Originally posted by Ross
Crow,
You raise an interesting point about how some of the commandments are a accompanied by a specific punishment (you call these crimes), while others aren't.
It seems that you're saying that we as Christians should still not do those acts in Leviticus that have a punishment associated with them. But we are free to change the punishment that God commanded of us. For example, here are crimes that God demands be punishable by death:
9 " 'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.
10 " 'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife-with the wife of his neighbor-both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
11 " 'If a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
12 " 'If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their own heads.
13 " 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
How is it that we should not obey God and put all these sinners to death?
Also, it seems that God saw adultry and homosexuality equally as bad (since He told us to use the same punishment - death - for both). But I don't see the same Christian fervency today against adultry as I do against homosexulality. Why is that?
Ross
Ross, you're kind of getting some of what I'm saying--let me see if I can put it better.
Homosexuality and adultry are sexual crimes. Homosexuality gets more attention because it is more in our faces. If you see a man and woman walk around in the mall holding hands, do you know if they are married to each other or not?
And when is the last time you saw an "Adulterer's Day" parade? Or had a lecture at work about how you have to be tolerant and sensitive to adulterers?
God set the penalty for the listed crimes you cited all at death. But we are living in a country where the laws differ from God's laws, and we are instructed by God to obey the laws of the land.
Remember the story of the woman who was a prostitute--the old "go and sin no more" story? The Pharasees were trying to trick Christ. They asked Him if the woman, who is an adulterer, should be stoned.
Here's where the Pharasees were being sneaky. God demanded the woman be stoned, but they were governed by Rome, and under Roman law. Roman law forbade stoning. The Pharasees were trying to put Christ in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.
He got out of it brilliantly. "Let he who be without sin cast the first stone." The Pharasees were sinning by trying to get the woman stoned without trial by a judge with two or more witnesses. Plus, they were well aware of Roman law.
We are in a situation similar to the one Christ was confronted with. We cannot take the law into our own hands, even though it is in oppostion to God's law. Take abortion, for instance. We as Christians cannot take the lives of abortionists--that is murder. We are not to break the law of the land. Christians are not to be vigalantes.
