Saturday, May 05, 2007
10 Questions That Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer, Question 3: Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?
As I answered in the previous question, which innocent people is the questioner referring to?
From the transcript:
So, why doesn't this make sense?
God gives commands and we break them in our rebellion. This is deserving of death. Spiritual death and physical death.
The Sabbath was an integral part of God's covenant through Moses. To break it was to reject God. Rebellious teenagers? Your parents gave you life and care for you. To rebel against your parents is heinous. Young women who lie about their virginity are deceivers and fornicators.
We should stop and think. God's commandments should help us realize the nature of our rebellion and sin. They help us realize that our rebellion is not a "trivial matter."
If God gives you life and sustains your existence, what do we owe Him? Answer: everything. If the heinousness of rebelling against a parent makes no sense, it makes sense that rebellion towards God isn't understood as well.
Let me ask the anonymous atheist questioner. On what objective basis do you declare that these transgressions of God's commandments are "trivial"? Your own subjective feelings? Is your answer consistent with your atheism? How can you have moral laws without an objective law giver?
"That makes no sense, does it?"
If it makes no sense to you, I would suggest that you don't understand the holiness of God nor the sinfulness of sin. Meditate on God's law day and night.
As I answered in the previous question, which innocent people is the questioner referring to?
From the transcript:
Third question: Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible? Look up these verses:
- Exodus 35:2 – God demands that we kill everyone who works on the Sabbath day.
- Deuteronomy 21:18-21 – God demands that we kill disobedient teenagers.
- Leviticus 20:13 – God demands the death of homosexuals.
- Deuteronomy 22:13-21 – God demands that we kill girls who are not virgins when they marry.
And so on… There are lots of verses like these.
It doesn't make any sense, does it? Why would a loving God want us to murder our fellow human beings over such trivial matters? Just because you work on the wrong day of the week, you must die? That makes no sense, does it? In fact, if you think about it, you realize that it is insane. So you create some kind of rationalization to explain these verses.
So, why doesn't this make sense?
God gives commands and we break them in our rebellion. This is deserving of death. Spiritual death and physical death.
The Sabbath was an integral part of God's covenant through Moses. To break it was to reject God. Rebellious teenagers? Your parents gave you life and care for you. To rebel against your parents is heinous. Young women who lie about their virginity are deceivers and fornicators.
We should stop and think. God's commandments should help us realize the nature of our rebellion and sin. They help us realize that our rebellion is not a "trivial matter."
If God gives you life and sustains your existence, what do we owe Him? Answer: everything. If the heinousness of rebelling against a parent makes no sense, it makes sense that rebellion towards God isn't understood as well.
Let me ask the anonymous atheist questioner. On what objective basis do you declare that these transgressions of God's commandments are "trivial"? Your own subjective feelings? Is your answer consistent with your atheism? How can you have moral laws without an objective law giver?
"That makes no sense, does it?"
If it makes no sense to you, I would suggest that you don't understand the holiness of God nor the sinfulness of sin. Meditate on God's law day and night.
Labels: 10 questions
