Johnathan Swift once famously wrote: “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it” wrote This was altered through time and later attributed to Mark Twain as saying: “A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Regardless of which you prefer, the idea behind it is as true now as it was then. The idea that someone can spout a half-truth, or an outright lie in no time flat, and it takes a good deal longer to correct. Such is what happened recently on G+. Another YouTuber (who is irrelevant to this article so shall remain unnamed) was called out for poor scholarship and discernment, and urged to focus on his strengths of which is countering Muslim claims. In the midst of this, in the comments section, one particular Anti-Theist (who will be referred to from here on as AT) began making such remarks as to remind me of the late great Swift. I engaged with AT, in an effort to help them see their error. Instead, they doubled down. After a number of exchanges, I was forced to withdraw for a time. This wasn’t good enough for AT who continued to bomb the comments with replies and mentions of yours truly. So much so that I was forced to respond in an effort to stop them. I’ve decided to answer a number of his assertions and accusations here, where I am able to once again, give truth a ride. AT's comments are in bold and italics:
+Metal Minister not really they got laws of mose s down.
Kill gays check.
Kill non believers check.
Control women check.
Slavery check.
Pro rapist marrying their victim.
Both blame victim of rape.
Oh boy. Who hasn’t heard this one a million times? First, a bit of context. The idea of stoning homosexuals was a law designed to 1) stop the spread of infectious diseases, 2) stop the spread of rampant sin and idolatry (most of the pagan God’s of the time were sexual in nature) and 3) to keep the Israelites separate from the gentiles around them. There is much, much more obviously, but considering the comment was made purely as an appeal to emotion (logical fallacy) it doesn’t warrant much more here. If one would like to dig more deeply, here’s a good resource: https://carm.org/why-do-christians-not-obey-old-testaments-commands-to-kill-homosexuals
Now, the “kill non-believers” remark is what brought us here to begin with. AT cited Deuteronomy 13:6-10 as claiming this. However what they failed to understand (which will be obvious by the end of this) is that passage is dealing with people trying to pull the Israelites away from God to false gods. In other words, into idolatry, not simply killing people because they don’t adhere to the same religion. I’ll expand a bit in the next section.
+Metal Minister lol more assertion without anything backing it.
+Metal Minister there was no trail mentioned in the verse. You are adding shit to the law.
Now, setting aside the vulgarity, what AT is responding to is my quotation of Matthew Henry’s commentary of the verses in question which states: “Thou shalt surely kill him. By this law the persons enticed were bound to the seducer, and to give evidence against him before the proper judges…” So as we can see, it wasn’t a matter of people simply gathering up stones and throwing them at people, it was a matter settled by judges. This was obviously not good enough for AT (hence the cussing) who seems to believe that because it doesn’t state it outright in that one passage they cherry picked, that the judges and trial weren’t part of it. This is where the context comes into play. One cannot simply take a single passage from the Old Testament law and say that because it isn’t explicitly laid out every time, that it doesn’t pertain to that instance. When one is dealing with the Old Testament, one must realize they aren’t exhaustive, they’re exemplifications.
Now, let me quickly link to a couple of things so that you can follow up with this and the issue of rape at a later time. Both have been beaten to death, so I won’t waste the time here going over them again. http://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-bh6mj-5d4416 Bible Atrocities 2.1 https://youtu.be/mFIUK_V6BfQ
+Metal Minister yet nothing in that verse mentioned worship of idols, other gods yes, but no idols. Which there is a law already for idolatry in the 10 comandments.
I added this part to prove a point. Idolatry IS the worship of a false god! It’s placing a god above Yaweh! This is throughout the Bible. Anyone remember the Israelites and the golden calf from Exodus? They did what? That’s right, bowed down and worshipped the idol as a god! Trying to split hairs and say things like “idolatry doesn’t mean only worshipping a false god” is disingenuous at best. The entire point of calling something idolatry is that it places that idol above God, it defacto makes it a god!
+Metal Minister I didn't ask question. So I don't need to seek an aswer. I made a statement.
You still have not shown how I taken it out of context.
Which is what you are doing by changing it to mean idolatry vs trying to get people to worship other .
Idolatry isn't only pertain to other god's.
So you are the one taking it out of context.
As I just explained, AT was attempting to invoke the splitting hairs or logic chopping, logical fallacy. (https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/120/Logic_Chopping) As to their comment about not needing to seek an answer, is that they made the statement about Jesus fulfilling the law, to which I asked (as a matter of hoping AT would seek the answer) “Which law did Jesus fulfill?” I was attempting to show them that the punishments for those laws no longer pertain in this life, as Jesus took the punishment for them. They still have eternal ramifications, but no longer apply here. As for the definition of idolatry, Romans 1:21-25 sums it up swimmingly! You’re wrong AT, you’re just wrong.
"+Metal Minister pro tip of the day. Don't start an agrument that you will not justify your claims at all
I’d say I’ve justified my claims rather well AT, it’s you who’ve not justified what they stated, only thrown out assertions.
+Metal Minister how does idolatry equal to human sacrifice.
It doesn't. Idolatry is just worship idols. Nothing about human sacrifice.
Here I had mentioned that part of the reason that God so hates idolatry, and even more so during the times of the Old Testament, was that many of these idolatrous religions practiced human/child sacrifices. Such as the cult of Molech, the Canaanites, there are verses in number in the Bible mentioning these acts such as Deuteronomy 18:10, 2 Kings 3:27, 2 Kings 16:3, 2 Chronicles 28:3 and so on. This was not a small or isolated problem in the world of the ancient Israelites! There was a good deal more than this, but as time is short and this article is running very long, I will wrap this up here.
Unfortunately, things have gotten bad enough that AT actually began stalking my G+, commenting on another post in an effort to get me to block them, so they could claim “victory “. This is a common anti-theist tactic. Badger and attack until the other person gets fed up and blocks you. I’ve seen it enough that, a small part of me thinks I may be being a little cynical, the majority of me says I’m correct. As of the end of this article, I’ve yet to block AT, though if things persist, it may be inevitable. This is the exact reason I remind fellow Christians of Ephesians 6:11-12, to put on the full armor of God. Remember, if He is for us, who can stand against us? God bless!
(For full context of the discussion: https://plus.google.com/101966781319840582394/posts/YJqwD9UEGkX)
*UPDATE*
In response to my requesting that AT cease commenting on my other posts, he responded with the following:
+Metal Minister learn to change your settings.
So apparently the response to a request to break contact is “change your settings” after denying that the reason for the repeated contact is to incite being blocked. More hypocrisy, more deceit, more trolling. What settings? Should I be forced to keep all of my posts private so a single anti-theist will stop harassing me? No, it’s time to grow up!
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