“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth...The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth.”
(Isa. 53:7; Acts 8:32:32)
Isaiah writes about a lamb being slaughtered. Philip interprets it in the New Testament, when witnessing to the Ethiopian eunuch, telling him it was Jesus of whom the prophet wrote.
The word “slaughter” connects it to such meanings as: to butcher in a violent and bloody manner; it is also associated with massacre, brutal, savage. It is not a pretty sight to behold.
I had a barber once tell me I had a slaughterhouse religion. From the look on his face it seemed he wanted me to be impressed with his original definition. But he was way behind time. A liberal theologian by the name of Harry Emerson Fosdick first coined the phrase in 1922, adding that it was a, “precivillized barbarity.” He too was a little behind the times, well over 2,000 years. The Bible is always ahead of us!
From Abel’s sacrificial lamb until Christ’s (the Lamb of God) death, literally thousands of animals were slain. If all were put together, we would have a river of blood.
So you see, I have no problem with the accusations of either the barber or Fosdick; for I belong to, and am thankful for, a “slaughterhouse religion,” as the scripture refers to It. It will save to the uttermost all who believe and damn just as many as reject it! For they stand with the crowd who slaughtered Him.
“Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood...And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy...for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation...And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”
(Rev. 1:5; 5:9)
By An Old Disciple
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