Christians Please Resolve This Problem For Me If You Can?

Question

(Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT)
If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

What kind of lunatic would make a rape victim marry her attacker? God?

The O.T. got much more violent and vicous words of God in it but I don't want to expose it.
I know this was the law for Israel people.
But that is not important.
For whoever those vicious killing and raping laws were for God still made them.

How come an all loving God show such evil and violence?

You can't say that prophets misinterpreted or twisted Gods words since that would disvalidate the whole Bible.
How can you know whether the modern Bible is tampered with or not?

NOTE:
My son asked me this question after reading the O.T. Bible I had in the shelves.

I don't blame him from not attending church anymore.

Comments?

Answer 1

...written for a man, by a man, in a man's world.

Answer 2

Being a logical person, I am sure you have thought things through. Knowing that God doesn't exist means you have no reason to exist. So equations like E=MC^2 can get you to how you exist but will never answer the question of "WHY."

Likewise, being a moral person, I am sure you also understand the basis for "RIGHT" and "WRONG" can only be explained when "WHAT SHOULD OCCUR" (purpose) is known.

Your religion can not explain "WHY" you are here and has no intelligent explanation for the existance of a "RIGHT" or "WRONG" other than the feeling you might get....something like gas that gives you that certain feeling that comes and goes without your knowing specifically the cause of the temporary and inconsistent discomfort.

I understand why you would need to go outside your own religion since your religion can not provide you with a purpose and therefore, a reason to live or a morality to live by.

Likewise, I can also understand why your son wouldn't look to his father to answer questions about life or right and wrong.

What I can't understand is why you wouldn't include Jews in your question as they only have the OT as their scripture and so may even be seen to know more about what Moses wrote as they don't have a Jesus to study.

Since you lack the answers to so many larger questions about life, I will need to limit my answer to the simplest of terms so you might grasp the answer:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

If you put everything God created in a box, God would be the only thing outside the box. Everything else in the universe would be in the box including you.

As you are a created being, you have a purpose. Having a purpose means you can grasp that you have a reason to live and will fear death until you have completed that purpose.

You also have an understanding that there is a "RIGHT" and "WRONG" because you have a purpose....as you can't say that purpose evolved from that which didn't have a purpose or that a "MEANINGLESS" life could understand what it means to have a "PURPOSE FILLED" life.

So as you said to your son when he wasn't able to grasp your instruction, so God says to you, "Because I said so."

Answer 3

It's called paying for the merchandise pally! The price of sex is marriage. It's Gods Law, not your own twisted, hormonal driven self centered law.

Firstly: you have spent your whole life or maybe not, going to a church that doesn't teach the original text properly.

Secondly: why have a bible in the house if you don't read it yourself, understand it and apply it to your daily life? Do you think by having it tucked away somewhere where your friends won't see it but God knows you have it, that you will be magically be saved?

Thirdly: I bet you shopped around for safe toys when your boy was smaller but you never gave a care to his eternal soul. In this case you have failed to be a proper parent in the eyes of God, so why should He or any Christian give credence to your prejudice of Gods word?

Fourthly: it sounds like your son is the ruler of the roost. You have never applied any degree of discipline on him have you? If you had you may have had better understanding of Gods unruly children.

Last and far from the least of these points: you like most people place too much emphasis on the flesh for all the wrong reasons and spend your life complaining about it, due mostly to your own faults.

I have in this short narrative cast too many pearls to swines and will do so no more. God bless according to thy will with conviction.

Answer 4

Not understanding a certain part of the bible is not a good justification to NOT want to attend church....

Most people that do not want to attend church LOOK for reasons not to attend...They pick out a certain part and magnify it as justification when in reality they just don't want to attend church anymore...

In lots of churches across the country and in every town there are informative, educational type Mens Bible studies that study these very subjects. They help you learn and understand when and why certain laws were applied in the OLD testament laws of time before Christ...

You never said how old your son was....
There is a good book called " What on earth am I here for ?" Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren that you would enjoy....You can purchase it on amazon.com or your local bookstore....

Good luck with the answers you will receive...

Answer 5

Deut 22:25-27 is about rape....the man attacks, the girl screams for help, in this case, the rapist is put to death.....

Deut 22: 28-29 is about 2 consenting people that get caught...so they are already attracted to each other....the girl was cooperating........and the man has to pay a fine and marry the girl.......

you should try to read and understand your own bible more, so you can be a better parent to your child.....and so your son does not loose his faith because you cannot read and understand your own bible and explain it to him....the next time, take up questions with a pastor before you allow things to go downhill....

Answer 6

Saying that humans put their own spin on the inspiration upon which they wrote the Bible doesn't invalidate it. It is the difference between taking it literally and understanding that the Bible was also a contemporary writing influenced by the times. God did not dictate the Bible to the writers, nor did God stand over their shoulders and monitor what they wrote. It was INSPIRED by God, but men who wrote it put in their own interpretations. Religion through out the ages has been about interpretation so why do we take the Bible literally? If denominations branched off because they interpret the Bible differently, then what line of thinking would ever justify taking it literally?

Imagine if it were written today? Or look at it out of religious context. Look at the Constitution, it was inspired by equality and freedom from oppression, but it has been taken literally and interpreted in ways that have oppressed people. Look at the Dred Scott decision using the Constitution to justify why blacks would never be free. The message of equality and freedom of oppression will remain the same but men will use it to justify the laws of their time.

Explain it to your son this way. God inspires man, but free will gives man the choice to carry out God's message. Use your free will to read the Bible with a mind to the world that existed then and then use that knowledge to make it a better world now.

Answer 7

Deuteronomy Chapter 22 Verse 25: This bascially means that a rapist is to be put to death

Deuteronomy 22:28-29: that's talking about consensual sex... like if the man has sex with a unmarried virgin girl, and someone catches them in the act, then he is to pay her father 50 sheckles of silver, and marry the girl because no one else is going to want to have her anymore

Answer 8

There are several factors to consider...

First you have to understand that in those days a woman never could divorce a man, but a man could divorce a woman over anything. Example, ruining dinner = divorce...
So if this man could not divorce her under any circumstance, and had to support her no matter what, is this not a good punishment...

Also, in ancient Israel position was very important, social status... If the man raped a woman, he disgraced is whole family and the community... There was a public humiliation factor...

Also he, had to marry her only if her father allowed it...

Another social factor to consider of those times... She after being raped would not be considered worthy of marriage by other suitors... (most likely having to rely on her family for the rest of her life)

In any case to an Israelite man this would be quite a deterrent...

If you compare the Mosaic Law to the laws of the same time of surrounding nations you would find it a good law... The surrounding nations gave no consideration to women at all...

Also Jesus makes it clear that there was a concession made... Matthew 19:8 - "He said to them: “Moses, out of regard for YOUR hardheartedness, made the concession to YOU of divorcing YOUR wives, but such has not been the case from [the] beginning."

This scripture is not just about divorce, the whole conversation was really about a woman's place is society and her rights... This is made clear by Jesus's response to their line of questioning...

On this occasion Jesus gave insight...
Mark 10:11, 12 - "And he said to them: “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if ever a woman, after divorcing her husband, marries another, she commits adultery.”"

Woman in the ancient world could not divorce their husbands... But Jesus makes it clear they are equal to men...

In both situations Jesus makes it absolutely clear Men and Woman are equal...

So with this knowledge we can understand the nature of the concession Moses made... and how the law was still used to give woman a measure of protection...

Rape is a disgusting and vile crime and in many cases death was the penalty... God never purposed for Women to be treated so poorly and with such contempt...

Jesus restored God's Original standard for marriage and thus restored all human rights to women...

This is clearly shown in the scriptures...
There are a more perspectives to examine but I think this is enough for now...

God never approved of a man abusing a woman in anyway at all...

Psalms 11:5 - "Jehovah himself examines the righteous one as well as the wicked one, And anyone loving violence His soul certainly hates."

I hope I have helped...
Journey Well...

P.S. - I forgot also the Judges over the case also could impose additional penalties such as a public beating of the rapist, and stuff like that...

Answer 9

What a fantastic question! I have never seen this answered, but I will take a crack at it on the basis of my knowledge of religion, psychology, and anthropology. I will provide two plausible answers to your question: the first will come from a fundamentalist approach, and the second will come from my training in Theological Psychology. (Of course, for an exact answer, you will need to speak directly with the text’s author: be that man or God?) Also, your title suggests you are quite distressed over this passage. I am sure this is a difficult time for both you and your son. It is no small matter to have your faith shaken, and this is why I am taking the time to provide an answer for you.

First let’s clear the meaning of this text. Some might argue that this is not rape but an act of consent. If it were an act of consent, I would imagine that this would not be any big problem. However, by reading the preceding text it is clear that this is rape: the only difference between the accounts being “is the woman already lined up for marriage or not?” (An investigation of the text in its primary language will support this.) Secondly, the fact that this troublesome account is still remaining in the text after all of these years would lend support to the idea that the O.T. has not been tampered with. Think of how convenient it would be to simply get rid of the difficult passages that take place through out the O.T and the N.T. So, for the sake of what we have here, this is rape and the text has not been tampered with. Now, here we go with the fundamentalist approach. I use this approach because their belief is that “The Bible is the word of God” and that “It does not contain any conflicts.” So, hold on to your hat, because, now we will see how a fundamentalist MIGHT maintain a good, loving, merciful God in light of this bothersome text.


1. Let’s work this backwards and answer the easy parts first. Why is the man not able to divorce the raped woman who is now his wife? A quick run through the N.T., and more so of Paul’s letters (which is some real uphill reading) shows that earthly marriage is an earthly reflection of God’s relationship with believers. Passages like John 3:29, Eph 5:25, Rev 21:2, Mark 10:2-8 & 12; 25 reflect this and explain how this earthly reflection will be done away with once believers are all resurrected and right with God. This means marriage is not just something that people do, but it has real significance. (Grabbing a good concordance and looking up the words “Bride, husband, groom, one, marriage” will help you see this connection.) With this in mind we need to recognize that divorce- from the viewpoint of God- does the following things: a) it declares that what God has joined and made “one” is no longer valid (and this puts man above God: which is a no no), and b) it destroys the symbolism of marriage (which represents God the Son’s relationship with the believers: by which they are saved: (This second point in short is that: marriage/union with God saves). So marriage represents the believer’s relationship with God…. Now, this is where the fundamentalist viewpoint would have you get your shoes on the right feet and say. “A loving God would save a sinner. Do not look at this event through the twisted eyes of humans, but through the loving eyes of God.” (Now watch the beauty of this problematic law get explained by this perspective, watch how this nasty law becomes a Holy law and yet another symbol of God’s marriage to the believer)… HERE WE GO: The man rapes the woman (well he is now a “sinner” and the punishment is death! So how will a loving merciful God save this sinner from death and keep the Holy Law at the same time (Romans 5:6-9?) The man has to pay the bride price- the silver (this might remind us of Judas who was paid silver for betraying Jesus) and he must be married to the victim (Just as believers are married to victim Jesus). And because there was no law against forcing your wife into sexual service, the victim marriage saved the sinner; and, this crazy Law becomes yet another one of the O.T’s many foreshadowings of how the sacrifice of Jesus would save the sinner! The focus here is on saving the sinner. Does the victim end up with a spouse? Yes, Jesus ends up with the sinner: who is saved by his sacrifice, and the woman ends up with a sinner who is saved by her sacrifice (only a shadow of God’s love) To say poor woman is to also say poor Jesus. (Thomas J. Bierdz)
2. From a Theological Psychology perspective we arrive at a similar answer. Every religious system must have a way of answering fundamental questions about life, its meaning, death, and how to deal with the rise of shame and guilt which rise from out from a conflict between the answers the religion provides and our human drives: of which sex is one of many. The Jewish religion and Christian religion are among many, many, many systems that attempt to answer these questions and then need to resolve the conflicts they generate. You must remember that these questions got answered in the context of their culture and time. Some followers of these religions see these as stories open for interpretation and hence this makes religion a dynamic thing. When one part of a group does not agree with another part of the group, there is a split and we get varieties of religions. At the time this law was written, people could be viewed as property. In this case “You break it, you bought it” would have been the rule of the day. It is sort of like how we today might treat a neighbor who’s mutt jumps our fence and then jumps our pedigree (We do not consider how the dog’s might feel about the whole thing, we just have the neighbor pay us for damages). What is interesting is that if the man does not get caught, he… well, gets away with it- in this life. However, once he does get caught, the law provides a remedy: and some might jokingly argue a punishment worse then death: a mother-in-law. (Thomas J. Bierdz)

I hope these answers help you and your son, and any other person who struggeled with this question. In accordance with the guidelines of this site, I invite any to learn more about the tool of spirituality and how it can be used to answer life’s questions, or improve one’s life by visiting my site at http://www.peaceandhappinessinstitute.com/
Or http://ilcss.org/.


NOTE: This question was asked in a Christian format, and hence the answer reflects that religions perspective. Other religions that utilize all or part of the Jewish and Christian text may not be satisfied with this answer. Please note that the answer would change depending on the religious grounds on which the question is approached. Each religion has its own methods for answering this question, and I do not hold one answer above another, but simply used an approach that would provide one solution.

Peace & Happiness,

Thomas J. Bierdz

Answer 10

you're speaking approximately 2 circumstances -- one with repentance and one devoid of. The latter potential that whilst they have a satisfied existence, evil persons are destined to an eternity of damnation while they die, so as that they do get their comeuppance. in the former, you're good, it form of feels unfair in the event that they're forgiven all their sins good until now loss of existence, and consequently go the heaven, yet you are able to desire to remember some issues: a million) God supposedly loves us all, and positively created us with the flaws that we've for a reason, so as long as you embody Him on the top, you have performed His will (regardless of that could have been) and the those that an evil individual could have wronged additionally performed some place, 2) the evil individual should be quite repentant -- God will probably understand if that individual is basically announcing the main suitable words as a fashion to get in the door devoid of rather meaning it, and you recognize the place they are going to go instead and 3) aside from the rather evil, some area of a individual's experience of right and incorrect will sense undesirable approximately what they did (hiya, even Jeffrey Dahmer felt undesirable approximately eating human beings) and could no longer sense worth of heaven -- that they had probably finally end up in a Purgatory instead, via fact their experience of right and incorrect does no longer be sparkling sufficient to get to heaven, until they felt that they had served sufficient time atoning for what that they had completed. it is my tackle it; i'm a minister yet under no circumstances an entire authority on the afterlife.

Answer 11

Many laws were made as deterrents. The consequences were much worse than the crime. Like getting stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. If you let people get away with their crimes against God or man then people will naturally take it to the next level of abuse. Yes, it was strict adherence to the Laws but necessary for the overall well being of everyone else.