As a christian do you ever get confused or tired of justifying the atrocities of the old testament ...........

Question

to make them resemble or harmonize with the teachings of the new testament?

an by atrocities I mean these;

1.God ordering the jews to murder man, women, and children of other tribes

Justification of slavery

Law condoning stoning

Law mandating murdering your own wife or daughter if
they decide to worship another god

Negative portrayal of women

Exclusion of the gentiles

Stoning of homosexuals

BTW if you dont believe me pick up your bible and read the books of Leviticus, exodus, numbers, deutoronomy.

you know you can justify anything. This is a very simple and common practice, but it does not make it right.

Think clearly for a moment. Can a loving god truly have his choosen people act in such savage ways. Regardless of the situations. You would think that God was above the shortcomings of man.



So do you ever get tired of doing it? be honest?
I did!

Little warrior,

I am not trying to blame god or criticize him. Im just trying to make you think a lttle deeper, and realize that the bible is not a perfect book and though it was inspired by God there are parts that were not.

If you believe that the almighty would order anyone to commit murder then i would stop and reflect on where my morals and ethics truly stand.

for all you apologetics,

I can truly relate to you. Once I was exactly were you stand. I thought i was doing an honorable thing by defending my Ideal of God that i learned through the bible.

But one day i actually read the "bible"
specifically the books of the old testament mentioned above.

My doubts were completely removed.
I realized that what i was reading was not the word of god but of men.
and if you are going to stand and defend such atrocities and violence then I truly feel sorry for you. You minds have been brainwashed beyond the point of no return.

But at least you can strive to live a life of peace, love and compassion. Just be respectful of others and their beliefs.

Answer 1

Nopes. But then again I am not a Christian. Woohoooooooo!!

Answer 2

First of all, I am not required to justify anything.

Second, the Old and New Testaments are supposed to be different. The Old Testament was under a harsher covenant, the covenant of works. There was no mediator between God and man, and man was required to answer for every single thing that they did. (By "man", I mean the human race, not males specifically.) There were penalties for disobediene, and few of them were just a slap on the wrist.

The New Testament ushered in a new covenant, the covenant of faith. With the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, these harsh punishments were no longer needed. In fact, Jesus himself talked about some of these punishments. Take a look at the time when some Jews were trying to stone an adultress and Jesus says the famous phrase "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" or when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well.

Look at the New Testament as a new covenant, a new contract with God. Just like any new contract, you cannot be responsible for things that done under the old contract. We are a new people and we are held to new requirements.

You ask if a loving God could require the deaths of people? I say yes, but the reason is that love does not always mean nice. Did my mother love me when she spanked me for being disobedient? Do I not love my dogs when I hit them with a rolled up newpaper for wetting on the floor? Discipline, though it may seem harsh to the disciplined one, does not imply a lack of love. However, a lack of discipline implies a lack of love. If God didn't love us, He would have no reason to care what we did.

I have read all of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers (one of my favorites) and I know that there are some very harsh or very odd rules in there (fabrics of two materials are disallowed?). It takes a thorough understanding of both the character of God (as described by the rest of the Bible) and the Hebrew culture and the culture of the civilizations they came into contact with to even begin to grasp these laws. I cannot say that I understand them completely, nor will I every claim that I have.

Just as a side note, you seem to have left off some important things or have written them misleadingly.

The law requires that anyone who worships another god or gods to be put to death, not just women and children.

There is a negative portrayal of women, but there is also a negative portrayal of men. Almost every notable male figure in the Bible goes through a major sin period or in some way falls short. David was a murderer and an adulterer. Moses was a murderer. Those are just two quick examples.

Homosexuals, adulterers, committers of incest and premarital sex all had the same punishment, death. Stoning was the primary option, since large rocks were readily available no matter where you were.

The exclusion of the Gentiles was not absolute. Look at the story of Moses and Melchizidek. Moses goes to Melchizidek and realizes that El-Elyon and Yahweh were two names for the same God. Melchizidek was not an Israelite, but was accepted as a follower of the same God. There was also a place called the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple where the Gentiles could come and worship God. There may have been seperation, but not necessarily exclusion.

Answer 3

I am Jewish and I do get tired of it because I honestly do not see how it is a big deal.

Justification of slavery-the laws concerning slavery in the Bible were much less harsh than in this very country only 200 ears ago.

Laws condoning stoning--Again, the Us is a country that believes in capital punishment, what is the problem

Law mandating murdering your own wife or daughter if
they decide to worship another god---In the context of the bible this makes sense. The children of Israel had just been freed from Egypt and saw first hand the power of G-d, worshiping another one would just be stupid. Also see explanation about stoning of homosexuals.

Negative portrayal of Women--that is just your opinion

Exclusion of Gentiles---It's a religion, of course it excludes other people.

Stoning of Homosexuals---The verse simply says that the they should be put to death but there are no details as to how this should be done. It can easily be interpreted to assume that G-d himself will carry out the punishment and it is not something the Israelites were instructed to do. This is a bit of a stretch but i think it is within reason. This is how the Jewish court system in ancient Israel viewed this verse and others that specified punishment by death.

If anything can be justified what is the point. Morality is subjective and if people want to believe something is right or wrong that is up to them.

Again, savage is opinion, what is savage to you is not savage to someone else.

Answer 4

The Old Testament is the Old Testament. It is now VOID, completely OBSOLETE. There are ignorant morons who still use sayings like “An eye for an eye”. The teachings of the New Testament are completely different from the Old Testament. “Turn the other cheek” has replaced “An eye for an eye”. In the Old Testament, all sins were a death sentence, and animals had to be sacrificed to constantly clean away sin. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice; now there is no need to sacrifice animals, people or seek revenge. God says, “Vengeance is mine”. The rules of the Old Testament are now sin. God sent Jesus to wash away the sin of everyone who would accept him into their lives as their personal savoir, so the Old Testament is no longer needed. There is nobody that stands in between you and god, asking a priest to ask god to forgive you is lunacy, the priest is just like you, a sinful man, and all sin is equal in the eyes of god. The question as to why the Old Testament even had to exist, well that’s just the way it was, people weren’t playing by the rules of god, just like you would be punished for not playing by the rules of authority, but god has changed that now, there is a way out if you want it.

Answer 5

Do you realize that Jews don't justify the atrocities recorded in Torah and Tanakh? They happened. We remember them and try to learn from them. And hopefully, we are a more just people for it.

Did you ever learn about the context that these passages record? It was a brutal world. Judaism tried to be an improvement on what was going on around them. The rabbis of the turn of the era put a lot of effort into improving on that and the practice continues to this day.

But then few Christians are willing to accept the fact that their religion is entirely based on misreading of Hebrew scripture. And most of the world judges Judaism based on what Christianity tells them of it.

Answer 6

Thomas,
I call you Thomas because he also was a doubter in the beginning. I know that what was done in the Old Testament was done for a reason. GOD needed to do so. I do not need to justify my FATHER or HIS SON. They created us and have all power in this world. Today we live under a New Testament and the CHILDREN of GOD are CHRISTIANS who read, study, and obey HIS WORD on a daily basis. We will meet CHRIST at the Judgment and you need to be ready as we all do! Have a wonderful week.
Thanks,
Eds



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Answer 7

you have 2 themes that are merely incorrect. one million. no person is bringing the "holocaust" as an excuse for something. The holocaust became a poor crime, made by the Germans, wherein they killed 6 million Jews. that's necessary say, such as you stated, that countless human beings have been killed: thousands and thousands of russians infantrymen, thousands and thousands of germen electorate who adversarial the nazi regime, thousands and thousands of Gypsies and the record bypass on. 2. What "atrocities" are you speaking approximately? palestinians stay in 2 places: Gaza strip and West economic business enterprise. Gaza strip is below palestinian controll, the priority business enterprise "Hamas". The West economic business enterprise is oftentimes below palestinain controll, below the PLO, exept countless conflict factors (which you oftentimes see interior the information). Thats it. Thats whats happening. What ever else you have on your strategies, what ever some information reporter who in no way been out of europe or usa is attempting to coach, is merely bullshit and lies.

Answer 8

I don't think there is an organized religion that doesn't have some conflicting messages. (Remember, anything that was written down was done by man and subject to interpretation.) If it really bothers you, why don't you speak with a rabbi or other Jewish person and ask them how they "justify" the old testament to themselves.

Answer 9

I will never have to justify anything..I believe in the whole bible and I believe that God inspired it and there are deeper messages in those stories..You have to have spiritual discernment in order to recieve them.My Father will never have to excuse how He is because He is God ..The one and only,the Beginning and the End..The first and last.

Answer 10

Oh, yes! I almost became a pastor! It was while at the Seminary that my eyes were open to all those attrocities purportedly committed by God. They made me sick! Eventually, not being able to swallow them, I spit up everything, as I had become fed-up with rationalizing them.

Answer 11

What if we didn't make excuses. God is above are understanding, and people are very flawed. I'm not going to deny that the Bible is full of HUMANS! Noah got off the ark, got drunk, and got naked.