I read the Bible when I was a kid, when I was a teenager, and as an adult. I have always found that I question more than I am able to read and take it in. There are so many questions. There are parts that I just do not understand due to such a huge gap in the times languages. (ie. thy, thee, hence, hereunto, etc. Not those words exactly, but just as example.) Then there are all the many, many contradictions. Then there are things that I just can't fathom. All the violence in the name of God. All the hatred and vengeance, revenge even. It is so brutal in parts and these brutal things are often in the name of God or from God. There is confusion and misleading. Some of it done on purpose.
There is also the question of...If Christians claim to live by the Bible, the original word of God, why then have they changed so many of the "rules"? How is it justified that it is ok for them to decide what to adhere to, what to live by, what to believe? If you are going to live by God's word, shouldn't you live by his original word and not by the ones you pick and choose are right for today's times? Isn't that sort of playing God? It is very confusing to me.
One scripture that has always stuck with me is (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father; or the voice of his mother, and, though they chastise him, will not give heed to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard." Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel shall hear, and fear." People lived by this. They did this. So when did it become taboo to Christians, so that they stopped practicing this? Who decided that it was no longer acceptable to go by this? How did that person justify that they were living by the word of God, if they had taken it upon themselves to throw something out of the Bible?
Another one is (Numbers 31:17) [Verse 17, Moses says:] "Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."
This is not something that we would do today, I hope. Kill all the little boys? Keep all of the virgins for yourself? Kill all of the non-virgins?
Another scripture straight from the Bible that we have chosen to ignore in our modern religions. And there are sooooooo many more. These are the scriptures that you do not see people quoting daily. These are the things we no longer recognize as being the word of God, or at least we do not live by them anymore, do we?
So again, my question is not one of a sarcastic nature, but really one of curiosity. How do Christians justify dropping certain scriptures and no longer following certain rules? But still say they are following God's word, living by his word. Who told them that it was ok to pick and choose what they live by out of the Bible?
Isn't it a sin to eat shellfish too? And aren't we supposed to only eat fish on Fridays? Isn't it a sin to have dessert after dinner or to eat a second helping?
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