Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Was the Cross from God, or Satan?

As an icon among Catholics, and even in evangelical Christian worship songs, the Cross is venerated and held dearly.
However, I believe that the cross as the means for Jesus' death may actually have been from Satan. Here are some supporting reasons, and one opposing.

The Cross was from Satan:
God abhors cruelty.
  • The entire book of Nahum in the Old Testament was a condemnation of Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. God condemned them for their extreme cruelty in war. My NIV Bible text note says that they would erect piles of chopped heads of the inhabitants of the cities they conquered. They would torture the leaders to death.

[TODO add more verses to support:]

The cross was an instrument of torture. It was a slow and painful death stretching over hours. Before crucifixion, Jesus was flogged with a Roman cat-o-nine tails. This multiple pronged whip contained shards of metal and glass and shredded a victims flesh and often itself caused death. On the cross, the victim was nailed at the forearms and shins to the wooden beams. To breathe, the victim had to raise himself (or herself) on his nailed arms and legs. Every breath was agony. Eventually he or she was exhausted and died of suffocation.
Jesus was the lamb of God who died for the sins of the world. In Jewish custom, the Passover lamb was slain humanely by slitting its throat. It was not tortured to death. God would have picked a humane way for his Son to be sacrificed.
When you read the book of Job in the Bible, you see Satan wanting to test Job's devotion to God. God allowed Satan to choose the means of testing. Satan used evil means including killing Job's children in a storm. Yet, God imposed boundaries on Satan - limits on what evil he could choose to do. God is not the author of evil.
Many of the Old Testament books of the Bible pointed to the Messiah and his experiences. I believe the book of Job points to Jesus' crucifixion. Just as Satan was allowed to choose the instrument in Job's disasters, so was Satan allowed to choose the instrument for Jesus' death.

The Cross was from God:
God prescribed stoning as a means of execution. I do not know why He allowed it because it seems cruel and horrific to me - yet, God is not a cruel God. Perhaps God hated sin so much that He prescribed this as a deterrent.

Conclusion: We must glorify the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross - not the cross itself.

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