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Originally Posted by Whispering Death Irregardless, those are the commands of Yahweh who with jesus and the holy spirit is one god, one being.
Of course you probobly are trying to motion to the two-covenants theory of interperating the bible which states, essentially, that the old testament is merely a backstory for Jesus Christ's laws. Oddly enough, though, the people who ignore the teachings about genocide under this theory are very angry when the equally discounted Ten Commandments, which should be ignored along with those genocide lines, where removed from the courthouse. Then, of course, you are left with the beatitudes, or Jesus' teachings. The main problem with this loveley scenario is that the Christianity of Jesus is far to hard a path for most people to accept, (give away all your money, fast in the desert etc.) and since you are speaking to me on a computer I assume you do not follow that lifestyle.
So we are left with mainstream Christianity which essentially seeks to ignore the parts of the bible they don't like (such as those ugly ugly genocide things, let me just turn my blind eye... oh there, gone!) and believe what they want to believe (god damned gays, let's send em' all to h**l at shotgun point!)
Of course, a Christian ruler could just as easily interpret the bible to say that Jesus is the ideal citizen and that Yahweh is the ideal ruler. The ideal citizen should give up all he has for yahweh (in this instance the ruler) and the ruler (me) should be, as yahweh's holy representative on earth, able to bash babies against walls like in Jehrico.
But that is wrong! That's not my religion! Yes, and that's why we have a very firm line between church&state. |
Where do you get this stuff. This is even more out there than saying all the founding fathers were deists. This is a totally wrong concept of Christainity. Why do you think Christians are not killing gays or bashing babies like you say, there must be a reason for that. Here it is in a nutshell:
John 1:17
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Most of all the Old Testament was realized through Christ, and Christian must strive to live towards Christ truth and grace.
Thats why it wrong for Christains today to massacre populations, shoot gays with shotguns, and bash babbies. Most if not all Christians will be against anyone who tries to do this.
As far as the 10 commandments go, it is still relevant today because the Old Testament are spiritual methaphores for New Testament faith and struggles, ect.
Not only that, those commandments are some of the very few laws that come from the old testament that Jesus and also the Apostles mention for Christians to follow. The rest you don't have to follow because of Christ grace.
So NO, Christians arent ignoring one part to follow another. Far from it.
All parts are kept in mind. In fact the very examples you use is a very good example why the US should not forget its Christian roots.
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They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)
Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)
If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.(Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)
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As brutal as you think those commands were, it was necesary for the survival of the newly formed nation of Isralites during ancient times.
Because of the Biblical laws (not just the ones mentioned above) the Isralites became strong as a nation, and were at the height of power during king Solomon's reign. They were the wealthiest and one of the most powerful regional powers and possibly on the verge of empire within two or three more kings had they stayed the course. However towards the end of Solomon's reign some of those commands listed above were starting to be violated, some by Solomon himself.
They started to worship foreign idols, chief among them was Molech, which required people to sacrifice children into fire. The worship of these gods changed their individual attitudes and thus their whole national character. This set off a whole chain of events where the original Bibical laws were no longer followed. The laws which kept them strong as a people were soon disregarded. This resulted in a downhill slide for them. Within one or two generations they were a divided people with two kingdoms, until later they were eventually conquered by foriegn invader, and they all became slaves.
Of the two kingdoms Judah and Israel, the smaller one Judah lasted considerable longer only because of a series of kings who did away with idol worship and restored the Biblical laws which made them strong again for a time, until again another series of kings did away with it again and re-introduced idol worship, which weakened them again until eventual conquest.
As far as a New Testament metaphore, the Christain foundation of the founding fathers which brought us here has kept us strong. They knew the same lesson from the Old Testament. If we forget it then it will lead to our fall, if you want proof all you have to do is look at Europe, they wont last more than 50 to a 100 years or even less.