instead he descends into absurdity once again.

See the blood atonement was only for the Jews because when Naaman the Syrian was cleansed of his leprosy he was not commanded to offer a sacrifice. But when Jesus cleansed a leper he commanded him to make the sacrifice prescribed in the law. Thus gentiles do not need blood atonement. Only the Jews need blood atonement.

The Chaldeans atoned for their sins with kindness to the poor.

Daniel 4:27: Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.

The Assyrians atoned for their sins with repentance.

Jonah 3:9: Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Jonah 3:10: ¶And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

The Philistines atoned for their sins with artwork.

I Samuel 6:3: And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.

I Samuel 6:4: Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.I

Samuel 6:5: Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

First of all there is nothing about atonement in any of those verses. Second of all what does he mean by atonement? That after these things were done the sins of those heathens were cleansed and they were filled with Holy Ghost and made righteous in the sight of God and engrafted into Christ and made partakers of the inheritance of Abraham? Third of all God commanded sacrifices to be made in certain places and by certain men, namely the priests. So how would these uncircumcised heathens even be able to offer blood sacrifices?

Mr. Vendredi does not tell us what he means by atonement in those verses. He simply waltzes into the realm of absurdity and tells us that the Philistines atoned for their sins with artwork!

Did he forget the maxim: Hard cases make bad law? Even if the Philistines atoned for their sins with artwork, well so what? Is this to be a law now? A singular extra-ordinary instance made into something ordinary?

I think it was all a setup anyway so he could say what amounts to probably the most horrendous and disgusting statement he makes in the whole series.

John Calvin suffered from haemorrhoids. Can you think of any affliction more fitting? John Calvin is a thrombosed haemorrhoid on the anus of theology!