Christians what do you believe in these passages?

Question

I'm Christian but I read this and the th Bible afterwards and now I am confused on whether or not God id truly loving. Here are the passages.

In Exodus 31:15 the Holy Bible demands: “For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.”

In 1 Timothy 2:11-12 the Bible says: “Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent.”

In Leviticus 25:44 the Bible says: “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life.” In Exodus 21:20 the Bible says: “If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slav

In Leviticus 20:13 the Holy Bible commands: “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death.”

In Leviticus 24:16 the Bible demands: “Anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him.”

Please put respectful answers.

Answer 1

Perhaps you need to redefine what is meant by "loving." Loving does not mean that God is some jolly old elf who has no opinion on right and wrong. God is not someone who will tell you lies to make you feel good. God is not an old softy, a pushover, and can't take a hardline with His wayward children.

God is loving AND just. He believes in "tough love." He takes the long view of what is good for his people in eternyt . He knows it is best for the good of all of His children if some are punished with death when they refuse to obey His will. It is BECAUSE God is loving that He is strict and demands obedience. It is for your own good.

Answer 2

This does require a more in depth answer than the following.

Keep in mind that the law was designed to show the need; that we cannot be worthy by our own actions. Nobody can follow that law enough to gain entrance into the Kingdom of heaven. God used 1300 years of law to show that we cannot do it without Grace.

The sabbath (shebot) was also designed so that servant/slave owners or employers would not have anyone work 7 days a week. Try to think like an ancient Israeli and see that the Law did provide for many things like protecting people from unscrupulous employers.


The Bible is the first Men are from Mars Women are from Venus. The Bible is riddled with differing roles for Men and Women. Think about some of the things that men do that you would have no part of.

When this was written, Men had little regard for women as opposed to today. The men of that day would likely disregard any insight given by a woman. God would hate for us to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Should you teach today? I would listen.

Answer 3

These are good questions you are asking, and some people here have already given you some good answers.

To what others have written, I would add that alongside of these verses that portray a harsh, unloving God, there are other verses that portray God as having maternal, feminine qualities.

As well, these writings come from a time when the world was a harsher place to live -- slavery was not only permissible, but it was instrumental for the building of ancient society. Women were not liberated as they are today. It was a different world, just as our world today would seem quite strange and alien to the people of Bible times.

But, if you compare the writings of the Bible to other writings of the ancient world, what you will see are ideas emerging that are different and more humane and loving. Contrast the other gods of the ancient world to the Old Testament God. You can do this by looking at the Enuma Elish (Creation Epic) and see that the ancient Gods were blood-thirsty, violent and capricious beings who created humans to be servants to them. The Hebrew God, on the other hand, introduces the idea of justice and compassion, alongside of liberation -- which in those days was quite an innovation. Nowadays we take this for granted and don't see how astounding some of these passages were in that time.

Relating to women and their roles in the church, the Bible tends to be quite confusing. We have several passages such as you quote that seem to deny women leadership roles in the church, yet at the same time there are many mentions of women who were indeed leaders, teachers and prophets (preachers). Some of these letters appear to come from different contexts and different situations that we don't fully understand. The most recent historical scholarship shows that even from the very first, there were several different forms of Christianity present -- not one pure original sect. So, some of these scriptures may come from a diverse collection of early congregations and not reflect a "mainstream" approach.

Keep in mind that alongside of the written scriptures there was also the oral law --which was later written down as the Talmud. So, while the written law dictates that a person be put to death for Sabbath violation, the oral law qualifies the circumstances so that there were not rampant executions. Wikipedia has a good article on this which I'll paste below.

I think you are not alone in reacting to these scriptures the way you have, questioning the compassion of God. If these passages are looked at in isolation and without looking at the historical setting, there is really no other conclusion to reach. I think, however, that you can indeed believe in a loving God in spite of the harshness of these verses and in spite of the suffering in the world -- but sometimes it takes some time of reflecting, experiencing and pondering before you reach that point--wishing you all the best on this journey!

Answer 4

Hi! Exodus and Leviticus are in the Old Testament, we are supposed to follow the New Testament! The reason your supposed to read the Old testament is for you to see how gracious God is now compared to before! Jesus came and died on the cross,washed away your sin, so you can go to heaven! I believe that 1 Timothy 2:11-12 is absolutely correct! Read 1Timothy 2:13-15! Some things are the same!

Answer 5

The passages you are concerned reflect the social impact of the people who were trying to convey their understanding of what God wanted them to write. They were not taking dictation, nor did they have the use of modern recording equipment. They were inspired to reveal the nature of God and quite often their own nature was reflected. The Jews at that time were a very war-like people.

Also, remember there two kinds of death, the second death is the true meaning. One who habitually disregards God's laws will die the second death which means they will not be welcomed into the presence

At the time of the writing of the New Testament, the Jews were a deeply male oriented society. It was not the intent of Scripture to right these social wrongs individually but to preach the reality of Christ's love. Jesus said:

[Mat 22:37] He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
[Mat 22:38] This is the greatest and the first commandment.
[Mat 22:39] The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
[Mat 22:40] The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

If we obeyed those two commandments, no one would be put to death and no one would be discriminated against.

Answer 6

2Ti 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The word must be divided LAW or GRACE.

The Old Testament is the LAW. In the New Testament the 4 Gospels and most of what Jesus taught was LAW...The Books of Timothy are full of Law scriptures.

1Cor 14:34 "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but [they are commanded] to be under obedience, as also saith the LAW. "(this is a scripture that is Law)

If you are a born again Christian - you are NO longer under the law - because Jesus has fullfilled ALL of the elements of the Law so that you may be FREE to live in the Grace of His blood bought Salvation.

You are not under the Law - but under grace:
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

This is the purpose of the Law and those scriptures you listed: Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin.

PS. The Sabbath Rest is the entire life of a Christian because we don't have to work for our salvation - we are declared holy by God and we can not - nor could we ever work hard enough for our salvation it is a gift from God lest any man should boast. We believe and our faith is a gift from God. - SO we Rest in His Grace and Salvation.

Answer 7

As for those Old Testament Passages...they don't apply to us anymore. Most of them, God wanted to make an object lesson to his people about the importance of whatever principle it was. But we aren't under the Law as Christians, we are under grace, so all those "laws" in the Old Testament don't apply.

As for the passage in Timothy and the whole "submission" thing...God is simply making a point. Men are supposed to step up to the plate. It's just the way that God has designed us to be. Men are supposed to be the leaders, but in times of trouble, God has used Women...take the judge Deborah for example (Judges 4-5). It's not that God doesn't believe that women can be good leaders, he has just decided that men are supposed to be the leaders. Personally, I'd rather leave all the responsibility to them anyway.

Answer 8

in the old testament things were much more harsh - that is why God sent His Son - to alleviate some of the harshness in the world.
another poster was correct - they do have to be taken in the context of the full passage.
the bible is like a spiritual recipe for our moral lives. if you were to look at a recipe and miss one of two of the ingredients or add them incorrectly - you wouldn't get the outcome for which you were striving!

Answer 9

The strictest fundamentalists will not admit that there is any contradiction between saying the bible must be taken literally and yet saying that you need to know how to interpret certain passages to be sure of their literal meaning.

This type of self-deception is necessary to believe in any religion, and there is no way to fashion an argument that will succeed in penetrating this type of "mental" defense of the irrational.

Answer 10

Understanding of most things in the Bible requires an understanding of the context - what was happening at the time. Without that, a lot of things don't make any sense. With that understanding, many of those things do make sense and even seem quite reasonable.