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03-25-2010, 12:51 AM

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Kyle
Denton, TX
Posts: 1

Hi Monalisa Sweetheart!
   I don't know if you will end up seeing this reply or not considering how long ago you wrote it. I am a relatively new Christian and was looking for some online Christian forums when I stumbled upon your message. I can understand how and why you might feel the way you do after reading those passages in the Bible. Until three months ago I was a devout Buddhist who had arrived at Buddhism after many years of searching for the truth. I believed that all Christians (and not only Christians but a great many of the followers of the varied and numerous religions) were people who were afraid to stand on their own, people who for one reason or another grasped with their whole heart, or in many cases only with as much of their heart as they felt they could get away with, to a truth which had far too many inconsistencies and contradictions to be spoken of in one go. I realize that this may not be your point of view and that your motivations might be far different than mine. I suspect that they might be something along the lines of liberating those who are trapped within a faulty system from the lies that they have believed out of honest naivety and a simple lack of Biblical study. Anyway, I by no means consider myself to be a man of great faith or of righteousness, but I do aspire to be. I write this reply to you simply because I feel that your post was well researched and deserves a reply and also because I find it a little disturbing that no one has attempted to defend the honor of the Lord and in so doing offer hope to those who find themselves on shaky ground.
I would like to start things off by saying first that there are numerous passages within scripture which tell us that God does not contradict Himself nor lie. Is it in a being to contradict its own nature without any outside influence? I don't personally think so. Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago... There are many others of similar nature but it would take me all night in order to communicate them all to you and sadly, my Biblical knowledge is not what it needs to be. In light of this understanding what we must consider is that each passage of Scripture may or may not be elaborated upon further within the Holy Word. Crossreferencing within context is an essential tool of Biblical hermeneutics. Scripture must be understood and proved by Scripture. The Holy Bible is, afterall, the Lord God's self revealing revelation for humans, to humans, and in relation to humans through history, prophecy, and ultimately the coming of the second person of God, Christ Jesus. We must therefore conclude that anything not addressed within Holy Scripture is something not on a "need to know" basis for our salvation and spiritual success within this earthly domain. Otherwise, it must be a simple lack of understanding on the part of our human intellect. Anyway, I may not be able to fully comprehend the Word of God and I may never within this earthly existence be able but, I promise you that every question or doubt that you have I will attempt to address. Those that I cannot I will take to men and women of God who have a greater understanding than myself and take to the Lord Himself in prayer.
   I would like to address your concerns roughly in the order that you presented them. Firstly then, is Rape. Deuteronomy 22:23-26 does not advocate the stoning of a woman who is a victim of rape. Rather, it commands the purging of evil through the stoning of a woman whom was a willing participant in adultery. The Lord makes His intent crystal clear. V. 24 " ...because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he violated his neighbor's wife." V. 25 "But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. V. 26 But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case." It is clear therefore that the intent of the Lord was not to condemn an innocent woman to death but to condemn the guilty. We might then wonder why the merciful Lord would condemn them to death rather than allowing them the opportunity for repentance. Romans 6:23 sheds some light on this question when Paul tells us "the wages of sin is death..." This is a theme which we can find all throughout the Bible as we look at the many offerings required to attone for sins contained with in the book of the priests, Leviticus. These offerings were most often an animal sacrifice, i.e. life in exchange for forgiveness of sins. Seeing as Deuteronomy was written in a time long before the coming of Christ to attone for our sins, God tells us that each will bear the weight of their own sin. (unfortunately I can't seem to find the exact passage and don't have the time but I can promise you that it is within the original five books written by Moses which are collectively known as the Torah.) In John 8:2-11 we see that this style of purging is no longer necessary when Christ Jesus spares the adulterous woman in front of the Pharisees. Deteronomy 22:28-29 is slightly more tricky. If this passage is in fact refering to rape then I would have to say that the orders of the Lord were intended to protect the women. In Genesis chapter 2 the Lord God tells us His purpose for sexual relations: to end aloneness. That the man and woman, now husband and wife would come together and become "one flesh". (Gen. 2:24) Therefore, the woman who has laid with a man is now considered to be of one flesh with him. She then would have been considered less desirable or, altogether undersirable by her fellow Israelites. This passage also states that the man must then take her as his wife and "cannot divorce her all his days." (Deut. 22:29) I think that it is important to note that it does not say that the woman cannot divorce the man. Holy Scripture goes over acceptable conduct for a husband toward his wife and over the subject of divorce but those are subjects for another discussion. Something I noticed about this passage was that verse 28 says, " If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered..." Looking at this passage closely it becomes apparent that whether or not this is a case of rape rests entirely on the word "seizes" but, is it not possible for a man to seize a woman within the grounds of her compliance? I think that it is interesting that God, in His infinite wisdom, chose to say that "they" are discovered. I think that this single word, as well as the preceeding passage which was dealing with rape and adultery, makes it clear that this passage is actually talking about willful fornication. Though in reality, I could be wrong. As far as the passages concerning the "rape" of the Midianites and the enemies of Israel in the book of Judges, I think that by building upon the Biblical knowledge we have already accumulated and a look a the book of Genesis we can understand not only these passages but your qualms with the topic of "Biblical murder". The Midianites as well as the people mentioned in the book of Judges, were among the number of people that God had judged for their own sins. Remember Romans, the wages of sin is death. That their distruction was for their own sins is apparent from a careful study of Scripture. Genesis 15:9-19 tells us that the reason Abraham's descendants would have to wait to receive the land God was giving to them is that " the sin...had not yet reached its full measure." God graciously provided an extra 400+ years for the nations dwelling within the promised land to repent and turn back to Him. In the Ten Commandments given Moses by God we see that, "You shall have no other gods before Me" is the first command and that "You shall not murder" is the sixth. The peoples of the promised land had broken His first and most important comandment. This sin was worthy of death. Knowing that the Lord does not contradict Himself it is therefore impossible that He would order the Israelites to break His own orders. Rather, the fallen nations, already judged by the Lord, would be used to test the faith and courage of the Israelites. Scripture tells us that the Lord God is life. Thinking about this makes perfect sense from a logical standpoint. If God existed before anything was and is the creator of all that is as He says then, the concept of life, as well as all concepts and forms of existence, stem forth from His grand creativity. As He is our maker, our designer, and our ruler, not to mention the source of our very life (Gen. 2:7 and many other places within Scripture) He alone holds the rights to our life and/or our death. He provides us with the gift of choice and what we chose then determines whether or not we keep the gift of life. In regard to the raping of the virgin women, it is important to see that the virgins were the only women worthy of being spared because they were the only women whose flesh had not become one with the sinful flesh of the men of the enemy nations. In keeping to the laws of the Israelites and becoming one flesh with men made holy by God these survivors could be spared. Holy Scripture does not specify whether the women saved were unwilling or not however, I would suspect that the women were given the choice of death, should they wish it. You must remember that they had already earned the judgment of death, as had their entire nation. In reality all humans have earned death and are only granted life through the mercy of God and the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the only human who ever lived without sin and therefore, the only human who could die as a sin offering for the rest of us. Christ endured temtation, ridicule, unmerited torture and abuse, died our deaths, and went to hell in our place so that we might live. In regard to the eating of children, the passages that you have mentioned, when read in the greater context of the chapter or story, make it completely clear that this is not a command from God but a punishment for idolatry which would come upon the Israelites by their own choice because of the scarcity of food. The Bible tells us that those who know the truth and willfully turn from it are given over to a depraved mind, that sin has heart-hardening qualities, and that sin is by its nature decietful. It would not be on the Lord's command or from His soveriegn will that they would perform this heinous act, but out of desperation for food, while under seige, and under the influence of a sinful, decieved, and hardened heart. This was simply the Lord's omniscient prophecy at what would occur should they cut themselves of from Him willfully through sin and force the removal of His protection. As for your section on Biblical discrimination, some of your remarks make me wonder if you are actually looking for truth or if you are, for whatever reason, simply attacking the Bible... In the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah it is not "simply because a few of the men were homosexual." Abraham's nephew Lot and his family were living in Sodom at the time and in his attempt to save them Abraham pleads with the Lord. He asks the Lord if he can find 50 righteous (men/women) if He will spare the city, and God complies. Abraham, knowing the Lord and therefore courageous enough to push his luck, then asks if God will spare it for 40, then 30, then 20, then 10. The Lord complied with all of these requests and yet not even 10 righteous people could be found within the entire city. In fact, ONLY Lot and his family were found to be righteous. Even still the Lord sent His angels to deliver Lot and his family from the place. As far as homosexuality is concerned, the Lord declares that it is an abomination to Him. Leviticus 18:22-23 and 20:13 show God's view of homosexuality. There are many other passages in the Bible that denounce this practice, but I would like to take a short moment to consider WHY homosexuality is wrong. The word pervert means to take something that is good and to make it bad. Homosexuality is a perversion of the Lord's plan for our sexual well being. When, in Gen. 2, the Lord creates for Adam a suitable partner He does not create for him another man. He takes from Adams own flesh a rib and creates what Adam names a "Woman". Women are complementing to men in many obvious ways, most easily noticed are those traits which are physical. The simple fact that God's secondary purpose for man, to procreate and fill the earth, cannot be fulfilled through a homosexual relationship is a testament to its invalidity. Something entirely wrong in your argument that Jesus Christ, God in the form of a man, hates Gentiles. MUCH of the preaching of Jesus was to the Gentiles and MUCH of the work of His apostles was performed amongst the Gentile populations. The New Testament largely focuses on the Gentile populations. The analogy of the Gentile woman and a dog was not to discriminate against the Gentiles, but to test the depths of her humility. Isaiah tells us that the one whom the Lord will look upon is the one with a humble heart and a contrite spirit. Being omniscient, Christ was already aware of the depths of her humility and therefore His remark was not for the purpose of testing the depths of her humility so much as it was really to DEMONSTRATE the reward of humility in her healing. Sexism in the Bible is a topic which could take endless amounts of time to unravel. Truly, any of the topics we've discussed today could take great amounts of time and research to understand in their entirety. I'm running short on time so I'm just going to say that there are many righteous women of God all throughout the Bible. The prophetess Deborah is such and example as is Mary who annointed the feet of Christ, Mary the mother of Christ, all four daughters of Phillip, and the many Biblical prophetesses mentioned within Scripture. I hope that this reply will shed some amount of light on the true character of God and will give the grace of Christ Jesus to those who hear. I will be glad to elaborate further on any topic or address new questions or qualms at another time. For now, I need to give my eyes a rest haha.

Filled with the Love of Christ for you and everyone else,
Kyle