Refuting counter-missionary video about blood atonement

In one of his videos, Jason insists blood does not atone for sin, especially human blood

Well, he’s actually right AND wrong, but, of course, he completely misses the meaning of the blood sacrifice. It’s true that human blood from an ordinary person cannot atone for anything. However, Yeshua was The Word (Psalm 33:6; John 1:1-3, 14–18; Psalm 107:19-20; etc.) as well as divine (John 1:14, Colossians 2:9, for example). (How many people do you know who can walk on water, raise the dead, heal the sick and turn water into wine?)

Now, before we go on, let’s examine the following excerpt from the CARM website to show Torah proof of why Yeshua IS the Word! [Note: the following refers to a “Targum”, which are 1st century BCE interpretive renderings of most books of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic which would then be presented verbally in the synagogue where the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures was followed by a translation into Aramaic, the language of most of the audience.]

“In a Targum of Genesis 28:20-21, for example, instead of vowing that the Lord will be his God, Jacob vows that the Word of the Lord will be his God. In the Targum of Genesis 9:12, instead of a covenant between God and Noah, a covenant is made between God's Word and Noah. In places like Exodus 20:1, the Targums even have the Word speaking words of His own, and one late Targum of Deuteronomy 4:7 describes the Word sitting on His throne and receiving the prayers of the people.

“The Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria, also relied heavily on this tradition of the Word to explain God's interactions with His creation. Writing in Greek, he utilized the word "logos" rather than the Aramaic "memra". Logos is the same word John utilized in his gospel.

“The Samaritans appear to have shared a similar tradition. One apocryphal Samaritan work known as "Samaritan Joshua," retells the story of Balaam from Numbers 22-24. When God is going to confront Balaam, the text says:

‘God then desired to make a manifestation of His mysteries: now behold He could not do this Himself, nor could He do it through one who worshiped after the manner of the children of Israel, nor could He do it in writing, nor by the agency of any of His angels, but only by sending unto him His very Command. And the companion of Balaam, upon beholding the specter of the Command of God, fled away.’

“The Command of God then goes on to converse with Balaam, speaking in the first person as God. God cannot, in a sense, simply appear before Balaam (which is consistent with Exodus 33:20, "man shall not see me and live"). Yet, through sending His Command, God does appear before Balaam and reveal His mysteries. Just as John 1:18 says, "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known," (ESV).”

Thus we see that the Jewish sages, quite far back in history understood that our relationship with YHWH was with His Word, and that includes interacting with YHWH as a man.

Continuing…

YHWH always demanded blood sacrifices as a substitution/redemption for our lives, as you can see fully explained in our blog. The bottom line of the article is that one’s salvation always required that substitution or redemption of one nephesh (soul) for another. The possibility of that substitution of an animal at the Temple is gone.  You can't get that any more.  It has been replaced by your acceptance that the Messiah died for you, and redeemed you, so you can be “saved”. He volunteered to substitute His nephesh for yours, and yet, today, many reject the offer.  Yeshua, sinless, MARTYRED himself, offering His blood for yours, against which there is NO Torah prohibition.

Remember the story of Isaac’s near sacrifice where his father actually took him up the mountain to sacrifice him, as YHWH commanded?

Genesis 22:2 He said, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Yitz'chak; and go to the land of Moriyah. There you are to offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will point out to you." (CJB)

Of course, we know that this was a test and that YHWH Himself provided a ram instead (Genesis 22:11-13); but, be that as it may, He DID command Abraham to offer his son. So, if He did that, why would you insist He couldn’t possibly give His own “son” - Mashiyach Y’shua - to live among His people for a short while, preaching the Kingdom and teaching Torah according to YHWH instead of man’s interpretation?

As for the continuous mantra that “man cannot be used to atone for sin” - please explain the following passages in Torah:

Exodus 28: 36 "You are to make an ornament of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal, 'Set apart for ADONAI.' 37 Fasten it to the turban with a blue cord, on the front of the turban, 38 over Aharon's forehead. Because Aharon bears the guilt for any errors committed by the people of Isra'el in consecrating their holy gifts, this ornament is always to be on his forehead, so that the gifts for ADONAI will be accepted by him.

Leviticus 6: 25 "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, 'This is the law of the sin offering: in the place where the burnt offering is slain the sin offering shall be slain before the LORD; it is most holy. 26 The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. It shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting. 27 Anyone who touches its flesh will become consecrated; and when any of its blood splashes on a garment, in a holy place you shall wash what was splashed on.…

Leviticus 10: 16 Then Moshe carefully investigated what had happened to the goat of the sin offering and discovered that it had been burned up. He became angry with El'azar and Itamar, the remaining sons of Aharon, and asked, 17 "Why didn't you eat the sin offering in the area of the sanctuary, since it is especially holy? He gave it to you to take away the guilt of the community, to make atonement for them before ADONAI.

This excerpt from the website MessianicTorah.org explains:  

Priests were established to help the people live in an intimate relationship with the Eternal. Many times people would, by mistake, enter the sanctuary being impure which generated guilt among the people. That guilt had to be removed in order for the people to keep enjoying the Eternal's presence without being exposed to the danger of His anger against sin.

In order to eliminate that guilt, they had to burn on the altar part of the animals destined for this purpose and then eat the rest. So, on the one hand, part of the sin that was transmitted to the animal that bore the guilt of the people was burnt on the altar; and on the other hand the priests ate the rest of the animal and the sin within it. Through these two ways of consuming the animal, sin was removed from the people who, thus, were atoned before the Eternal.

In the Torah this offering is not called "sin offering" but just "sin" chatat – חטאת. In other words, it is written in this verse that the priests had to eat the sin. Since the people's sin was transmitted to the animal through hand imposition, sin was in the sacrifice itself, so it is then called "sin". So when the priests ate from the sacrifice, sin entered in them, and in that way it decomposed in their intestines in the natural way and then got disposed of.

This teaches us that a priest may introduce the sin of the people in his own body, in the form of meat. This makes us think of the Messiah who took the sin of the people of Israel and the world in his body so the Eternal could forgive our sins and cleanse us to be sacred dwellings for Him and also to be able to enter the heavenly tabernacle without danger.

"...who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed." (1 Peter. 2:24 NKJV)

"In a loud voice they sang: Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!" (Rev. 5:12 NIVUK)

Blessed be the Eternal for having given us Yeshua as heavenly priest who took our sins in his body and eliminated them! And blessed be Yeshua for his faithfulness as priest becoming responsible for our sins and taking them away to give us everlasting hope! And blessed are those who believe in the Messiah's sacrifice!

Hopefully, you can see the grave error in the interpretation that a blood sacrifice did not provide atonement!  Yes, our daily inadvertent sins can, and should be atoned for by prayer and supplication as supported by many scriptures. But the the blood redemption for your soul remains.  That redemption came as Yeshua haMashiyach.  Please don’t reject it.