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NASB | Exodus 20:13 ¶ "You shall not murder. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Exodus 20:13 ¶ "You shall not commit murder (unjustified, deliberate homicide). [Gen 9:6; Ex 21:12, 14, 18] |
Bible Question:
My boyfriend was given this editorial at work by one of his co-workers. The question is why does God have conflicting commands? Letter to Editor of local newspaper: "Just imagine for a minute that the Hawaiian nation was given its sovereinty. King Kaipo Makua was chosen to rule his nation and within the Palace grounds was a cache of treasure that amounted to over 50 trillion dollars. Money was not an issue for King Makua. He had anything and everything at his disposal to thoroughly bless his people. It would be very easy to keep his nation prosperous. Continuing on this fairy tale trip, imagine the king establishing a bunch of laws. Among them he commands "thou shall not kill." Everyone agrees, this is a good law for it is better to be respectful of others and to cherish human life. Then a week or so after the king established well over 600 laws, statutes and commands, he issued another command that stated if anyone should speak evil against the king and his laws, that person shall be killed. Wait a minute, is he crazy? Is this real? Kill that person who speaks evil against the king? What kind of loving leader would issue a law like that? Isn't that what Sadaam, Mao, Hitler and Stalin all tried? With a seemingly unlimited budget to rule his people how could King Makua be doubtful that he could make everyone happy? Who in the world could, other than a robot or a puppet, endear to a leader like that? Was King Makua insane? Well, we all know how preposturous it would be for such a story to be true, yet this is exactly what the god of the Christian bible did. Deuteronomy 5:17, "Thou shall not kill." Deuteronomy 13:9, "but you shall surely kill him." When are the people of the real world going to realize that although some of the bible stories may be historically truthful, most of them are fairy tales that can't be taken seriously?" (end) My question is why is God contradicting Himself in Deuteronomy? How should my boyfriend explain this problem in order to share his faith? Aloha, kamschoolgrad |
Bible Answer: Hi kamschoolgrad, Welcome. First of all, God did not say "you shall not kill." The command is, "you shall not murder" first seen in Exodus 20:13 (above) and again in Numbers it is given with a more clear understanding. Num 35:31 'Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. And again it is repeated (Deut 5:17) in light of this more clear understanding given in the book of Numbers, - there is a big difference between murder and killing. Certainly we have a right to defend ourselves or our loved-ones or our country (such as fighting someone like Hitler for instance) even an innocent stranger perhaps being victimized by some scoundrel. Matthew 5:20-22 says that if you call someone a fool you are in danger of hell. How much more evil is it to be speaking evil against God, and so doing, promulgating false teaching and therefore causing many to be in danger of hell? Matt 5:20 "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. v 21 "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' v 22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. God bless John |