Old testament laws

From FreeThoughtPedia

Although the old testament laws contain many laws such as "honor thy father and mother" at Exodus 20:12-16, it contains many other laws that alot Christians nowadays would be very unwilling to follow

Bad & Wierd laws

At many times the Bible supports slavery Exodus 21:7-8 "And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. "

Leviticus 25:44-46 "Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour."

Leviticus 20:10 "And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death."

Exodus 21:15-17 "And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death....And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death."

Exodus 22:18 "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

"And a man will choose...any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman...Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die" Ecclesiasticus, 25:18, 19 & 33. 1 "And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her." Ecclesiastes 7:26, from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)

Objections using biblical verses

Christians might try and pull verses from the bible to prove that the old testament should have only beeen followed at a certain time at a specific place and that they only accept the new testament laws, or that they are under grace. Here are some verses they might try to use:

Romans 10:4 "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." However, Stoning unruly children and killing other prophets, were all considered righteous laws.

Galatians 3:13 "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law."

A previous section reads: "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." This would imply that the people who did NOT follow the laws, are the ones who are cursed.

Galatians 5:18 "But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law."

this is saying that if youre led by spirit, the laws of man do not apply. In other words, if god tells you to do something, like kill a man, you can do it, regardless of the law.

Romans 6:14 "Ye are not under the law, but under grace."

The whole passage includes this as well: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

This basically implies that if the law tells you to sin, dont. So, this has nothing to do with denying the old laws. Just simply not following any corrupt ones that the government may impose on you.

Galatians 3:24-25 "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."

Christ, who is the schoolmaster, deemed these laws to be fit, and to be followed. And a christian is somebody that follows the teachings of Christ

2 Corinthians 3:14 "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ."

This is for people who misunderstand or dont follow the law.

Colossians 2:14 "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances ... nailing it to his cross"

The entire passage:

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross"

This indicates that they werent talking about the law in the OT, but rather the laws that the government had posted

Luke 16:16 "The law and the prophets were until John [the Baptist]: since that time the kingdom of heaven is preached." Yes, and Jesus, who preaches the Kingdom of heaven, strictly tells you to follow some of the laws. He repeatedly proves that he himself follows the laws to the letter.

But that's the old testament

When reading the undeniable horrors of the old testament laws, an objection to following it might be that it was overridden by the sacrifice of Jesus. However, there are a couple of problems with this:

Actually Jesus said you must be very strict with old testament laws and has a punishment even worse than his father concerning adultery: God said an adulter should be killed. Jesus says that merely glancing with lust is the same thing and that the punishment is an eternity in Hell. (Matthew 5:27).

Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS, one JOT or one TITTLE shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these LEAST commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. " (Matthew 5:17-18 )

Regardless of wether it's true or not the fact that God commanded these laws shows he has a very little understanding of morality. The use of corporal punishment has been demonstrated to lead to acceptance of the use of violence and all have negative outcomes. As such, the cycle of violence continues unabated under such a vile system. For more details see Stoning unruly children

Exactly which portions of the Old Testament were made obsolete by Jesus?. And what's the evidence for it?, why couldn't he make things more clear for the +3000 denominations of Christians out there?

"ALL SCRIPTURE is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in RIGHTEOUSNESS..." (2 Timothy 3:16 NAB)

Jesus criticizes the Jews for not killing their unruly children according to the Old Testament law(See Ex.21:15, Lev.20:9, Dt.21:18-21). "Whoever curses father or mother shall die" Mark 7:10 NAB, the same gets repeated at Matthew 15:4-7 “He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

Many christians would still be very willing to use the Old Testament Law to condemn Homosexuality, many Christians quote the Ten commandements which begin at Exodus 20:3: “You shall have no other gods before me.”. It's safe to say that not everybody in the world are christians, following this commandement other religions should be condemned for they must not have any Gods other than the God of the Bible therefore the worship of other Gods such as Hinduism should be banned

Christian fundamentalism and the history of old testament laws

At least some of the old testament laws is getting alot of support to be practiced Dean Wycoff once said: "I, I agree with capital punishment and I believe that homosexuality is one of those that could be, uh, coupled with murder and, and other sins. It would be the government that, um, sits upon this land who would be executing the homosexuals."

The slave should be resigned to his lot, in obeying his master he is obeying God. -- St John Chrysostom, commenting on I Timothy 6:1-5 and other biblical mandates for human slavery, quoted from Helen Ellerbe, The Dark Side of Christian History

we should invade their countries kill their leaders and convert them to christianity - ann coulter

not only is homosexuality a sin, but anyone who supports fags is just as guilty as they are. You are both worthy of death - Fred Phelps

Tolerance is the worst roar of all, including tolerance for homosexuals, feminists, and religions that don't follow christ - Josh Mcdowell

Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. -Pat Robertson

Atheistic secular humanists should be removed from office and Christians should be elected...Government and true Christianity are inseparable. -Robert Simonds

when the christian majority takes over this country, there will be no satanic churches, no more free distribution of pornography, no more talk of rights for homosexuals -Gary Potter

the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the holy scriptures, both by precept and example -R. Furman

nobody has the right to worship on this planet any other god than jehova -Joseph Morecraft

Jerry Falwell: "Most of these feminists are radical, frustrated lesbians, many of them, and man-haters, and failures in their relationships with men, and who have declared war on the male gender. The Biblical condemnation of feminism has to do with its radical philosophy and goals. That's the bottom line."

Jerry Falwell: Quoted in Jim Hill & Rand Cheadle, "The Bible Tells Me So", Anchor Books (1996), P. 69-70: "[homosexuals are] brute beasts...part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven."

Chief Justice Moore, Alabama Supreme Court:

"...the homosexual conduct of a parent -- conduct involving a sexual relationship between two persons of the same gender -- creates a strong presumption of unfitness that alone is sufficient justification for denying that parent custody of his or her own children or prohibiting the adoption of the children of others.... Homosexual conduct is, and has been, considered abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God upon which this Nation and our laws are predicated. Such conduct violates both the criminal and civil laws of this State and is destructive to a basic building block of society -- the family....It is an inherent evil against which children must be protected."

"As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power...." Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica,Q92, art. 1, Reply Obj. 1

Refrences:

http://adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

http://creationwiki.org/Homosexuality

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455507/quotes

www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/ann_coulter.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_hate2.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/quot_intol.htm

http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2709

http://www.loudoun.net/mainstream/quotes.htm

http://moose-and-squirrel.com/bozo/bozo.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/sla_bibl.htm