*sigh* I was actually going to avoid your threads, but I have to agree with you on this one, so I'll say so! How on Earth could anyone claiming scholarliness state that blood symbolizes death to the ancients? Quite the opposite; its association with life is key even to understanding the death cults, who sacrificed human life to obtain blood with which to scatter on their fields in vain hopes of restoring life to it?
Blood was life to the ancients! It was the substance which carried life within a person! LOSS of blood was death!
The basic symbolism ... and it is so much more than mere symbolism! ... is that Christ shed his immortal blood/life, so that we could receive his blood/life, and thus have a share in his immortality through his gift! Christianity is not a death cult! Rather, Christ willingly surrendered his life so that we may share in it, but since his life is infinite, he did not remain dead, but rose on the third day.
I have a copy of MacArthur's Hebrews commentary and have read it in context, pages 236-7, and do not deduce from it any heretical teaching, but rather, covenantal teaching. The title of the chapter where this is found is "Necessity of Messiah's Death," then the subtitles "A Testament Demands Death" and "Forgiveness Demands Blood."
IMO, after researching one of the original sources quoted in this article, I come away thinking the author of the posted article is on a heresy hunt and looks for heresy in all the wrong places.
Aw, come on. We don't have to be in lock step to discuss something.