Why do most Christians avoid major portions of the Bible?

Question

I'll get you started.....

Lot getting drunk and impregnating his daughters.

Jephthah sacrificing his daughter to God on an altar of fire.

The human sacrifice requirements in Leviticus 27:28-29 ; "Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the LORD out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the LORD. No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death".

The death penalty for failure to observe the Sabbath, which no Christian has done since the fourth century (The Sabbath is sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, not Sunday).

There are many, many more, since most 'Christian' behavior is determined by our European heritage and has little to do with the Middle Eastern ideologies of the Bible.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Yes, you are unfortunately right in that many Christians don't read major sections of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. It is unfortunate because the New Testament is built on the Old. You can't really understand the book of Hebrews in the NT without having a cursory knowledge of the law. The stories which you refer to reveal that God is not afraid to talk about or write about sin. There is debate about Jephtha if he literally sacrificed his daughter because of a hasty vow he made. As for Lot, he obviously made some bad decisions, but why do we think we are so righteous and look down our noses at those people. I got a kick out of reading some of your responses from people who I am sure think Christians are judgmental while in their moral superiority they ripped people of old who made mistakes. The best of men and women in the Bible made some huge blunders. Abraham, Moses, Noah, David, and the list goes on. The Bible says in I Corinthians 10 that they were written for our learning (that we don't repeat them). May all of us who think we are better than people who lived in ages past count the millions of abortions and euthenasia and rationalize them by calling them "rights" or "legal" or even "compassionate." By the way, slaves were to be treated fairly and even had the right to go free every 7 years. The baby (with different DNA than the mother) who is murdered does not have that chance. The Bible makes no claims to hide sin, but God deals with it in judging His people and even His Son for our sins. In dealing with sin, this highlights God's grace and forgiveness which have no right to. Ephesians 1:7 - in Christ we have redemption (freedom) through His blood (judgment) the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. The ideal is that Christian behavior is determined by gratitude for what God has done for us in Christ.

Answer 2

Any Thoughts, Yes, Turn to Romans 10:4 For Christ is the END of the LAW for righteousness to every one that believeth. You are trying to bring the law up into the grace age, Jesus is the end of the law yet he did not do away with the law, In Him Hung all the laws of the OT & NT, as far as the sabbath, there is still people that observe Friday evening to Saturday evening, My sister does that & she has so many times try to convert me to that OT law. When in Colossians 2:16 It says let NO one judge you in Meat, New moon or in the sabbath days. For they are a shadow of things to come. & in 1st. Cor. 16:1-3 Apostle Paul says concerning the collections of the saints or the tithing of the saints, To bring it in the 1st day of the week, (SUNDAY), it will look bad to have church on Saturday & had to come back on Sunday just to pay your tithes. So many people tries to pick here & there at a verse & can not see the over all picture because they have only one verse in their eyes & don't have the true meaning for even that one verse.

Answer 3

They choose to ignore inconvenient truths.
For instance on the "critical look" program on Discovery channel about the lost tomb of Jesus the theologians there had a problem with the fact that someone was trying to prove that Jesus' body did not ascend into heaven. A lot of people believe that it did when in fact the Apostle Paul stated that it is the spirit that enters heaven and that god will give a new body. However christians choose to ignore this. They are not interested in the truth. They only want to feel good about themselves at any cost.

Answer 4

1. Lot's daughters weren't true followers of God because they were swayed by the sins happening in Gommorah. When the city was destroyed, they feared their line would come to an end. This led them to getting their father drunk and sleeping with him (without his consent).
2.Jephthah sacrificed his daughter on his own accord. this act was not acceptable to God.
3.Lev 27:28-29 is describing individuals who don't follow in the Lord's ways. That individual shouldn't be aceepted by believers. Back in that day, it would have been dangerous because that non-believer could infect the children of God with his wicked ways. that non-believer should be put to death. Duh! Non-believers will die in their sins. **Nothing new.
4.You are REALLY reaching with this one. The Pharisees (who ALSO didn't believe in Jesus) made this penalty. You are pitiful for trying to use this one. They were using this to try and kill or arrest Jesus and his followers. Pitiful.


You should be ashamed for these attempts. But given your lack of understanding the bible, I see why you would use such poor attacks.

Next time, try a little harder... Maybe those "many many more" examples you have may seem difficult.

I wish you the best in turning your life over to Christ. But I can't help but pitying you.

Answer 5

The historical facts are that the Bible was written by some 40 different authors, all human men, Jewish priest or clerics who were in charge. They included books they liked, threw other books out. Everything was left up to their discretion. Theres no reason to believe any of it was divinely inspired. Why didn't it talk about how wrong slavery was? It did talk about how much the life of a slave was worth though, didn't it? Pedophilia which was rampant back then wasn't abhorred or condemned - why wasn't this written about? Because it wasn't inspired by God, it was written from the imagination of men. Good is, is good does. If you need the fear or threat of retribution to be good then youre only pretending because youre just afraid of going to Hell.

Answer 6

They rationalize these things away.

Lot impregnating his daughters, why would a decent God continue to favor this person?

Jephthah, why would God take him up on such an offer of human sacrifice in exchange for victory in battle? Why would a decent God allow the sacrifice to go through?

Why would a loving, peaceful God require blood sacrifices at any time? Why would the odor of burning flesh be pleasing to them?

Why would God have to resort to murder? Why would they order their followers to kill women, children, infants? Couldn't God just take the people that displeased them in their sleep or through a brief illness? Why all the violence, blood, and hatred?

Does any of it really make sense?

I agree with your assessment.

Answer 7

I sometimes avoid things because I don't know how to interpret them but I just had a class in learning how to interpret the Bible and I'm learning....things like Lot are descriptive and telling us what happened. It isn't repeated over and over as a pattern for us to follow. Some things in the Bible are so we know what happened, some are things we need to follow others are behaviors we need to avoid. You can't just read a scripture and expect to understand everything, every time. The Holy Spirit helps you to under stand and it takes spending time finding out what each scripture is saying in context of the scriptures around it.

Answer 8

I would like to look up the other references you used as the one which you quoted was wrong since the law given was dealing with animals and not man.Also of the fields and property of man. No human sacrifice here. You need to read it all.

Answer 9

The only thought that I have is that the Old Testament scripture you refer to sets forth penalties and so forth that fell under the Mosaic law. At that time there was no salvation through faith, blood sacrifices was all there was even though sin ran rampant through society just as it does today. The difference is that Jesus Christ came, was crucified by non-believers, was buried and resurrected on the third day. All of the Law is fulfilled through Him. All sin is forgiven through faith and belief in Him and ONLY through faith and belief in Him. How do you stand? I pray for you my friend.

Answer 10

Anyone can pick apart the Bible and choose what they assume is true or false. The words in the bible were not interpreted as they are today - you have to consider the context.

For non believers, proof will ever be sufficient. For believers, no proof is needed.