Question about the sixth commandment?

Question

... Thou shall not kill. When is it okay to put this commandment aside?

I have another part to this question I will add in a few minutes.

As I expected, people are saying it really means "thou shall not murder." So here's the next part of my question....

What do you call it when God sends an angel to kill the firstborn sons of Egypt as they sleep (infants as well as adults)?

What do you call it when God commands the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child in a city for not following their religion?

Is it not murder when God does it then?

In what way are the actions of the Israelites in the old testament any different from what religious extremists are doing today?

Following the command of their god? Check.
Ignoring the displeasure of more rational minds around them? Check.
Promising vengeance and carrying out death threats on non-believers? Check.

Not sure how many more people will read this question.. but there's a point I want to address.

If the firstborn of Egypt deserved to die because of what Pharoh did, then do the people Iraq deserve to die because of what Hussein did? How about the people of communist Russia? Of Nazi Germany even? People around the world hate what George Bush is doing... do Americans deserve to die for that?

Answer 1

I've thought a lot of what you're talking about too. to give you a brief answer. The jews were slaves of Egypt for generations treated less the human for 100's of years. By todays standards of human rights, that would be totally unacceptable. The Egyptians killed all the first born of the Jews prior just because they were afraid. God gave them multiple chances to let the Israelites go, but they wouldn't listen and in an act of vengence he did to them what they did to His children. Imagine someone slughtering your child for no other reason then population control.

Would you just think "Oh well, that sucked" or would you be burning with anger in your heart of the innocent slaughtering of your child. Would you not want to repay that to the ones that id that to you?

I understand where you're coming from with you correlating the actions of the jews and those of say muslim terrrorist.

FYI- those that the Jews killed in wars were mainly phillistines. For some reasons, these people seemed to only exist merely for the destruction of the nation of Israel...even today. These people were bred to be warriors and to kill everyone especially the Jews.

The Philistines of today are actually known as the Palestinians. The religion has changed but the motive is the same, destroy the Jews. So the Jews have slain people out for their throats and still fight for their land and their lives.

It's hard to comprehend all of this and I won't even pretend that I have all the answers. There is information out there and what little I have personally learned has helped in putting things into perspective.

According to God, the wages of sin is death. Thems the rules that he made up. Why I don't know, I'm sure we can try to come up with other solutions, but like it says in scripture, does a clay bowl ask the potter why He made it that way. So in the OT, you see this abundance of destruction on God's part and he even, but thankfully for us all Jesus endured that punishment that was set for us all to completely do away with the debt of sin.

I know it's hard to accept, but by what means of your own can you appeal to and eternal diety. You are mortal and any statue, any good deed or way of life is still temporal at best.

Answer 2

God's message is that you cannot keep any of these commandments and only by belief and forgiveness can you be saved from an eternal hell. Everlasting life is only available by being born again through your great grandchildren. People create God because they don't want to die; then go out and kill other people that have a slightly different belief in the same God.

Answer 3

You should understand the commandment to mean "Thou shalt not murder". That does make an exception for capital punishment (for certain things) and for soldiers in war. I happen to personally disapprove of both exceptions, but I can't claim they aren't allowed. God's purposes in destroying certain people are not for me to judge. He knows far more about the situation than I do. The penalty for sin is always death, and every one of us has sinned at least once in a lifetime, so God would be fully within the rights of justice to execute every last single human being on earth, if it came to that. The fact that He chooses to hold back from destroying certain wicked people by no means obligates Him not to destroy others.

Answer 4

Properly translated, the phrase is: You shall not murder.

Killing in self defense, a just war, and lawful capital punishment are not considered murder.

However many Christians including Catholics believe most modern governments no longer need to use capital punishment to protect society from criminals.

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

No, self-safeguard isn't homicide, so long as you don't kill the individual after they've already been stopped or disabled. And there are occasions whilst war is justified, and as a consequence now not homicide, as is a simply sentence located on a crook as fair punishment for the crime.

Answer 6

It is actually thou shalt not Muder because God even told the Jews to go to war. That is the difference.

Answer 7

1. it is murder not kill
2. God owns all souls and can do as he sees fit.
3. Pharaoh condemned his own people for it was told to him that the next plague would come from his own lips!

Answer 8

As previously stated. The correct translation is that shall not commit murder. Which is different than just killing.

Answer 9

I believe God was speaking of murder.

Answer 10

Thou shall not kill is murder, you are allowed to defend yourself and go to war.