Friday, February 13, 2015

Why I am NOT an Atheist, even after reading the Old Testament


Comment on death penalty for “gathering sticks” on the Sabbath Day.

 

 

Just to clarify that I am a "thinking" person, not a blind follower.  And I have THOUGHT. I was introduced to the concept of "blasphemy" when I was probably four. It scared me half to death and I pulled my mother’s sleeve in church and asked my mother questions about it. I have thought, and read, TOO MUCH, non-theist literature.  This is why I "fled" back to Christianity and the Judeo-Christian ethos as a refuge after considering "thoughtfully" the other alternatives.

 

In the atheist and agnostic camp there is one very big “stumblingblock” which they claim turns many people away from faith in God. There is this instance of a man being stoned for an apparently minor infraction, i.e., the man was stoned in Numbers Chapter 15 for gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day.  I agree, on its face, this seems incredibly cruel to a so-called "enlightened" modern mind; however, those same "enlightened" people often declare that a person who rapes does not get the death penalty in today's justice system. I can understand that kind of mercy if the criminal was, for example, mentally challenged.  I might also understand such mercy if the rapist had, himself, been tortured to the point of insanity as a child which might cause him/her to be incapable of knowing right from wrong.  However, in today's justice system, most rapists do not receive the death penalty, even if the crime was heinous.  Life in prison seems to be the max even for heinous acts of rape that did not result in the death of the victim. Hmmm?  My how far we have fallen in what we do NOT punish with death.

 

The question arises:  How much evil and rebellion can be tolerated in a community or society without creating anarchy and mayhem? Stoning to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath? That seems unreasonably authoritarian and cruel to those of us who cut our teeth on the democratic ideal. Most modern people do not even understand the concept of sovereignity. One definition of sovereignity is "supreme power." Most monarchies and theocracies were supposedly rendered obsolete with the rise of democracy.  Look again.  We still have monarchies and theocracies, and those of us born into a "nominally" democratic society take umbrage at any stone-age monarchy or theocracy as being a remnant of the now defunct "Divine Right of Kings."  The irony is that this concept of "sovereignity," which is the basis for monarchies and theocracies, is foreign to most modern minds.  It is ironic because anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention to history is aware that we are living under shadow governments that demonstrate "supreme power" on a daily basis, killing at will, starting wars with impunity, executing victims and their families clandestinely, and justifying these atrocities as necessary evils to preserve the "greater good," etc. But a God, a Supreme Being, who gives the death penalty for DESPISING THE WORD OF THE LORD, now that, the modern mind would declare to be cruel and capricious.  Consider this: The example of this "stick-gatherer" was placed in the middle of a passage about the danger of committing "presumptuous" sins . . . sins that are done with full knowledge that they are wrong and with an attitude of BOLD IMPUDENCE.

 

KJV Bible Numbers Chapter 15:

 

27 And if any soul sin through IGNORANCE . . .

 

. . . . the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.

 

29 Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.

 

30 But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

 

31 Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.

 

32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.

 

33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.

 

34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.

 

35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.

 

36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

 

While Jesus forgives ALL manner of sin during THIS dispensation of GRACE, during the dispensation of LAW, REBELLION, which recent science has indicated could be a genetic tendency, could NOT be tolerated.  My very American idealism concerning the beauty of democracy instantly wants to rise up against such a concept of Supreme Authority; however, any truly learned person knows that democracy can reach an extremity when it becomes anarchy, then we have to get into the muddy waters of the nature of man and original sin.  I won't go there.

 

Even Saul of Tarsus, who later became Saint Paul, was a mass murderer, whoah!!, but he did it IGNORANTLY.

 

 KJV Bible NT I Timothy Chapter 1:

 

12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

 

13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, BECAUSE I DID IT IGNORANTLY IN UNBELIEF.

 

18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;

 

19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

 

20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

 

The man in the Old Testament was not stoned just for "picking up sticks."  He was stoned for sinning "presumptuously," with an attitude of total disregard for Law in general. He did not do this IGNORANTLY, but did it in a manner that showed that he "DESPISED the word of the LORD . . . "  To DESPISE the word of the Lord is a seriously bad attitude when that Lord has shown you miracle after miracle after miracle to prove His love and to preserve your very existence, with the Hebrews, as a race, and with all of us, as a species.

 

  Merriam-Webster says of the word "despise" . . . .

Full Definition of DESPISE  transitive verb

1

:  to look down on with contempt or aversion 

2

:  to regard as negligible, worthless, or distasteful

 

As I stated previously, we do not know the man's life story. He may have done horrendous things in private seen only by God, with no human witnesses.  If so, God could not allow this kind of rebellious DNA to exist. And no, this scientific theory that personality traits are "inherited" has not been "proven."  However, it COULD be that people actually INHERIT a tendency to be lawless, and lawlessness can lead to violence, murder, and mayhem. No, I am NOT a Nazi!! But just perchance there was a genetic tendency, or just a tendency produced by his own faulty human reasoning, to think that LAW did not apply to him. Perhaps there was a dangerous tendency, from whatever source, in this man, to disregard Law in general, even necessary Law to preserve civilization. If others were allowed to imitate his example, the entire community wandering through the wilderness, already in constant peril, could have come unwound and caused the destruction of the entire Hebrew race.

 

On a more mystical level, for those who think mystically, perhaps this disregard for Law showed that the rebellious person was the very "seed of Satan" which would continue to reproduce and, perhaps, destroy the community and society of the Hebrews. I am NOT declaring here that I believe in the Serpent Seed Doctrine either. I'm just saying, maybe he WAS a "bad seed" that would have later become a serial killer in the camp if he had lived. Maybe he had committed previous sins in secret, which God saw. Maybe the "stick gatherer" had raped his sister, and there were no witnesses except God who, in His justice, had every intention of punishing this sin that was done in private, unseen by the congregation. The scripture does not tell the life story of the man stoned for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. Perhaps God planned to punish some unspeakable act or acts of wickedness which he had done secretly from the very beginning, but God had shown mercy up to this point of open rebellion.  Yes, I'm using my imagination here.  I get to do that . . .  because God gave me a mind that can imagine, or consider possibilities that are not apparent.

 

Even if the atheist for whom I wrote this essay is right and it was a made up story by the early Hebrews to establish a Sabbath, I ask that atheist to please explain:  How would mankind learn to obey "justified" Law if there was no Lawgiver, and there were no consequences for law-breakers?

 

I say in the fear of God, even I might stand condemned based on my own analysis presented here, for I HAVE done sins impudently, boldly, rebelliously, right in the face of a merciful God.  I do not know the ultimate fate of my soul, but I still believe that God is holy, just, merciful, and compassionate.  The offering of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God on Calvary PROVES that God is full of loving-kindness.  God came down, Himself, and was born as a god/man called The Son of God, to PROVE to mankind that He loves us and wants us to attain Salvation.

 

KJV Holy Bible Ephesians Chapter 2:

 

"8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God . . ." 

 

I HOPE I can be saved.

 

I Thessalonians 5

 

9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

 

10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

 

11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

 

Like the old-timers used to preach: The question is not, "Do you accept God?"  The question is, "Does God accept you?" . . . or me?