Expert: Mr. McClellan - 7/25/2010

Question
I am 14 years old and I am just starting to read the bible. I am still in the book of genesis and I came across this verse that I am a little confused about and I am hoping you can offer some insight on:

Genesis 9:4-6

"But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man"

Now, what I am getting from this verse is the age old saying "an eye for an eye." But I know that is not what Christianity is all about, it's the opposite. What exactly is God saying to Noah here? Or did God change his mind as to what was acceptable behavior? Let me know

Answer
Hi Rachel,

The Old Testament, among other things, focuses on the fact that human beings are not only capable of knowing and understanding the will of God, but they are capable of obeying it as well. If that were not the case, God could not justly punish people for not doing what he requires.
So, it's about justice. It's about God being fair and about the unwillingness of people to obey him. Later in the Bible you will read about how impossible it is for humans to save themselves (Matthew 19) which many take to mean that no one can obey God 100% of the time. However, if you will carefully read the chapter, you will see (I hope) that this is not what Jesus was saying. What he was actually saying is that once a person has become a sinner it is impossible for them save themselves even if they never committed another sin. Only God can save a sinner. The reason being that no one has to sin and when they do sin it's their fault and they deserve the penalty which is death (mortality) just like Adam and Eve did.
What Christianity is about is learning to admit you've sinned, if you have, and repent of it and to make a "U" turn in your life to start trusting in (having faith in) God to teach you the way to regain immortality for yourself. The story of Noah in Genesis 6 is a kind of figurative example of it. In that story, Noah was a faithful man who was told what to do to be saved from the destruction that was going to come. Unlike so many today who'd say that all Noah had to do was just say to God, "I believe," and just like that he would already have been saved. It's called the "salvation by faith alone" doctrine which uses a definition for faith that the writers of the Bible never used when they spoke about pleasing God. It's a definition, however, that was, and is, used by all those who believe in false gods.
You'll notice that Noah had done nothing to earn the right to be saved. He was just a man that tried to trust God and do what God said to do. When the flood came, God graciously saved him and his family from the fate that came upon the rest of mankind and, as the Ark rose on the water, the water separated him from the rest of the sinful world of humans because Noah had faithfully obeyed God and accepted the gift of life that God blessed him with. Later, the apostle Peter will remind some Christians that baptism does the same thing for those sinners who believe God, will repent of their sins and start obeying Him by first being baptized (immersed in water). See Acts 2:36-47, Romans 6, and 1Peter 3 just for starters. It's while a person is being baptized that they are given the gift of the holy spirit as a sign that they have become faithful like Jesus and are sons (and daughters) of God. By "gift of the holy spirit," Peter meant the Spirit itself and not the ability to work miracles. At some other point in time, the Holy Spirit would give some miraculous power to people who had done what Peter told those people in Acts 2 to do, but it would be a gift chosen by the Spirit and not by the saved sinner. Also, along this line, no one since sometime in the first century A.D. has been given the power to perform miracles. The reason, explained in the New Testament, is that miracles were given for the purpose of confirming the origin and truth of messages from God. Once God had delivered everything to and through those earliest Christians that pertained to life and godliness, the miracles stopped. What's left is faith, hope, and love. God had nothing more to say about how to obtain immortality, eternal life, he'd said it all, so there have been no further revelations from Him and no more miracles no matter what anyone says or who says it. What people call miracles today simply do not qualify or compare to what the Bible writers described as miracles. All, and I do mean all, current day miracles are fakes performed by frauds and false teachers attempting to draw people after them and their false teachings.
No, God has not changed his mind about good and bad behavior. It's the same as it was from the very beginning.
One more thing. In the ten commandments given to Moses, most older versions of the Bible have a mistake where it says, "Thou shalt not kill." Actually, the word "kill" should have been translated as "murder." There's a big and important difference. The reason I point this out is (1) the passage you referred to speaks of people killing each other, and (2) a lot of people wrongly assume that capital punishment is wrong. Not true. See Romans 13 for example.

Well, I hope I've given you some things to really think about, seriously.
OK, catch you later.
Mr. McClellan