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Writer's pictureChapman Chen

A Vegan Review of Rillera’s Lamb of the Free. By Dr. Chapman Chen

Updated: Oct 5



 

Summary: According to Andrew Remington Rillera’s 2024 book, Lamb of the Free, neither animal sacrifices in the OT nor Jesus’ death in the NT is substitutionary atonement. In the OT, most animal sacrifices are non-atoning, e.g., the regular burnt offerings (to attract God), the well-being sacrifices (shared meals with God), and the Passover (to commemorate Exodus) (Rillera 2024:27). Kipper is atoning but only in the sense of cleansing the sanctuary of ritual impurities. Based on 1 Peter 2:21-24 as an allusion to Isaiah 53 (the Suffering Servant passage) and Rev. 14:5, Jesus’ crucifixion is not a substitutionary sacrifice but a call upon us to follow His example, pick up His cross, and share in His righteous sufferings and resurrection (Rillera 2024:243-4, 251). This is a progressive interpretation for instead of giving us a free lunch as claimed by Paul (Romans 7:4; 10:10), Jesus expects us to “join with Him in that sort of self-giving service of others” before we can share in His eternal life (Rillera 2024:251).

 

Rillera’s (2024) problems are as follows. Concerning the OT, he dismisses the 5 great prophets’ and even Jesus' opposition to animal sacrifice (Isaiah 1:11; Jeremiah 7:22-23; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21-22; Micah 6:6-8; Matt. 9:13, 12:7), and the possibility that those atrocious animal sacrificial rituals are interpolations inserted by “the lying pen of the scribes” (Jer. 8:8 NIV). Concerning Jesus’ crucifixion, Rillera’s stance is self-contradictory. On the one hand, he asserts that Jesus’ death is NOT a sacrifice (Rillera 2024:243). On the other hand, he calls Jesus “the ultimate Passover Lamb” (Rillera 2024:196, 285), thereby endorsing Paul, the anti-vegan apostate's, distortion of Jesus' martyrdom for animal liberation (Akers 2020) into a new form of blood voodoo, succeeding the animal sacrificial cult in the OT.



1. The Gist of Lamb of the Free

Andrew Remington Rillera is assistant professor of biblical studies and theology at The King’s University in Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada. Lamb of the Free examines the various sacrificial metaphors attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, highlighting two key points: (a) the Torah does not include the concept of substitutionary death sacrifice—neither death, suffering, nor punishment of the animal is part of the sacrificial system; and (b) sacrifices can be both atoning and non-atoning. Despite this, the New Testament, in Rillera’s opinion, portrays Jesus as fulfilling all the roles of the Levitical sacrificial system, encompassing both atoning and non-atoning sacrifices as well as purification rites. The sacrificial imagery in the New Testament serves to encourage believers to conform to the cruciform image of Jesus by participating in his death.

2. Non-atoning and Atoning Animal Sacrifices in the OT 

 

In the OT, the purpose of the regular burnt offering at the Tabernacle is “divine attraction” or “divine invitation” by way of the “pleasing aroma” (Lev 3:16; Num 28:2, 24) of the offering (Rillera 2024:27, 31-2); that of the well-being offerings is sacred feasting between God and people (Rillera 2024:27); the Passover is also a non-atoning well-being sacrifice commemorating God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt (Rillera 2024:28, 68).

 

Only kipper as a ritual procedure can effect atonement, which, alas, can just cleanse the sanctuary of ritual impurities and contaminations of iniquities, intentional and unintentional sins; but cannot cleanse people of gross moral impurities such as sexual sins, idol worship, and murder (Rillera 2024:84).

 

3. Major Moral Impurities/Sins Have No Ritual/Sacrificial Remedy!

 

These grave sins that call for capital punishment or exile has no ritual/sacrificial remedy (see esp. Num 15:30-31; 35:32-33; Rillera 2024:11) (Rillera 2024:84). This is why the prophets foresee “a divine washing and resurrection” (for instance, Ezekiel 36:25, 29; Zechariah 13:1; 14:8) rather than a specific Day of Decontamination, to stop the covenant of exile (Rillera 2024:131). This is also why King David begs God to directly “wash” and “purify” him “from his sin” (Ps 51:2), both “bloodshed” (51:14) and rape (Ps 51:2) (Rillera 2024:133).

 

4. Jesus Died for Us But Not in Lieu of Us

 

Rillera argues that Jesus died for the sake of us but not as a substitute or scapegoat for us. His reasoning is as follows. Peter says that Jesus “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21-24 KJV), and that Jesus “’himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed’” (1 Peter 2:24 NIV) (Rillera 2024:243-4). Here Peter is quoting from the “Suffering Servant” passage in Isaiah 53:4-5:- “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:4-5 KJV). Neither Peter nor Isaiah is claiming that Jesus was a sacrifice. For sacrificial victims did not bear sins (Rillera 2024:243).

 

5. Jesus’s Cross is about  Unity and Sharing

 

Equally important to Rillera is that Jesus’ crucifixion is about solidarity and participation (Rillera 2024:249) rather than substitution. Jesus expects us to follow his example, to pick up the cross, to share in his sufferings of the injustices of others (1 Peter 21-23) – which connotes bearing their sins (Peter 2:23) and their burdens (Peter 3:16-18; 4:19) – to share in His death, and His resurrection (Rillera 2024:253, 283, 285). The Suffering Servant in 1 Peter 2:21-25, Isa 53:4-5, and Rev 14:5 is the model all Christians are supposed to emulate and follow (Rillera 2024:249).

 

6. A Progressive Interpretation of Jesus’ Death

 

What is progressive about Rillera’s interpretation in this regard is that Jesus does not do everything for us. He does not grant us redemption or grace free of charge, at least not as Paul claims (Romans 7:4; 10:10). Jesus wants us to carry His cross, live righteously (Rillera 2024:244), and “join with Him in that sort of self-giving service of others” before we can share in His eternal life (Rillera 2024:251).

 

The major problems with Rillera’s book are his ignoring the great OT prophets’ denunciation of animal sacrifices and his regarding Jesus as the ultimate Paschal lamb.

 

7. Problems with Rillera’s Interpretation of the OT

 

Rillera actually acknowledges the legitimacy of the chief priests’ killing of innocent creatures of God in their sacrificial cult, ignoring at least five great prophets’ steadfast opposition and the likelihood that these bloody brutal rituals were inserted by “the lying pen of the scribes” (Jeremiah 8:8 NIV).

 

7.1.The Chief Priests’ Self-Interest in Advocating the Animal Sacrificial Cult

 

In the Old Testament, priests were allocated specific portions of the sacrifices. Here are some relevant Bible verses:

 

7.1.1. Burnt Offerings: The priest received the skin of the burnt offering (Rillera 2024:30).

•  Leviticus 7:8: "The priest who offers any man's burnt offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering that he has offered"

 

7.1.2. Well-being (Peace) Offerings: The priest received the breast and the right thigh.

•  Leviticus 7:31-34: "The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be for Aaron and his sons. And the right thigh you shall give to the priest as a contribution from the sacrifice of your peace offerings"

                                 

7.1.3. In the case of kipper sacrifices (e.g., the sin offering and the guilt offering), the animal flesh was typically designated for the officiating priests and not for the laity (Leviticus 6:24-30; 7:6-7).

 

These portions were given to the priests as part of their sustenance and as a recognition of their service. So the chief priests had personal interests in maintaining the atrocious animal sacrificial ritual despite the protests of the five righteous prophets.

 

7.2. The 5 Prophets’ Denunciation of Animal Sacrifices

 

There are five great prophets from the Old Testament who expressed opposition to animal sacrifice or showed sympathy for animals, and their stance was later picked up by Jesus:

 

7.2.1. Isaiah – In Isaiah 1:11, the prophet questions the value of animal sacrifices, emphasizing righteousness and justice over ritual offerings: "The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me? says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals."

 

7.2.2. Jeremiah – Jeremiah 7:22-23 reveals that God did not command sacrifices when He brought Israel out of Egypt, but rather obedience: "For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God.'"

 

7.2.3. Hosea – Hosea 6:6 stresses that "I [God] desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."

 

7.2.4. Amos – Amos 5:21-22 reflects a rejection of hollow religious rituals, including sacrifices, in favour of justice and righteousness: "Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them."

 

7.2.5. Micah – Micah 6:6-8 highlights that God is not pleased with thousands of rams or rivers of oil, but with justice, mercy, and humility: "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

 

7.2.6. Jesus twice emphasizes that He desires compassion, NOT sacrifice. Matthew 9:13 - "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion, rather than sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (NASB); Matthew 12:7 - "But if you had known what this means, 'I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent" (NASB). 

 

7.3. Rillera’s Specious Dismissal of the Prophets’ Objection to Animal Sacrifice

 

Rillera tries to speciously distort the five prophets’ and Jesus’ explicit denunciation of animal sacrifice into their highlighting of the God-ordained limitation of sacrifice, which is its incapacity to address major moral impurity (Rillera 2024:169). He argues that only Jesus’ blood which the prophets envision as a divine water-washing and immersion in the sanctifying spirit can effect forgiveness of the sins that generated the moral impurity (Rillera 2024:172). However, the five prophets unequivocally states that God desires justice, righteousness, mercy, humbleness, and obedience to God instead of animal sacrifice. They mention nothing whatsoever about cleansing with Jesus’ blood. We will return to Jesus’ opposition to animal sacrifice later.

 

Despite the prophets’ strong, crystal-clear resistance to animal sacrifice and the fact that the officiating priests are the biggest beneficiaries of the sacrificial cult, Rillera never considers the possibility that those pro-animal-sacrifice verses are interpolations added by “the lying pen of the scribes” (Jeremiah 8:8).

 

In fact, Kam(eron) Waters (2024), the co-director of the 2024 documentary, Christspiracy, also notes that in the Bible, it says in 2 Kings 22 that another law of Moses was discovered by Hilkiah the priest during the reign of King Josiah. When it was shown to the King, he ripped his robe and said “we have been doing it wrong!” (The name of the father of Jeremiah the vegan prophet was none other than Hilkiah.) Similarly, the vegan Ebionites believed that there’re false insertions into the Jewish scriptures:-“And neither do they receive the whole Pentateuch of Moses, but cast out certain passages” (Panarion 30.18.7). When Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor” (Luke 6:20 NIV), he was probably referring to the Ebionites (for not all poor people are good, righteous people that deserve to be blessed). 

 

8. Rillera’s Problems Regarding his View of Jesus’ Cruciform

 

Rillera is self-contradictory in arguing at the same time that “Jesus’ death is not a sacrifice (Rillera 2024:243) and that Jesus is “the ultimate Passover lamb” (196, 285). Rillera bases the latter claim on two assumptions, the first being that Jesus’ blood serves as the purifying waters of baptism (Rillera 2024:218); the second being that the Eucharist functions as something like a well-being sacrificial feast, a meal humans share with God and Christ (Rillera 2024:283).

 

8.1. Jesus’ Blood as Purifying Waters of Baptism

 

Rillera contends that 1 John 1:7 means:-“The blood of Jesus purifies us of all sin because just as water-washing purifies, then much more will the blood of Jesus – the purest ‘water’ – wash us and purify us of all unrighteousness in baptism since baptism is what unites us to Jesus’ death” (Rillera 2024:218). [1 John 1:7 [NIV] reads, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.]

 

Rillera also postulates that the verse concerned alludes to the Day of Decontamination in the OT, where “water-washing is the ritual means of purifying people” and of cleansing minor moral impurity (Lev 16:30) (Rillera 2024:216). 

 

8.2. No Blood, No Forgiveness?

 

Apparently, Rillera, just like Paul, tries to make God look like a blood-thirsty devil, who won’t forgive people without tasting blood. Although Rillera insists that Jesus’ cruciform is not a substitutionary atonement, the magic of forgiveness and cleasning, from Rillera’s perspective, lies in Jesus’ blood after all.

 

“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins,” asserts Paul (Hebrews 9:22). As pointed out by Dave Thompson (2022), just a few decades after Jesus’ ascension, Pauline Christianity took a huge step backward from the vegan Prophets and progressive vegan Jewish movements by reintroducing blood sacrifice as the foundation of their faith (Thompson 2024). "In whom [Jesus Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace," Paul tries to convince Christians (Ephesians 1:7 KJV).  

Paul the Apostle's version of Christianity is deeply rooted in primitive blood rituals, assuming that the Creator of the Universe can only be satisfied through the shedding of innocent sacrificial blood. This brutal concept had already turned the Temple of Jerusalem into a profitable slaughterhouse for the priests. Paul, being a Pharisee—one of the main sects of Judaism that embraced blood rituals—found it easy to interpret Jesus's crucifixion as a substitutionary blood atonement for the forgiveness of sins. (Thompson 2022)

8.3. Everyone has Free Will & No One is Supposed to Shoulder Someone Else's Mistakes!

 

"I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live," says God (Deuteronomy 30:19 NIV). Everyone has free will as gifted by God and is thus supposed to be responsible for their own deeds. No one is supposed to atone for someone else's wrongdoing for it is unfair and unreasonable. As asserted by Jesus Himself in Matthew 19:16-29 and John 8:11, the key for sinners to receive forgiveness and attain eternal life is to keep the Commandments, to help the poor, to confess, to repent, and to stop sinning. No blood of someone else is required. Indeed, In John 8, where, after saving the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery, Jesus simply told her to "go and sin no more" (John 8:11 NLT).

 

Pastor Robert Munro (2023) summarizes this rationale in a succinct and easily understandable manner:-

 

Seriously…Imagine God sitting in Heaven looking down on Earth over 2,000 years ago and thinking…this human species I created needs me to send My only begotten Son to be crucified and for that I will forgive their previous sin. Does that really make sense to you?... You are responsible for your own sins, only through confession and repentance may sin be forgiven.

 

8.4. The Vegan Eucharist Turned into a Cannibalistic Cult!

 

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? (1 Cor 10:16-18)

 

Rillera quotes Paul’s words above (Rillera 2024:283) to argue that Jesus’ blood and flesh in the Last Supper constitutes a well-being sacrificial feast, a shared meal, through which we share in His sufferings, His death, and His resurrection (Rillera 2024:282-5).

 

Actually, the original Eucharist was a vegan thanksgiving Messianic Banquet, subsequently transformed into a bizarre, abstruse, cannibalistic cult by Paul (cf. Tabor 2012:14-15, 44-47, 148-151). Luke juxtaposes the Messianic feast (Luke 22:15-18) with the cannibalistic cult (Luke 22:19-21) in his account of the last supper, making one wonder whether Jesus will drink His own blood with the disciples in the future Kingdom of God. A vegan "Messianic Banquet" is clearly described in the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly in the "Rule of the Community" and other Essenic literature. And the Eucharist in the "Didache", a text discovered in 1873 dating to the beginning of the Second Century or even earlier, is also a simple thanksgiving meal of grape-vine juice and bread with no atonement via Jesus' body and blood mentioned. Jesus and His twelve disciples observed the Torah, which strictly forbade the consumption of blood and flesh killed by strangling, even symbolically. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them," stresses Jesus (Matthew 5:17 ESV). The four Synoptic Gospels' accounts of Jesus' last supper (Mark 14:22-25; Matthew 26:26- 29; Luke 22:15-20; John 6:52-56) come straight from the anti-vegan apostate Paul's (1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 11:23-26), almost word for word.

 

8.5. Paul Turns Jesus into the Very Thing He Loathes and Opposes!

 

“I desire compassion not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13; 12:7 NASB)”, twice declares Jesus. Jesus is actually a pioneering martyr for animal liberation. In emptying the Temple of animals about to be slaughtered for sacrifice, and in calling the Temple-turned-butcher-shop "a den of thieves" (Mark 11:16, Luke 20:46, Matthew 21:12-13 KJV), He debunked the business fraud of animal sacrifice and disrupted the chief priests' and scribes' lucrative revenue stream (Akers 2020: 117-119; Chen 2024), who immediately afterwards conspired to destroy Him (Mark 11:15-18).

As aforementioned, Pauline Christianity, just a few decades later, regressed significantly from the teachings of the Prophets and the more progressive Jewish sects by reintroducing blood sacrifice as the central element of their faith. This move reversed centuries of progress made by advanced Jewish sects that had moved away from primitive beliefs in blood rituals. It also blatantly overlooked numerous instances in the Hebrew Bible where sins were forgiven without any bloodshed. It's unsurprising that Paul also endorsed the consumption of meat, contrasting with Jesus' Jewish followers who were vegan, as seen in Romans 14:2: “One person believes he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats only vegetables.”

By maintaining such a strong belief in the superstition of blood magic, Paul disregarded the many instances where the Prophets, and later Jesus through his words and actions, rejected the practice of blood sacrifice. Paul and his followers therefore turned “Jesus into the very thing he was protesting, a sacrificial “Lamb of God”! What ignorance and insult!”(Thompson 2024).

Whether Jesus’ death is a substitutionary sacrifice or not, from Rillera's perspective, Jesus’ blood, in the context of water baptism, is indispensable for the cleansing of our sins; and His blood and flesh, as a well-being sacrificial feast, are indispensable for us to share in, or have fellowship with, His sufferings and resurrection.

 

9. Conclusion

 

In conclusion, Rillera is clever enough to present his covert support of the carnist OT priests and the anti-vegan apostate Paul in a seemingly progressive way. He pretends to argue that all the OT animal sacrifices are not about atonement for grave sins, and that Jesus did not die in lieu of us, that Jesus just wants us to follow His example and gain eternal life. But what Rillera really wants is for people to believe that the killing of innocent animals by those covetous and carnivorous priests is God-ordained, good, and proper, and that it is perfectly legitimate for Pauline Christian to claim that Jesus is the ultimate scapegoat, that Christians may without any questions of conscience drink His blood and eat His flesh, just like a group of Freudian brothers devouring their father with a view to each acquiring a portion of his strength (Freud 1950: 176).

 

As a matter of fact, this book is a reinforcement of the blood voodoo of the self-serving, greedy chief priests in the OT, which was strongly resisted by the great prophets, as well as of the black blood magic of Paul, who turned the Vegan Eucharist into a cannibalistic cult, and Jesus into the very thing He was protesting – a sacrificial Paschal lamb!

 

Rillera’s dangerous disingenuousness and unscrupulous cunningness is almost comparable to Paul the anti-vegan apostate’s.  

 

References

 

Akers, Keith (2020/2000). The Lost Religion of Jesus. NY: Lantern Publishing & Media/ Woodstock & Brooklyn. 

 

Chen, Chapman (2023a). “The Vegan Eucharist Turned into a Cannibalistic Cult by Paul.” HKBNews, Nov. 22.

 

Chen, Chapman (2023b). "Acts of the Anti-Vegan Paul." HKBNews, July 5.

 

Eisenman, Robert (2012). James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I. London: The Way Publishing.

 

End Times Truther Wing Wong (2021). "Paul is a False Prophet II".

 

Freud, Sigmund (1950 [1913]). Totem and Taboo. Trans. James Strachey. NY: Norton.

 

Lake, Kirsopp, trans. (1912). "Didache" in The Apostolic Fathers. London : W. Heinemann. https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-lake.html

 

Munro, Robert (2023). "Jesus was not Crucified for the Forgiveness of your Sins!" Facebook, Dec. 22. https://www.facebook.com/robert.munro.520/posts/pfbid03295M1vSTekXyVj3PtrttP5YKrYPcCBZZVDSmSGdiKbA8yZgDpUKiNESrN7fKVGPel

 

Keith, Akers (2020 [2000]). The Lost Religion of Jesus. NY: Lantern Publishing & Media.

 

Sion, Robert Mt. (2013). Paul the Antichrist. Saarbrucken: Bloggingbooks.

 

Tabor, James D. (2012). Paul and James. NY: Simon & Schuster.

 

 

Thompson, Dave (2022). “Flesh Eating Paul Versus James the Just, the Brother of Jesus, and a Vegan”, Dec. 13. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02kErHUw5kzTSACxwmKuhAWpDCegTPGRyWeAQfsXHufxCmDqjPiFg9pNgnBPgz8vWel&id=100003311469571

 

Vermes, Geza (2011). The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English. London: Penguin Classics.

 

Voskuilen, Thijs (2005) "Operation Messiah: Did Christianity Start as a Roman Psychological Counterinsurgency Operation?", Small Wars & Insurgencies, 16:2, 192-215, DOI: 10.1080/09592310500079940

 

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