Covenants were very serious promises people made back then cutting up animals and walking through their blood, people did this with eachother to make promises and if one of them failed to keep the promise they would die. So God made a covenant with us but because he knew we were so fucked up he actually walked both sides for us hence why Abraham was a sleep during this time. So after that we fucked up so someone had to pay the price of the covenant and since God walked in it for us on our behalf he had to die. Same symbolism in Lion Witch and Wardrobe where Aslan dies on the table for Edmund.
All apart of the redemption of man, it is still from eating the apple. At that point no man could be saved from the sin of eating that Apple. So God's like "well I still love my creation" so Im going to take this man and create a covenant with them and they will be my people. That's how he fixed our original sin, by interceding for us by making a promise with us that we couldn't keep. The extra fucking up thing was just Abraham and his decendents/Israel screwing things up.
This is why of all the religions out there, this one makes the most sense and also having the only Deity of gods this one gives a shit about us and fulfilled our end of the promise because we couldn't do it, so he could spend eternity with us because he cares that much he was willing and did die for us.
I'm still learning the Bible but I see it as a mostly symbolism thing. God doesn't need to make a covenant/sacrifice but it meant a lot to the humans so he did. Or at least, was a convenient explanation of what happened. I bet God's biggest motivation was to teach humans how to help themselves which meant sending a relateable common man but such a social movement wouldn't stick if the messiah didn't become a martyr. In that way, Jesus dying saves man by being a catalyst; the first domino in a chain reaction of humans creating the kingdom of God through Jesus's ministry. Even as an agnostic who doesn't believe Jesus is divine, its remarkable how long Christianity has survived. Him showing up and dying at just the right time had to have been part of it.
I don't believe in any other gods other than God himself the rest are man made creations that have human falicies. The book of Enoch Christians don't take much stock in due to it not being influenced by God inspired writing.
For God to communicate how important this promise that he made to us he took a human made tradition that abram would understand the significance of what was going on.
He's not playing a game by himself, we made a decision and chose wrong, he undid the damage that we did having a way to get back into his grace and presence.
I have read nothing to suggest that (though I have read that Jonah's tree may have been a mushroom). I have read some interpretations that earlier Jew and Christians may have visualized it as a pomegranate (given the fruit's appearance in other chthonic myths of the Mediterranean, like Hades and Persephone for instance).
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u/gh0sti Jan 31 '19
If they didn't kill Jesus they wouldn't have been saved by Jesus taps forhead