For Those Who Say Everything Written in the Bible Is Valid for All Time

A Few Bible Quotes -

For Those Who Say
Everything Written
Is Valid for All Time

Leviticus forbids touching anything made of pigskin, so the question arises how do Bible literalists reconcile this with the sport of football?

Here are some other examples.

If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

Deuteronomy 23:1-2 - He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.

No illegitimate child, according to Deuteronomy, nor any of his descends may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the tenth generation.

Can we really worship the God found in the Bible who sent the angel of death across the land of Egypt to murder the firstborn males in every Egyptian household?

Here are some more examples from the Bible.

If a brother dies, his wife should become the wife of the man's brother.

If a certain part of your body happens to be injured in an accident or as a result of war, you cannot join with other worshipers of God.

In the Book of Deuteronomy also it says that if a man marries a woman and finds that she is not a virgin, and if her family cannot prove that she was a virgin before her marriage, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of the town shall stone her to death.

And then we have in Leviticus the verses that say that you should never cut your hair or even trim the corners of your beard.

The early Church's squeamishness about sexuality led to the debate about "prelapsarian sex": the question of whether Adam and Eve might have slept together in the Garden of Eden.

St. Augustine, the person credited with great influence in the selection of the early scriptures, said to this: Maybe, but they wouldn't have enjoyed it.

And there are the verses in the Bible that state, that your impoverished brother may be brought and forced to become your hired servant; that witches and wizards may be put to death; that a woman in her period is unclean and is required to say away from the village; and if you are a priest, you may buy a slave.

From the New Testament - For the Women

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. But, every women who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.

For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn.

I Timothy: Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. (From Pat Robertson's book, Bring it On.) Corinthians: Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak.

Over the centuries these Biblical views have been absorbed into the fabric of our culture as "God's word." Consider the impact on women throughout the centuries of this small sample of Bible verses.

And, if you are Jewish, from the Torah -

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listed to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of town. They shall say to the elders, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.' Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death.

A woman must not wear men's clothing...for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.

And, Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

Either we have to accept these mandates as stated, or agree that the scriptures were written for other places and times—rather barbaric places and times, in fact—and that a great deal has changed since the scriptures were written.

Today, since even strict literalists disregard these passages and accept more reasonable and humane codes of conduct, we must concede that ancient scriptures can't be taken literally today, and different times call for different codes of conduct.

The earliest New Testament writings of Paul and the source known as "Q," or, "the sayings," don't mention a betrayal by Judas. This appears to have been added later in history as a way of gaining political favor with anti-Jew forces.

There is evidence that after the destruction of Jewish Jerusalem in A.D. 70, early Christians curried favor with Roman gentiles by blaming the Crucifixion on Jewish authorities. This, of course, has nurtured two millennia of anti-Semitism that bigots have insisted is biblically sanctioned.