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From reading the bible, all I see is evidence that WE are the pricks.
How so?
Our creator makes us, gives us everything we will ever have, and everything we love. How do the people of the bible (and the people living today) repay him? They hurt and rape his daughters and sons, they spit at his name, they deny him, they create
all evil that's in this world.
As a parent, he tries to guide us away from evil, but we deny his laws because they are too "strict". We look at his justice as though it is barbaric and disgusting, but fail to look in the mirror as a human race.
His justice is barbaric and disgusting. Executing someone for working on Saturday is barbaric, executing a rape victim because she didn't scream loud enough is beyond barbaric.
This is an extremely good thing to bring up when looking at the Old Testament. Why would God have such a harsh punishment for certain things? And, if someone were to believe in both the Old Testament and the New, why aren't punishments not being upheld today? I'll take this from a purely Christian standpoint, rather than a Jewish or Islamic standpoint.
The key here is to understand the culture at the time the Old Testament was written in, what the Laws were supposed to accomplish and what types of Laws God gave his people. God is eternal, and his standards hold true for eternity, but you must understand that he also takes into thought what his children need (rather than what they want) in a certain time and culture. Just like a father might tailor rules for each of his children in his own house, because he knows them and loves them. The Old Testament tells of God's covenant with the nation of Israel, and her acceptance and rejection of said covenant.
One first must understand that there are 3 different types of laws. These different laws show us the will of God and how we might live, and also shows us how sinful we are and how impossible it is to live fully by God's standards.
The 3 types of laws are:
Moral- The Ten Commandments are the best example we have of moral laws. These morals still apply today, as a way to please our Father, NOT as a way to attain salvation.
Judicial/Civil Law: THese were laws of God's people(the theocratic nation of Israel), because he ruled as King rather than a man. These laws were based upon the culture and people of that time. Today, we have rulers and Laws of our countries based on our culture. We are told to follow our current leaders and the laws of our land.
Sacrificial/Ceremonial Law- These laws were worship laws, which were done for the love of God in order to cleanse their sins against God.
You might see the laws something like this:
Someone breaks a Moral Law (adultery, theft, murder) and thus sins against another person. When someone sins against another they are brought to justice by the Civil Law, in order for the sin to be made right with the person sinned against and their peers.
The sin is also a sin against God himself, so the ceremonial Laws bring justice to the sinner's actions against God.
If you are a Christian, you are made clean through Jesus. This means that your sin is wiped clean, so you do not have to follow the ceremonial laws in order to find favor in God's eyes. Jesus is God, come down into human history and DYING for our sins against him. We need this because we constantly sin against our Father and creator God. You only have to look around to see how evil people are, no matter what culture they come from or what religion they espouse. God's gift to his perverse, evil, disgusting children is his own life. Would you give up your life for the life of your enemy who wars against you and will forever war against you? That puts things into perspective for me.
The sabbath, though part of the 10 commandments, is not automatically a moral Law, but might be a ceremonial law, and was treated so by Jesus Christ (who would heal and work on the Sabbath day). Understand that the Sabbath was one of the things that made Israel stand out as a nation, and the strict judgement of the Sabbath meant that God stressed that it was important for his people. THis importance should be considered today, even when Jesus has died for our sins.
In the case of deuteronomy 22:23-24 the young woman is NOT stoned for fornication, she is stoned because she is deceptive about the rape, and her virginity. We see that this law is mostly in place to make sure that the rapist will be caught and punished accordingly, and punish a woman who is breaking a moral law.
Finally, I would say that an omniscient, omnipotent , and omnipresent God would have a reason for any harsh Law he set down in the Old Testament. I find today that we tend to look at the Law and then judge God, rather than realize that this God's moral compass is PERFECT and his judgment is PERFECTLY GOOD AND JUST. Every single person who lives and dies, lives and dies because God chose them to do so. While he does not wish for us to die or sin, accepting an all knowing and all powerful God forces you to accept his plan for his peoples, and his knowledge of what is best for human history. I don't think we could ever understand that, but the bible gives us a small look at how God works with our lives. The Law is an important part of that, and shouldn't be thrown away because you think your perverse human morals are more just than a perfect God's.