Friends and Family - www.thebricktestament.com

⁶ If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, ⁷ gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), ⁸ do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. ⁹ You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people. ¹⁰ Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹¹Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.

Stone Your Friends and Family

 ¹² If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in ¹³ that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known), ¹⁴ then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, ¹⁵ you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock. ¹⁶ You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt, ¹⁷ and none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors— ¹⁸because you obey the LORD your God by keeping all his

Kill every man, woman, child, baby and animal.

commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.

Yesterday Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos lost in the playoffs to the New England Patriots 45-10. During the 2011 season, Tebow was the 28th rated quarterback in the NFL, which is pretty low considering there are 32 teams. He completed only 46.5% of his passes, although he did rush for 660 yards and it must be mentioned that his receivers were not the best. The Broncos won 8 games and lost 5. Tebow got all the credit for the wins, even though the Denver defense and special teams were more responsible for many of the victories.

Many Christians were giving Tebow all the credit because he is an evangelical Christian. 43% of all Americans believed God was helping Tebow win football games http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/01/12/poll-finds-43-percent-of-people-believe-god-helps-tebow-win/. Won wonders why God failed so miserably against the Patriots?  However, also adding inspiration to this delusion is the fact that in Tebow’s last victory over the Steelers he threw for 316 yards. Christians noted that Tebow wore John 3:16 in his black eye glare under his eyes while in college at Florida (the NFL does not permit this). Many Christians claimed that the 316 yards against Pittsburgh was a sign from God!

Yesterday Tebow only threw for 136 yards. Since 136 is just a two-digit reversal of 316, surely it is also a sign from God! Perhaps it refers to the passage starting in Deuteronomy 13:6 that I have quoted above.

In this passage, God is claimed to consist of ”fierce anger”. I do not think anything consisting of fierce anger is worthy of worship, but the worship of a god of fierce anger is a part of Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage.

God manifests his fierce anger by ordering his followers to kill anyone who tries to get you to worship another god (or no god at all, I suppose). You are to kill them even if they are a close member of your family or your best friend. The method of killing is, of course, stoning, which is God’s favorite method of killing individual people. The fact that the bible orders killing in a particularly archaic method (stoning) is a sign that the bible was written only for the people of its time and should not in any way be considered as a book to be used as law thousands of years later.

But if you need to kill an entire town, you must use the sword. You must stab every man, woman, little boy, little girl, little baby, pregnant woman, and unborn fetus. And when you are done killing the children and pregnant women, you must kill all the animals. I guess these animals might learn how to talk and then try to convert God’s people to other gods.

Perhaps Christians might link Tebow’s yards in the playoff game to these verses and start killing people. I hope not. But since the USA is based on humanism and secular values and is not a Christian nation, we do not need to worry about this as much as we would in a theocracy ( medieval Europe or some current Islamic states). The USA Constitution is not based upon the bible, despite the claims of some Christians. The bible permits only one religion and demands death by stoning for those of other religions. The Constitution grants religious and non-religious freedom. It is a shame that so many Christians are being brainwashed by propaganda that claims our Constitution is based upon the bible.

Picture from www.bricktestament.com/king_david/index.html

2 Samuel 12 (NIV)
Nathan Rebukes David
1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

11 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the LORD, the son born to you will die.”

15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.

18 On the seventh day the child died.

I have heard this passage read in church, so technically this is not a bible verse rarely read on Sunday. However, it does show God killing an innocent baby, as well as forcing David’s wives to commit adultery in public.

I have argued with apologists on these verses, but they can not get around the evil actions of the God they worship. Killing a baby as punishment for the actions of an adult is never justified. 

There is also the fact that God will also punish David by forcing some of David’s wives into adultery. These verses do not say “some of your wives may commit adultery in public as a choice of their free will”, but rather tells what God will cause to happen in the future. The humans doing the actions have no choice – God is going to cause them to act in this way. 

I spoke with one Christian who claimed that David was the baby killer and that his wives’ future adultery would occur as a result of free will. I got her to admit that God was killing the baby after reading the verses more carefully, but she claimed that God was justified based on David’s sin, even though she thought it would be immoral for societies to do the same thing as punishment for adultery today! She also admitted that at the moment Nathan said the adultery would occur, it was inevitable that it would happen because Nathan was speaking for God. After admitting that God was behind this future adultery, she quickly decided it was time to abandon her attempts to defend this text, making generic statements like “it must be true because it’s in the bible”, etc.   

Should we punish adulterers today by killing their children or forcing their spouses to commit adultery in broad daylight?  If you think this would not be a good law to enact, then you are showing humanism, which is a good thing. Our laws are based on humanism, not on the bizarre examples of immorality in the bible. We should be thankful that our laws are based on humanism and not on the actions and examples of the evil God of the bible.

Ezekiel 23 (NIV)
Two Adulterous Sisters
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother. 3 They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. 4 The older was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. 5 “Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was still mine; and she lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors 6 clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, and mounted horsemen. 7 She gave herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians and defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after. 8 She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when during her youth men slept with her, caressed her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.

9 “Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians, for whom she lusted. 10 They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters and killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women, and punishment was inflicted on her.

11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister. 12 She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors in full dress, mounted horsemen, all handsome young men. 13 I saw that she too defiled herself; both of them went the same way.

14 “But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall, figures of Chaldeans portrayed in red, 15 with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like Babylonian chariot officers, natives of Chaldea. 16 As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. 18 When she carried on her prostitution openly and exposed her naked body, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. 19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. 21 So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.

22 “Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will stir up your lovers against you, those you turned away from in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side— 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, all of them governors and commanders, chariot officers and men of high rank, all mounted on horses. 24 They will come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons and with a throng of people; they will take up positions against you on every side with large and small shields and with helmets. I will turn you over to them for punishment, and they will punish you according to their standards. 25 I will direct my jealous anger against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and your ears, and those of you who are left will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and daughters, and those of you who are left will be consumed by fire. 26 They will also strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry. 27 So I will put a stop to the lewdness and prostitution you began in Egypt. You will not look on these things with longing or remember Egypt anymore.

28 “For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to deliver you into the hands of those you hate, to those you turned away from in disgust. 29 They will deal with you in hatred and take away everything you have worked for. They will leave you stark naked, and the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your lewdness and promiscuity 30 have brought this on you, because you lusted after the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. 31 You have gone the way of your sister; so I will put her cup into your hand.

32 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“You will drink your sister’s cup,
a cup large and deep;
it will bring scorn and derision,
for it holds so much.
33 You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
the cup of ruin and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You will drink it and drain it dry
and chew on its pieces—
and you will tear your breasts.

I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.

35 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you have forgotten me and turned your back on me, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.”

36 The LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their detestable practices, 37 for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them. 38 They have also done this to me: At that same time they defiled my sanctuary and desecrated my Sabbaths. 39 On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it. That is what they did in my house.

40 “They even sent messengers for men who came from far away, and when they arrived you bathed yourself for them, applied eye makeup and put on your jewelry. 41 You sat on an elegant couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed the incense and olive oil that belonged to me.

42 “The noise of a carefree crowd was around her; drunkards were brought from the desert along with men from the rabble, and they put bracelets on the wrists of the woman and her sister and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 Then I said about the one worn out by adultery, ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute, for that is all she is.’ 44 And they slept with her. As men sleep with a prostitute, so they slept with those lewd women, Oholah and Oholibah. 45 But righteous judges will sentence them to the punishment of women who commit adultery and shed blood, because they are adulterous and blood is on their hands.

46 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Bring a mob against them and give them over to terror and plunder. 47 The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.

48 “So I will put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not imitate you. 49 You will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.”

Skepticon, work, family, and numerous other duties have kept me too busy to post, especially on what I promised last time, polytheism in the bible. That post will have to wait until I have more time, since that will be a difficult post.

Until then, more silliness and vulgarity, courtesy of the bible. This passage discusses two sisters, one representing Samaria and the other representing Jerusalem. The sister representing Jerusalem lusts after men “whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.” This line could have come from pornographic literature (so I am told)!

I included the whole passage for context. Apologists note that the women are described as evil and then are destroyed for being evil. While this is true, the vulgarity of this passage is striking. No wonder why this passage was never read in my presence on Sunday.

1. And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. 2. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: 3. Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, 4. the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. 5. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. 6. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

1. And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. 2. And they said one to another: ‘The earth made †without inhabitant cries the voice of their crying† up to the gates of heaven. 3 ⌈⌈And now to you, the holy ones of heaven⌉⌉, the souls of men make their suit, saying, “Bring our cause before the Most High.”.’ 4. And they said to the Lord of the ages: ‘Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, 〈and God of the ages〉, the throne of Thy glory (standeth) unto all the generations of the ages, and Thy name holy and glorious and blessed unto all the ages! 5. Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast Thou: and all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee. 6. Thou seest what Azâzêl hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were (preserved) in heaven, which men were striving to learn: 7. And Semjâzâ, to whom Thou hast given authority to bear rule over his associates. 8. And they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins. 9. And the women have borne giants, and the whole earth has thereby been filled with blood and unrighteousness. 10. And now, behold, the souls of those who have died are crying and making their suit to the gates of heaven, and their lamentations have ascended: and cannot cease because of the lawless deeds which are wrought on the earth. 11. And Thou knowest all things before they come to pass, and Thou seest these things and Thou dost suffer them, and Thou dost not say to us what we are to do to them in regard to these.’

2 Peter 2 (NIV)

False Teachers and Their Destruction

 ¹ But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ³In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

 ⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,^[a] putting them in chains of darkness^[b] to be held for judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ⁶ if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

Footnotes:

1. 2 Peter 2:4Greek Tartarus
2. 2 Peter 2:4 Some manuscripts in gloomy dungeons

2 Peter 2 (Young’s Literal Translation)

⁴For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast [them] down to Tartarus, did deliver [them] to judgment, having been reserved,

 There are four different words translated as Hell in the bible: Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus (spellings vary). The Hebrew word Sheol appears in the Old Testament over 60 times and is translated as Hell, Grave, and Pit (counts vary in different versions).  In some verses (i.e. Psalm 49:14) bodies are said to be decomposing in Sheol or (i.e. Psalm 141:7) bones are in Sheol. This implies a grave. Other verses imply that Sheol is deep (and therefore a pit).  The Greek word Hades is translated as Hell about 10 times in the New Testament. There is a Greek mythology definition of Hades, but most Christians view Hades and Sheol as the same, pointing to verses like Acts 2:27 in which in Greek the word Hades is used for the quoting of the Hebrew Sheol from Psalm 16:10. Some use examples like this to simply state that Hades and Sheol are one and the same in all situations (claiming both agree with their definition). 

Then there is Gehenna as shown in Mark 9:43-44, Young’s Literal Translation:

⁴³`And if thy hand may cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is better for thee maimed to enter into the life, than having the two hands, to go away to the gehenna, to the fire — the unquenchable –

 ⁴⁴where there worm is not dying, and the fire is not being quenched.

Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnon, was a deep valley outside of Jerusalem, known as a sight of child sacrifice to Baal and Moleck, and known as a place where fires were constantly burning bodies of animals and executed criminals.

Due to the nature of the definitions of the words, I know Christians who believe (1) Hell is a real place of eternal fire and torture reserved for all non-Christians; (2) Hell is a real place of eternal fire, but non-Christians’ souls are killed in the fire rather than tortured eternally; (3) Hell is the grave and is not eternal; (4) Hell is a metaphor.  There are countless websites promoting various definitions of hell (none of which are supported by any scientific evidence). Rather than get into a discussion on what the bible says on hell, I want to look at the one instance of Tartarus.

2 Peter 2:4 is the only reference to Tartarus in the bible. In Greek mythology, Tartarus is described as a place lower than Hades where most of  the Titans have been imprisoned after Zeus came to power (it is also the name of a god). 2 Peter 2:4 describes Tartarus (tartaroo) as a place where sinful angels have been imprisoned. The use of the word Tartarus in this instance appears to reflect more than a simple equivalence of Hades and Sheol. The writer of 2 Peter definitely knew the difference between Hades and Tartarus. Choosing the word Tartarus implies that there is another place of punishment other than Hades and Hell. It also is evidence of how Greek mythology influenced the writing of the New Testament.

Also in this passage, 2 Peter 2:7 describes Lot as “righteous.”  Lot was a man who offered up his daughters for rape to an unruly mob. After that, he got drunk on at least two occasions and had sex with both his daughters (Genesis 19). That is a man described as “righteous” in the New Testament!

2 Peter 2:5 describes Noah as righteous. He would later get drunk, lie around naked, and curse the descendants of his grandson Canaan  into slavery for something he did not do (it was his father Ham who did the horrible sin of telling his brothers his father was naked – Genesis 9)!

I do not consider these two individuals righteous!

Malachi 2 (NIV)
Additional Warning to the Priests
1 “And now, you priests, this warning is for you. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.

3 “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. 4 And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD Almighty. 5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.

7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the LORD Almighty. 9 “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

I can never remember any preacher, Sunday School teacher, or my mother telling me about God threatening to smear dung in the faces of his priests. This is one example of the very coarse language often found in the bible and often in direct quotes from God.

Some apologists claim that God will not really rub literal dung into the priests faces, but that it is a threat of some type of punishment. I even had one Christian tell me that this is just like someone saying “eat shit.” Others note that verse two begins with “If you do not listen…”, noting that it is OK for God to rub dung into the faces of his priests because he warns them.

Song of Solomon 1 (NIV)

⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.

¹³ My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
resting between my breasts.

Song of Solomon 4

⁵ Your breasts are like two fawns,
like twin fawns of a gazelle

¹⁶ Awake, north wind,
and come, south wind!
Blow on my garden,
that its fragrance may spread everywhere.
Let my beloved come into his garden
and taste its choice fruits.

Song of Solomon 7

³ Your breasts are like two fawns,
like twin fawns of a gazelle.

⁷ Your stature is like that of the palm,
and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
⁸ I said, “I will climb the palm tree;
I will take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine,
the fragrance of your breath like apples,
⁹ and your mouth like the best wine.

Song of Solomon 8

⁸ We have a little sister,
and her breasts are not yet grown.

¹⁰I am a wall,
and my breasts are like towers.

Despite regularly attending church services and Sunday school 3 times a week for years, I can only remember Song of Solomon mentioned one time. This was when I was attending a Church of Christ Wednesday night service while working for Foster Home for Children, supported by the Churches of Christ. The Wednesday night services were entitled something like “Through The Bible in A Year.”  The preacher said something like, “The Song of Solomon is a unique book. You should read it at home. Perhaps it is evidence that not all authors knew they were writing books of the bible while they were writing.”

Here are PDF files from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. This is from the local mega church’s ”Read Through The Bible in 2010″ section of their magazine, Southeast Christian Outlook. You will notice that many of the verses in this blog are omitted. You will also notice that verses of almost every book of the bible are omitted. In particular, you can notice that there are absolutely no verses from the Song of Solomon in their lists at all!  Here is week 21 at http://www.southeastoutlook.org/uploads/devotions/devotion20100527.pdf.  They go from Ecclesiastes to Kings and Chronicles.  I looked at weeks 19 through 25, and I did not see one verse from the Song of Solomon! The chapters beyond these are far removed from this book. Why does Southeast Christian Church not want its readers to read the entire bible? Do they fear that readers will become atheists, as I (and countless others) did, by doing so?

I regularly look at apologist websites before writing a post. I did so with this one. Here is the link to Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry http://carm.org/bible-difficulties/job-song-solomon.  Notice that this webpage is supposed to have apologies for all the books from Job through Song of Solomon. However, there is nothing listed for Song of Solomon!

According to most scholars, Song of Solomon describes a conjugal love between a bride and bridegroom. Because of the erotic nature of the verses, Jewish and Christian scholars often took an allegorical view of the book. Jews claimed that the bride represents Israel, and the bridegroom represents Yahweh. Christians such as Hippolytus, Origen, and Jerome claim the poem is about the love of Christ for his church.  This is the problem with allegory: it can mean anything to anybody! Furthermore, the bible does not tell you when verses are allegory and when they are literal! Who decides whether verses are allegory or literal? However, I have problems with the allegory approach. Does the following phrase sound like the relationship between Christ and his church?

 ”Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit.  I said, “I will climb the palm tree;I will take hold of its fruit.” 

The predominant view since the 19th century is the literal approach. Some theologians claim the verses represent a healthy marriage. I think this is just a love poem that somehow wound up mixed in with theological books. Nobody is really sure. However, most preachers agree that the lack of theological content in this book warrants its omission from sermons and Sunday school lessons.

Exodus 34
The New Stone Tablets
1 The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”
4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes,” he said, “then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

10 Then the LORD said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

15 “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

17 “Do not make cast idols.

18 “Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

19 “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. 20 Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.
“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

21 “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

22 “Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. [b] 23 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. 24 I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.

25 “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.

26 “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.
“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

27 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

There is much discussion about the 10 commandments, but I decided to highlight one of the verses that struck me as funny in Exodus 34.

First of all, there are different versions (Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, etc) of the 10 commandments, also known as the Decalogue. These lists are based on Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. The differences between the Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, etc. lists are discussed on many websites, including these two below.

http://www.biblicalheritage.org/Bible%20Studies/10%20Commandments.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

Moses smashes the 10 commandments in Exodus 32, then he gets a new set of tablets in Exodus 34. I do not really want to dwell on the differences between the second set of commandments, also known as the Ritual Decalogue, and the Decalogue. If you wish to send me reasons why there are apparent differences, I may not post them.

I only wish to point out the commandment “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” This is a ridiculous commandment. I will never be tempted to break this commandment. I can think of no logical reason as to why this commandment is here, nor can I think of any reason why it would be immoral or harmful to anyone to cook a young goat in its mother’s mile.

Matthew 2
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Matthew claims that the prophets said Jesus would be a Nazarene. However, the words Nazarene and Nazareth are not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament or apocryphal texts!

The following shows just how outrageous and irrational Christian apologists will become in order to excuse the bible’s obvious errors.

Look at this text from http://www.carm.org/bible-difficulties/matthew-mark/did-ot-prophesy-jesus-coming-nazareth.

There is no direct Old Testament citation that prophesies the Messiah would be called a Nazarene. In fact, Nazareth (approx 1800 people at the time of Christ) is not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament or in the apocrypha. But, we have two possible explanations:

So far so good, the apologists admit that Nazarene is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament. However, the two “explanations” that follow are mind-boggling.

First, Matthew does not say ‘prophet,’ singular. He says ‘prophets,’ plural. It could be that Matthew was referring to several Old Testament references to the despised character of Jesus (i.e., Psalm 22:6, 13; 69:10; Isaiah 49:7; 53:3; Micah 5:1). Nazareth held the Roman garrison for the northern areas of Galilee.1 Therefore, the Jews would have little to do with this place and largely despised it. Perhaps this is why it says in John 1:46, “And Nathanael said to him, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’” So, it could be a reference not to an actual location, but the maligned character of the Messiah even as Nazareth was maligned for housing the Roman garrison, and Matthew was using it in reference to the implied hatred of Christ.

In the first explanation, Nazarene is not a place, but it is a reference to maligned character! Notice that this is at odds with Matthew 22:23, who says Jesus would fulfill the prophecy by living in Nazareth. But this stretch of imagination is nothing compared with the second explanation!

Second, there could be a play on words that Matthew was referring to. In Isaiah 11:1 it says, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” In Hebrew, the word for “branch” is netzer, “NZR” which letters are included in NaZaReth. It seems that Matthew was referring to the branch, the Nazarene, in turn a reference to God’s raising up of the Messiah. Clearly, Matthew was not exegeting Isaiah, but it seems he was referring to the Branch.

The apologist finds the word “branch” in Isaiah 11:1. Then he notices that “branch” in Hebrew has the letters NZR. Nazareth has the letters NZR. Therefore, we have a prophecy fulfilled! This is an extremely low standard for evaluating prophecies. Using this standard, almost any religion or psychic could claim fulfilled prophecies for almost any event.

If these explanations are true, then the Church of the Nazarene should changes its name to either the Church of Maligned Character or the Church of the Branch. I don’t think that will happen anytime soon.

16 The LORD said to Moses, 17 “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the offerings made to the LORD by fire. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.

This verse speaks for itself and shows that the God of the Old Testament is nothing more than an invention of the people of that time. This law would discriminate against Franklin Roosevelt, Stephen Hawking, Benjamin Franklin, Hellen Keller, Louis Braille, Galileo Galilei and all people who wear glasses, Peyton Manning, Troy Aikman, and many others that can be found here: http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_0060.shtml.

It is a shame that so many Christians still willingly worship an invisible being that is so obviously a product of the imaginations of the men of ancient times.