RE: God commands child sacrifice
September 25, 2012 at 2:25 am
(This post was last modified: September 25, 2012 at 2:30 am by Tea Earl Grey Hot.)
(September 25, 2012 at 2:15 am)Undeceived Wrote:(September 25, 2012 at 1:33 am)teaearlgreyhot Wrote: Before you start speculating that the Exodus passage is about dedicating child to the temple service, you have to the deal with the Ezekiel passage which is very explicit about God having commanded child sacrifice:Perhaps your translation is confusing you.
NKJV: "Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live; and I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the Lord."
NIV: "So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live; I defiled them through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn—that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the Lord."
God is letting sin runs its course so the people learn their lesson. He has not commanded child sacrifice; he condemns it.
Even in those two inferior translations you posted, it says God gave them "statutes" and that God commanded them to sacrifice children. It's pretty plain. I don't know why you quoted those two translations because it doesn't read any different than the RSV.
Quote: I found more verses:
Leviticus 18:21: "And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch."
2 Chr. 28:3: "He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites."
2 Chronicles 33:6: "He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger."
Jer. 7:31: "They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind."
Jeremiah 19:5-6: "They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter."
Part of studying the Bible honestly is using a myriad of verses to help decide the meaning of a harder-to-understand verse. A verse in doubt is a verse far outnumbered. In this case, we can confidently say God does not approve of murder.
These verses prove nothing except the inconsistency of God. At one point in time (see Ezekiel 20), he commanded child sacrifice. At another, he changed his mind and thought it was icky.
Quote:Part of studying the Bible honestly is using a myriad of verses to help decide the meaning of a harder-to-understand verse. A verse in doubt is a verse far outnumbered.
This is an invalid way of studying the Bible as it assumes that the whole bible is inerrant and can be harmonized together to form one true coherent message.
My ignore list
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).