Nathan Poe
Well-Known Member
I feel ya. However, Nathan Poe, this is really where the crux of this discussion lies, don't you think? The "WHO" is a very big factor here. I don't see us getting to "WHY THEY WERE WRITTEN" unless the "WHO" is going to be mentioned.
Granted, there is a connection here -- certainly we have to at least discuss the source of these laws if we're going to get into the reasoning behind them.
However, I think we're both going to have to concede that we are not going to agree on this point: You believe they came from God; I believe they came from men who then attributed them to God.
You see, I have a very difficult time with the "WHY" without the "WHO".
In other words, I believe that man outside of GOD would have just let anarchy go buck wild and we would have killed each other to the last man if there was no GOD.
I understand your belief; but history seems to disagree -- after all, men came up with many of the same rules on their own; look at the non-Judeo/Christian cultures who figured out a code of laws similar to the Hebrews.
The Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Egyptians, etc... they hardly needed Moses to tell them that "Don't kill each other, don't rape each other, and don't steal from each other," were good ideas to put down.
The notion that civilization couldn't have existed without GOD (I assume here you mean the GOD of the Bible) is belied by the very existence of the foreign nations mentioned in the Bible -- and none of them self-destructed. (indeed, most of them were far more of ta threat to the Hebrews than they were to themselves)
For example, the Babylonians were no followers of GOD, but they had a strong enough nation to hand the Hebrews' posteriors to them -- twice, IIRC.
Now, if you wanted to get more specific, and say that the Hebrews wouldv'e killed each other to the last man had it not been for God's intervention, I would agree with you, based on the book of Exodus. Here we see an entire nation of people going from years -- generations even -- of slavery to complete freedom practically overnight.
That's a sure recipe for Anarchy, and if someone (you say it was God, and I won't argue the point here) hadn't stepped in and laid down some ground rules, they most likely would've disintegrated right then and there -- to say nothing abou their long trip through the desert.
(On a side note, you think Moses was ever tempted to write in an 11th Commandment on his own: "Thou shalt stop asking, 'Are we there yet?' For the last time, NO!"

Which brings us to the whole Genesis 1:1 theme. I can not even believe that there is no GOD. No matter how hard I try, I could never in this life time not believe that GOD exists. Even if (gigantic IF) I were proven wrong about Christianity, I still would believe that there was some kind of God/s out there. Whether it was Hindu, Muslim, Native American, Aliens... I don't care what; I'd believe that someone/ something made us.
And I'm certainly not asking you to abandon GOD, and I have no interest in trying to "prove" He doesn't exist, nto to you or anyone else. My only position here is that GOD did not write those laws -- and even that is irrelevent, since, for the sake of this discussion, I'll work under the premise that God did write them.
With that, I say once again that the "WHO" is more important than you think.
Actually, I fully understand how important the "WHO" is -- but I hope that we can agree that at least one of the purposes of the Law -- Keeping the newly-liberated Hebrews from going at each others' throats -- was a good one even if it hadn't come from God.
However, let us move forward if you will.
This is going to be a long and strange discussion.![]()
I've got no problem with strange; I'm only glad it's still civil.
SOLA GRATIA.
SCIENTIA EST POTENTIA.
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