Cause Before Symptom

Part 12 brought this investigation to an extraordinary turning point. God had commanded sacrifice, yet the prophets revealed that blood could never become a substitute for obedience, mercy, justice, righteousness, humility, or surrender. Then Isaiah showed us something different. Instead of another person bringing another animal, the righteous servant himself became associated with the offering. The sacrifice and the obedient serva...

In Part 11, the Day of Atonement showed us blood associated with life moving inward toward God's presence while confessed sin moved outward into the wilderness. God had provided a way to deal with what separated Him from His people so that He could continue dwelling among them. But as we move deeper into the Old Testament, something unexpected happens. The same God who commanded sacrifice begins rejecting the sacrifices His people ...

Why Did God Choose Blood? Part 11 of 19 – The Day of Atonement: How Far Will God Go to Remove the Distance Between Us?

In Part 10, the investigation reached one of the clearest statements God gives about blood: “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” Even more importantly, God said, “I have given it to you” upon the altar for atonement. Blood was not something humanity invented to satisfy a God deman...

For nine episodes, I have followed the trail of blood through Scripture without assuming the answer to one central question: Why did God choose blood? Now, in Part 10, Leviticus finally brings us to a passage where God begins explaining the blood Himself. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood,” God says, before adding something easy to overlook: “I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for ...

Part 8 ended with an extraordinary scene. Israel had been delivered from Egypt, brought to Mount Sinai, entered into covenant with God, and received what Moses called “the blood of the covenant.” Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders then ascended the mountain, encountered the God of Israel, survived His presence, and ate and drank before Him. The movement seemed complete. God had brought Israel out of slavery ...

In Part 7, blood was placed on a door. An animal died, its blood became God's appointed sign, judgment passed through Egypt, and the firstborn behind that blood lived. But after Israel escapes Egypt and arrives at Mount Sinai, something changes. God does not tell Moses to put blood on another doorway. This time, Moses puts blood on the people.

Why? Israel has already been delivered. These are not people waiting for rescue from Pha...

For six parts, I have followed the trail of blood without jumping ahead to the verses Christians already know. We have watched blood represent life, testify to death, carry accountability for another person's life, appear within covenant, accompany substitution, and finally appear beside threatened death and release in the mysterious Bridegroom of Blood encounter. Now we have finally reached the night when God Himself commands bloo...

In Part 5, the investigation reached Mount Moriah, where God stopped Abraham from killing Isaac and provided a ram to be offered “instead of his son.” For the first time, the biblical story gave us an unmistakable picture of substitution: one life was given while another life was allowed to live. But the ram’s blood was not emphasized, collected, applied, or described as making atonement. So before moving directly...

In Part 4 of Why Did God Choose Blood?, the investigation established something fundamental: blood matters because life matters. After the Flood, God permitted humanity to eat animal flesh but prohibited consuming its blood because the blood represented the life. Human blood carried an even greater accountability because humanity was created in the image of God. But we still had not reached blood atonement. Blood represented life, ...

In Part 3, we discovered something unexpected about the Bible's first mention of blood. Abel's blood was not placed on an altar. It did not cleanse sin or establish a covenant. It cried out from the ground because an innocent life had been taken. Blood entered the biblical story first as a witness to life and death. But after the Flood, God begins revealing something more.

In Part 4 of Why Did God Choose Blood?, I follow the trail...

Adam and Eve have been driven from the Garden of Eden, but humanity has not stopped seeking God. In the very next chapter of Genesis, two brothers stand before the Lord with offerings. One is accepted. The other is rejected. For generations, many Christians have been told that the explanation is simple: Abel brought blood, while Cain brought produce. But is that really what the Bible says?

In Part 3 of our investigation, I set asi...

In Part 1, our investigation led to an unexpected discovery. The Bible does not begin with blood—it begins with life. God breathed life into Adam, placed him in a perfect garden, and gave humanity access to the Tree of Life. There was no sacrifice, no priesthood, no altar, and no bloodshed because nothing had yet been broken.

Then everything changed.

For centuries, Christians have focused on the act of Adam's disobedience. ...

For nearly two thousand years, Christians have proclaimed that salvation comes through the blood of Christ. But very few have ever stopped to ask a simple question: Why blood? Why did God choose blood instead of prayer, repentance, good works, or some other sign of forgiveness? Is blood inherently sacred, or does it point to something even deeper?

In this opening chapter, I begin a journey that starts not at the cross, not in Levi...

This episode explores one of the most profound questions of our time: if humanity could build a system that promised peace, security, fairness, health, prosperity, and perfect knowledge, would we gradually stop looking to God? Rather than arguing that artificial intelligence is inherently evil, this investigation asks whether human nature has always been willing to exchange divine authority for something that appears more immediate...

A Biblical Investigation of Genesis 3

This may be one of the most controversial questions ever asked about the opening chapters of the Bible: Did Eve have sex with the serpent? For centuries, most Christians have dismissed the idea outright, while others have built entire doctrines around it. Some point to the shame of nakedness, the pain of childbirth, the language of "knowing," or the birth of Cain as evidence that something far ...

Part 2

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. But how do we actually do that? How do we make ourselves love God more when the desire is there, but the flesh keeps getting in the way?

Fifteen years ago, I was praying and telling God how much I loved Him. My business was doing well. My family was doing well. I was sober, and life seemed g...

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. But how do we actually do that? How do we make ourselves love God more when the desire is there, but the flesh keeps getting in the way?

Fifteen years ago, I was praying and telling God how much I loved Him. My business was doing well. My family was doing well. I was sober, and life seemed good. The...

Christians are told to seek truth, defend the faith, recognize deception, study Scripture, and stand firm in what they believe. All of those things matter. But somewhere along the way, something can go terribly wrong. Being right can become more important than being merciful. Correcting someone can become more important than helping them. Winning an argument can become more important than loving the person standing in front of us.

Genesis contains one of the most troubling statements in the entire Bible: God looked at humanity and regretted that He had made us. But how can an all-knowing God regret something He already knew would happen? Did God make a mistake when He created humanity, or have we misunderstood what this passage is actually telling us?

In this episode of Cause Before Symptom, I investigate Genesis 6 from the Hebrew text, the Ethiopian biblic...