When encountering zealous Christians, one of the first things
they'll chirp about is how their God sets holy moral standards
for mankind. Without the Bible God's morality, humans are
hopelessly wicked and sinful wretches. While there are some laws
which the Bible God hands out to his earthly subjects that can be
considered moral and virtuous, there are also some very ugly laws
and instructions found in the Bible which are the "word of
God""
This essay will take a look at some actual examples of Christians
advertising their God as the only source of "morality"
in the universe. Let's get started:
[Christian statement:
Without a belief in and a LOVE FOR GOD, you cannot establish a
totally moral society.
The reason for this is that without God, men simply have no
defense against the errors, temptations, and pitfalls of this
world, and most of them quickly fall into sin.
God is the only firm basis for morality, and humankind as a race
must see that before there is to be any ultimate improvement in
human behavior.
God will eventually tire of men shunning him, and will draw the
Earth to a close, taking only the good people with Him to heaven.]
When a person reads declarations like this, they must always keep
in mind that to a zealous Christian, all other belief systems are
FALSE by definition.
Nothing moral exists outside of the theological cocoon Christians
reside in.
So of course, when these zealots speak of a "belief in and
love for God", it must be the Bible God and no other. In
other words, unless you believe in and love the Bible God, you
can never be "totally" moral.
There are many examples of God's "morals" which are
anything but moral according to modern "civilized"
societies. Perhaps the most obvious example of God's questionable
morals can be found regarding the issue of slavery.
The Bible God endorsed slavery. That's a fact according to the
Bible. Christians however, don't like this to be pointed out
about their God so they'll attempt to dilute this ugly fact by
claiming that God simply "tolerated" slavery but never
endorsed it. A few quotes from the Bible dissolve this cozy
notion and lame attempt to wash God's hands of this ugly
doctrine.
The Bible God gave instructions on how his chosen people should
wage war against their various neighbors:
Deut 20:10-11
When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of
peace.
If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall
be subject to forced labor and shall work for you.
Notice that if the people of the attacked city accept the
"offer of peace" they will become slaves of God's
chosen people. Forced labor is slavery.
Deut 20:12-16
If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay
siege to that city.
When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the
sword all the men in it.
As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else
in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And
you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your
enemies.
This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a
distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.
However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving
you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.
Notice that God instructs his people to completely annihilate
nearby nations, killing anything that "breathes", while
nations further outside an immediate zone of holiness will have
their men killed, their women, children, livestock and everything
else taken as plunder by God's chosen people.
Does any of this sound "moral" ??? This is the same
Bible God which Christians say that society must believe in and
love in order to have a totally moral society. Is slavery and
mass genocide "moral" just because this deity commanded
it?
King Solomon used slave labor to build the Temple to the Lord
God.
2 Chron 8:7-8,16
All the people left from the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites,
Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites), that
is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites
had not destroyed--these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor
force, as it is to this day.
All Solomon's work was carried out, from the day the foundation
of the temple of the LORD was laid until its completion. So the
temple of the LORD was finished.
Apparently this "moral" and "righteous" God
had no ethical problems with his holy temple being constructed by
slaves. This is the type of superior "morality" that
the Bible God demonstrates. Try finding a Christian who'll quote
these verses when they advertise their God as occupying the moral
high ground of the universe.
The Bible God also incorporated his brand of morality into the
laws he gave his chosen people.
In the following, God outlines his moral law regarding the buying
of slaves:
Lev 25:44-46
"`Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations
around you; from them you may buy slaves.
You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you
and members of their clans born in your country, and they will
become your property. You can will them to your children as
inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you
must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
Clearly, God had no problem with slavery as a moral institution.
One more example of God's morality on display follows:
Exo 21:20-21
"If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the
slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not
to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the
slave is his property.
There are many more examples of God's "moral" law which
have very little to do with morality but the point has been made.
Remember what the Christian claimed:
"God is the only firm basis for morality, and humankind
as a race must see that before there is to be any ultimate
improvement in human behavior."
So according to this Christian zealot, slavery is just fine as
long as his personal God endorses it.
These types of pious Christian claims should always be given a
swift kick right out the door of reason into the garbage can
where they belong.
The Bible God represents NO absolute universal standard for
morality in a civilized society.
It should be noted that some Christians will attempt to say that
God's endorsement of slavery, as well as many of his other laws
such as the observance of the Sabbath, his strict dietary laws,
and many other statutes only applied to the people of the Old
Testament.
[Christian statement:
The national and theocratic context in which moral principles
were expressed in the Old Testament no longer apply to Christians
today.]
In other words, this Christian is saying that God changes his
mind about moral issues and that Christians don't have to
recognize all that "Old Testament stuff" anymore.
The Christian, by using this argument, has shot to pieces his
God's word as an absolute basis for human morality. If the Bible
God changes his definition of moral behavior, excusing some
groups from obeying his laws, then "sin" is relative
and not absolute. If moral behavior which is required in one time
period can be ignored in a later time period, that's situational
ethics. If this Christian claim is true, then how many other of
God's laws have gone out of style since the Bible was written?
This excuse is also DISHONEST because it contradicts the very
Bible Christians claim is God's infallible and inerrant word.
The Bible God's moral laws and instructions don't go out of
style. They are ALL perfect and eternal. Perfect means without
flaw and eternal means for all time.
Psa 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes
of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
Psa 119:152
Long ago I learned from your statutes that you established them
to last forever.
Psa 119:160
All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.
Furthermore, the characteristics of the Bible God do not change
and God does not change his mind like men do.
Mal 3:6
"I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob,
are not destroyed.
1 Sam 15:29
He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind;
for he is not a man, that he should change his mind."
Num 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he
should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he
promise and not fulfill?
The Christian excuse that God's moral laws only applied to the
people of that time is a purely dishonest rationalization,
concocted in a desperate attempt to keep the Bible God from
appearing like the barbaric, tribal God that he really is.
On a concluding note, Christians will also try to employ the
excuse that Jesus is now in charge of the universe and Jesus
isn't like his Father. Jesus is love, peace, lollipops and teddy
bears.
However, according to mainstream Christianity, Jesus is eternal
God. That means Jesus is the same barbaric, tribal God who
endorsed slavery and mass extermination of various populations
who were not God's chosen people.
And once again, the Bible skewers this apologetic ploy and roasts
it over a slow fire.
Heb 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
If Jesus is eternal God, then he doesn't evolve and outgrow his
barbaric tendencies any more than his Father does. Jesus remains
the same throughout time.
Ahoy Christians! Read the fine print of your Bible before you
embark on a voyage to candy-coat your theology and try to
convince the world to swallow it as the infallible word of a
creator who set up the universe.
Behind all the pious fluff of zealous Christian claims about
their God, you'll find a book called the Holy Bible. That book,
which is the compilation of various writings selected by a group
of politicians and clerics at a council, is not the word of an
infallible deity. To treat it as such requires that the mysteries
of the universe be contracted to squeeze with the confines of
this collection of writings made by men who were no more or no
less inspired than any other religious writers who have ever put
pen to paper and called it the word of God.
When the claims made about a product fail to match up with the
actual performance of that product, it's called false
advertising.
While there are some core truths to be found in almost all
religious texts, including the Bible, it's time for Christians
drop the pious "word of God" rhetoric and face reality.
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