Question about the Ten Commandments??

Question

I'm probably in DEEP trouble for asking this now but I'm going to anyway.. I'm not angry with God or anything I just need to clarify some stuff.

Regarding the Ten Commandments.. I have seen them, and they are indeed very honourable commands to live by. To live a righteous life in God's eyes you must obey the Ten Commandments.

But there is no mention of anything like raping, torturing or anything along those lines. Two commands about stealing but no command 'thou shalt not torture' or anything like that..

Let me tell you I would much rather someone STOLE something from me than TORTURED me!!

Plus.. according to the Bush admin it is now OK to torture suspects for the purposes of extracting confessions. So is torture even considered a crime by anyone now?!? If it is LEGAL, and there is no mention of it in God's commands, does this mean it is OK??

I don't have enough space to make my point fully but I am so confused.. it doesn't make any sense.. do you see what I mean??

Answer 1

Jesus consolidated the 10 commandments by saying that

We should love thy God

We should love thy neighbor

We should love thy enemy.

This covers all the 10 commandments and more like torture

Answer 2

Well, first of all, I think you have to separate the issue of a government torturing an individual to extract information from the 10 commandments. The ten commandment have to do with the actions of the individual and with that individual's heart. Someone torturing another person for the sheer fun of it would fall into the same category as the 10 commandments, but torturing someone because you believe doing so is for the greater good of your country is a separate moral issue. I'm not even saying that one is better than the other, I am just saying that they really deserve to be treated separately. After all, do no murder is one of the 10 commandments, but there are LOTS of sins in the Old Testament that warrant a death penalty. So, I won't make a comment one way or the other about torture under the jurisdiction of the government, mainly because I am personally torn on that issue. I have moral problems on both sides of that issue.

However, you still bring up a good point about you would rather have someone steal something from you than to torture you for hours just for kicks. First of all, while that kind of torture may not be explicitly forbidden in the 10 commandments, it is in the Old Testament. See Leviticus 24:19. But why not in the "Big 10?"

I think the reason is that almost every person struggles with the 10 commandments all the time. They weren't meant to be the worst possible crimes, but the crimes that we need to deal with in our heart. Maybe you don't struggle with murder, but just look at our inner-city gangs. We all struggle with making God our top priority. Almost all of us have stolen something before, or coveted something so much that it ended up hurting others. Thankfully, most of us don't struggle with torture. Most of us would kill someone out of anger long before torturing someone. I think the fact that "Thou shalt not torture" is not in the Ten Commandments is actually a little encouraging.

I hope my answer made some sense to you. I know I certainly don't think God is waiting to smite you for asking an intelligent question, either!

May God bless you richly.

Answer 3

Obviously torturing another human being is out of the question.
You are talking about the Ten commandements given to Moses who by the way was not Egyptian by parentage.

Jesus said love one another....therefore how can one torture a brother. I think this should cover it.
The fact is that we should all know right from wrong and we should not have to keep referrring back to an old book.
As good as the Bible is it was written a long time ago for the people of that time, if God had to explain everything to Moses then he would never have got down from the mountain. Man seems to make his own laws but common sense should prevail....wish it did.

Answer 4

You claim one must keep the ten commandments in order to live a righteous life. Not so. The ten commandments and the rest of the law are there to show you that you cannot, no matter how hard you try.

In Christianity, people are called to fulfill the law through love as contrasted to merely "keeping" them in the letter.

Seeing as you changed the subject to a political statement, are you aware you can "torture" someone without creating any long term harm?

If it were your life, or the life of one you love whose life was at stake, I wonder how you would feel about it then.

.

Answer 5

No deep trouble here. Ask and you shall receive. Rape is fornication for the rapist. The rape of Dinah in the Old Testament tells what the people thought of rape. The commandments also say you shall not kill. To kill can mean many things from destroying a person's good name to the actual crime of murder. If you torture someone you are actually forcing them to give you something you would not have gotten without torture. You steal it from them. Fortunately Bush is not God and whether or not he believes in the 10 commandments is not for us to say. There is separation of church and state and no one is forced to believe that what is legal is always right. This also includes abortion issues, lethal punishment for crimes and many others.

Answer 6

Hi. This is an interesting question.

It should be noted that there are many commands which were given to the Israellites. A couple of them were restated by Jesus many years later, probably because they were important.

One is "Love the lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength" and the other is "love your neighbour as yourself"

These two laws are basically a summary of the Ten Commandments and the entire law given by God to the Israellites. Torturing and Raping do not fall under these two laws so therefore they are NOT OK.

Conversely if you are loving God, and loving your neighbour, you will not be torturing, raping, adulterating, fornicating, or anything else which is harmful to the other people, like lying or stealing. you would honour your parents and you would not be following after false idols.

Now it's important to remember that according to Christianity, doing all these good things does not save a person from death. Salvation is found in Christ alone, in believing He is the Son of God who died on the cross for your sin. If you accept this, by faith, you will receive the Holy Spirit, the law, or how to live, will be written on your heart and you will begin to change into someone who loves and serves others, thus fulfilling the ten commandments.

Answer 7

No you're not in trouble as far as I'm concerned you're right I'm a Jewish Christian and as for the Commandments there is no mention of torture anywhere so it's NOT legal! Torture is wrong as it showed in a TV prog last night about the Concentration camps! The Bush administration should be ashamed of themselves for what they've done and he claims to be a Christian!
Shalom
mandyr

Answer 8

Some Christians believe that not even the 10 Commandments apply to Christians. They believe that the one and only law to cover all deeds is "love your neighbor as yourself."

I agree with you -- not even the 10 Commandments are enough. We must learn (and practice) ethics and morals on a daily basis in order that they become 2nd nature and not something with which to struggle.

That is one of the many reasons I chose Judaism and our 613 Commandments.

Reform Jew-by-choice.
.

Answer 9

The 10 Commandments are the primer...the basics for which all other commandments hang. The Noble laws were established based on events that occured in that time to separate the Israelites from other tribes and peoples. Some of these laws were inacted after God gave the Laws because of conformity...not because of Gods will...slowly the benevolent laws began to drift further and further away from Gods will and more toward the other extreme of man's will. For instance, since there was slavery, God gave laws to how those slaves were to be treated. Other laws and proverbs talk about punishments but torture is defined as applying pain or abuse not necessarily for things that are done but to extract information, set an example or detourance, to punish and innosent person or for the sick twisted pleasure of it. Perhaps none of these scenarios, like so many others existed and why suggest them, ya know...back in Judeo Law building time. Rape as well was a situation that shouldn't ought to have occured but rarely and the either the levitical laws or mosaical laws prohibit and set penalties for rape, depending on the circumstances...The thou shalt now laws...the main 10 were the basis for how to worship God and how to treat each other. Past that they branched off into various laws pertaining to each in turn...and further still laws were enacted that addressed certain events as they occured at the time based on the priesthood. By the time Christ arrived the laws had gotten to be so burdensome that essentially it was written on a mans heart what was lawful and what isn't. General concensus agreed and it brought some civility though pagan cultures were still practicing "torture" methods at Christs time obviously because of crucifixtion methods and etc. Jesus was brutally tortured. At that point Jesus established that those who live by the sword will die with it (be destroyed along with all forms of violence) as was shown in the garden of Gethsemene with the soldiers ear being whacked off. In every turn of events that occured there were innumerable examples of God trying to show and teach mercy...even by way of ending someone's life. I see why it wouldn't make sense based on the context of going from the 10 commandments but from there it was a gradual process from the simple laws of God to the complex legallities of man's assumed authority. That is why Christ points us back to the original 10 and sums them up with the 2, which can also be found in the OT laws. Love in Christ, ~J~

Answer 10

I don't like Bush and I think he's doing a horrible job.....but you're comparing apples and oranges with that.

I think the 10 commandments encompass everything...you just have to open your mind a bit.

There's a commandment about killing....I think that takes care of torture & murder

There's a commandement about coveting your neighbors wife....that takes care of the rape.

Whether you believe in God or not "most" of the commandments are for everyone.....they're societies laws.

Answer 11

President Bush and the other guys deserve respect for the office they hold....




the grunt in the field needs your support not your condemnation...

there is a wild gap between those 2 fields of thought....during conflict of war one side plays nice and the other side does bad things.....

you can not get information from an enemy by playing nice when your own men are being tortured....the enemy that you have will laugh at the playing nice and not give any info...which can lead to problems with out the info they have....


if we had someone to interrogate before 9 /11 would you want to play nice? and never get the info until after the fact? if at all?


real world....as long as there is war there will be interrogation /torture to get information....


christians have the ten commandments...not everyone else follows the same rules of engagement.....