An atheist attacking me sent me this link. I think he wanted me to get upset/riled. Instead I took it as a good opportunity to research this (which includes including links to videos/articles).
Part 2 can be seen here.
Claim # 1. God himself will kill tens of thousands if it pleases him: 1st Samuel 6:19 in the King James Version: “And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men (50,070)”. Kill 50 000 men for looking at something?My Response:
One has to look at the context.. Also God was/is not pleased about having to kill people. If there is any analogy (and I don't really even want to mention this) to what God had to do. It's like capital punishment. Sometimes people who disobeyed God's laws would perish. It's not that he enjoyed and was pleased by it. Nobody enjoys having to carry out capital punishment. Sometimes it has to be done (according to the law). I, personally, am not in favor of capital punishment (I believe the prisoner should face life imprisonment and be given the opportunity to find God and be saved. Yes there may be those in prison who don't want to do it but at least they were given the opportunity to discover God, repent and be saved).
First of all, Numbers 4:15-20 - It was not lawful for anyone but Aaron and his sons to handle the Arc in anyway. This is a historic account in the very early days where God set aside strict laws to his chosen people for his convenant as well as being able to be among them (ie, the Tabernacle).
God is our creator and is all sovereign. He can do/say anything he wants. Especially during the time in the OT where he set laws about who should/should not be able to touch the Arc of the Covenant. People then should have known the laws. I will not question God's laws during those early days. One has to also remember that the Philistines were the worshippers of false God's and they did great harm to God's chosen people. God is a great/merciful God. The general theme in the OT is the repeating cycle (due to free will God gave all of us) of his chosen falling into a cycle of "disobeying his law" and worshipping idols and other false god's (that promoted child sacrifies, etc.) followed by a redeemer to get them back on track (ie, Judges, prophets and kings). Being that God is a merciful God, he stuck with his chosen people for all time and forgave them more times than can be counted perhaps.
There is an actual question of whether it was 50000 or 7.
Claim 2
You can kill a woman if she seizes a man's private parts without his permission: Deuteronomy 25:11-1: If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.My Response:
First of all, the verse never claims "You can kill a woman...". The verse they included is the proof. In the New Testament, Jesus said to the men who wanted to stone a woman: "Those without sin can stone her". Jesus overrode many those old laws of the Torah. There is no record of this law being enforced and historically. This gentleman does a wonderful job tackling this. This is a case of exeJesus (biblical interpretation) instead of isoJesus (our own interpretation).
I'm not going to recite what the video says but if you really want a real answer to this, you owe it to yourself to spend the 5 minutes watching the video. Everyone has 5 minutes. You can watch it on your phone in the bathroom while doing your business or listen to it in your car.
Claim #3
Perversity and human trafficking condoned: "Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and equitable but also to those who are perverse." (1 Peter 2:18)My Response:
This one is very easy to refute with proof. I already answered it on another blog post that you can see here.
Claim #4
Sex slavery condoned: "When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again."
Exodus 21: 7-8My Response:
This one is very easy to refute with proof. This is answered on another blog post that you can see here. Sex slavery is not condoned. That's considered "sexual immorality" which is evil in God's eyes.
They were not "slaves", they were indentured servants whom worked to pay bills and keep the family line going with the husband.
Claim 5
Divorce akin to debauchery: "Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery." (Luke 16:18)My Response
JESUS PERMITS DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE FOR SEXUAL IMMORALITY.
Claim 6
Cannibalism: "And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son...." (II Kings 6:28-29)My Response:
Yes cannibalism did occur there but if one reads the context of that verse, one will see that it's referring to the northern kingdom that continued to defy/deny God by worshipping false gods. Elisha was chosen by God to be a prophet after Elijah was lifted up to heaven. Prophets were sent by God to issue warnings to the kingdom's who's people were worshipping false gods (Baal, etc..) performing child sacrifices (something God never actually allowed any of his chosen to do. Yes he told Abraham to do it but that was testing Abraham's faith and God stopped him right before he was about to kill Isaac. It was a test of faith.) The repeating theme in the OT is God protecting his chosen people, his chosen people wander off into other territories like worshipping false gods (that included child sacrifices), then God sending judges and prophets to warn the people, the people usually don't listen so God has to punish them but comes back to them after they repent and worship him again, then they stray and worship false gods again,..., then God forgiving them, etc.. Sometimes famine would occur in those kingdoms (especially the northern kingdom (which the verse is talking about) which would then lead those sinners to have to resort to cannibalism by their own choice. Not by God's doing. God provided manna, quayle and water to his people in Exodus while he freed them from real slavery in Egypt. God had nothing to do with the actual choice the people in the northern kingdom made to eat their children. Had they listened to Elisha, I feel there would have not been a famine and they would not have needed to resort to cannibalism as a means of sustaining. There were really no good kings in the northern kingdom at that time and only about 1/3rd of the kings in the southern kingdom was good.
You can get a quick overview of Kings here. Then you'll see the context of the verse in the claim above. Many horrible things happened after the fall of man and still does today.
Claim 7
If your genitals have been damaged, stay out of church: "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord."(Deuteronomy 23:1)My response
Need to understand the context
Note the key passage here
Claim 8
Looking at a woman with desire is akin to adultery: "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28)My response
Claim 9
Looking at a woman with desire is akin to adultery: "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28)My Response
I'm not sure at all why the author of the article considers that an "abomination" that Jesus expanded on the sin of adultery in his Sermon on the Mount. Watching or looking at pornography (which is lusting after someone) is sinful. We are all sinners , we continually struggle (or even desire to) with sin. As christians, scripture tells us the need to continually repent. That does not mean christians can step back and think "No worries, I can do this as much as I want because I can just repent and I'm good to go do this again everyday as long as I go thru the motions of repentance". The more one experiences the holy spirit and follows God, the less one will sin. The devil will still tempt into sin for our earthly lives. Some will give in. Others will resist (and may fail) but the more one is able to resist with the holy spirit in their heart, the less desire one will have to (in this case) "watch pornography or lust after anyone".
Calling the above quote from the article an "abomination" (loathsome and detestable) is basically justifying (in one's own mind) that it's ok for them to indulge in pornography, etc.. It will never be ok with Jesus. Pornography (like many other sinful actions) is dangerous because of its addictive nature which can lead some down the path of being a sex addict and possibly causing much harm for their family and others downstream.
A great video on Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" (which also covers this) can be seen here.
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