Is this true?

Question

I was reading over some sections of the Bible, and it says that God ordered the innocent killing of people just because they were gay or worked on Sunday?! Grrr! Also, did Jesus really kill a fig tree just because it didnt produce figs, even though it was not in season?! Was Jesus high, or were the people that came up with religion? Hey, I'm using your book, and I'm not really manipulating facts, am I? Your takes. Atheist.

Yes. I use the Bible so stupid Christians can't say, well you haven't even read it. Well, now, I've read about 80% of it.

Answer 1

Yes. The Biblical Jesus-God is a sadistic, immoral, killer who drowned, Plagued, and slaughtered millions, conspired to have his own son brutally beaten and executed, and repeatedly commanded his followers to torture and kill people. Most Christians have never read the entire Bible, and don't know what it REALLY says.

Answer 2

I honor your effort to read the words in the bible and your attempt to understand it. There are questionable statements in the bible that people have debated for more than 1700 years I suppose. I was almost and Atheist once. Then I decided that the only way to know if God was real was to search for him. Then I realized that as long as I doubted, I would hunt reasons not to believe and seek the support of others for my non belief. If we take the bible as truth, you will find things that just don't seem right. Maybe that is perhaps that much was written by people that received the information second handed by word of mouth and maybe a hundred years after it happened. Many Christians are taught not to question the bible. That to me is denying our ability to think for ourselves. I personally think that some are stories to give a message. If Sodom and Gomorra were destroyed as the story goes, It was because there was not enough righteous people in the towns. Some people were trying to seduce the Angels with Lot at his house. It is considered that the Angels were male and the people were male. So this is where they get the Gay thing because the bible says it is an abomination for two men to lie down together. The Jews had a law that no one was to work on the Sabbath. Saturday is their Sabbath, not Sunday. Jesus refuted this by saying, God made the Sabbath for Man, not Man for the Sabbath.
I question the story about the fig tree. I can't see Jesus destroying a tree just to show an example to his disciples.
He may have been telling them a parable and it became a fact. Parables are stories that lead peoples thoughts to a point of understanding. Without going into much detail, I can only say that the words of Jesus have been passed down and if you only study them as guide lines for living, you will be further ahead than you are by not believing at all. There is no middle ground. You either believe or don't. By believing and giving God the benefit of the doubt, I found good reasons to believe. Maybe you want to pull believers into doubt. We don't doubt, we persist and try to find an explanation to the questionable. You can bet that if man made it, there will be error. Try to over look the things that are inconsistent to you and take the best from the book you can find that will serve you. Best wishes
Rev. TomCat

Answer 3

Here's something to consider...why, if human authors produced the Bible, would they invent things that seem, on the surface to be so ridiculous? If you're trying to "invent" a religion you want people to convert to, why not make it less offensive? Especially things that are so hard to believe, like the Virgin Birth--don't you think if the Scriptures were the product of man, it would make a lot more sense to people?

Anyway...no, God did not order people to be killed simply because they were gay. Rather, He responded to the "cry against them [Sodom]", as the Scriptures say, made by the surrounding peoples. It wasn't that the Sodomites had homosexual attractions that led to their destruction--it was that they were engaging in sinful homosexual activity, and oppressing the surrounding people with their perversion.

There was a man who engaged in servile labor on the Sabbath, for whom God demanded capital punishment. This is because the Sabbath--the day of rest, and a day for a symbolic renewing of the covenant--was absolutely vital to the survival of the Jewish people as a priestly nation. If the Sabbath were disregarded or minimized, the Jews would fall into the habits of the surrounding nation--the covenant would be disregarded, and man's salvation--Christ--would never have been sent. In a way, the man who worked on the Sabbath mounted an attack on the soul of every man, woman, and child that ever lived or shall live. Thus, execution was a very just penalty in his case.

As for Jesus and the figs, he was demonstrating the power of faith. Additionally, the fig tree motif is used through Scriptures as a symbol of Israel. Before Christ, the proximate means of salvation were the Levitical rituals instituted by God. However, the Israel stopped bearing fruit--it was no longer their time. Thus, Christ, in a symbolic gesture, was saying that salvation shall never again come from Israel.

Answer 4

"I was reading over some sections of the Bible, and it says that God ordered the innocent killing of people just because they were gay or worked on Sunday?"

No.

"Also, did Jesus really kill a fig tree just because it didnt produce figs, even though it was not in season?!"

How do you know that it wasn't in season? Are you thinking that all Ficus trees that fruit do it all at the same time? Tell me, was it a green fig or a brown fig? Do you know the difference? Or are Atheists not into research? I didn't think so.
They are only doing research on Atheist sites. Unscholarly lazy, unscientific research! pwned.

Was Jesus high, or were the people that came up with religion?
You mean like Atheists who made their own religion where everybody does and that's it. How wonderful! Yes, you get to die and rot! Oh BOY! Yippie! Hooray! Yoohoo! Death is your lot, so why do you care what I believe? pwned again!

Answer 5

God condemns homosexuality as an abomination, and if you had REALLY read the Bible, you would see in the Old Testament that "sodomites" were driven out of the land of Israel, they weren't killed. Neither did God order them killed anywhere in the Law of Moses.

If you are referring to Sodom and Gomorrah, homosexuality wasn't the only sin that the inhabitants of the cities were guilty of. In Genesis, the men of Sodom tried hard to gang-rape the two angels who had come to see Lot, to the point of trying to break down the door where they were staying.

And things were so bad there, that God Himself came down to personally visit the cities and see if they were as bad as the cry that had come to Him had been.

Genesis 18:20-21

20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

These people were hardly "innocent" as you have expressed. Chances are very good that if you had visited the city, you would have been gang-raped as well. Have you considered that?

As far as the man who was executed for "working on the Sabbath", God had strictly commanded that the Jews rest on the Sabbath, so that not only the free people could rest, but also servants and animals could rest also. Otherwise, servants would work 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week for the entire time of their servitude, and could very well perish from exhaustion.

God ordered the man executed for his disobedience and to show all Israel that He was serious about the enforcement of His laws so that those who thought to breakn them would fear to do so.

Jesus' withering of the fig tree was to show the power of faith, and also as an object lesson as to the fate of unfruitful Christians. Christians who claim to be Christians, but don't follow His commandments or do the work He has set for them to do, will be considered as worthless as an unfruitful tree, and will perish.

So, yes, you have manipulated the facts, looking only at the literal events, rather than consider a deeper meaning.

Answer 6

These things were done so that others would be warned. These killings and tortures were done simply because God wanted to do away with the wicked sinners. Isaiah 13:9...If you read that it will explain that God was punishing those who sinned against HIM. Also Isaiah 13:11- I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, I will (halt) stop the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

God's plan of eternal salvation wasn't made known until the New Testament, when Jesus Christ was born. This sacrifice was a gift from God and was done to pay for our sins that we ALL commit ALL the time, and we are the ones who must make the choice to accept Jesus into our hearts and into our lives.

Answer 7

You really can't understand it. There's more to it than all that. But I can pretty much tell you that Jesus was NOT high. Well, not on any substance that you're used to anyway. :)

God ordered the killing of certain groups of people/tribes as a whole for specific reasons. Number one, to see if those he commanded were obedient to His Word and two, to destroy a population of a bad race/bad blood. You can read more about it in the Bible. But, please pray before you do so. You will come to know His Word as truth if you would just pray in earnest before you read. Just ask Him to reveal to you His truths. You'll find He is a God of compassion.

katiefish <><

Answer 8

why are ppl real fast to take scriptures from the bible that are bout God's wrath? what bout the rest of the bible talking bout his goodness, love, grace, and mercy? ppl that dont believe or are mad at God forget those scriptures. with the fig tree did it hurt anyone? he also let them see, if they would have just a little faith they also could do the same thing

Answer 9

God gives a life and He can take it away. His laws does not apply to Him. His Word is the same for everyone. Jesus saw from the fig tree that it was not going to produce...He is totally capable of finishing you up too and and to say 'You are done!'. : )

Answer 10

The Bible can sometimes be hard to understand, specially if you're not religious. So I guess you have a hard time understanding parables.