Matthew 24

Signs of the End of the Age

¹Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ²“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

³As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

⁴Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹²Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁵“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house.¹⁸Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. ¹⁹How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.²¹For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. ²²If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. ²³At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. ²⁵See, I have told you ahead of time.

²⁶“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

²⁹“Immediately after the distress of those days
” ‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

³⁰“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.³¹And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³²“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁴I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown

³⁶“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

⁴²“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

⁴⁵“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. ⁴⁷I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ ⁴⁹and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. ⁵⁰The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. ⁵¹He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mark 9

¹And he said to them, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

Mark 13

³⁰I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

Mark 14

⁶⁰Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” ⁶¹But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.
Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”

⁶²“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Luke 9

²⁶If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. ²⁷I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

Luke 21

³²“I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Ecclesiastes 1

⁴ Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

Sometimes when I write a post, I know Christians will not respond. An example of this is my post on the law given by God requiring rape victims to marry their rapists (Deuteronomy 22:28). No civilized person can justify the craziness of that rape law, so they do not try. The most I hear when I ask for a justification is “but that’s the OLD Testament.”

Prophecies often generate more responses, and I expect this one will. I know what the responses will be, and I do not want to waste a lot of my time replying to these responses. Prophecies are like this because they can be interpreted in many ways. They can be metaphor and not literal. Words can have totally different meanings. One responder told me ‘the word “Israel” can really mean “Jesus”‘ in the Old Testament when I showed that alleged prophetic verses are not prophecies at all when read in context. When one can arbitrarily change words to mean something else, the literal meaning is meaningless. The meaning becomes even more nebulous as words are translated from Hebrew to Greek to English, etc.

I decided to write this after attending a funeral at a Nazarene church two days before Thanksgiving. The funeral was for my wife’s grandfather, a very nice man who lived 91 years. This was the first church service I had attended since my coworker died a few years ago, and I can not remember the last non-ceremonial religious service I attended. This was a “country” funeral that could have been conducted in Pecan Gap (Texas) Baptist Church even though we were on the outskirts of a large city. One major point of the Nazarene sermon that was identical to the Baptist sermons of 40 years ago and in all the other denominational and non-denominational churches that I attended up through my mid 20s:  the end is near!

Christians have been predicting the return of Jesus ever since he died. That is because words attributed to Jesus claim he will return within the generation of the people living at the time he lived. Over and over he is quoted as saying “this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened” and “some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”  He further adds “heaven and earth will pass away” contradicting Ecclesiastes 1:4 that says “earth will not pass away.”

These are obviously false prophecies by Jesus. Christian writers recognized the obvious problem of the false prophecy and added the footnote “or race” to the word “generation”.  Suddenly the entire meaning changes! He is not saying that the generation of his lifetime will  not pass away, but rather the Jews! Does that not resolve the issue? Why don’t Christians just rewrite the bible with the word “race” in place of “generation”?

The answer to that last question explains why this is a poor excuse and is not an explanation. The Greek word translated as generation is “genea”, the root word of genealogy. The Greek word for nation is “ethnos,” the Greek word for family is “patria,” the Greek word for tribe is “phule.”  There is not ONE CASE of genea used for race in the New Testament!  Acts 17:26, “God made from one source all nations [ethne] of men.”  Phule is used in Revelation 14:6 “every nation and tribe and tongue and people” and in an earlier portion of the scripture I quoted Matthew 24:30 “all the tribes of the earth.” The very passage where some christians claim the word “genea” means race uses “phule” to designate different groups of people in the world.  This is why bible publishers use the English word generation. Although they may want to use “race” to cover up the obviously false prophecies of Jesus, they can not honestly do so. They best they can do is add a footnote.

Predictions of the imminent end of the world have been made by preachers, evangelists and other Christians throughout my lifetime. Common dates were 1988 or 1989 (associated with 40 years after the creation of the nation of Israel as an interpretatin of the scriptures I listed here), 1993 (seven years of tribulation prior to 2000) and 2000 (all round number years have been predicted, including 1000 and 500).  I can remembered detailed bible studies of Revelation where Gog was really Russia, Magog was really East Germany, and they were preparing to invade Israel at any moment!  I do not  think anyone believes that will still happen, especially since there is no more East Germany.

Religious people have been predicting the end of the world before Jesus was born and have been doing so nonstop ever since. The list is too long to list here, so I will link to the lists. The majority of these are Christian predictions, but not all are.

I have decided to make a prophecy!  All those reading this blog will die without having seen Jesus return, as will your children, your grandchildren, and your great grandchildren. When you are lying on your death bed, I hope you remember that my prophecy came true and that the prophecies of many Christians listed below did not.

30 AD – 1920 : http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl2.htm

1921 – 1990: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl22.htm

1991 – 1994: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl12.htm

1995 – 1997: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl12a.htm

1998: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl4.htm

1999: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl9.htm

2000: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl10.htm

2001: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl11.htm

2002: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl13.htm

2003: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl15.htm

2004: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl17.htm

2005: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl19.htm

2006: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl1.htm

2007 – 2008: http://www.religioustolerance.org/endwrl14.htm

2009 – 2010: http://www.religioustolerance.org/endwrl22.htm

2010 – 2019: http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl18.htm

Near Future: http://www.religioustolerance.org/endwrl23.htm

Joshua 2

¹ Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute  named Rahab and stayed there.

 ² The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” ³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

 ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

James 2

 ²⁰You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? ²¹Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

 ²⁵In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

Many Christians will read these verses and say,”So what, this was a righteous lie and is no problem for me.” Bodie Hodge and  Answers in Genesis Ministry (which operates the Creation Museum in Kentucky) had this response (http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2008/11/03/contradictions-a-righteous-lie) that basically says Rahab was not praised in James for lying, but rather for providing lodging and sending them in a different direction. This ignores the fact that she did lie. Lying to those searching for the spies was a major part of the story in Joshua.  Hodge declares that there is NEVER a righteous lie.

Some Christians were not satisfied with this answer. One reader asked noted “ But if the Nazis are looking for Jews, and you know where they are, it would not be wrong to lie, in order to protect them…”

Hodge and Answers in Genesis replied that a Christian should always tell the truth, even if it meant that Nazis would kill Jewish babies!  Hodge’s response is here http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/11/13/feedback-righteous-lie.  Please feel free to read his response in detail. I will provide excerpts below, but it demonstrates the problem fo belief in absolute morality. Hodge argues that we are all going to die anyway, why risk heaven over a lie.

To love God first means to obey Him first—before looking at our neighbor. So, is the greater good trusting God when He says not to lie or trusting in our fallible, sinful minds about the uncertain future?Consider this carefully. In the situation of a Nazi beating on the door, we have assumed a lie would save a life, but really we don’t know. So, one would be opting to lie and disobey God without the certainty of saving a life—keeping in mind that all are ultimately condemned to die physically. Besides, whether one lied or not may not have stopped the Nazi solders from searching the house anyway.

Most Christians I know would have no problem lying in such a situation. However, this is an example of the extremist mindset of the leadership of the creationism movement.

Furthermore, this shows the moral superiority of humanism over blindly following dogma.  This Christian claims, “To love God first means to obey Him first—before looking at our neighbor.”   A humanist would consider the consequences of any course of action and would try to reduce suffering. A humanist would not put blind obedience to dogma over his or her neighbor.

Matthew 2

The Escape to Egypt

 ¹³When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” ¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

 ¹⁶When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
 ¹⁸“A voice is heard in Ramah,
      weeping and great mourning,
   Rachel weeping for her children
      and refusing to be comforted,
   because they are no more.”

All authors of new testament books had agendas. The author known as Matthew had an agenda of linking events in his gospel to events in the old testament via prophecies. Many Christians read these verses in Matthew without looking up the alleged prophecies in the Old Testament.  I encourage readers of the bible to look up all prophecies and read them in their original context.

The first prophecy in verse 15 is from Hosea 11:1.  Here is the actual text from Hosea:

¹ “When Israel was a child, I loved him,
       and out of Egypt I called my son.

 ² But the more I called Israel,
       the further they went from me. 
       They sacrificed to the Baals
       and they burned incense to images.

 ³ It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
       taking them by the arms;
       but they did not realize
       it was I who healed them.

 ⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
       with ties of love;
       I lifted the yoke from their neck
       and bent down to feed them.

 ⁵ “Will they not return to Egypt
       and will not Assyria rule over them
       because they refuse to repent?

…

 ¹² Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
       the house of Israel with deceit.
       And Judah is unruly against God,
       even against the faithful Holy One.

I cut out a few verses, but feel free to read them all. Anyway, the point I want to make is that Hosea 11 is NOT about Jesus.  First of all, Matthew shortens the first verse, omitting “When ISRAEL was a child, I loved him.”  Could Israel be Jesus?  Well, let’s replace the word ISRAEL with the word JESUS in verse 2 and 12 and see if it makes any sense.

 ² But the more I called JESUS,
       the further they went from me. 
       They sacrificed to the Baals
       and they burned incense to images.

…

 ¹² Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
       the house of JESUS with deceit.
       And Judah is unruly against God,
       even against the faithful Holy One.

Clearly Israel could not be a substitute for Jesus sense verses 2 and 12 make absolutely no sense when that substitution occurs.  The entire chapter (verses 1 – 12) clearly shows that Hosea 11 is talking about the nation of Israel returning from Egypt, as specifically mentioned in verse 5. It is in no way referring to Jesus.

The second prophecy is from Jeremiah 31:15.  Here is that verse in more complete context:

Jeremiah 30: ¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : ² “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you. ³ The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity  and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess,’ says the LORD.”

Jeremiah 31: 

¹⁵ This is what the LORD says:
       “A voice is heard in Ramah,
       mourning and great weeping,
       Rachel weeping for her children
       and refusing to be comforted,
       because her children are no more.”

 ¹⁶ This is what the LORD says:
       “Restrain your voice from weeping
       and your eyes from tears,
       for your work will be rewarded,”
       declares the LORD.
       “They will return from the land of the enemy.

 ¹⁷ So there is hope for your future,”
       declares the LORD.
       “Your children will return to their own land.

…

 ²³ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity,  the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling, O sacred mountain.’

Once again please feel free to read the entire chapter.  This chapter is clearly referring to the Jews in Babylonia n captivity returning to Israel.  It is in no way predicting a massacre by Herod hundreds of years in the future. Matthew is retrofitting verses from the Old Testament in order to claim they are prophecies about Jesus.  He does this throughout his book. I encourage everyone to read the alleged prophecies in Matthew (or other New Testament book) and cross-reference these verses with the Old Testament verses in context.

Deuteronomy 7

Driving Out the Nations

¹ When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- ² and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.  Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. ³ Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. ⁵ This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles  and burn their idols in the fire. ⁶ For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

Deuteronomy 20

¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ Completely destroy  them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. ¹⁸ Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

There are 2 passages in Deuteronomy that call for the destruction of men, women, children and babies of 7 nations. Many Christians are offended by these passages (as I was). Recently, a prominent Christian apologist, Dr. William Lane Craig provided an answer. However, his answer is as disturbing as the bible verses. All the text of his answer may be found at http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5767. [Note: the indented text in all sections below are quotes from Craig and not my quotes. Text in bold here is not in bold in the original.]

I’ve often heard popularizers raise this issue as a refutation of the moral argument for God’s existence.  But that’s plainly incorrect.  The claim that God could not have issued such a command doesn’t falsify or undercut either of the two premises in the moral argument as I have defended it:

1. If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist.

2. Objective moral values do exist.

3. Therefore, God exists

This is not a major portion of his apology, but I think it shows how silly Christian philosophers are. This “proof” does not prove anything except that many Christian philosophers do not use logic.

According to the version of divine command ethics which I’ve defended, our moral duties are constituted by the commands of a holy and loving God.  Since God doesn’t issue commands to Himself,  He has no moral duties to fulfill.  He is certainly not subject to the same moral obligations and prohibitions that we are.  For example, I have no right to take an innocent life.  For me to do so would be murder.  But God has no such prohibition.  He can give and take life as He chooses.  We all recognize this when we accuse some authority who presumes to take life as “playing God.”  Human authorities  arrogate to themselves rights which belong only to God.  God is under no obligation whatsoever to extend my life for another second.  If He wanted to strike me dead right now, that’s His prerogative.

What that implies is that God has the right to take the lives of the Canaanites when He sees fit.  How long they live and when they die is up to Him.

In other words, God is above his own laws. He can murder anybody at any time. I want to point out, however, that God did not simply kill all the Canaanite babies, he ordered men to do so through a “prophet” who claimed that he was relaying God’s command. If some trusted religious leader told you that God commanded you to go kill babies, would you do so?

The killing of the Canaanite children not only served to prevent assimilation to Canaanite identity but also served as a shattering, tangible illustration of Israel’s being set exclusively apart for God.Moreover, if we believe, as I do, that God’s grace is extended to those who die in infancy or as small children, the death of these children was actually their salvation.  We are so wedded to an earthly, naturalistic perspective that we forget that those who die are happy to quit this earth for heaven’s incomparable joy.  Therefore, God does these children no wrong in taking their lives.

Lane does not explain how killing children provides an example of “Israel’s being set exclusively apart for God.” The idea that little children raised by Israelites would somehow return to evil Canaanite ways is ridiculous. This is like saying a Chinese baby raised in England would speak Chinese when the baby becomes an adult.

Worse, Lane claims God is doing the babies a favor by killing them! He is sending them directly to heaven. Using Lane’s logic, the lady from Houston who drowned her 5 children in a bathtub was doing her children a favor. She actually believed, like Lane, that her babies would go directly to heaven after she killed them. She believed that she was saving her babies from hell and she thought God told her to do this.

So whom does God wrong in commanding the destruction of the Canaanites?  Not the Canaanite adults, for they were corrupt and deserving of judgement.  Not the children, for they inherit eternal life.  So who is wronged?  Ironically, I think the most difficult part of this whole debate is the apparent wrong done to the Israeli soldiers themselves.  Can you imagine what it would be like to have to break into some house and kill a terrified woman and her children?  The brutalizing effect on these Israeli soldiers is disturbing.

My first thought upon reading this was “Oh my God,” but then I remembered I am an atheist. No harm was done to the children because they “inherit eternal live!”  The harm was done to the poor Israeli soldiers who had to kill the children!

Nothing could so illustrate to the Israelis the seriousness of their calling as a people set apart for God alone.  Yahweh is not to be trifled with.  He means business, and if Israel apostasizes the same could happen to her. As C. S. Lewis puts it, “Aslan is not a tame lion.”

Here, Lane tries to quote C.S. Lewis to show other Christian philosophers agree with him. However, the Christianity of C.S. Lewis is very different from the Christianity of Lane.  In Reflections on the Psalms, Lewis notes that “Naivety, error, contradiction, even … wickedness are not removed. The total result is not ‘the Word of God’ in the sense that every passage, in itself, gives impeccable science or history.”  Lewis was a liberal when compared to Lane.

One of the questioners compared this verse to Islamic jihadists. Lane had this in reply:

Now how does all this relate to Islamic jihad?  Islam sees violence as a means of propagating the Muslim faith.  Islam divides the world into two camps:  the dar al-Islam (House of Submission) and the dar al-harb (House of War).  The former are those lands which have been brought into submission to Islam; the latter are those nations which have not yet been brought into submission.  This is how Islam actually views the world!

By contrast, the conquest of Canaan represented God’s just judgement upon those peoples.  The purpose was not at all to get them to convert to Judaism!  War was not being used as an instrument of propagating the Jewish faith.  Moreover, the slaughter of the Canaanites represented an unusual historical circumstance, not a regular means of behavior.

The problem with Islam, then, is not that it has got the wrong moral theory; it’s that it has got the wrong God.

Here is a Christian apologist admitting that Christians who believe that God was justified in the killing of babies in Canaan have the same “moral theory” as Islamic jihadists! They just simply worship the wrong God! Killing is OK if you are following the orders of the correct God.

Furthermore, Islamic jihadists also believe that they are bringing “judgement” when they kill innocent people. The simple claim that Islamic jihadists are longing for “submission” while Jewish soldiers were delivering “judgement” is not valid. Anyway, the end result was the same – innocent children were killed.

This passage and the apology from Lane exemplify why I no longer believe the bible is the perfect word of a perfect God.

saiah 7, New English Bible

Ahaz Receives a Sign

7:1 During the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel marched up to Jerusalem to do battle, but they were unable to prevail against it.
7:2 It was reported to the family of David, “Syria has allied with Ephraim.” They and their people were emotionally shaken, just as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. 7:3 So the Lord told Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub and meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. 7:4 Tell him, ‘Make sure you stay calm! Don’t be afraid! Don’t be intimidated by these two stubs of smoking logs, or by the raging anger of Rezin, Syria, and the son of Remaliah. 7:5 Syria has plotted with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah to bring about your demise. 7:6 They say, “Let’s attack Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it. Then we’ll set up the son of Tabeel as its king.” 7:7For this reason the sovereign master, the Lord, says:
“It will not take place;
it will not happen.
7:8 For Syria’s leader is Damascus,
and the leader of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim will no longer exist as a nation.
7:9 Ephraim’s leader is Samaria,
and Samaria’s leader is the son of Remaliah.
If your faith does not remain firm,
then you will not remain secure.”
7:10 The Lord again spoke to Ahaz: 7:11 “Ask for a confirming sign from the Lord your God. You can even ask for something miraculous.” 7:12 But Ahaz responded, “I don’t want to ask; I don’t want to put the Lord to a test.” 7:13 So Isaiah replied, “Pay attention, family of David. Do you consider it too insignificant to try the patience of men? Is that why you are also trying the patience of my God? 7:14 For this reason the sovereign master himself will give you a confirming sign. Look, this young woman is about to conceive and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him Immanuel. 7:15 He will eat sour milk and honey, which will help him know how to reject evil and choose what is right. 7:16 Here is why this will be so: Before the child knows how to reject evil and choose what is right, the land whose two kings you fear will be desolate. 7:17 The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s family a time unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah – the king of Assyria!”
7:18 At that time the Lord will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. 7:19 All of them will come and make their home in the ravines between the cliffs, and in the crevices of the cliffs, in all the thorn bushes, and in all the watering holes. 7:20 At that time the sovereign master will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, the king of Assyria, to shave the head and the pubic hair; it will also shave off the beard. 7:21 At that time a man will keep alive a young cow from the herd and a couple of goats. 7:22 From the abundance of milk they produce, he will have sour milk for his meals. Indeed, everyone left in the heart of the land will eat sour milk and honey. 7:23 At that time every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be overrun with thorns and briers. 7:24 With bow and arrow men will hunt there, for the whole land will be covered with thorns and briers. 7:25 They will stay away from all the hills that were cultivated, for fear of the thorns and briers. Cattle will graze there and sheep will trample on them.

Isaiah 7:14 is one of the most read verses in Christian churches. Matthew 1:22-23 uses this verse as a prophecy that is confirmed by the birth of Jesus. I have included this verse because many Christians have never read the verse in context and because many Christians have never read the New English Bible translation.

First of all, the New English Bible translation does not use the word “virgin.” The reason is because the Hebrew Masoretic Text does not use the word virgin but instead uses a word that means young woman. The young woman might have been a virgin, but she is not clearly defined as a virgin by this word. A link to the New English Bible online is shown below with its explanation. Click Isaiah, then Chapter 7, and click on footnote 26 to the right of the words “young woman.”

If the ancient Hebrew text used “young woman” then why does Matthew use “virgin?” Because the author of Matthew used the Greek Septuagint text and not the Hebrew Masoretic text. The Greek Septuagint (referred to as LXX – Roman numeral 70 – in the notes I refer to below) does mistranslate the Hebrew word for “young woman” as “virgin.”

Irregardless of whether or not it refers to a young woman or a virgin, the prophecy in no way refers to Jesus’ birth thousands of years later. First of all, nowhere in the bible is Jesus ever referred to as Immanuel. The word Immanuel is only used in the 2 verses mentioned and in Isaiah 8:8 (after a prophetess gives birth to a child). Secondly, the context of this story shows that this is an immediate sign for Ahaz that his enemies will be destroyed. Why would Ahaz get a “sign” that he would never see? Where in the New Testament does it explain how eating “sour milk and honey” will help him know how to reject evil and do good (v 15)? Verse 16 states that the land of Ahaz’s enemies will be laid waste before the child knows how to reject good and evil as described in verse 15. What good does this do Ahaz if that child is born thousands of years later?

Just to show how verses can be translated in any way possible, I will refer to the notes of John Wesley (http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?com=wes&b=23&c=7). Wesley claims that verse 14 and 15 is referring to Jesus. He then claims the child in verse 16 refers NOT to Jesus but to Shear-Jashub mentioned in verse 3! Wait a minute Reverend Wesley! Does not verse 15 mention how a child will “reject evil and choose what is right” and verse 16 refers to events that will occur before a child will “reject evil and choose what is right”? How in the world can any person with any sanity claim that verse 15 refers to Jesus and verse 16 refers to Shear-Jashub? This is only possible if someone is deluding himself (or herself).

I first read John Wesley’s notes years ago before they were available on the internet. I can remember a sharp pain in my stomach. I wanted to believe what I was always told, but the honesty inside me and the desire for truth lead me to realize that what I had always been told was not accurate.

I will be dealing with other alleged prophecies in the next few weeks.

New English Bible Translator’s Notes for the words Young Woman
http://bible.org/netbible/index.htm

“6tn Traditionally, “virgin.” Because this verse from Isaiah is quoted in Matt 1:23 in connection with Jesus’ birth, the Isaiah passage has been regarded since the earliest Christian times as a prophecy of Christ’s virgin birth. Much debate has taken place over the best way to translate this Hebrew term, although ultimately one’s view of the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ is unaffected. Though the Hebrew word used here (עַלְמָה, ’almah) can sometimes refer to a woman who is a virgin (Gen 24:43), it does not carry this meaning inherently. The word is simply the feminine form of the corresponding masculine noun עֶלֶם (’elem, “young man”; cf. 1 Sam 17:56; 20:22). The Aramaic and Ugaritic cognate terms are both used of women who are not virgins. The word seems to pertain to age, not sexual experience, and would normally be translated “young woman.” The LXX translator(s) who later translated the Book of Isaiah into Greek sometime between the second and first century b.c., however, rendered the Hebrew term by the more specific Greek word παρθένος (parqenos), which does mean “virgin” in a technical sense. This is the Greek term that also appears in the citation of Isa 7:14 in Matt 1:23. Therefore, regardless of the meaning of the term in the OT context, in the NT Matthew’s usage of the Greek term παρθένος clearly indicates that from his perspective a virgin birth has taken place.”

1 Samuel 15 (New International Version)

The LORD Rejects Saul as King

¹ Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. ² This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. ³ Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy  everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”

⁴ So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. ⁵ Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. ⁶ Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

⁷ Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. ⁸ He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. ⁹ But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.

¹⁰ Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: ¹¹ “I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.

¹² Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”

¹³ When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.”

¹⁴ But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”

¹⁵ Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”

¹⁶ “Stop!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” Saul replied.

¹⁷ Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. ¹⁸ And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’ ¹⁹ Why did you not obey the LORD ? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD ?”

²⁰ “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. ²¹ The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”

²² But Samuel replied:
“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king.”

²⁴ Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them. ²⁵ Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD.”

²⁶ But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!”

²⁷ As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. ²⁸ Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. ²⁹ He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.”

³⁰ Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God.” ³¹ So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD.

³² Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.”
Agag came to him confidently, thinking, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

³³ But Samuel said,
“As your sword has made women childless,
so will your mother be childless among women.”
And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD at Gilgal.

³⁴ Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. ³⁵ Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the LORD was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.

King James Version

³Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Some comments to prior blogs on facebook claimed that God always gave people a chance to repent. However, that is not true. There are many cases in the bible were innocent children are killed by God. This is one of those cases.

God orders Saul to kill all the men, women, and children of the Amalekites. He does not give the Amalekite children any chance to repent. They are killed because of their parents’ alleged sins.

I included the King James Version of verse 3. Instead of “children and infants” it uses “infants and sucklings.” What can a baby that is still breast feeding possibly have done to deserve being killed by an army of 200,000 men.

What about the pregnant Amalekite women? They were also killed, so their fetuses were aborted.

Saul’s killing of men, women, children, sucklings, and fetuses was not enough to satisfy the bible’s bloodthirsty God, however. Saul spared some animals so he could sacrifice them later. This angered God, who later regretted making Saul king (verse 35). God is regretting that he made a mistake in judgment. God is regretting that he made an error. Therefore, God is not perfect. Of course, anything that kills innocent babies is not perfect.

Isaiah 13

A Prophecy Against Babylon

 1 An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

 2 Raise a banner on a bare hilltop,
       shout to them;
       beckon to them
       to enter the gates of the nobles.

 3 I have commanded my holy ones;
       I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath—
       those who rejoice in my triumph.

 4 Listen, a noise on the mountains,
       like that of a great multitude!
       Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
       like nations massing together!
       The LORD Almighty is mustering
       an army for war.

 5 They come from faraway lands,
       from the ends of the heavens—
       the LORD and the weapons of his wrath—
       to destroy the whole country.

 6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
       it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

 7 Because of this, all hands will go limp,
       every man’s heart will melt.

 8 Terror will seize them,
       pain and anguish will grip them;
       they will writhe like a woman in labor.
       They will look aghast at each other,
       their faces aflame.

 9 See, the day of the LORD is coming
       —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—
       to make the land desolate
       and destroy the sinners within it.

 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations
       will not show their light.
       The rising sun will be darkened
       and the moon will not give its light.

 11 I will punish the world for its evil,
       the wicked for their sins.
       I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty
       and will humble the pride of the ruthless.

 12 I will make man scarcer than pure gold,
       more rare than the gold of Ophir.

 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
       and the earth will shake from its place
       at the wrath of the LORD Almighty,
       in the day of his burning anger.

 14 Like a hunted gazelle,
       like sheep without a shepherd,
       each will return to his own people,
       each will flee to his native land.

 15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through;
       all who are caught will fall by the sword.

 16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
       their houses will be looted and their wives ravished.

 17 See, I will stir up against them the Medes,
       who do not care for silver
       and have no delight in gold.

 18 Their bows will strike down the young men;
       they will have no mercy on infants
       nor will they look with compassion on children.

 19 Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
       the glory of the Babylonians’ pride,
       will be overthrown by God
       like Sodom and Gomorrah.

 20 She will never be inhabited
       or lived in through all generations;
       no Arab will pitch his tent there,
       no shepherd will rest his flocks there.

 21 But desert creatures will lie there,
       jackals will fill her houses;
       there the owls will dwell,
       and there the wild goats will leap about.

 22 Hyenas will howl in her strongholds,
       jackals in her luxurious palaces.
       Her time is at hand,
       and her days will not be prolonged.

 

King James Version

²¹But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.

 22And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

 

 

There was a comment to a previous Facebook note that stated to “I do not believe in your angry god.” Here is another passage (of hundreds) that describes god as angry and provides vivid, repugnant, and repulsive details of how god will act on his anger.

 

V. 13 mentions the “wrath of the LORD Almighty” and his “burning anger.” The words are from the bible, not from me.

 

What is the result of god’s anger? People will “fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished” v 15-16 (ravished means raped, of course). God will have “no mercy on infants” v 18.

Did everything in this prophecy come true? Verse 20 states that Babylon will never be inhabited and that no Arab will pitch a tent there. However, Arabs still live in the area then known as Babylon, which is now part of Iraq.

I quoted verses 21 and 22 in both the New International Version and in the King James Version. The KJV uses the words “satyrs” and “dragons”, while the NIV changes the words to “goats” and “jackals.” As previously noted, this change was made purposefully as creatures from other mythologies were removed from the bible in modern translations. You can go to biblegateway.com and search for “dragon” and get 34 hits in the King James while only 14 hits in the NIV (all in Revelation). This is because modern translators believed that a mythical creature like the dragon takes credibility away from the bible. The same Hebrew word was replaced with “jackal”, “monster”, “sea monster”, “crocodile” and other words in various translations.

Ezekiel 8:¹ In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Sovereign LORD came upon me there. ² I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man.  … The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance to the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood. ⁴ And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

 ⁵ Then he said to me,…

Ezekiel 9:¹ Then I heard him call out in a loud voice, “Bring the guards of the city here, each with a weapon in his hand.” ² And I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with a deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. They came in and stood beside the bronze altar.

 ³ Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the LORD called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side ⁴ and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”

 ⁵ As I listened, he said to the others, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. ⁶ Slaughter old men, young men and maidens, women and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple.

 ⁷ Then he said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city. ⁸While they were killing and I was left alone, I fell facedown, crying out, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel in this outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

 ⁹ He answered me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice. They say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’ ¹⁰ So I will not look on them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their own heads what they have done.”

 ¹¹ Then the man in linen with the writing kit at his side brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded.”

 

Millions of bible believing Christians read Old Testament prophecies, resulting in millions of explanations of these prophecies. They are vague and can be explained in many ways. Some, however, are vile and repulsive.

Ezekiel 9 is one of those vile and repulsive prophecies. In this one, God orders the murder of men, women and children. He says to “fill the courts with the slain.”  What a loving God Jews and Christians worship!

For whatever reason, more people are interested in Ezekiel 10, the passage known as Ezekiel’s wheel.  That passage is interpreted in every way, ranging from UFOs to the future coming of divine wrath. Ezekiel 9 disturbed me more, however, as I read the Bible from cover to cover.

I could not really understand Ezekiel 10, but I could understand Ezekiel 9. God is killing children. That was disturbing.  One of America’s most famous non-believers, Mark Twain, said it best: ” It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”

Of course, anyone who has read the Old Testament knows that the behavior in Ezekiel 9 is typical of the Judea Christian God.  Unfortunately, most of these verses are rarely read on Sunday.

Matthew 27: ⁵¹At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. ⁵²The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

The stories regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus have so many contradictions that many believers have become doubters simply by comparing the stories.  Only Matthew 27 has the story of zombies roaming the streets of Jerusalem.  There are several details omitted. Did the zombies look like rotten corpses, or were they provided with fresh bodies? Where did they go after rising from their tombs and appearing to many people? Did they die a second time, or did they walk back into their graves? Who were these zombies? The Age of Reason provides many other comments on this passage as well as on the rest of the bible. I encourage all Christians to read this book.

More importantly, where is the evidence that this fantastic event occurred?  There are no historical accounts of any event in the life of Jesus written within decades of his life. You would think that zombies walking around would generate at least one historical written account of this event. There are none.

Most biblical stories have no corroboration and are contradicted by history, geology, archeology, and science. There are no records of Jesus living. No record of the Bethlehem star. Many events that should leave evidence have not done so.

 

Psalm 137 (NIV)

 ¹ By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
       when we remembered Zion.

 ² There on the poplars
       we hung our harps,

 ³ for there our captors asked us for songs,
       our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
       they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

 ⁴ How can we sing the songs of the LORD
       while in a foreign land?

 ⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
       may my right hand forget its skill .

 ⁶ May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
       if I do not remember you,
       if I do not consider Jerusalem
       my highest joy.

 ⁷ Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
       on the day Jerusalem fell.
       “Tear it down,” they cried,
       “tear it down to its foundations!”

 ⁸ O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
       happy is he who repays you
       for what you have done to us-

 ⁹ he who seizes your infants
       and dashes them against the rocks.

 King James:

^{8O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.}

⁹Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

The Message:

^7-9 God, remember those Edomites,
      and remember the ruin of Jerusalem,
   That day they yelled out,
      ”Wreck it, smash it to bits!”
   And you, Babylonians—ravagers!
      A reward to whoever gets back at you
      for all you’ve done to us;
   Yes, a reward to the one who grabs your babies
      and smashes their heads on the rocks!

New American Standard Bible

⁹How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones
         Against the rock.

  

No matter what translation you use, this passage is nothing more than repulsive vengence.  How many Christians out there believe that it would make you happy to kill children (even Babylonian children) by dashing them against rocks? How many Christians believe that god “rewards” or “blesses” those who “grabs your [Babylonian] babies and smashes their heads on the rocks” ?