Vern Scott
2 min readJun 10, 2023

--

1) To me, the big one is "Kill" as in "Thou shalt not kill". Evangelicals (and others) take the Biblically translated word "Kill" and define it as "Murder" (the unjustified taking of innocent life, while justifying killing in wars, reprisals, etc). To me, that definition puts "kill" on a slippery slope, and "kill" was actually meant to mean "kill". Of course this might mean you couldn't slaughter animals etc (or win wars, or even step on a bug), but I believe any "kill" (even "justified" ones) need to be accompanied by a sort of repentance (ie some sort of prayer or repentance after eating an animal you killed or after a war), and an admission of compromise and human expedience (after all, it is possible to go through life largely without killing things). It is a central Biblical dilemma, and I suppose Jesus wouldn't have killed anything? (except a few mosquitos) It always seemed that any spiritual construct was negated by a broad license to kill. (ie Conversion to Islam by the sword). It also seemed a Biblical hypocrisy to condone Capital Punishment (though it may be expedient, its not really moral. Old Testament and frequent "smiting" makes all this unclear, as in "There's a time for everything, a time to kill").

2) Good one on "Faith" as I believe it was meant to be loyalty and adherence to teachings of God/Jesus. As such "Faith" might simply mean "Do what Jesus did" (and by extension, follow 10 Commandments). Later perhaps twisted to include the whole salvation hook and blind adherence to some abstruse Biblical principles.

3) Biblical "Fornication" seems anything outside of heterosexual marriage, but whoa! did Biblical characters ever take broad license with that one! (as you say).

4) Odd that the Bible didn't exactly nail this stuff down. Jesus seems to provide most consistent example.

--

--

Vern Scott
Vern Scott

Written by Vern Scott

Scott lives in the SF Bay Area and writes confidently about Engineering, History, Politics, and Health

Responses (2)