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Christians and Atheists--Help explain these Old Testament Verses Please?

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After reading much of the Old Testament I am having trouble following much of what is preached. So many verses talk about Murdering (Stoning) people. If the word of God is True, and The Bible is the word of God. why is it that many people pick and choose I will now post many grotesque verses

For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. --Exodus 31:15

If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky… Take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death. – Deut 17:2-7

They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. - 2 Chron 15:12-13

Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases…you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God.

If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods …do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. - Deut 13:7-12

Anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. – Lev 24:16

All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. - Leviticus 20:9

If a man commits adultery with another man's wife - with the wife of his neighbor - both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. - Leviticus 20:10

If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death. - Leviticus 20:13

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall ... say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. - Deut 21

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of h**l. - Matthew 18:7-9

Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. - 1 Tim 2

These are just a few of the many verses in the bible that I find completely repulsive. Many answers to this question will be that they are not meant to be taken literally, if this is so, then why is it that we can get away with quoting one verse in the OT and disregard all that do not fit our society anymore? all throughtout the Bible the book is said to be "The word of God", god is infalliable, therefore he meant what he said to all those that spoke to him and scribed his word.

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  1. When I read the OT I had the same questions, but I understand it more now than ever.  God is a just God, and He is serious about sin.  He wanted to let them know that He is holy, and cannot allow sin to enter into heaven.  These are examples of how He was trying to protect us from sins.  In the NT Jesus Came and died to give us grace.  They lived by faith alone.  We have the chance to know the Word of God, and to follow it.  We need to love God, and love others, But we need to also know the laws that will protect us from sin.  The 10 commandments were put there to protect us from the sins that happen from them.  Not to be mean to us.


  2. That's too long to read.

  3. Before the coming of the Lord Jesus the only way to get rid of sin was to get rid of the sinner. People were under what the NT refers to as "the curse of the law" that was our "schoolmaster" to show us our need for a Savior. These horrible penalties were there to demonstrate the seriousness of sinning against the Sovereign Creator of this universe.

    Thank God that because of His love we are now in an age of grace for all who believe in what Jesus did.

    Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    John 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  15  that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  

    16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  17  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  

    18  "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.


  4. The Lord uses metaphors in some instances to teach His

    people the seriousness of His commands. While in other instances, He commands His people directly.

  5. Aint ya glad Jesus set us free from all that!!

    WOOHOO

    I sure am, they woulda stoned me long ago!!

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