Pagans used a ritual of human sacrifice to placate their gods and ensure a good harvest or other benefits. It was rife in Mexico and Peru on a huge scale when the Spanish arrived in 1519. Other examples are, King Athamas who had been called upon to sacrifice his firstborn by the Delphic oracle. Three Persian boys were offered up at the battle ofSalamis. It was only in the time of Hadrian that the annual human sacrifice to Zeus was abolished. The same thing occurred in Hebrew, Greek and Roman times, except by then it had been substituted with animal sacrifices.

There is no doubt that human sacrifice had been prevalent among the Semitic people. James Frazer tells us in "The Golden Bough," page 673 "the custom of sacrificing the son for the father was common if not universal among Semitic peoples." The story in Genesis 22 of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac and the story in Judges 11:34-40. ofJephthah's daughter becoming a burnt-offering because of her father's vow, are pointers to the practice of human sacrifice among the early Hebrew people.

The offering of blood sacrifices started in ancient times among pagan people to placate their gods. Human or animal sacrifice is the talcing of an innocent life to placate the gods for the benefit of someone else. This is paganism. It is illogical and unjust because the evil person goes free and the innocent person bears the punishment. If it was approved by our courts of law, there would be a public outcry against it- I regard all blood sacrifices for sin as a relic of paganism. Yet this is the foolish basis of Christian faith. Some intelligent people seem to believe it.

Let us look at one of the important rituals of the Christian churches, that of the holy sacrament. It is celebrated by Catholic and most other Christian churches. We read, "Jesus took a loaf of bread and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to them and said, 'take; this is my body.' Then he took the cup and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and all of them drank from it. He said to them, 'This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.'" Mark 14:22-24. I find it very difficult to accept that Jesus could have said those words. Each year the Jews celebrated the Passover feast in an orderly manner. Jesus had not yet been sentenced to death when he is supposed to have said those words. We have seen that on three occasions Jesus prophesied that those to whom he was talking, would not. see death before the Kingdom of God had come. The last occasion was while being questioned by the high priest three or four hours before his crucifixion. The high priest asked "Are you the Messiah. the Son of the blessed one?" Jesus said "I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven." Jesus was not expecting to die but rather to witness a miraculous commencement of the Kingdom of God on earth. Then he would be acknowledged publicly as the Messiah. Jesus was not a willing sacrifice. I strongly suspect that these words in Mark 14:22-24, which are attributed to Jesus, have been inserted into Mark's record after the gospel of Mark was first written. It would have been an effort by a church member to comply with the teaching of Paul and the Gospel of John that Jesus was the sacrificial "lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." John 1:29.

The Catholic interpretation of the ritual mass is made dear m the statement of the Council of Trent in 1563 as follows; "If anyone shall say that in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist there remains together with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the substance of the bread and wine and deny that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into (his) body and the wine into (his) blood, the species only of the bread and wine remaining which conversion the Catholic Church most fittingly calls transubstantiation let him be anathema." San.xlll.Can2.