The Doctrine

There is a system of belief about blood that is accepted as doctrine in many churches. According to these churches, which are often fundamentalist Christian, the most important thing in the Universe is blood--yours and Christ's. If you have the wrong kind of blood, you will go to Hell. If you have the right kind of blood, you are part of Deity. Jesus was God and sinless only because He had the right kind of blood. Man is mortal and sinful because he has the wrong kind of blood.

Mankind has only one hope for everlasting life, according to these preachers. Since the fate of man is determined by the blood in his body, man could be saved if his sinful, deadly blood were replaced with perfect, immortal blood. Theoretically, there is more than one way to get sinless blood. If medicine could strain out the sin in our blood, we would be immortal. Medicine could offer to man the fruit of the Tree of Life that was denied to Adam and Eve. However, since medicine cannot do that, man needs some other source of untainted blood.

There is, fortunately, a reservoir of such blood, reserved in Heaven to redeem humanity. What is more, this blood is not merely perfect, sinless human blood. Since it is the blood of Jesus Christ, it is also the divine blood of God the Father. The blood that flowed through the veins of Jesus Christ's body while He was on Earth came from God the Father, alone. Jesus Christ had divine, sinless, non-human blood while He was on Earth.

When Jesus arose from the grave, He collected the blood that He shed, the only perfect blood in existence, and took it to the Holy of Holies in Heaven. Every drop of blood that was in Jesus Christ's body while He was on Earth is now on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies in Heaven. It is as fresh and pure as it was when it flowed in His body, and full of the Life of God. The supernatural blood of Jesus Christ is available for literal human consumption through the spirit; that is Salvation, according to many Christian Fundamentalist preachers.

The churches that teach this are sensitive about the belief. Those people who do not accept this doctrine cannot join the church, and those already in attendance may be asked to leave. Several Fundamentalist preachers claim that Salvation requires a belief that Jesus Christ had divine blood. Even so, some Fundamentalist churches have never heard of these beliefs, and some members refuse to believe that our leading preachers would believe such teachings. Yet, it is certain that those who teach this doctrine feel compelled to brand and throw out anyone who dissents on this one subject. Many church members get an awkward smile when this subject is mentioned, and they say that it's really not an important issue. When there is such a divergence in our views and knowledge of a subject that has assumed such importance, there is a crisis in the church.

Many important preachers support this belief--hereafter referred to as the Blood Doctrine--and they have many arguments for it. These arguments fall into three categories; Historical, Scientific and Biblical. Since they claim that these three bodies of knowledge support their Doctrine, this book will examine the validity, accuracy and absoluteness of each of them.

Not all Blood Indoctrinators claim every element of the Blood Doctrine that is presented here (although most Blood Indoctrinators claim most of them). The goal in this book is to evaluate the most critical elements of the Blood Doctrine (1 John 4:1-3, Acts 17:11). This book was written, not because the author is a great theologian, but because he is genuinely concerned about the errors that he sees in his denomination--errors that are not being addressed by those who should know better.

The meaning of the word "divine" is ambiguous, and this is adding confusion to the discussion of Christ's blood and body. A Blood Indoctrinator from Longview Baptist Temple told the author that "divine" meant "sent from God." That was his basis for claiming that Christ's blood and body are divine. He has some basis for using his definition. Terms such as "divine Scripture," for example, mean that it is from God. However, though it's true that Jesus was sent from God, and God prepared a body for Christ, there must be more to Christ's divinity than this. According to Luke 1:26 the angel Gabriel was sent from God, and John 1:6 says that John the Baptist was "a man sent from God." If Christ's divinity is nothing more than a reference to His dispatcher, then all the angels, prophets and godly men are a part of the Godhead.

The word "divine" has several meanings, including fortune telling (to divine; divination). For the purposes of this book, "divine" will mean "God, or a part of God, and worthy of worship as God, equal to God." The author maintains that Jesus Christ is divine, but His body and blood were the same as those given to ordinary humans, though Christ's were composed by God.

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