For those of you who live each day by everything you read in the Bible, I have a few questions for you that are based on actual quotes from the Bible itself.
When I burn a bull on the alter as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the lord - Lev 1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim that the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
My buddy would like to sell his daughter into slavery, as santioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? Do you think the IRS would approve?
I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is on her period of menstrual cleanliness - Lev.15:19-24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women find such questions highly offensive. Should I just try and see if they smell like fish and then go by that?
Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed posess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased frm neighboring nations. As an African American I Definitely have a problem with that, but a man that I consider to be a total idiot stated that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can that be clarified? and if so, why can’t we “own” Canadians too?
I have a neighbor that insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states that he should be put to Death. Am I morally obliged to kill him myself?
An associate of mines feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev 11:10, it is a lesser abomination that working the Sabbath. Can anyone verfy this?
Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the alter of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have friends that wear glasses who try an go to Church regularly. Should they be told to stop going because of this?
Most of my male friends often get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though it is forbidden by Lev.19:27 By this law, how should they die?
I know that from Lev.11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean. Should Football games that are played with pigskin balls be banned for this, and all its players both judged and sentenced?
One of my ex-girlfriends has relatives that live down-south who are farmers. They violate LEV 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made out of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester) blend. He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that she (my ex) should go through the trouble of going down there and gathering everybody in the town together to have them stoned to death? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we are supposed to do with people who have sex with their in-laws Lev.20:14?
I know that many of you have studies these things extensively, so I am very confident that you can help.
These above questions are suppose to stand as testimony that Gods words are eternal and unchanging…Please advise
sure, but where’s the debate? is the bible out-of-date and occasionally pretty silly? yes.
if the debate is indeed “How closely should we follow the bible?” then the OP is a little cynical (please correct me if I’m wrong) as the original “document” was meant in part as a goof on Dr. Laura.
I don’t think it was meant as a “goof” at all. It was a blatant (and deserved) insult to her idiotic outlook on life, religion, and homosexuality. I might go as far as saying it’s the next best thing to a good bitch-slapping.
The question is still there…who tells people when it’s ok to call the bible silly and mean and wrong? Is that left up to the pastor of your church? The pope? The individual? If you’re going to be a good Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Jew…what is the official guideline for what is ridiculous and what stands as acceptable religion? Who calls it?
Dr. Laura aside, for a Christian, wouldn’t the answer simply be that a new covenant was created supplementing the older laws of Moses? That the laws could be summed up in the statement “love God and your neighbor as yourself”. I’m paraphrasing but I think that was the crux of the matter.
Whether or not Christians follow that idea would be another matter.
It is far too coincidental that your questions are verbatim from existing rhetoric on the Internet. The interesting thing to me is that these questions all cite the Old Testament. (Hmm, why?) You could have been more original…as I could ask you the same about why you don’t keep the laws of kosher, the mixing of various cloth materials, and the like - all laid out in the Old Testament AND remain in practice today.
It is most eyebrow-raising to me that you do not bother to question cites from the New Testament. Or, does that “edition” of the Bible somehow read so much better for you??? I mean, if you’re going to be cynical, shouldn’t you be an equal opportunity cynic? …You’d think you’d have Bible questions across the board.
The reason I posted my question about interracial couples was so that someone could point out that the law in question, although undeniably written, is now no longer valid, having been overturned by subsequent competent authority.
Most modern-day Christians would argue that the laws referred to above were repealed by the authority of Christ.
It is at least a bit disingenuous to post this list of questions without acknowledging that claim at all.
Yes, the poster should have attributed the quote to someone, but that small mistake aside, what’s wrong with the questions?
Why is that necessary? After all, isn’t the New Testament just Christianity Lite anyway? Isn’t it just a version that is easier for mere mortals to swallow? The questions still remain valid.
Maybe our OP is saving that for another thread! I can hardly wait. But in the meantime, maybe someone could add a dash of New Testament to this thread and really get the ball rolling…
“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, **not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law ** until everything is accomplished” Matthew 5:18
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear,** not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law ** until everything is accomplished
Doesn’t look like he repealed anything…
The difference is that these laws were purportedly made by an infallible deity, not by fallible* men. Are you saying it was good and righteous to sell your daughter into slavery in Old Testament days, but Jesus changed the rules of morality? The other option is that the Old Testament was, perhaps, written by men, rather than by a deity.
I think that’s the only point of this list. Basing your morality on a book with such clear flaws seems pretty strange to me. I’ll settle for debunking the holiness of the Old Testament for now; we can save the New for another thread.
The Gospels, four books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) detailing the life of Christ, on which Christianity is founded. These detail the Virgin Birth, Parables, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ.
Acts of the Apostles, a rousing tale of the earliest Christians who were persecuted for spreading the word of Christ but also managed to do some pretty cool miracles. It’s sort of a “where are they now” for the years after the Crucifixion.
Paul’s Letters. Jeez, did this guy write a lot of letters. Hebrews, Ephesians, and so on. Paul’s letters are given lots of weight in Catholicism, and occasionally cherry-picked by various fundamentalists, but I don’t know many Christians who take Paul seriously (however, I also don’t discuss matters of faith with Biblical literalists on a regular basis).
and of course, the Book of Revelations, St. John’s long, strange, trip. Fun reading, but if you take it seriously, hoooo boy.
The New Testament is Christianity (see John 1 for a discussion of “The Word”); the Old Testament is the instruction manual for Judaism. As for Matthew 5:18, “until all is accomplished,” John quotes Jesus’ last words before death as “it is accomplished” (John 19:30); I’m not sure if both authors used the same Greek or Hebrew word for “accompished” when the original was set down, but I know a few English-speaking Christians who use this to avoid a purely literal interpretation of the Old Testament “Law” books. Furthermore, Luke quotes Jesus as saying that “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.”
By the way, even if “The Law” is suspect because of Jesus’ teachings, he did not release Biblical literalists from a strict reading of the histories or the prophecies (or the Psalms, although there aren’t really any contentious bits in there). So a literal seven-day creation, a true flood, and real Egyptian plagues are all still included in a Christian’s faith. Interestingly enough, the Ten Commandments appear in Exodus (a History book) and also in Deuteronomy (a Law book). Which shall we interpret literally?