FROM THE TREE TO THE CROSS

Many people like to point out errors or differences in the many translations as proof that the bible is not inspired from God and is only from the imaginations of man.

Let’s face the facts and the truth of the matter. The bible is a puzzle box without a picture on the cover, and the pieces all seem to be mostly blue with white clouds and some random pieces of red mixed in. Assembled by some 40 or more contributors over a span of 3000 years.

This puzzle picture given by God’s word to man, began to be assembled by Moses and his followers some 3400 years ago but was not even 1/3 complete by the time of his death and certainly did not provide enough of the puzzle picture to say what it was a picture of, it only provided what seemed as a clue because the red in the pieces appeared to resemble blood.

And so they presumed that God’s puzzle given to man involved blood and sacrifice to an angry and vengfull God, and so they created a temple in order to sacrifice animals and offer blood to the God they thought they understood but did not have a complete picture of.

The puzzle continued to be assembled by more and more prophets over a long period of time and as the picture took shape the prophets proclaimed that the picture was of the kingdom of God and his mercy if they return to him but they did not want to hear it and instead silenced and killed the prophets because the temple had become a symbol of power and wealth to their country. Eventually the people of God had become so perverted and corrupted that they even sacrificed their children just as the canaanite cults did whom God removed from the land as punishment for this crime.

And then there was Jesus who proclaimed to them that God does not desire sacrifice but mercy and a turning of one’s heart to God. But they would not listen to him because he did things contrary to their traditions by contradicting God’s laws in healing people on the holy sabath, a day when no work was allowed to be done whether good or bad, and yet he declared that he was given power to heal by God because he was sent by him as his son in order that they could finally receive the picture of the puzzle and see for themselves that it was indeed a picture of the kingdom of God just as the prophets of old had proclaimed, they had simply been looking at it all wrong.

But of course they wouldn’t listen because the temple had once again become a symbol of wealth and power thanks to king herod the not so great. Animal sacrifice and tithing was big money that was not going to be stopped by some carpenter from a small rebel town with a feel good message. So once again they set out to silence the prophets and they did so by hanging him on a tree naked and shamed for all of his followers and believers to see, in hopes that it would end his progress and stop any future dreamers of trying to do the same.

But they were unsuccessful because Jesus transformed his cross of sin and shame into an eternal symbol of glory and grace, an everlasting sign of the unfathomable love of God. By taking our sins upon himself and dying an eternal death that we were destined to pay as punishment for our sins, he completed the puzzle picture given to man by God’s word and it was not one of blood and sacrifice but one of love with a big red heart in the middle and with only one piece in the puzzle missing right in the center of that ❤️, it just so happened to be a puzzle piece in the shape of a cross because Jesus is the only thing that could complete the puzzle picture and finaly allow us to understand who God is and what he wants from us. What began at a tree also ended at a tree when Jesus made it possible for man to return to God because he laid down his life and overcame sin and death when he chose to allow his own creation to hang him on the tree that divided heaven and earth.

So, contradictions in the bible? Yes there are many, even Jesus was one, so to expect for man who is a contradiction himself to produce a book that perfectly portrayed God who is perfect and do so without error is in itself a contradiction and the very premise, proof that man still does not understand God because of his own unfulfilled expectations of him.

God never desired to force man into trusting or believing in him, He allowed man to make his mistakes and learn from them if that’s what man chose to do, just as Adam did in the beggining and is still witnessing the reverberating consequences of his choices. But despite mans shortcomings God provided a path and option for him to return to his light and love and not be lost in the darkness forever.

So please do us all a favor and stop reading the Bible like it’s a law book that you have to study in order to pass the bar exam but it itself has errors in it.

The truth is there for you to see in God’s wisdom his love and more importantly his Son. It’s up to you to look past yourself and others in order to find it and him.

May the LORD bless you and keep you

May the LORD cause his face to shine down upon you