Christian answering questions too!

[PETE_ROSE]

I have three questions. Take your pick.

1

Is God above the law or not?

It would seem to me that the answer to this question is an obvious no. Jesus had to die because of the weight of the law. If God was above the law then he would just forgive everyone without sending his son to pay for the debts.

But then there is a problem. Deuteronomy 24:16 says,

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

This, presumably, is directly from God.

Then in 2 Samuel 12:13-20, David's son is tortured and killed by God because of sins committed by David.

So... is God above the law or not?

2

1. Men accidentally corrupted the Bible despite trying not to (example: compare the list in Ezra 2 with the list in Nehemiah 7)
2. Satan is more intelligent and more powerful than any man
3. Satan is motivated to corrupt the Bible
4. ???
5. Satan cannot even corrupt the Bible to the same degree that man has

If you admit that Satan actually has corrupted the Bible, then boy are you in trouble. So premise 4 must be, "God manually prevents Satan from corrupting the Bible."

But then why doesn't God also manually prevent scribes from corrupting the Bible, especially if we can agree that they are probably praying for such divine intervention (John 14:13)? This would not be a vulgar miracle, nor would it be the overriding of free will. I know that some Bibles will be corrupted by man - I could easily type one up myself and change some things - but why has God allowed the corruption of the text to get so bad that there is not a single perfect copy on earth? And how does this reconcile with Psalms 12:6-7?

3

1

Wow, all very good points indeed.  Thank you for letting me off with answering only 1!  I will spend some time researching all three when my schedule allows.  I will take #3 and try and formulate a more comprehensive answer for 1 and 2 later.  I would first say that you have made some assumptions on God's motives for why we are here and the purpose of salvation.  These assumptions could put a person in a box when a much more comprehensive answer is required. 
 
 
 
Quickly on #1, I would not relate God to the law as you have in that is he subject to it himself.  Instead I would say that He is a perfect being and incapable of sin.  In fact he cannot even look upon sin.  That the law was given to man for a purpose, not so he could punish us if we didn't keep it.  However as you have presented it, it does appear to be a do as I say not as I do moment.  I would also point out that God struck the boy sick; he did not put him to death.  Although he did die.   
 
 
 
God is bound by himself and his own rules so to speak in that he is all powerful, all knowing, and without sin, so it would be a contradiction by the definition of what defines a god.  Like asking could God die.  The answer to me would be no.  Would that not mean he is not all powerful?
 
 
 
For #3 No, I don't think we will sin in heaven.  Yes I think we will have free will there too.  I think we were initially made sinless.  (Here was an example of how you phrased a statement that will elicit a response that is boxed in) God looked upon his creation and said it was good.  I take that as there was a time period without sin, when all was perfect as it should be.        
 
 
 
Again, all excellent and well thought out questions!  I am really looking forward to getting to these.
 
 
 
Lastly I would urge one not to cherry pick passages and apply them outside of their context.  Sadly, Christians make this mistake more than anyone.
 

V/R

Pete