Question:

In an article at the site you mentioned that Jesus’s death wasn’t a human sacrifice.  In the article you claimed “A human sacrifice is a situation in which a human being kills another human being with the purpose of appeasing a god”   True, but didn’t Jesus die to appease the wrath of God the Father?  Also the bible says that God had pre-ordained the crucifixion, it seems Jesus just had used them as a tool for his death

Tony:

Yes, God allowed Jesus to be killed to appease his wrath. Yes, his death was predestined. But like I said in my Q & A, technically this was not a human sacrifice by the definition I used. I we use as a definition “A human sacrifice is a situation in which a human being kills another human being with the purpose of appeasing a god” then, by that definition, the death of Jesus was not a human sacrifice.

Having said that, we could see the distinction I am making to be a technicality. I cannot blame you for thinking it is appropriate to think of Jesus as a human sacrifice. However, you should be aware that it does not fit the technical definition (the one you would find in a dictionary) because those who killed Jesus had no intention to make his death a sacrifice. It was God who saw the death of Jesus as a sacrifice. We could call the death of Jesus a God sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of a human by God for forgiveness of sins. I certainly would not make a big deal or argue with someone who wants to call the death of Jesus a human sacrifice, but I prefer to be more precise in how I describe such important events.

I hope this helps.

JOhn Oakes

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