Lets look at the ten commandments.
Ten commandmentsFour of them are about not worshipping other deities or how to worship god.
No other gods, graven images, taking gods name in vain and obey the sabbath.
-Praying to saints and others flirts with breaking the first commandment.
-Graven images, walk into any christian church and what do you see? Because according to christian doctrine, jesus and god are one in the same.
-And the sabbath, well, that opens a whole bunch of issues.
Does this sound right?
Are jews and christians so likely to run off and flirt with foreign gods?
Is it a sign of a jealous and insecure god?
Or is it a means for people to maintain control over other people?
Praying to the virgin Mary, various saints, or anyone or anything other than god is breaking a commandment. That commandment is very specific and does not have any room for interpretation.
Graven images. Sistine Chapel with its famous painting that includes god breaks this commandment. As does every representation of Jesus, as previously explained. As does every picture, painting, statue (big or small), pendant anything with the likeness of Jesus is breaking a commandment.
The commandment about killing or murder is misunderstood at worst and misinterpreted at best. The original intent was for the Israelites. There is some degree of misunderstanding on this fact. And according to hebrew scholars, thou shall not kill (murder) is incomplete. It actually states a Jew shall not kill a fellow Jew. Believe it or not Islam has a very similar decree, but it too has been corrupted. It is not a blanket statement against the taking of a human life, in its original writing. According to the original intent, a Jew could kill a non-Jew with no fear of breaking the commandment. But as much in the bible it has been interpreted and adapted to suite the purposes of following generations.
The Sabbath. This is a tough one. Later interpretations of scripture has pardoned christians from the restrictions of the Sabbath in order to make the religion more palatable to converts. But it is still one of the commandments, it is there plain as day. And if this is "the word of god" as is so ardently claimed, can man undo that word? If you are logically consistent you cannot. But logic and consistency are not hallmarks of any religion. Over the past 2,000 years a whole library of excuses and reasons have been written to explain away inconsistencies in christianity. And the Sabbath is a big one.
The point is christians make a big deal out of the ten commandments, they want them everywhere. They believe they are the cornerstone of morality and goodness of this nation. They couldn't be more wrong. It is just like virtually everything else with christianity, it is how it is perceived rather than the actual substance that matters more. It is an illusion nothing more. If they were honest they would admit this, but that would cause the rest of the house of cards to crumble.
Showing posts with label graven images. Show all posts
Showing posts with label graven images. Show all posts
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Monday, August 20, 2012
Ten Commandments
1- No gods before me
2- No graven images
3- Dont take the lords name in vain
4- Keep the sabbath
5- Honor your father and mother
6- Dont kill
7- Dont commit adultery
8- Dont steal
9- Dont bear false witness against a neighbor
10- Dont covet
It has always struck me a little odd that the top four commandments are all about how god wants to be viewed, spoken about and treated as the one true god.
No gods before me? I understand that a jealous god would demand unwavering dedication to it. Exodus 34:14 Was god so afraid of his followers being promiscuous with some other god? Well, I guess he should be, look what happened when god was preoccupied making the tablets for Moses, the people went crazy and made golden calf and worshiped it. My question is, if god is all powerful, how did he miss these events going on? God does seem to be jealous, but also vindictive. Give people just enough proverbial rope to hang themselves and then run down the mountain, smash the commandments and slaughter 3,000 of his people as an example? Jealous god indeed!
No graven images. If you have ever been in a synagogue, you will notice there are no depictions of god, no images, nothing. Go to just about any christian church what do you see? lots of images, paintings, murals, statues, etc. Aren't these explicitly forbidden? For me personally I am creeped out by the image of some poor soul hanging off a cross.Many christians believe idolatry is just about the golden calf and worshiping false gods. But that is not the case. The word idoltry is the problem I believe, and this heads off to the ignorance many christians have of the bible. But that is for another posting.
Taking the lords name in vain. I believe it is not in reference to exclaiming "god damn it" or as some believe saying the word god. I think it refers to not making a statement in gods name. for instance saying that god demands this, when it is not written any where. You are in essence putting words into gods mouth, and god doesn't like that.
Keep the sabbath. Despite what christians believe, according to biblical belief, the sabbath is Saturday not Sunday. And aside from some hassidic jews I cant think of anyone who actually follow this commandment. Keeping the sabbath means, no work at all, no work for people and animals. According the bible work is something as mundane as collecting firewood. So typing on a computer, opening a refridgerator door or even the door to a house, driving a car, taking the dog for a walk, all forbidden!
Honor your father and mother. Didn't Jesus tell his followers to turn against their father and mother. It was in reference to the beginning of the end, kind of. Its not very specific, at least what I could find. But no, Jesus did not mean to turn against your parents.
Dont kill. This is one that has lead to lots of arguements. According the jewish law, it means don't kill another jew. Sometimes the word murder is used, which has a whole other set of meanings. Murder is wrong, killing can be justified according to the bible. I might need to come back to this one.
Don't commit adultery. According to the bible (OT), this is not as simple as it may seem. Since men were able to have more than one wife, to accuse a man of adultery was not so easy. Adultery was a capital offense, meaning you could be put to death for it. But since a man could have more than one wife, if he was caught having relations with a woman who was not his wife, he avoid death by making her his wife, unless the womans father forbade it. But for a woman it was worse. If she was caught with a man who was not her husband, with at least two witnesses, she would be put to death. If the woman was raped and did not cry out for help, she would be put to death. If she cried out it would signify it was not consensual. It goes on, but basically, sex outside of marriage is forbidden.
Don't steal. This has some interesting basis in another interpretation. I have been reading that it is not simply taking what is not yours, but refers to slavery and kidnapping. The word steal was misinterpreted, which is not surprising. But it refers to kidnapping or enslaving people. But in the OT there was lots of slavery, lots of stealing of women, so what gives? It goes back to the don't kill commandment. It means don't steal a fellow jews slaves, don't kidnap a fellow jew. Kind of brings this one into a new light.
Don't bear false witness against a neighbor. This is really a legal term in the bible. It literally means giving false testimony in court. That simple.
Coveting. This is really the commandment dealing with stealing, not the previous. It began in the OT as dealing with treasure of destroyed cities that god commanded be utterly destroyed. All the gold and silver in the cities was to be destroyed and not brought back. Coveting leads to lust, and lust leads to all sorts of ill behavior.
So how many of these commandments are actually followed?
2- No graven images
3- Dont take the lords name in vain
4- Keep the sabbath
5- Honor your father and mother
6- Dont kill
7- Dont commit adultery
8- Dont steal
9- Dont bear false witness against a neighbor
10- Dont covet
It has always struck me a little odd that the top four commandments are all about how god wants to be viewed, spoken about and treated as the one true god.
No gods before me? I understand that a jealous god would demand unwavering dedication to it. Exodus 34:14 Was god so afraid of his followers being promiscuous with some other god? Well, I guess he should be, look what happened when god was preoccupied making the tablets for Moses, the people went crazy and made golden calf and worshiped it. My question is, if god is all powerful, how did he miss these events going on? God does seem to be jealous, but also vindictive. Give people just enough proverbial rope to hang themselves and then run down the mountain, smash the commandments and slaughter 3,000 of his people as an example? Jealous god indeed!
No graven images. If you have ever been in a synagogue, you will notice there are no depictions of god, no images, nothing. Go to just about any christian church what do you see? lots of images, paintings, murals, statues, etc. Aren't these explicitly forbidden? For me personally I am creeped out by the image of some poor soul hanging off a cross.Many christians believe idolatry is just about the golden calf and worshiping false gods. But that is not the case. The word idoltry is the problem I believe, and this heads off to the ignorance many christians have of the bible. But that is for another posting.
Taking the lords name in vain. I believe it is not in reference to exclaiming "god damn it" or as some believe saying the word god. I think it refers to not making a statement in gods name. for instance saying that god demands this, when it is not written any where. You are in essence putting words into gods mouth, and god doesn't like that.
Keep the sabbath. Despite what christians believe, according to biblical belief, the sabbath is Saturday not Sunday. And aside from some hassidic jews I cant think of anyone who actually follow this commandment. Keeping the sabbath means, no work at all, no work for people and animals. According the bible work is something as mundane as collecting firewood. So typing on a computer, opening a refridgerator door or even the door to a house, driving a car, taking the dog for a walk, all forbidden!
Honor your father and mother. Didn't Jesus tell his followers to turn against their father and mother. It was in reference to the beginning of the end, kind of. Its not very specific, at least what I could find. But no, Jesus did not mean to turn against your parents.
Dont kill. This is one that has lead to lots of arguements. According the jewish law, it means don't kill another jew. Sometimes the word murder is used, which has a whole other set of meanings. Murder is wrong, killing can be justified according to the bible. I might need to come back to this one.
Don't commit adultery. According to the bible (OT), this is not as simple as it may seem. Since men were able to have more than one wife, to accuse a man of adultery was not so easy. Adultery was a capital offense, meaning you could be put to death for it. But since a man could have more than one wife, if he was caught having relations with a woman who was not his wife, he avoid death by making her his wife, unless the womans father forbade it. But for a woman it was worse. If she was caught with a man who was not her husband, with at least two witnesses, she would be put to death. If the woman was raped and did not cry out for help, she would be put to death. If she cried out it would signify it was not consensual. It goes on, but basically, sex outside of marriage is forbidden.
Don't steal. This has some interesting basis in another interpretation. I have been reading that it is not simply taking what is not yours, but refers to slavery and kidnapping. The word steal was misinterpreted, which is not surprising. But it refers to kidnapping or enslaving people. But in the OT there was lots of slavery, lots of stealing of women, so what gives? It goes back to the don't kill commandment. It means don't steal a fellow jews slaves, don't kidnap a fellow jew. Kind of brings this one into a new light.
Don't bear false witness against a neighbor. This is really a legal term in the bible. It literally means giving false testimony in court. That simple.
Coveting. This is really the commandment dealing with stealing, not the previous. It began in the OT as dealing with treasure of destroyed cities that god commanded be utterly destroyed. All the gold and silver in the cities was to be destroyed and not brought back. Coveting leads to lust, and lust leads to all sorts of ill behavior.
So how many of these commandments are actually followed?
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