Sacrifice is a Form of Revenge

[Treasure Hunter]

Listen, if I sacrifice something up to God, even if I don’t even really believe in him, then I become relevant to him if he does exist.

What this means is the suffering I feel then becomes a judgment on him. If I have very little meaning in my life, my sacrifice gives me something. It gives me a level of revenge if God exists.

If I don’t make any sacrifices, and God exists, then God is off the hook, at least in his mind. He can say to himself, “Why should I care? What has he sacrificed to make himself righteous?”

To sacrifice is to offer up. You know how to do it. It’s like scooping water out of your canoe when it’s raining. If you want to sacrifice lust, then you scoop it out of your heart over and over. God will try to put it back in your heart because he doesn’t want you to become relevant and be judged for your suffering. It becomes a battle of wills.

The more valuable your sacrifice, the more of a threat you become to God because you make yourself more righteous.

 

[Link]

You can avoid lust in extremes and follow God and try to get closer to him, and still feel you need God's grace and help to overcome lust.

God wants people to try to become as much good and righteous as possible, but admit they fail to worship him as he is supposed to be worshipped and acknowledge they fall short and are need of God's forgiveness and grace.

Also, God descends light barriers that help overcome too much lust and helps us avoid sin. Taking his help and light and power from him, is not pride nor vengeance, but humble gratitude if done properly.

Lust is helpful to a degree and in a middle ground, so marriage and striving for it is a good idea. But if it's impossible, there is muta (a sexual relationship contract that maintains a way to know and still be responsible over the child if the child is born), but it's better to patient then do Muta. However, for those who fear God's curse and know they won't be patient, muta is an option if marriage is too hard given the situation they are in.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

If you want to level up in your life, then you must submit to God by submitting to your reality checks. However, it’s important to understand that you will not submit to someone who has betrayed you and lost the moral high ground.

This is why it’s necessary to identify with the one who desires revenge against God. This one is willing to get his hands dirty and debase himself in order to complete his mission.

 

[wellwisher]

Listen, if I sacrifice something up to God, even if I don’t even really believe in him, then I become relevant to him if he does exist.

What this means is the suffering I feel then becomes a judgment on him. If I have very little meaning in my life, my sacrifice gives me something. It gives me a level of revenge if God exists.

If I don’t make any sacrifices, and God exists, then God is off the hook, at least in his mind. He can say to himself, “Why should I care? What has he sacrificed to make himself righteous?”

To sacrifice is to offer up. You know how to do it. It’s like scooping water out of your canoe when it’s raining. If you want to sacrifice lust, then you scoop it out of your heart over and over. God will try to put it back in your heart because he doesn’t want you to become relevant and be judged for your suffering. It becomes a battle of wills.

The more valuable your sacrifice, the more of a threat you become to God because you make yourself more righteous.

Sacrifice is about developing will and choice, against compulsive behaviors, where your free will and choice are not fully in effect. For example, during the Lent season for Christians; Ash Wednesday to Easter, one is asked to volunteer to give up something important to your impulsive nature for 40 days. You can go back to what you sacrificed, after the 40 days.

For the 40 days, you will try to use will and choice to overcome a targeted compulsive weakness where you lack free will. The goal is to reach neutral indifference, or a state of minimal emotional or psychological cost; "free" will. This weakness could be chocolate, ice cream, going out to the bar to drink, smoking, eating beef, or whatever is your obsession and not fully free will; hard to quit. This application of will and choice is not forever, but like most sacrifices, it is designed to, periodically, test your will power to make you stronger as a human being.

In ancient times, people often sacrifice food stocks to the fire; animal and grain offerings. It was not easy to sacrifice tasty food that you worked to so hard to raise and/or make. There would be an unconscious resistance to waste good food or even lose good food; compulsion of greed, compulsion of lost binge eating, and even maybe compulsive fear of an unknown future, where you may be very hungry. You could smell the meat burning in the fire, smelling like a fancy restaurant at dinner time, but not able to eat. It was a sacrifice of what you desired or feared.

The sacrifice was there to help you come to a focus and learn use will power, even against what you might justify as something that is good and what you really really want. Compulsion and lack of will and choice, is not just about the bad things of life, but also about too much dependence on even the good and proactive things for fear appeasement. The annual Christian practice of the 40 day sacrifice, was part of what made Christians strong in terms free will and choice, even to the point of turning the other cheek; will against compulsive fear and compulsive pride. It was also done in honor of Jesus and his greater sacrifice; against the compulsion of the animal body and survival for a greater good.

 

[Tamino]

Listen, if I sacrifice something up to God, even if I don’t even really believe in him, then I become relevant to him if he does exist.

Yes, kind of... I would frame it a bit different: if you introduce yourself and bring a small gift, that's a good way to start a relationship.

What this means is the suffering I feel then becomes a judgment on him.

Why? I don't think that sacrificing to a god needs to make you suffer. You can offer plenty of stuff that doesn't hurt you.

If I don’t make any sacrifices, and God exists, then God is off the hook, at least in his mind. He can say to himself, “Why should I care? What has he sacrificed to make himself righteous?”

Being righteous? I see that differently, I think. Trying to improve your own character doesn't need to be a religious thing at all, you can just do that for yourself.

I try to improve myself and become more righteous because that is according to Ma'at. But why would that cause suffering? It requires effort, but when I make that effort, it usually feels good and rewarding in and of itself. Like sport... I may not want to go out, and perhaps it's cold, and running takes effort and maybe my lungs hurt. But then, when I have done it and get home again, I actually feel better than before. No god required.

To sacrifice is to offer up. You know how to do it. It’s like scooping water out of your canoe when it’s raining. If you want to sacrifice lust, then you scoop it out of your heart over and over. God will try to put it back in your heart because he doesn’t want you to become relevant and be judged for your suffering. It becomes a battle of wills.

Nonsense. Why would I try to have a relationship with a deity that wants me to suffer ? In my experience, the gods and goddesses can be helpful if you are struggling with trauma or bad habits. And they welcome it when we humans try to build a relationship.

The more valuable your sacrifice, the more of a threat you become to God because you make yourself more righteous.

why would that be a threat? Because I expect the deity to give me something in exchange? That's called having a relationship, or exchanging gifts. It's a good thing.

 

[Tamino]

In ancient times, people often sacrifice food stocks to the fire; animal and grain offerings. It was not easy to sacrifice tasty food that you worked to so hard to raise and/or make. There would be an unconscious resistance to waste good food or even lose good food; compulsion of greed, compulsion of lost binge eating, and even maybe compulsive fear of an unknown future, where you may be very hungry. You could smell the meat burning in the fire, smelling like a fancy restaurant at dinner time, but not able to eat. It was a sacrifice of what you desired or feared.

The sacrifice was there to help you come to a focus and learn use will power, even against what you might justify as something that is good and what you really really want.

I really don't think that this is the point of most ancient offering practices.
You offer some of your stuff to the gods because you are hoping to gain something back: a positive relationship, another good harvest next year, a benevolent deity that keeps bad weather and illness away.

It's not about willpower or asceticism, it's about community and reciprocity

 

[Treasure Hunter]

Nonsense. Why would I try to have a relationship with a deity that wants me to suffer ?

In order to get revenge against God, you must be able to get access to him. It sounds like you don’t know the one who desires revenge against God at all, so you’re going to be lost when I speak to it in a thread like this.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

In order to get revenge against God, you must be able to get access to him. It sounds like you don’t know the one who desires revenge against God at all, so you’re going to be lost when I speak to it in a thread like this.

Quickly, we were promised a new paradise in this world. This promise is written on the soul. The good father seeks justice on behalf of his son for the betrayal of unfulfilled promises.

 

[PureX]

Listen, if I sacrifice something up to God, even if I don’t even really believe in him, then I become relevant to him if he does exist.

What this means is the suffering I feel then becomes a judgment on him. If I have very little meaning in my life, my sacrifice gives me something. It gives me a level of revenge if God exists.

If I don’t make any sacrifices, and God exists, then God is off the hook, at least in his mind. He can say to himself, “Why should I care? What has he sacrificed to make himself righteous?”

To sacrifice is to offer up. You know how to do it. It’s like scooping water out of your canoe when it’s raining. If you want to sacrifice lust, then you scoop it out of your heart over and over. God will try to put it back in your heart because he doesn’t want you to become relevant and be judged for your suffering. It becomes a battle of wills.

The more valuable your sacrifice, the more of a threat you become to God because you make yourself more righteous.

Hmmm ... that seems an incredibly passive-aggressive way of looking at sacrifice and relating yourself to God.

I would view sacrifice very differently.

I don't perceive of God as my antagonist. I perceive God (if God does exists) as the source of all that I deem "divine" within my experience of existence. So I would see sacrifice as an act of gratitude wherein I give up something I might personally want in favor of furthering the cause of the divine. The cause of the divine, in my eyes, being love, forgiveness, kindness and generosity; and honesty, humility, and wisdom.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

Hmmm ... that seems an incredibly passive-aggressive way of looking at sacrifice and relating yourself to God.

I would view sacrifice very differently.

I don't perceive of God as my antagonist. I perceive God (if God does exists) as the source of all that I deem "divine" within my experience of existence. So I would see sacrifice as an act of gratitude wherein I give up something I might personally want in favor of furthering the cause of the divine. The cause of the divine, in my eyes, being love, forgiveness, kindness and generosity; and honesty, humility, and wisdom.

This is the perspective of the good son. He is well known, but he doesn’t get leveled up by God. He gets stuck in the complacency of the status quo.

The good son, who occupies the privileged position of firstborn and heir, must identify and relate with the rejected son in order to progress the story.