How do you defend these Bible verses?

Question

Numbers 15, verses 32 through 36, where a man is put to death for gathering sticks on the sabbath.

Numbers 31, verses 1 through 54, where Moses gets angry that his army has left some of the Midianites alive and he orders every single male to die along with every woman who is not a virgin. They keep all the virgin women for themselves.

Or how about the verse in Leviticus that says homosexuals should be put to death?

Exodus 32, verses 27 through 28, where God orders Moses to kill 3,000 people for worshipping a different God.

I know Christians say that the New Testament did away with the old laws, but this implies that it was once okay to do this stuff. Do you agree that killing homosexuals USED to be okay?

Do you agree that all the things that happened WERE justified back in the time they happened, but not now?

If so, how do you justify this chronological double standard?

If you DON'T think this was EVER okay to do, then why are you a member of a church that supports the Bible?

Answer 1

How MANY times do we have to say this? The law changed with Jesus and the New Testament. Yes, the law in the Old Testament does seem harsh, but it was a different time. Plus, Moses was dealing with slaves who were ignorant and wouldn't listen to reason.

The Bible comes from God. The only reason why some things seem bad is because we are just humans and cannot possibly comprehend everything that God does.

Answer 2

Look i don't know what your problem is about the bible. But if your an atheist. What differance does it make.
I'm not going to set here and try and explain to you why God did what God did. It seems to me, that you forgot to include the chapter and verse in Leviticus.
Where it says. That it was ok to kill homomsexuals. You seem to misunderstand about what happened and why.
Like most of you atheist. Or non believers. Or those who read the bible , but always get the wrong idea about the meaning of the verse.
These were gods chosen people. and he expectes them to obey his laws. Just as you parents do. But you need to understand. that theysinned against God.
For worshiping a golden idle. A Calf.
As it was wrote. But you also seemed to misunderstood,. that God also said he was a jealous God, and they are to be no other Gods before him.
They sinned against God. And God punished them. Just as your parents would punish you, or anyone else who disobeyed. the rules that are set for you to live by. you need ot understand, God made the laws so man can live a better life.
And do what was right by God. So what is wrong with that? Those laws that were giving to moses, Is what all of mankinds to live by.
Those laws are based soley to protect man. From God's anger. Never mind, you probably wouldn't understand the meaning anyway. Or the reason why. So why bother?

Answer 3

Jesus said himself that he did not come to change the law but to fufill it. The old laws are still realavent. Knowing that we would be damned to hell for not following the law( to be a transgressor of one law makes you guilty of all.) for we all have fallen and come short of God's glory. The only thing that has changed is society. Look at all the changes of the last generation alone. The people change. The Bible also talks about those that chase after their own lusts and desires thinking they are wiser than God. Their is a proverb that says lean not on your own understanding, but, trust in the Lord and He will direct your paths. Society has chosen to go the other way on things that God has put forth FROM THE BEGINNING. There is no double standard. Every event you posted served a purpose. Go back and read again and find the object and subject. Furthermore, remember, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Those people were killed so they would go and be judged right then and there. Numbers 31, just like today, their were STD's and the like. They were set apart for a reason. God wanted His chosen to be clean, sober, and in complete reverance of Him. The Midianites weren't clean in more ways than one and didn't want His chosen to fall victim to the world. Even by today's standards, being a Christian is hard work, at least they actually got to hear God and witness His power first hand when they got out line. According to the Bible all the things that happened WERE justified back in the time they happened, AND now. Society just wants what they want. Remember Jesus's answer when asked about divorce? " What did Moses say?"..." Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses suffered you to write a bill of divorcement, But, FROM THE BEGINNING IT WASN'T SO..." I could go on and on, again the reason for them to be put to death was to be judged by God A.S.A.P. And don't just single out homosexuals. Adulters and fornicators are in there too. You have nothing to worry about anyway. The law is only for those that believe in God, our Father, and His Son our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And to question His works and claim a chronological double standard is to claim that you don't believe in God or His Son. Get the facts first. Go back and read it for understanding not for debate.

Answer 4

Oh LORDY LORDY LORDY, where DO I begin? You've sliced off SO much here, and Y-Answers encourages brevity. So here goes:

Number 15:32-36: The offense was not gathering sticks on the sabbath, but DELIBERATELY disobeying the Lord's Commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. The penalty for the offense was stoning to death. That's just the way it was in those days!

Numbers 31:1-54: The Midianites were idolators, and they sent their "bad women" into the midst of the Israelites to draw them to whoredom and idolatry. This, of course, was unacceptable to the Lord, and the Lord "declared" war upon the Midianites. As for killing the women, they were not guiltless, they were adulteresses and tempted the Israelites into idolotry, so they were NOT to be spared the punishment of death. Only those who were not adulteresses (the virgins) were spared... and yes, they were part of the "spoils" of war.

Leviticus 18:22 is the verse you are referring to... " 22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." The Lord wants us to be "clean" and not partake of "unclean" acts. By His law, homosexuality is an abomination and leads to defilement. God has an indisputable right to command us, whether or not we LIKE what He commands... He HAS that RIGHT as God.

Exodus 32:27-29: Well? As stated above, God has every RIGHT to do so, especially when it was "His People" who were breaking the FIRST Commandment. And it was their "bretheren," the Levites, who carried out the judgement/punishment.

All these things were justified back then, and would be justified today, if it weren't for the mercy the Lord showed through the death and resurrection of Christ. You see... all these people were guilty of their sins, and their punishment was death. But Jesus died so that we are no longer to be found "guilty" of our sins. Futhermore, Jesus "stood in" for us for our punishment of death... it was HE who was put to death for our sin, so that we no longer have to pay that price.

I don't quite understand your question about justifying the "chronological double standard." There is no double standard. The sins back then are the same sins of today. The judgements and punishments for those sins are the same today as they were back then... death. The "justification" is that Jesus, who was truly innocent of all sin, who was guiltless of anything, stepped into our "shoes" and said, in essence, "Please do not kill this person, kill ME instead. I love him so much, that I will take upon myself the punishment you have sentenced him to... even if it means putting Me to death."

I do hope has helped you understand, and helped explain that there is no double standard. And I hope my explanation didn't lose anything in the brevity I had to deal with. If so, please email me, and maybe we can "understand" things together that way.

Have a blessed day!

Answer 5

I completely agree with CJ--these people were some of the vilest creatures on the earth--these are the people who we have in our prison and execute. It was merciful to allow ANY to live.

In the New Testament you can see God's mercy in Revelation that he only destroys one third of the trees, etc. This shows he is so much more merciful than man. In the O.T. 2/3rds were killed to show a kings mercy.

God's judgements on man are perfect and righteous. It is only by His grace that we are alive today to enjoy his creation and the joys of living.

Answer 6

The bible is supposed to teach morality, but these verses clearly show that you cannot learn morality from the bible. You do not need the bible to learn to be good, to know what is right and what is wrong. Only blind faith makes Christian apologists justify the bad things in the bible, like saying it was a different time when these hideous things were carried out. That is another reason why blind faith is bad for the mind. With blind faith people never learn to open their mind to new ideas. Seeing the light literally means having an open mind that can receive the light. Blind faith equals closed minds.

Answer 7

Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law and not to abolish it.

What makes you think that these laws do not stand today? God doesn't change. These laws still stand. The only difference in a believer and an unbeliever is that the believer is forgiven from sinning against God and washed in the blood of Jesus. I've accepted Jesus as my Savior and I'm no longer under these laws, but the unbelievers are still under these laws. The wages of sin is death. Only Jesus can take away that sin of death and give you eternal life.

Answer 8

You'll just get the same "the Old Testament doesn't apply any more". Christians don't seem to understand that the Old Testament God is the God they worship so the God they worshipped used to think stoning people was good. Although they do say he is unchanging, so he probably still thinks stoning is a good idea.

Answer 9

You cannot take any work of history or literature out of its cultural milieu and try to force it to conform to modern standards. I don't care if you're talking about the Bible, Beowulf, or Huckleberry Finn. Each is a product of the time in which it was written and the cultural philosophy of the person who wrote it.

That means that there is no justification OR chronological double standard. Twain lived in a time period when black men were slaves: you can't change that aspect of "Huckberry Finn," either in terms of historical fact or to force it to agree with current ideas of political correctness. The same thing is true of the Old Testament: it conforms to the cultural standards of the time.

Trying to make the cultural standards of ancient civilizations agree with modern ethics and political correctness is pointless. It cannot be done.

Answer 10

No homos....no AIDS.That sounds mean doesn't it? No aids,1/10 of the sexual diseases.Not as many out of control molesters,priests and others,no more having to "recruit" your sexual partners.
No other Gods,no Muslims(and don't try to say they worship the same God,they worship the old Arabic Moon God El Allah)All those other Gods in the O.T demanded human sacrifice from the first born laid upon the red hot arms of the out stretched Molech to fry the alive newborn to Baal demanding human sacrifice and eating of the person(the word Cani-bal comes from priests of Baal).You know of course God gave those heathens 450 years to repent before He unleashed the Israelites .It is true though,All those things in the O.T were meant for our instruction today. Would I recommend killing homosexuals now? No ,of course not.We live by grace and not by law.Now we have to choose to change our ways or not and there is always forgivness for the person who means it,right to his last breath.But a hard heart will not repent.As the book of Revelation states,that men will cuss God to their last breath.