The authority of the Old Testament

[pastorlenny]

This post is intended as a counter-balance to some recent posts in this community that directly assault the authority of scripture, in particular that of the OT. This post is not a defense of sola scriptura or literalism. Nor does it in any way represent an assertion that New Covenant disciples must somehow be obedient to OT law.

It is not even

Comments

[nobleprolet]

Exodus 21:22-25

If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely [e] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

Leviticus 24:17-22

17 " 'If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone's animal must make restitution-life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. 21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.' "

Deuteronomy 19:16-21

16 If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse a man of a crime, 17 the two men involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. 18 The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against his brother, 19 then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. 21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

[nobleprolet]

So you think that governments are not supposed to love their enemies?

[nobleprolet]

That may be, but aren't governments held responsible for their actions too? I know I gotta respect governments, which I do, but I sincerely believe that they too have to follow moral standars, and that they are not above the common citizen in that.

[bus_surfer04]

Another way to interpret this is that it is actually incredibly lenient for the time. In those days, blood feuds were the norm - 'An eye for an eye' was actually limiting bloodshed, not creating more. Jesus took the spirit of the command one step further when He said not only should attacks be limited to what the attacker did, but furthermore you should go out of your way to help your attacker!

I see this as very much in the same spirit of the original command, but upping the ante, as Christ often did.

[pastorlenny]

Governments can't be saved, don't take communion, can't be endowed with the gifts of the Spirit, or submit to Church authority. So, yes, you can apply "moral standards" to them -- but that has nothing to do with scripture or the communion we have with Christ, so such a discussion has nothing to do with Christian ethics. It is a realm of political science and philosophy entirely divorced from the teachings of the Christ.

[martiancyclist]

I wouldn't say entirely divorced. Nothing is apart from Christ. But groups do function differently.

Where Christian teachings come in is that everyone involved in government is a person, and can act morally.

For what it's worth, in Orthodox teaching, a soldier who has been in combat needs to go to confession as soon as possible. Not that we're picky about whether killing in war is sinful or not -- we're not around for the purpose of enumerating sins. But we are around for healing souls, and killing, whether for a good cause or bad, is harmful to the soul.

[thehonorableryu]

For what it's worth, in Orthodox teaching, a soldier who has been in combat needs to go to confession as soon as possible. Not that we're picky about whether killing in war is sinful or not -- we're not around for the purpose of enumerating sins. But we are around for healing souls, and killing, whether for a good cause or bad, is harmful to the soul.
I think that's sensible enough. :) Even after those military strikes that the Lord commanded in times of war, He required that anyone who had killed or had even touched a dead body would ritualistically purify themselves (ex. Num. 31:19-20).

[uberreiniger]

I've got to admit, I never thought of it that way. Interesting.