Jesus' suffering and death for sin can be understood as a necessary act within the material world, where life operates under time and physical existence, to demonstrate God's just and fair nature without resorting to arbitrary power; this concept ties to the Old Testament practice of sin-offerings, where life—symbolized by blood—was sacrificed to atone for sins, highlighting the significance of temporal and bodily elements in spiritual redemption. Shawn McCraney also critiques the doctrine of Sola Scriptura in his book "Knife to a GunFight," inviting non-religious, non-dogmatic perspectives on its interpretation of the New Testament.
Sin represents the taking of life, quantified in time, and requires an ultimate sacrifice through shedding of blood—a concept fulfilled by the death of Jesus Christ, who offered His perfect life to redeem humanity's sins. True believers, transformed by the Spirit, willingly sacrifice their own time and resources out of love for God and others, striving to restore time stolen by sin for the world's betterment.
The teaching emphasizes the importance of self-sacrifice, hospitality, and using one's resources to support others, as a reflection of sacrificing personal luxuries for the betterment of others, akin to the example set by Christ. Additionally, it explores the evolution of the concept of Satan from the Old to the New Testament, transforming from an accuser under God's direction to a personified evil tempter, with various influences such as apocryphal texts and Persian demonology shaping this perception.
Shawn suggests that early LDS views of Satan align with Christianity, portraying him as a pivotal figure in the Fall, but subsequent LDS teachings introduced the idea that Satan and his angels are literal offspring of God, a notion absent in Joseph Smith's lifetime. He argues that both LDS and Christians often focus too much on Satan instead of the victory won by Christ, emphasizing that Satan holds no real power unless invited, and that Christians should prioritize focusing on their relationship with God over dwelling on darkness and temptation.
Heart of the Matter: The Place of Christian Sacrifice
Live from Salt Lake City, Utah, this is heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology. where we do all we can to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I’m Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion., your host.
Show 22 499 Satan Part III
May 31st 2016
Our prayer tonight will be given by:
Remember, we have a new book out now and I personally believe it is the most important thing we have ever put together. It’s called Knife to a GunFight – misinterpreting the purpose and place of the New Testament. It’s what I feel is one of the only reasonable critiques of the man-made doctrine called Sola Scriptura and I would really like to hear a non-religious, non-dogmatic response to its contents. Knife to a Gunfight is available by going to www.hotm.tv
And now a moment from the . . .
The Purpose and Place of Christian Sacrifice
I recently had a good friend ask me why God (who can do anything) had to have Jesus suffer bleed and die for sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace.. It’s a good question and one that seems to float in the minds of seekers. I said that it MUST have something to do with God being fair and good and not a despot but a being that works justly. And since He is just and fair instead of snapping His fingers and fixing sin, he took care of it in this world of material – in the human world – which is based in time and space.
See . . . all physical material human life begins when it becomes subject and or it relates to increments of time. Perhaps the best way to quantify earth life is to say that it is subject to increments of time. So long as we are existing in this realm we are existing in time and space. The moment something begins to thrive under the auspices of time it is experiencing a physical material existence. The quality of this time is an entirely different discussion but to our point “time itself” is of what material life consists. Every second, minute, hour, day, month, year and decade are increments of time that capture and frame the existence of our human existences. When an individual dies, time here stops for them – and existence in another realm begins (or continues). “So time,” as Benjamin Franklin said, “is the stuff of which life is made.”
Then, life here in this time continuum, is lived through material elements. All living things in this realm exist in bodies of some sort or another – whether an earthworm, an amoeba, a virus or a human being, all things which live in the realm of time are housed in some sort of material bodies or forms. When the body (or forms of flesh die), the life defined by increments of time is over.
The Role of Blood in Sacrifice
Now listen, according to scripture the very life in these bodies is in its blood. Leviticus 17:11 says it well:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
Apparently, as noted all the way back in Leviticus, what keeps the fleshly bodies or forms living through increments of time is the blood that courses through them. Blood brings oxygen to the frame and form while simultaneously washing away infection and waste. Stop the blood from a part of the flesh and that part of the flesh will die. Shed enough of the blood and the physical life of the depleted creation ends, which means the time increments of the creature end too.
Sin-offerings in the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, the Nation of Israel practiced what was called a Sin-offering (in Hebrew, hattath). On the day of Atonement, a sin-offering was made with special solemnity (Leviticus 16:5,11,15). The life-blood of an animal was carried into the holy of holies of the tabernacle and sprinkled on the mercy-seat. Sin-offerings were also presented at the five annual festivals (Numbers 28:1-31 and all of 29) and on the occasion of the consecration of the priests (Exodus 29:10-14 and 36).
What was actually being “done” (if you will) through these sin offerings? What was being “done” was life was being lost! (What life – that of an animal.) How was the life lost? (it’s blood was shed) Did the animal die? (always – so it was not just the blood being shed)
The Nature of Sin and Sacrifice
It was the loss of life in conjunction with the shedding or loss of blood. What did this represent? The loss of something that was experiencing life in increments of time. It was the loss of a precious animal, an animal that had value, something that had innocence, something that was treasured by the family for companionship, wool, milk, and food. Its remaining time on earth in flesh, which was nourished by its blood, was sacrificed!
Why Sacrifice for Sin?
Why sacrifice the life of a loved thing by shedding its blood for sin? Because sin is always the taking of time, or the taking of life! And since life is quantified by increments of time, then life, increments of time, must be taken to redeem the time that has been lost through sins committed! How is sin the stealing of time, which is the stealing of life? Let’s go to the board.
The Sin
The theft of life… Gossip: The time it takes from others who think on it, share it, and the time it steals from the one gossiped about to try and overcome or fix the rumors. Lies: The obfuscation it creates and the time it takes others to deal with the outcome and to discover truth. Meanness: The time it takes for people to overcome the deleterious effects of our words and/or actions. Theft: The work and time it took to earn enough to purchase the item stolen. Covetousness: The personal life lost looking upon the things that another possesses and yearning to have them. Rape: All the after-effects, the taking of a person's rights and body. Unbridled wrath: After effects. Envy: Loss of own life. Hatred: Loss of own life and the alienation others feel. Unforgiving: All lose time and life. Vengeance: Our exacting time out from another. Adultery: The loss of trust and time it takes to reconcile, forgive, forget, etc. Murder: The ultimate act of ending time for another. “He was a murderer from the beginning”
All sin is in some way or another “an act of murder” as all sin amounts to the taking life, which is the taking of time, in some way or another. Therefore Satan was truly a murderer from the beginning.
An Ultimate Sacrifice Required
In light of all of these factors, we see the need for an ultimate taking of life through the ultimate shedding of blood to occur for the “sins of the world” to be eternally forgiven. In this case, the blood of animals would not have sufficed but the perfect blood of a being in whom there was no defilement. Animals' blood may have been able to propitiate and cover the sins of people for a time but for God to justly receive sinners, murderers, and life takers, there had to be a just and equal offering to wipe out the eternal stain of our sin before Him. That could and would only come in and through the deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. of His Only Begotten Son through the shedding of His blood. Having overcome his flesh without sin and having then paid for the sin of the World by freely choosing to offer his own life up for the sins of the world by and through the shedding of blood and then dying as a result, all who look to Him in faith, trusting that He did this on our behalf, are justified by God’s grace through faith, and our alienation and unrest is restored to a status of peace upon the conscience. We are restored to life having been given not only new life here but the guarantee of life eternal there!
As a result, recipients of His Shed Blood, for the redemption of their Sin, begin to willingly sacrifice the increments of their lives, time, for the benefit of others! This is done by and through the Spirit and not the flesh. It is done by “dying to the flesh and living to the Spirit.” It’s not just works, it’s willingly, out of true love for God and true love for man, that we seek to redeem, buy back the time we have taken from others, by offering our life-time for the betterment of the world.
Sacrificing Individual Life-Time
Action: Activity of Sacrificing Individual Life-Time. Listening Ear: Counseling, sounding board. Service: Volunteering Life-Time for benefits of others. Money: Straight up financial help, time converted to money. Labor: Taking increments of our lives and donating it to others. Products: Our life purchased products to give them to others. Prayers: Taking our life-time to think and pray for the well-being of others. Inspiring: Sharing talents to uplift others. Teaching: Introducing Him or His message to others. Sharing: The Good News, missional works. Encouraging: Taking time to die to self and help encourage others. Providing: Necessary or…
The Evolution of Satan in Religious Texts
All of these things (and more) require time on the giver's part. All the time given is a loss of life that the giver could spend on themselves. And so just as He sacrificed Himself (and life) to redeem us, we do the same, out of love, and in His cause.
Alright, let’s wrap up Part III of Satan. It isn’t until the New Testament that the Satan begins to become the personification of evil and a sinister opponent to God that tempts morals to sin. As we said in weeks before, in the Old Testament, Satan is mostly talked about in Job and there he is depicted as one of the Sons of God, as a being that has both access to God and one that is under God’s direction. We also noted the Old Testament seems to assign all things – good and evil – to God, and not to “ha Satan,” a nemesis that has the ability to confront and contradict Him.
Transition from Old to New Testament
It appears – appears – that somewhere between the Old and New Testaments that Satan morphed from a being with a specific office to accuse, to becoming a deceiver and tempter. RH Charles, an expert on the influence of apocryphal texts on the New Testament, traces the early stages of this transformation back to the apocryphal texts of the second and third century BC. There is also the idea that Persian demonology during the Jewish diaspora helped solidify Satan as an evil spirit rather than just a heavenly being assigned the job of testing and accusing.
Satan's Role in the New Testament
It is interesting that after being baptized and God saying, “this is my beloved Son in whom I am well” that the next thing we read (in Matthew chapter four) is:
Matthew 4:1 “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”
Again, due to the order and history of things I can’t help but wonder – WONDER, DOTTY, WONDER! – if when the Word became flesh that darkness too became embodied as a special personified tempter mainly against the Son and then as an evil tempter against us. It’s just a thought.
So when Jesus speaks of Satan as a “murder from the beginning” and our natural inclination is to view him as a literal dark being created by God to be evil that has maybe he started off as an accuser by assignment that processionally became the consummate evil doer who embodied the spirit of darkness and death.
In the New Testament, the liar and arch-enemy of God is best expressed in the Book of RevelationA symbolic prophecy fulfilled in 70 A.D.—not a prediction of future global events.. Beliefs about Satan held by Christians and Mormons alike are mostly derived from passages like Revelation 12:7 that says Satan waged war in heaven, that he drew a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth (Revelation 12:4), that he engaged in works of blasphemy and deceit (Revelation 13:1-14) and would be locked in a bottomless pit (Revelation 20:3).
Most Christians (and Mormons) today see these passages as depicting scenes from before the earth was but a number of biblical scholars think it's possible that they are actually describing an end-time event, which John clearly believed they were in the midst of when he wrote. It did not take long in Christianity however for the Satan to be seen as a fallen angel that sought to be like God in the beginning of things, and taking a third of the hosts of heaven, he was cast to earth to tempt and try and beguile us.
Revisiting Traditional Beliefs
I do believe that this subject can within reason, be revisited – not dogmatically – but with a little more attention to the Garden of Eden term, “Serpent,” to the way Satan is described in Job, to how God accepts responsibility for good and evil in the Old Testament, how the description of the King of Babylon cannot be assigned to him (including the name Lucifer) and how Revelation may be describing end times and not pre-earth times of this accusatory force.
In Mormonism, the Book of Mormon speaks of Satan in the classic Christian terms, saying that he: “flattereth away, and telleth them that there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none.” Which seems to be a direct rebuttal to the popular at the time of Joseph Smith idea of the Universalists who claimed that there was no
Early LDS Views on Satan
Satan and no hell. Early LDS views of Satan are very Christian. An angel of God who became the devil, “having sought that which was evil before God” (2nd Nephi 2:17).
Where in the Bible Satan is not mentioned in the Garden of Eden story, Mormonism trumps this fact by including his very presence as playing a pivotal role in the Fall. During Joseph Smith’s life nothing in the standard works of Mormonism (including recorded church history) say that Satan or his angels were the “fallen spirit children of God.” The notion that Satan and his angels being God’s literal offspring did not surface until after Smith died. But it has since become a standard of the LDS faith.
In a letter to William Smith dated December 25th, 1844, W.W. Phelps wrote that: “Lucifer, son of the morning, (was) the next heir to Jesus Christ, our eldest brother.” And he added that this Lucifer lost his first estate by offering to save men in their sins on the honor of a god, or in his father’s honor.
Focus on the Light
In my opinion, I believe that both the LDS and Christians today give far, far, far too much attention to Satan, to darkness, and to temptation. And while I know that “the darkness” continues to be as tangible as the light, and that evil is a reality in this world (a reality that only serves to prove God rather than disprove Him), I personally believe that Satan and his angels have been neutered. That there seems to always be a temptation present to human flesh and will but that he has no power, that he cannot have any long-term victory, that the victory was had by Christ nearly 2000 years ago and while the Satan might be allowed to cause chaos, and disruption, and pull us from the light, God wins. God has won.
And the inclination of every Christian, instead of cursing the darkness, ought to be just shining a light. I am also of the opinion that prior to receiving Jesus, all people are naturally ego-centric and self-centered and that Satan may accentuate these natural proclivities in us, but once a person receives the King, He is rendered utterly useless – unless we choose to invite him in. Just some observations.
Observations on Christian and LDS Focus
But it seems, in Mormonism and in Christianity, that there are an awful lot of people who love to focus on Satan when we would do much better focusing on the Lord. Alright, let’s open up the phone lines: (801). While the operators are clearing your calls, take a look at this.
NEW SPOT HERE PLEASE.
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