ContraMundum said:
Sorry, but these quotes completely undermine your position- as last time I looked they were in the canon of Christian scriptures. Therefore, these scriptures are accepted as read and are true and authoratative in the Christian Church, whether you like it or not.
Simply put, if you think these scriptures are racist, then you are a member of a religion that promotes racism. I, on the other hand, do not think these scriptures, properly understood promote racism at all. The first speaks of warfare against the enemies of Israel (which God used and commanded), and the second merely speaks of a holy mission uniquely given to the Jews, which Christianity affirms. The two are to be taken in their context.
So- what do you think? Are they true or not? If they are, then do you think they teach racism? If they do, as you have tried to say, then you are involved in racism by calling these texts holy and inspired.
On the other hand, the orthodox Christian understanding says that these texts stand as read- there is no racism spoken of in them and salvation comes from the Jews.
You've got an awful lot of interpretive problems in your presentation of texts gwynn....you should reconsider your position.
I notice how you have begun to turn to "not properly understood" in the light of irrefutable evidence.You just never see the context of God's covenant. Even "everlasting" covenants may be broken by men. God does not change but men do.
Here is something also easy to understand. Under the old covenant it would be considered racist today. It was racist and even genocidal. It is absurd to say it was not(put away foriegn wives?). That was under God's guidiance because God knew what those nations would do. However the old covenant is gone. Many Jews do not know this but retain the old faith.
This is why Jusaism is essentially racist in many sects and dangerously so because under the Talmud and Kabbalah the dreams of men now intreprete the Torah. Anti-semite accusations are rather hypocritical. This is why there is seggragation because many Jews want it that way. It prevents assimliation.
Isaiah 24
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5] The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
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6] Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Jer 14
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19] Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
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20] We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
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21] Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
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22] Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
Jer 22
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8] And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?
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9] Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
Jer 31
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31] Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
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32] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
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33] But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The covenant with David has been fulfilled with Christ.
Jer 33
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20] Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
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21] Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.
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22] As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
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23] Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,
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24] Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.
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25] Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
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26] Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.