An Unasked Question: If God Was Serious About The Proscription Of Lust, Why Did He Do This?

Alan: I'm reminded of my longstanding intention to develop a list of "Seldom Sermonized Bible Verses"

Before reading the following "examples" of such verses, keep five things in mind.

1.) The Bible is a rich compilation of inspired writing.

2.) The texts of the Bible were written by multiple authors and altered by multiple editors, many of the latter being copyest-scribes.

3.) Because the books of the bible were written by people from a broad band of the  human spectrum, it is inevitable that these books contain contradictions.

4.) Jews and Christians -- even biblical literalists -- pick, choose and prioritize bible verses in order to create personal religions regardless their formal professions of faith. 

"Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-your-enemies-do-good-to-those-who.html

5.) Because professed Christians pick and choose bible verses -- in fact, must pick and choose bible verses since many of them are mutually contradictory -- this reality represents the wisdom of dynamic tension and it is precisely engagement of this tension that is The Way rather than a stumbling block along the way.

Five Things That Shook The Foundations Of My Fundamentalist Faith

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/five-things-that-shook-foundations-of.html

Without pretzel logic, the following sayings by Jesus himself are mutually contradictory. Work with the contradiction. Courage is the ability to live with ambiguity.

 "John answered and said, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us." But Jesus said to him, "Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.""

Luke 9:49-50

(And Jesus said to them) "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

Matthew 12:30 

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Example: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Matthew 10:34-37

One explanation: http://www.jewsforjesus.org/answers/jesus/did-jesus-teach-his-disciples-to-hate-their-parents

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The following illustrations of "Seldom Sermonized Bible Verses" are taken from "Leaving Christianity" https://sites.google.com/site/leavingxtianity/babble

Example: 'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good - except God alone

Examples of contradictory couplets and triplets:

"For I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever." (Jeremiah 3:12)
"Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever." (Jeremiah 17:4)

"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid." (John 5:31)
"Jesus answered: Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid." (John 8:14)

"And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." (Matthew 28:18)
"the whole world is under control of the evil one." (1 John 5:19)

And Jesus said, "For judgement I am come into this world." (John 9:39)
"I came not to judge the world" (John 12:47)

"For God so loved the world" (John 3:16)

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 6:1)

"Jacob said, 'I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.'" (Genesis 32:30)
"No man hath seen God at any time." (John 1:18)

We should fear God (Matthew 10:28)
We should love God (Matthew 22:37)
There is no fear in love (1 John 4:18)

Multi-verse examination of alleged "fools"

"But anyone who says 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." (Jesus) Mat 5:22

"You fools!" (Jesus) Luke 11:40
"You blind fools!" (Jesus) Mat 23:17
"How foolish you are" (Jesus) Luke 24:25

"But God said to him, 'You fool!' " (Jesus) Luke 12:20

"You foolish Galatians!" (St. Paul) Galatians 3:1
"You foolish man" James 2:20

 This "foolery" section has been criticised and is discussed further here.

Mercy

"Blessed are the merciful" [Matthew 5:7] 

"Leave alive nothing that breathes. Show them no mercy." [Deut. 7:2]
"The Lord hardened their hearts... that they might receive no mercy." [Joshua 11:20]
"I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. A curse on him who is lax in doing the Lord's work! A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed." [Jer. 13:14; 48:10]

Rejoicing

"Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles... If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink... He who rejoices at calamity shall not go unpunished." [Prov. 24:17; 25:21; 17:5] 

"The Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you" [Deut. 28:63]

"The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance, he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked" [Ps. 58:10]

Love?

"I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children." (Leviticus 26:22)

"Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourself every girl who has never slept with a man." (Numbers 31:17-18)

"The Lord commands: "... slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women" (Ezechial 9:4-6)

"When the Lord delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the males .... As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves." (Deuteronomy 20:13-14)

"You will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you." (Deuteronomy 28:53)

"The Lord said to Joshua [...] 'you are to hamstring their horses.' " (Exceedingly cruel.) (Joshua 11:6)

"... Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword and; also the women and little ones.... every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall utterly destroy." (Judges 21:10-12)

"This is what the Lord says: Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass .... And Saul ... utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword." (1 Samuel 15:3,7-8)

"The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their women with child ripped open." (Hosea 13:16)

"A curse on him who is lax in doing the LORD's work!
A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed!" (Jeremiah 48:10)

Is this really the "word of God" or the cruel thoughts of Bronze age warriors?
Did you know this was in the bible? If not then are you shocked? If you did know it was there then is Christianity really about a healthy loving relationship or is it a case of the Stockholm syndrome?

Is God A Criminal?

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The bible god admits he performs evil acts. (As if the above was not proof enough!)

A Christian wrote: "God did not create evil. Evil is simply the state where God is not present."

If "God did not create evil" then what of the following?

Isaiah 45:7

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Exodus 32:14

And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

Joshua 23:15

Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things.

Judges 9:23

Then God sent an evil spirit

1 Samuel 16:14

But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

2 Samuel 12:11

Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house

1 Kings 9:9

...therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.

1 Kings 14:10 

Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam

2 Kings 6:33 ...Behold, this evil is of the LORD;

2 Kings 21:12 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.

2 Kings 22:16 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place

2 Chronicles 34:24 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof...

Nehemiah 13:18 Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city?

Jeremiah 4:6 Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

Jeremiah 6:19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people

Jeremiah 11:11 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them

Jeremiah 25:29 For, lo, I begin to bring evil

Jeremiah 35:17 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them:

Jeremiah 44:2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah

Jeremiah 45:5 ...behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD:

Jeremiah 49:37 ...I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:

Micah 1:12 .... evil came down from the LORD

Micah 2:3 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil

Exodus 22:29-30 "You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The first-born of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its dam; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.”

Ezekiel 20:25-26 Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life; and I defiled them through their very gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-born, that I might horrify them; I did it that they might know that I am the LORD.”

"It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority, punishment, or reward. True love is respect and admiration, compassion and kindness, freely given by a healthy, unafraid human being." - Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith

Feedback: I received an email directing me to a claimed refutation that the god portrayed in the bible is evil.
Click here to see our discussion on this.

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That was the merest snippet! Far more can be had at the Internet infidels Biblical errancy site here.

Ken Harding's Deconstruction of the Bible

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible includes the entire text of the King James Version of the Bible, but without the pro-Bible propaganda. Instead, passages are highlighted that are an embarrassment to the Bible-believer, and the parts of the Bible that are never read in any Church, Bible study group, or Sunday School class are emphasized. For it is these passages that test the claims of the Bible-believer. The contradictions and false prophesies show that the Bible is not inerrant; the cruelties, injustices, and insults to women, that its author is neither good nor just. It is time for us all to stop believing in, or pretending to believe in, a book that is so unworthy of belief. (Quoted from the site). 

Christians often write to tell me their various "true interpretations" of some of these verses.

2 Peter 1:20 "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."