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Where in the bible does it mention the word "Christians?"
Not really semantic gymnastics, but compartmentalization through dogma. Christians generally talk about the old and new testaments being two different "economies" or "dispensations". There is a dispensationalist group that takes it even further, providing 7 "dispensations". The idea is that each dispensation represents, FDR-style, a "new deal" between god and man. Therefore, when you see statements such as you cite, you are seeing admonitions that no longer apply and can thus be ignored / disavowed in that sense.
Still, it is the same god admonishing a bronze-age king to eviscerate all his enemy's women and children as now presents himself as meek, mild, and lowly of heart. Or more precisely, the original god's son is now a mediator or go-between who is capable of calming down his cranky ol' Dad to our benefit.
If you're a snake-handling, tongues-speaking firebrand from the South, you might identify more with the cranky Dad and teach your parishioners to fear his wrath; if you're more moderate, you might say, "pay no attention to that nasty old guy behind the curtain".
Still waiting for anyone to give me an example how this nut job was acting out his Christianity.
The truth is that none of us has enough facts to really know, but if he was babbling about "coming to Jesus" I think he was trying to take his family out of this dysfunctional world and into the world to come. In that sense he was acting out the belief that this world is not his home and he's just a'passin' through. Not in a way that 99.999% of Christians would ... and maybe if he were / is not a believer according to your definition, then he might come up with a different excuse for all I know. But I've read more than one shrink stating that any random gibbering maniac is apt to be spouting religious talk and have ideations rooted in religion. I would say that suggests religion is a source of mental illness, you would probably say that it's just the god-shaped hole in Everyman run off the rails due to being denied correct teaching. So it goes.
Not really semantic gymnastics, but compartmentalization through dogma. Christians generally talk about the old and new testaments being two different "economies" or "dispensations". There is a dispensationalist group that takes it even further, providing 7 "dispensations". The idea is that each dispensation represents, FDR-style, a "new deal" between god and man. Therefore, when you see statements such as you cite, you are seeing admonitions that no longer apply and can thus be ignored / disavowed in that sense.
Still, it is the same god admonishing a bronze-age king to eviscerate all his enemy's women and children as now presents himself as meek, mild, and lowly of heart. Or more precisely, the original god's son is now a mediator or go-between who is capable of calming down his cranky ol' Dad to our benefit.
If you're a snake-handling, tongues-speaking firebrand from the South, you might identify more with the cranky Dad and teach your parishioners to fear his wrath; if you're more moderate, you might say, "pay no attention to that nasty old guy behind the curtain".
Will if you're teaching from the old testament from your sacred book, lets start with these;
Deuteronomy 17.
If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the lord thy god giveth thee, man or woman, that have wrought wickedness in the sight of the lord thy god, in transgressing his covenant;17:3 and have gone and served other gods, and worship them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the hosts of heaven, which I have not commanded; 17:4 and it be told thee, and thou has heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel; 17:5 then shall thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, until they die
Here's a few dealing with children;
Leviticus 20;9 for every one that curses his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be a pawn him.
Judges;11:30-40 Jephthah killed his younger daughter (his only daughter) by burning her alive as a burnt sacrifice to the lord for he commanded it.
Psalms;137:8-9. Talks about dashing little children against stones.
2Kings 6:28-29. Interesting enough this one talks about cannibalism.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21. Talks about a disobedient son and how everybody should stone him to death.
Judges 19:24-29. Talks about how a father took his daughter and let men have their way with her and then he cut her up into 12 pieces and scattered them over the land.
Exodus 12:29. God killed, intentionally, every firstborn child of every family in Egypt, simply because he was upset at the Pharaoh.
The rest I'll just give the locations in your sacred book.
Exodus 20:9-10.
2 Kings 16:23-24.
Leviticus 26:30.
1 Samuel 15:11-18.
1 Kings 16:34.
Isaiah 13:15-18. (This is one of my favorites)......... God can find you, he will, "thrust you through," smash your children "to pieces" before your eyes and rape your wife.
Jeremiah 19:7-9. Got will make parents eat their own children and friends eat each other.
Here's another one of my favorites. Lamentations 2:20-22. God gets angry and mercilessly torments and kills everyone, young and old. He even causes women to eat their children.
Now there a lot more but I'm sure that the preacher knows what I'm talking about.
You are so missing the point - or are just looking to argue, I can't quite tell
Not to defend Vizio, but he has answered this question.
Last edited by lovesMountains; 03-21-2013 at 07:49 PM..
A guess a better question to ask at this point would be, why did God stop ordering his people to kill other people? He went from killing people himself to ordering the Israelites to kill others to giving up the habit by the latter third of the Old Testament and into the new.
Jeremiah 19:9 states explicitly that God, himself, will cause the cannibalization.
Why? Because the city will be under siege. There will be a long famine and they will be forced into it. Yes--he caused that which caused them to resort to cannibalism, but He is not the author of evil and he does not directly command them to do it.
A guess a better question to ask at this point would be, why did God stop ordering his people to kill other people? He went from killing people himself to ordering the Israelites to kill others to giving up the habit by the latter third of the Old Testament and into the new.
Because they had entered the promised land. The Messianic line was in place, and they did not need to do so in order for the Messiah to come.
Well then preacher, why are you still preaching the old testament to your congregation? I find it kind of interesting that when an individual presents you with all the different passages in your sacred book that has to do with the taking of innocent life, you very conveniently say that these are passages from the old testament (and that may be true) and do not apply to you as Christians, and yet, you as a Christian preacher continue to teach that to your congregation. You either teach the old testament or you don't and if you do, your teaching all those passages about taking innocent lives also.
I still preach the OT because it points forward to the Messiah of the NT. The entire Bible is about Jesus. You really need to understand context. It's clear from your comments that you simply don't have a clue. If you'd like to learn I'd be happy to teach you, but I don't think you really do, do you?
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