69 Was it Satan that forced the census

In the Old Testament book 1 Chronicles, Satan made King David take a census  

1 Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. 

But in the Old Testament book 2 Samuel, God told King David to take the censes, the same one 

2 Samuel 24:1 The LORD said to him [David], "Go and count the people of Israel and Judah." 

Recap: Seems to me the authors couldn't make up their mind about who was responsible. 

Related post:

68 Why not punish King David for the census

68 Why not punish King David for the census

One day the Lord commanded King David to take a census, and so David took it

2 Samuel 24:1 The LORD said to [David], "Go and count the people of Israel and Judah." 2 So David gave orders to Joab, the commander of his army: "Go with your officers through all the tribes of Israel from one end of the country to the other, and count the people. I want to know how many there are."

But then he worried that he had sinned for obeying the Lord 

10 But after David had taken the census, his conscience began to hurt, and he said to the LORD, "I have committed a terrible sin in doing this! Please forgive me. I have acted foolishly."

And he was right. He had done the wrong thing even though it was what the Lord had commanded him to do. So the Lord sent a sickness on the people as punishment. Uh ...?

11 The LORD said to Gad, David's prophet, "Go and tell David that I am giving him three choices. I will do whichever he chooses." ... 14 David answered ... "Let the LORD himself be the one to punish us, for he is merciful." 15 So the LORD sent an epidemic on Israel.

The mystery deepens when we find that nothing went wrong when the Lord ordered Moses to take a census

Numbers 1:19 As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.

Recap: David was wrong to take the census the Lord had ordered. But Moses was right to take the census the Lord had ordered. Um, right ...

Related post:
69 Was it Satan that forced the census

67 Are Christian family kids holy automatically

Now it’s Mr. Ezekiel vs Mr. Paul

In the Old Testament book Ezekiel, Ezekiel the prophet preaches that each person accounts for him- or herself. Everybody is going to be judged according to their deeds  

Ezekiel 18:20 Good people will be rewarded for doing good, and evil people will suffer for the evil they do. ... 24 But if a righteous person stops doing good and starts doing all the evil, disgusting things that evil people do, will he go on living? No!

But in the New Testament letter 1 Corinthians, written by the apostle Paul, Paul preaches that children are automatically holy so long as their parents are Christian. The children are holy simply because the parents are Christians

1 Corinthians 7:14 [T]he unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

Paul preaches that, if an unbelieving husband has a Christian wife, he gets a free pass, too. That is, he’s sanctified and blessed. Isn’t that nice? So the husband or child needn't believe in Jesus if the wife is Christian.

But certainly it wasn't what Ezekiel the prophet preached centuries before Christianity. He preached everybody is held accountable for themselves. To repeat Ezekiel ...

Ezekiel 18:20 Good people will be rewarded for doing good, and evil people will suffer for the evil they do.

Furthermore this is the Paul who judges every one of us a sinner. In the New Testament letter Romans, by Paul, he teaches that everybody is unrighteous--everybody is a sinner, period 

Romans 3:10 As the Scriptures say: There is no one who is righteous, 11 no one who is wise or who worships God. ... 22 God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: 23 everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence.

Recap: Paul declares that non-believing children can be holy and unbelieving husbands can be sanctified. The only thing they need is a Christian mother or wife. But Paul also says everybody is a sinner. So will the real Paul please stand up! Thus Ezekiel vs Paul.

66 Is marriage a sign of weakness? Or, What's love got to do with It?

A case of Genesis vs Paul again

The Old Testament Book of Genesis teaches:

That marriage is normal

But hold on!

 In the New Testament letter 1
             Corinthians, written by the apostle
             Paul, Paul teaches:
             That marriage is a sign of weakness!

In Genesis, God says that marriage is perfectly normal

Genesis 2:18 It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him.

But in 1 Corinthians, Paul asks what's love got to do with it? In fact Paul steps up to preach that the sole purpose of marriage is to avoid immorality

1 Corinthians 7:1 It is good for a man not to marry. 2 But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

Paul even insinuates that spouse faithfulness is practically impossible in marriage

1 Corinthians 7:5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

He preaches that it’s better to be single. He himself is single--my, that's a mighty big coincidence. In other words, Paul's better than married people are (cough)

1 Corinthians 7:7 I wish that all men were as I am [single]. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

He's not finished with the matter, yet. He also speaks out and says you widows and virgins shouldn't seek male companionship through marriage!

1 Corinthians 7:8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am.

And says women who cannot control themselves are the ones that get married. He might just as well teach that romance isn’t good for the soul

1 Corinthians 7:9 [I]f they [the unmarried and widows] cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Then he pointedly states that marriage is a lesser state

1 Corinthians 7:34 So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better.

Recap: Paul says marriage is a gift from God. But he turns around and runs marriage down. I say he certainly knows how to overstep his bounds. It would've been a whole lot better for him to mind his own bee's wax where marriage is concerned.

Further he appears to have monkeyed with Genesis.

Somehow I doubt that Christian wedding ceremonies ever read such teachings aloud. I doubt that the guests are admonished that marriage is a sign of weakness.

65 Was Moses' Law the first-ever law

Christians might claim that Moses brought the first-ever laws to earth at the command of God.  

For example in the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy, the God of heaven and earth commands laws, and the prophet Moses gives them to the people (about 1250 BC)   

Deuteronomy 1:1 In this book are the words that Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. ... 3 Moses told the people everything the LORD had commanded him to tell them. ... 10:14 To the LORD belong even the highest heavens; the earth is his also, and everything on it.

But there's an ancient Babylonian monument that also says a Babylonian God of heaven and earth commanded the Babylonian King, Hammurabi, to give laws to his kingdom (about 1780 BC)

Anu [God supreme] and Bel [Lord of heaven and earth] called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land. ... The great gods have called me, I am the salvation-bearing shepherd.

In the Book of Deuteronomy the law of Moses protects widows and orphans  

Deuteronomy 10:17 The LORD your God is supreme over all gods and over all powers. 18 He makes sure that orphans and widows are treated fairly; he loves the foreigners who live with our people, and gives them food and clothes.

The code of Hammurabi predates Moses and protects widows and orphans. So it beat Moses to it

“That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans, I have in Babylon the city ... set up these my precious words, written upon my memorial stone, before the image of me, as king of righteousness. ... By the order of Marduk [God of humankind], my lord, let no destruction befall my monument.”

Recap: Hammurabi’s monument is kept in a museum today. Surely law didn’t originate with Moses.

Source:

Hammurabi Code

64 So, is it wrong to call somebody a fool

It’s Mr. Matthew vs Mr. Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew teaches that it’s a sin to call somebody a fool. In fact you might get sent to the bad place if you do  

Matthew 5:22 [I]f you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.

But in the New Testament letter 1 Corinthians, written by Paul, Paul calls somebody a fool. Paul failed to practice what the Gospel of Matthew preaches  

1 Corinthians 15:35 Someone will ask, "How can the dead be raised to life? What kind of body will they have?" 36 You fool! When you plant a seed in the ground, it does not sprout to life unless it dies.

And the New Testament letter of James calls somebody a fool, too. So that author failed to follow what the Gospel preaches

James 2:20 You fool! Do you want to be shown that faith without actions is useless?

As a matter of fact, in the Gospel Jesus calls the Jewish teachers fools 

Matthew 23:17 Blind fools! Which is more important, the gold or the Temple which makes the gold holy?

Recap: Bible translators may suggest that Matthew actually warns against calling somebody a “rebel.” But the alternative word “rebel” is hardly any better since Christians say non‑believers are “rebellious” against the word of God. I say, therefore, those Christians fail to practice what the Gospel of Matthew preaches.

63 Hmm ... did God tell the truth to Adam and Eve

In the Old Testament Book of Genesis, God warns Adam and Eve: If they eat the forbidden fruit they will die on the same day  

Genesis 2:17 You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.

But the serpent comes along and tells Eve she won't die if she eats it. Since neither Adam or Eve die when they eat it, it looks as if the serpent told the truth

Genesis 3:4 The snake replied, "That's not true; you will not die. 5 God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad."

God is mad at them but Adam blames Eve, since she gave him the fruit to eat. Adam is truthful about it

Genesis 3:11 "Did you eat the fruit that I told you not to eat?" 12 The man answered, "The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, and I ate it."

God turns to Eve but she blames the snake for tricking her. Eve is truthful, too 

Genesis 3:13 The LORD God asked the woman, "Why did you do this?" She replied, "The snake tricked me into eating it."

Recap: The serpent told the truth to Eve and Adam, and Eve told the truth to God. Yet God wasn't truthful when he said, “You will die on the same day that you eat the fruit from the forbidden tree.”

Related post:
50 Which one would you blame: God or garden snake

62 Should Adam ever have been punished like Eve

... yet again





In the New Testament letter 1 Timothy, written by Paul, Paul says women are to blame for the fall of humankind. He says the fall wasn't Adam's fault  

1 Timothy 2:14 [I]t was not Adam who was deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and broke God's law. 

However, in the Old Testament Book of Genesis, Adam is punished as well as Eve for eating the forbidden fruit. It's both their faults

Genesis 3:11 God asked. “Did you eat the fruit that I told you not to eat?” 12 The man answered, “The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” ... 17 And he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you.”

Recap: Paul says Adam didn’t break a law. But in Genesis God looked at it differently, and blamed Adam and punished him like Eve. Thus Paul vs Genesis.

Related post:
50 Which would you blame: God or garden snake

61 Was woman made in God’s image, the way man was?

A case of Genesis vs Mr. Paul.

In the Old Testament Book of Genesis, both man and woman were created in God’s image

Genesis 5:1 When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.”

But in the New Testament, the apostle Paul teaches that although man was created in God’s image, woman wasn’t

1 Corinthians 11:7 [A] man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.

Paul takes Genesis literally where Genesis says “him”

Genesis 1:27 God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

But that’s Paul for you. But then he turns around and preaches that, among God's children, there are neither male or female

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So, will the real Paul please stand up?

60 Did Adam, Eve, and God pass the buck

Adam, Eve, and the Lord were all enticed. And all three passed the buck.

Adam was lured and passed the buck

Genesis 3:12 The man answered, "The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, and I ate it."

Eve was tempted and passed the buck

Genesis 3:13 The LORD God asked the woman, "Why did you do this?" She replied, "The snake tricked me into eating it."

The Lord was enticed and passed the buck

Job 2:3 The LORD said [to Satan], "[Job] still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."

Recap: Adam and Eve yielded to temptation, and so God blamed them for it and punished them. But when God fell into temptation, God took no blame for it and got off scot-free.