In my last post, I made the wild accusation that God was a sinner in the Old Testament, and that Jesus redeemed God from his sins by dying for them, on top of dying for the sins of humanity. I wanted to back up that statement with some evidence. I have been very outspoken about my anger towards OT God's preference for genocide and murder over peaceful resolution and sacrifice, but let's look at it objectively. And what better way to see if God sinned than to put his actions up against his Ten Commandments:
1) Do not have any other Gods before me. Innocent
2) Do not create or worship any false idols. Innocent
3) Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Innocent, though you could say he tarnished his own name with other nations with his actions.
4) Do not work on the Sabbath and keep it holy. I don't remember - did God ever do work on the Sabbath? I feel like at least a few of his destructive tantrums occurred on a Sabbath day.
5) Honor your mother and father. N/A
6) Do not murder. Guilty. God is responsible for more deaths than anyone in the OT. Many of them were completely innocent people, often children.
7) Do not commit adultery. N/A
8) Do not steal. Debatable. God ordered the Israelites to loot and pillage the lands they took over. I say guilty.
9) Do not lie. Innocent. In fact this is probably God's most redeeming characteristic in the OT. He ALWAYS delivered on his promises.
10) Do not covet your neighbor's possessions. Guilty. God was extremely jealous of anything that led his people away from him, and his reactions to their infidelity towards him seem to be why he created this commandment in the first place.
So out of ten, you could argue that God was at least partially, if not fully guilty in half of them. Now why shouldn't the rules God gave to his people apply to him?
Again, I realize how controversial this is, and God is probably super pissed at me right now, but it's something I think that should be examined. What do you think?
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