Expert: Sal - 2/24/2005

Question
hi,
I really want to know what's all this is about? I'm pretty offended when I look at these verse:

gen19:31-36
if there are no unmarried men of the same faith available, a woman shall get her father drunk and have sex with him ( that's obviously immoral)

deut22
marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. if she's no a virgin, she shall be executed.
death is the only exit from marrige. should a married man died without having fathered any male heirs, his brother shall take the widow as ONE of his wives.

gen 3:16
to the woman he said," I will greatly increase your pains in child bearing; with pain you will give birth to children. your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

exodus 21
when a man strikes his slave, male or female with a rod and the slaves die under his hand, he shall be punished. but if the slave survives a day or two, he shall not be punished: for the slaves is his money.

leviticus 25
as for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy your male or female slaves from the nations that are around about you...you may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possesion forever.....that the lord intended the blessed institution of slavery to last forever!

I'm not a first timer and had asked many many christian about this issues and the general answers I've received:
1)YOU don't understand the bible....
2)there are "meanings" behind the bible(well that's fine), but ended up everybody giving me many different answers some even contradicts each other.
3)we can't know about it, it's the lord's word, so our duty is to believe in the holy bible.
4)you got to ask the pastor, I don't know.
5)what? you doubt the bible? you better not! you will go to hell!

I never will lied to you, but many christians I've asked said that slavery is OK because it's the lords word! it goes for other nasty things to.

slavery, excutions, sex with father are IMMORAL!!!! it has nothing to do with whether it's the past or future, god's word or or not! it makes people SUFFER! that's what I know about, if you also believe its OK then I really have nothing to say....

I'm seriously concern about this issue and I meant no offense. Hope to hear from you soon.
thank you  

Answer
Dear Kenny:

God does not favor incest or slavery. The stories that you mentioned are all Old Covenant stories. The entire Old Covenant was merely a partial revelation. The Old Covenant was done away with in Christ. "In other words he takes away the first covenant to establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9). God merely allowed slavery under the Old Law because the people were not sufficiently ready for the full truth that Jesus & the Holy Spirit would later bring. For example,

Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason? Haven't you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,'and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning" (Matthew 19:3-8).

In like manner slavery was allowed because of the hardness of the Israelites hearts. Slaves were treated much better under the Israelites then other peoples. At the proper time God sent His Son with the full gospel message (see Hebrews 1:1-2).

As for the incest of Genesis 19:31-36, it was not condoned by God. It was a story showing giving an example of why incest is wrong. In this case two enemies of Israel, Moab & Ammon, are born through the immoral act of incest (see vss 37 & 38).

The immoral acts of people in the Bible does not mean the God is in favor of them. If other Christians have told you this they are wrong. If they said that it is OK because it is in the Bible, I think that they are way wrong. It has to be understood properly otherwise the wrong picture of what is right & wrong will be received. God will not be understood correctly either.

Thanks for the question.

God Bless You,
Sal