How come Christians pick and choose which parts of the Bible to follow?

Question

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

Exodus 35:2 (KJV)

It's the word of god, it MUST be done. If you don't do it, you can't say you live your life according to the Bible.

Answer 1

Because most of them have never read the bible.

And, if they did/do, they pull out their "Jesus paid for my sins" card and ignore any rule they don't want to follow. Especially those about remarrying and paying or receiving interest on money.

They all seem to know about the ones that prohibit fornication but that seems to be the only one with which they want everyone else (besides themselves) to follow.


Oh, yeah, I forgot that other trump card, the rules don't apply to Christians, other than those about fornicating. And those only apply to those "other" Christians.

Answer 2

It depends on what you mean by the Seventh Day, for the Children of Israel numbered their days, which is why Sabbath is the seventh, but a look into the first page in the Bible tells us that the days begin and end at sunset, for "evening and morning the first day" and "evening and morning the second day" do not give us a day that ends and begins at midnight.
So, watch the Sunday thing.
Another thing, Christians believe in Jesus and the crucifixion to save them from sin, so that they sin no more, and now you are asking them to forget their saviour and save themselves, but they choose not to see that Jesus told them to cut off their right hand or pluck out their right eye if it leads them to sin, and to do this to guarantee their own salvation, so you must have a valid point there, that they choose what they wish from the Bible.
You cannot make the blind see nor the deaf hear nor can you wake the dead.

Answer 3

This particular christian and all her spiritual brothers and sisters, do NOT pick and choose from the bible; we study it from page one to the very last page because it is ALL inspired of God. But I do agree that many professed christians do pick and choose, which begs the question - why, if they insist they are christians?! One very big reason is because we hate reading things that means changing our ways, and try to either skip them or just ignore them altogether, which in turn means not really understanding the theme of the whole bible. As for gays, not quite sure what you mean, but I will answer with what I think your asking and that is because those who are for gays and many gays themselves, keep demanding where in the bible does it say not allowed, etc, so it is bound to cause us to make it: "important". Actually this is also like atheism: they don't make a noise as much as those who are not atheists! I find so many questions directed at them, that again, it is not at all surprising that it becomes important. Another reason why the subject of homosexuality is made important is because our world INSISTS on the rights of everyone, so anyone who has a different life style or sex orientation are accepted to the extent our world is overrun by "their rights", which causes christians to come along and point out scriptures that show this is totally wrong and against nature! My faith is being one of Jehovah's Witnesses and we adhere to ALL 66 books of the bible and in actual fact, we are often accused of being too religious!!

Answer 4

Following any code to the letter is nearly impossible. Common sense dictates that no one would ever be able to live up to every edict in the Bible. (No, not even Jesus. But that's just my opinion.)

The bible is a complex compilation of writings gathered together over millenia. Certain things are just not done anymore. We don't put people to death for the most part. Most Christians today would say that the death penalty for failing to "observe the Sabbath" is unconscionable.

The simple answer to your question is that times and values have changed, so certain parts of the Bible are considered irrelevant and obsolete. Does that invalidate Christianity and Christian people? To some it does. But that's something you have to decide for yourself.

Personally though, it bothers me that people use the bible to validate personal bias and prejudice. The Bible is a religious text, divinely inspired or not. To use it outside of that context, to claim it validates anything is naive at best, and erroneous at worst.
But mostly the picking and choosing happens because living up to such a standard is contradictory and impossible.

Answer 5

Most so called Christians have never actually read the Bible. If they did they would not eat shrimp, lobster or crab meat. The simple answer to your question is that Christians like the idea of being good and getting to live an eternal life in heaven, so they figure as long as they are basically good and go to church they will get to live in heaven. But when it comes to the actual work of reading all the Bible, understanding what it all means, and following the word of God, they prefer not to put in the effort. This is why most so called Christians are hypocrites.

Leviticus 11:9-12
These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

Deuteronomy 14:9-10
These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat: whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.

Answer 6

Whoever wrote this had no idea what the working world would be like in an industrial, and post-industrial world.

Does that include:
Cooking on the 7th day (looks like work to me)
Housework (back to work on Moday...I'll get to the dust-bunnies and stinking, decaying garbage "some other time")
And all the other stuff that needs to be done on a daily basis?
Whoever wrote this had all day long to do almost NOTHING. Then, on the seventh day the person could take a day off from doing practically nothing to do nothing at all. No wonder we're all on Prozac and Xanax these days!

Answer 7

The same reason that we, as humans, pick and choose what laws to follow if we know we won't get caught i.e. littering, speeding, ect... We have to test the limits, and always think we might just be getting away with a little something.
That being said, check this out. If you were in a car wreck on a sunday, wouldn't you be thankful that there are ambulance workers and ER workers to help you???? Some things are needed 24/7, and I don't think that a nurse or doctor is going to hell cause they saved your life on a sunday!!!!!

Answer 8

Ah but you are in error because you do not know the scriptures. The sabbath day was a command given ONLY to the Jews and NOT to Christians. There is nothing in the new testament about resting on the sabboth. As a Christian I AM in my rest as Christ has done all the work for me on Calvery. Any more that that is purely ritulistic and in error.

Answer 9

Also don't forget...about David "working on Sabbath" as well as Jesus
Mark 2:23-28: Jesus and his disciples plucked ears of corn from the fields on the Sabbath day, and was severely criticized by the Pharisees. Jesus replied that when King David was hungry, he ate the shewbread in the temple. Jesus concludes by saying that the Sabbath was made for man; man was not made for the Sabbath. i.e. personal needs come first.

Answer 10

Well I'm a catholic. And I'd say that more than Christians, Non christians do pic pices from Bible. It has been a new thrend in the New world where everyone like to get a kick out by trying to crack codes. Its been a fun game to most of the jobless hopless people.