The Real “Passover Plot”
April 12th, 2009Hindsight Can’t Save God’s Enemies
I will never understand why my family didn’t make a bigger fuss on Easter when I was a kid. For some reason, my sister and I always received chocolate rabbits and baskets of candy, and that was nice, but I don’t recall Easter having the kind of religious significance Christmas had. Even now, it sort of slips by me.
That’s a shame, because Easter, or more accurately, Passover, is what made Christianity possible. The crucifixion and resurrection are the events that made it unnecessary for human beings to pay for their sins.
I think the second psalm is a great thing to read on Easter, because it reveals the true nature of the events that took place over that fateful Passover, two thousand years ago. I do not mean this in an irreverent way: the crucifixion was a trick. Were it not for the terrible suffering and ugliness, you might almost compare it to a practical joke. Religious people tend to think of spirits as brilliant beings who know all sorts of things about the future, but the truth is, God has a long, long history of making fools of them. He encodes his plans in prophecy, and his enemies can’t figure out what it means, and then he brings things to pass, and his enemies are caught flatfooted. That’s what the second psalm is all about. It was written about a thousand years before Jesus, but it clearly describes not only the crucifixion and resurrection, but the fact that the spirits who rule this world will not understand it and will be unable to prevent it from ruining them. Take a look.
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
The Bible often has multiple meanings woven into its text. For exampe, “kings of the earth” might refer to some of David’s enemies, and “his anointed” might refer to David. But to a Christian, it’s pretty clear that they also refer to the spirits that rule this world, and Jesus, respectively.
This isn’t just about nations that are hostile to David. It’s about spirits that oppose God. They fought Jesus, and they believed that by putting him to death, they were destroying his power. Instead, they magnified it and spread it to humanity, even beyond the Jews. To “the heathen” and “the uttermost parts of the earth.” “Holy hill of Zion” refers to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jesus referred to his own body as God’s temple. He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” His body is where the kingdom of God, on earth, inside men, began.
This psalm ridicules the non-human powers that have the foolish pride to fight with God. It shows God can take their most promising plans and use them to skewer them. He can delude them into destroying themselves with their own weapons. And he can reveal it all in advance, to human beings to whom he has given ears to hear. The second psalm is a perfect picture of what God intended to do, if you’re able to perceive it.
I wish we would give up our ridiculous traditions of moving Easter away from Passover and referring to it by a disgusting pagan name. The parallels between the first Passover and the one that included the crucifixion are overwhelming, but we have obscured the connections by turning Easter into a bizarre day that celebrates rabbits that lay eggs. And if you can’t see Passover in Easter, you probably can’t see Shavuot in Pentecost, either.
Anyway, happy misplaced Passover. Whatever you choose to call it.
April 12th, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Steve, we need to moblize the forces to pray for Mish. Go check her blog. She’s had some trouble today.
April 12th, 2009 at 5:45 PM
“The crucifixion and resurrection are the events that made it unnecessary for human beings to pay for their sins”
Okay, but you say that people suffer for sins of their ancestors, you’ve said it here many times. And christians believe in hell, which is eternal damnation as I understand it.
It’s confusing to an Atheist.
April 12th, 2009 at 5:54 PM
As I have said many times, because the Bible is so vague on the concept of hell (regardless of what anyone tries to tell you), I am not totally on board with the idea that any one individual can be tortured forever. It doesn’t seem to make sense, since any one of those people would eventually suffer a trillion trillion times the suffering every human has ever caused. I do believe there are people who are so evil they will be permanently destroyed, but that’s different. As for people who knowingly reject salvation, I take hope from Biblical suggestions that there is a form of temporary punishment in the afterlife.
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The Bible is clearer about salvation, so I am confident that I will receive it.
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As for people being punished for the sins of their ancestors, I don’t put it that way. I say people suffer because of these sins, but I think the intention is to punish the ancestors. I don’t think the guilt is imputed to succeeding generations, even though they may suffer. And I don’t believe anyone suffers in the afterlife because of things other people did. I think it’s purely an earthly thing.
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Anyone can do something evil or stupid and end up harming their descendants. Think of a woman who gets herpes and gives birth to a blind baby, or a man who ignores his kids, who later end up criminals and addicts. And the Bible is full of things about curses being passed on to people’s “seed,” which means their offspring.
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The Bible also makes it clear that the salvation Jesus paid for has to be claimed, if you want to receive it.
April 12th, 2009 at 6:18 PM
I agree. I see Passover and “Easter” as the same thing. We always give the kids chocolate and have a seder. I annoy Christians and Jews alike.
April 12th, 2009 at 6:24 PM
“As for people who knowingly reject salvation, I take hope from Biblical suggestions that there is a form of temporary punishment in the afterlife.”
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Could the temporary punishment of a moral believer in God exceed that of a evil penitent who turned to faith at the last moment?
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I know there are decent ethical non-believers whose moral calculus have few deficits. I disagree with them on theology but consider them vastly ahead of those who turned to faith in the 11th hour, without having reconciled earthly damages to their victims. It is obscene to me to think that any member of the SS could merit a higher place in the afterlife than any of his victims. If, on the other hand, in 1944 he turned from murder to saving Jews and saved at least as many as he had killed, he might merit consideration. It is obscene to me that any church-going member of the Klan who died without renouncing his membership and had the courage to act in opposition to it could merit a higher place than any of his victims, real or intended. Anything less than that would be divine injustice of an incomprehensible magnitude and in which I could not reasonably believe.
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If the benefits of faith are gained by merely choosing the right team to bet on before the game ends, that would trouble me to no end.
April 12th, 2009 at 6:28 PM
Hmm…I suspect you’re not a Christian.
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I also suspect that the Jewish concept of hell is more sound than a lot of the conclusions Christians have drawn. I have different ideas on how you get there, but I think you may be closer to the truth on what it’s like once you arrive.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:06 PM
Incidentally, and you may already know this, the eleventh-hour issue you discuss is one Jesus covered, and the term “eleventh hour” comes from the parable he used in this teaching.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:26 PM
Aaron, from a Christian point of view, it’s not a question of earning salvation, and fairness of death bed faith isn’t the issue either.
It’s more along the lines of God has offered a free gift. You can receive the gift at any time.
Another approach is thinking of it as such: God has offered the gift of the torturous death of His Son (the sinless Lamb) as a sacrifice for man’s sin, since man can’t keep the Law. To say that that gift is not enough, that we must earn it, is a slap in the face of God, an insult. When we accept the gift, we stop insulting God. Apologize on your death bed and you’ve still squared it with a God who is always waiting for man to accept His offer.
You are probably aware of the concept, but I mention it for the benefit of readers of your comment who are not.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:51 PM
I’m happy to host this stuff as long as we don’t get into an argument about who is right. There are familiar Jewish objections to what Ed said, but then we all know Judaism is not Christianity.
April 13th, 2009 at 8:21 AM
I am now receiving comments that amount to efforts to “debunk” one religion or another, as well as one that seems to accuse me of deleting posts so I can lie about things I’ve said about religion, so it’s time to close this thread.