Who, according to god, is suppose to kill people?

Question

According to the ten commandments, thou shalt not kill, right?

But I was discussing the bible with a friend since we both read it on occasion, and he points out that Leviticus 20:8-18 has god telling people to kill people for crimes.
Heres a link to the passage, to make it easy for you people http://www.biblelookup.com/cgi-bin/pbible.pl?from=&to=&mode=context&boolop=&unit=chapter&searchtype=fetch&searchstring=%4c%65%76%20%32%30%3a%31%33&version=nas&corpus=&maxhits=

So my problem is, If we shouldnt kill for any reason, why is god telling us to kill for crimes? What if we kill someone because we think they are gay and god said to kill gays, but we later find out they weren't gay. Are we forgiven for the murder? Or are we damned because of moral luck or being mislead and thinking the wrong thoughts? and shouldn't we be forgiving, not murderous?

I should note I am not looking for prayers or to be converted. I love religion. I love its effects on people. My best friend is religious. I just don't believe in god because the information presented to me has shown me that. I accept the fact that I may be wrong, but even if I am, I doubt any forgiving god would damn me because I was given so much information agaisnt him in my life.

I just look for answers to my biblical questions because like i said, I love religion, and I read up on religion.

Also, I would like to point out the Elisha story, when the kids made fun of him being bald. When they did, Elisha cursed them in the name of the lord, and two shebears appeared and killed the children.

That is murder right? Why is it okay to murder someone for calling you bald?

Answer 1

oh man, thanks for the laugh.

Answer 2

The scripture in Leviticus is not giving anyone permission to kill. It is stating the law for that particular time or era. Whenever we read the Bible we should consider the time in which it occurred. During that time death was a form of punishment. However, the common people were not surpose to kill each other.

Answer 3

God... I would assume.

There are aspects of the bible that people argue are not valid (like Leviticus, or Deutoronomy), but the basic lessons of love, compassion, purity, and beauty are pretty universal - even Confuscious said, "Do unto Others as you'd have done unto you..."

It's all about the love.

Answer 4

God is the giver and taker of life in the linguistical sense of course, if a man kill's another, it is done only by the permission of god, just like every drop of rain that pours, fall's only by the permission of god.
"thou shall not kill" needs to be interpreted for its essence, one suggestion is that this commandment speaks of killing wrongfully or unlawfully, if it didn't, then the term 'holy wars' would be ironic.

Answer 5

try this translation thou shalt not murder, there is a difference between murder and kill
God would not tell you to kill a gay person that was not gay. you're listening to someone else

Answer 6

No one has the right to kill unless they are protecting themselves from being killed. The gov. really doesn't even have the right to kill only god and diseases have the right to kill.

Answer 7

You need not concern yourself with the purity laws of Leviticus, because Jesus fulfilled them.

Answer 8

That was the old before Christ came and died for our sins, now we have the commandment to love one another that is the greatest Christ said.

Answer 9

The bible is full of contradictions. Personally, I believe in hardly any of it.