3. The Lamb who was Slain


3. The Lamb who was Slain



"I saw a Lamb...as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes...slain from the foundation of the world." —Apocalypse 5:6, 13:8

Why does a chronological Bible study start with the last book of the Bible?

Strange as it may seem, it is the Bible that is not chronological (that's why there are so many Chronological Bibles on the market). However, even those—as far as I know—don't start in Revelation (a.k.a Apocalypse) with the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

But that is precisely where His story begins, and thus it is where this blog (and The Chronicles of Time) starts.

So who killed the lamb?

Well, who killed Jesus?

Roman soldiers? The Jews? Pilate? Caiaphas and the rest of the Sanhedrin?

Nope.

According to the Bible, Jesus was killed by his Father.

Bluntly put, God killed him.

"God did not spare his own Son but gave him up [to be killed]." (Romans 8:32). As the International Standard Version puts it, "[God] did not spare his own Son, but offered him as a sacrifice for all of us."

"This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." (Acts 2:23).

"We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God. . . . It was the will of Jehovah* to crush him; he (his Father) has put him to grief." (Isaiah 53:4, 10).

"God put [him] forward as a propitiation by his blood."  (Romans 3:25)

The image of the lamb, by the way, is from the Redemption Trading Card game, a simpler version of Magic: The Gathering. I don't know of any other Christian TCG, and it's pretty cool in its own right. I have several decks, and hope to one day have every single expansion pack. Check it out at Three Lions Gaming.

*Anytime you see LORD in the Old Testament, it is in place of the sacred name (YHWH, aka Yahweh, aka Jehovah). Jehovah, while not the closest to the actual name (which is technically unknown as Hebrew has no vowels), is my preferrence, thus the one I use here. In the CoT series, I use a fictional variant spelling, Jehuva).

Photo Credit: Three Lions Gaming: Redemption TCG

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