Americans react in horror as they read about the Taliban who kill “infidels” wantonly, yet they are merely doing that which God commanded of all the Children of Israel. And that is what the old testament is all about; kill those who don’t believe in the “real” God.
The Jewish/Christian/Islamic God commands that you kill non-believers by stoning.
Deuteronomy 17:2 – 17.7
If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
Question:
Why, if you are unwilling to renounce the old testament, do you not kill all nonbelievers?
The Church Of Truth™ 
Hey everyone, did you not understand JESUS WAS A JEW? He was shunned remember?
What difference does it make if jesus was a jew? What difference does it make if he was shunned? Jesus was shunned therefore killing your own children for not believing was moral? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. This isn’t relevant to the issue at hand.
The old testament time is the time of the 10 commandments and other laws that God and Moses wrote for his own Jewish people who He brought out of slavery from Egypt. The time that God directly governs his own people. “You live by the laws, you die by the laws. No tolerance for sins among His own Jewish people or to the outsiders who cause the Jews to fall.
This is to show God’s characters of holiness and un-tolerance for sins. Also to show that humankind can’t live up to God’s holiness, and can’t never achieve salvation by obeying the laws.
Therefore; God has a new plan for both Jews and gentiles together, the New Testament. This is a new era for all, especially for Christians. The time of God’s grace and forgiveness, a time of love to all (even to love your enemies as Jesus Christ told Christians to do so). We are justified by Faith in Christ not by keeping the laws.
The Jews and the Muslims are still living in the past “Live by the Laws and Die by the Laws” which causes all the troubles and killings in this world, even Muslims killing Muslims by misinterpreting of their own laws. Sins must be paid for; however, Christ (God’s son) has died and paid for all already. No need to kill any one. Believe in Christ and be saved from since. God give free tickets to go to heaven for all who believe or receive (John 3:16). Hope that help.
In god’s holiness he commanded that people murder their own children if they don’t believe? That’s not holiness. That’s just psycho. Murdering your children for not believing in your religion is immoral. It’s not just immoral today. It’s always been immoral. There is nothing just or holy about this kind of psychotic mass murder. Take a moment to look at what you are calling just and holy. Commanding followers to murder everyone in a town INCLUDING THE INFANTS was holy and demonstrates god’s superior morality and holiness? NO. There is no superior sense of morality and holiness to be found in murdering an infant. PERIOD.
most people living during the time this was written, didn’t know where the sun went at night! we need to stop looking for meaning in this fairy tale and live our lives like jesus would want us to.
This not the end of the story. People need to understand the theological atmosphere at this time. God is a jealous God, all of this was during the time God had given His people specific orders to not worship or serve any other gods; this was punishable by death. The issue was at that time was and still is God had mad mankind in His image, and mankind was not being godlike. Man would not be faithful and consistent with God’s orders, so God would just wipe out mankind. Then God had to come to earth in the form of a man to see what it is to be a human, to see why we were not perfect like Him. Once Jesus came, He was able to see and feel our infallibility as human flesh. You see we we do have an Advocate that has been tempted in every way. The end of this story is Jesus Christ came for mankind’s Grace & Mercy, where are now in a theological atmosphere of freedom of choice, the freedom of choice of heaven or hell. So the difference is that was a theological time period that ended when Jesus died on the Cross. The other difference is that Christians and Jewish people are not murdering non-believers today. The other difference is that today the Islamic religion is doing just that: the Muslim religion is to this very day murdering non-believers of Islam. They are also murdering Muslims that do not follow Sharia law to the letter of murdering of non-Muslims. That’s the difference between Christians and Muslims.
In other words, muslims today are doing what the christians of the past were doing with much the same reasoning. You recount your god’s commandments to murder people who don’t believe in a way that makes me wonder if you realize how horrific such commandments are. Then you list the justification of it and it’s the same justification that muslims use for their killing of non-believers. Then you act like none of the morally repugnant commandments your god has made matters because jesus loves you.
What difference does it make when this commandment was made? What difference does it make which group of people this commandment was for? What difference does it make if people at that time were more barbaric than they are today? The essential claim christians are making is that these are, or at least at one time for some people were, the commandments of an all knowing all good god.
Regardless of anything, regardless of time period, regardless of geography and region, regardless of what is going on in other nations, MURDERING PEOPLE FOR OPENLY DISAGREEING WITH YOUR RELIGION IS WRONG! Any god that has ever commanded this for any group of people at any time period is clearly not a god and clearly not just and clearly not moral and should not be followed or believed in.
This is the second most vile thing I’ve ever read! The most vile is the part in Deuteronomy 13:12-18 where it says that if you find that another town believes in a different god and you confirm that it’s true, kill everyone including the infants. Regardless of time period, regardless of geography and region, regardless of what is going on in other nations, MURDERING INFANTS IS WRONG!
Doesn’t it say something about your religion that it requires you to make an argument justifying the murder of people simply for believing differently, even if only in the past? Doesn’t it say something about your religion that it requires you to make an argument justifying the murder of an infant for being born in a town that believes in a different god than you believe in? I’m sorry, but these are things that can’t be justified! It doesn’t matter what time period it was. It doesn’t matter if they liked the 10 commandements (none of which outlaw slavery or rape). It doesn’t matter what the surrounding nations were like. It doesn’t matter if those commandments have been over-written or in some way made no longer applicable. Murdering people for believing differently is wrong. ALWAYS. There is no exception for this. There is no time period in which this concept of morality does not apply. It makes me sad that people attempt to justify this kind of thing as having been right at some point in time or in some particular region. Keep in mind, they did this to create religious purity. What do you think ISIS is trying to do? What do you think Al-quida is trying to do? When you justify this kind of crap as having been right in the past in some particular region of world, what you’re saying is “ISIS has their timing wrong!” I don’t think timing is what ISIS got wrong. I think what they got wrong was the question of whether it’s ever right to kill people for believing differently than you do.
When you read ancient documents, you must also relate it to the culture of the time and who the writer is addressing. Policing as we know today in democratic countries did not exist 2000 years ago. Capital punishment of 2000 years ago was to meet out law and order to enforce rules of law for the lawless. Laws exist for the unruly, not for the peaceful and civilized.
God alone was deemed to be the only arbiter in the use of capital punishment, not fallible people, the Sanhedrin made stoning a hypothetical upper limit on the severity of punishment.
Prior to early Christianity, particularly in the Mishnah, doubts were growing in Jewish society about the effectiveness of capital punishment in general (and stoning in particular) in acting as a useful deterrent. Subsequently its use was dissuaded by the central legislators. The Mishnah states:
A Sanhedrin that puts a man to death once in seven years is called destructive. Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah says that this extends to a Sanhedrin that puts a man to death even once in seventy years. Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Tarfon say: Had we been in the Sanhedrin none would ever have been put to death. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel says: they would have multiplied shedders of blood in Israel.
In the following centuries the leading Jewish sages imposed so many restrictions on the implementation of capital punishment as to make it de facto illegal. The restrictions were to prevent execution of the innocent, and included many conditions for a testimony to be admissible that were difficult to fulfill.
Philosopher Moses Maimonides wrote, “It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.”[ He was concerned that the law guard its public perception, to preserve its majesty and retain the people’s respect. He saw errors of commission as much more threatening to the integrity of law than errors of omission.
You’re right! If Jesus had appeared before Moses and announced he was the son of god, Moses would have been the first to stone him, and then all of Israel. He would be worshipping a strange god they had not heard of. Isn’t irony fun?
Deuteronomy is written to Jews, not Christians. Now that we understand that, note that the passage says “If there be found among you” meaning other Jews. At this time the Jews had accepted the Ten Commandments as their governing law, which is why verse 2 says the words “in transgressing his covenant”.
This verse is not talking about Christians and it’s not referring to just any heathen you see walking by.
Hope this helps.
It doesn’t help at all. I don’t need any help interpreting the biblical drivel. Of course Deuteronomy was written to Jews, not Christians. The entire OT was written by Jews, about Jews and for Jews only. But that doesn’t stop you Christians from using the phrases of the OT that suit your purpose; to wit “Oh… God has a plan for me … ad nauseam. Well that comes from Deuteronomy too (I think). You can’t eat your cake and have it too.
AND… so what if it was written for the Jews? You don’t have a problem with a gawd that tells those who worship (read “kiss his ass”) him to kill every one who doesn’t kiss his ass? This is the same god you worship right? I’m gonna find me another god. One who is truly merciful, just, loving and omnipotent. One who will eradicate suffering. One who won’t send me to hell for not kissing his ass.
Jesus was a Jew and believed in the Judaic laws so much so, He preached they were still quite valid and were to be followed.
http://biblehub.com/matthew/5-17.htm