So I was reading and watching some stuff by atheists and I came across an argument on contradictions within the Bible and between the christian faith. For example a verse quoted often against homosexuality is in Deuteronomy but then a few chapters later talks about stoning your child. There are also passages about selling your daughter off and all kinds of things that as christians we teach against.
So how do we defend the claim that we take some parts out of the bible to teach and then throw out others? Where do we draw the line?
And just fyi this is honest questions. I am not questioning the faith at all. But I’m going off to college soon and I have a feeling I am going to face a lot of questions along these lines
First, as a Theist, and a Catholic at that, you believe in an an all-powerful, all-loving God. Nothing can change that. Scripture can in no way contradict that. Furthermore, scripture is the inerrant Word of God; it cannot be mistaken. So you have been given a problem - namely, how to reconcile an all-loving God with a God who mandates that parents stone their children, in the case cited, for cursing them, if I remember correctly. There are other Old Testament examples that non-Christians will point out, like obliterating entire nations or, my favorite example, when God killed Uzziah when he tried to save the Ark of Covenant from falling to the ground when he was not permitted to touch it (under penalty of death for all non-priests). How can an all-loving God do this which for us humans would certainly be grave moral sin?
First of all, have faith. Even if we do not understand, faith comes before understanding. It doesn’t matter if we understand or not as long as we have faith. That said, I don’t think it is impossible to provide a rational explanation for this particular scripture problem. I don’t know God’s intentions, so this would be of course mere speculation on my part, but here goes.
God chose the Judeans to be his people, making a series of covenants with them. Why them? I haven’t the foggiest, but he did. He promised to be like a father to them, providing for their needs with a father’s loving care. He needed to teach them good and evil, and also his holiness and how they were utterly dependent upon them. Let it be known that in doing so, he can (and must) also still be loving to the other peoples. If God orders and gives power to the Judeans to wipe out an entire populace, including women and children, that is His right (He created them), and perhaps the only way, now that sin has entered the world, of freeing them from evil influences. Note, we don’t know that those people were condemned to eternal Hell, God may have very well been able to rescue the souls of these people he ordered to be killed. As Christians, we must certainly hope they were saved, but regardless, we trust in God’s judgment. When God ordered the stoning of a parent’s child for cursing them, it is again possible to say that God is being loving here too, in His infinite wisdom preventing rebellion and setting up a society where we learn to love and respect our elders. We don’t know if God condemned the children to Hell (or if He did, that they didn’t deserve it or would not have wound up there eventually), and really, that’s the only bottom line - they were going to die anyways after a long life. At least here, they would have died to teach the Israelites the power of cursing. Also, I point out that as a non-Biblical scholar, it may have been understood that this law was to be only applied to unrepentent children; probably not, but if no one will correct me for certain, I’d like to at least think so. But either, way it doesn’t matter - I have faith in God’s awesome love, that he even loved so much those who at that time he deemed to merit death.
If this world was all that we had, I would agree with the Atheists, that that would seem to denote a cruel God. Those Atheists have a really hard time what to make of this story without faith. Hopefully, it won’t be too big of a stumbling block for them. But I believe in the resurrection, and in the forgiveness of sins, so I let those Bible stories serve as a good lesson, if applicable, and do not let them interfere by way of a so-called ‘proof’ with my belief in an all-loving, all-wise, all-powerful God. I’m sorry for the rambling nature of the post, but I hope there are some good insights here. All glory be to Jesus! Amen!
