To someone who is an agnostic because of the violence and 'backwardness' of the Old Testament

October 2005

An email to someone who is an agnostic because of the violence and 'backwardness' of the Old Testament...

Some parts have a literal meaning, some parts are metaphorical, some parts are to be
interpreted. For example, prophecies like those about the Messiah's coming are to be
interpreted. We are to interpret it by the Holy Spirit because the Bible was given by the Holy
Spirit. Yes, sometimes Christians and churches interpret it by their flesh often because they
have an agenda of greed, ambition or sin, and want justification for it.

There is no place that God justified rape and murder - can you show me a specific example?
About genocide. Yes, when the Israelites were conquering Canaan, God asked them - only in
specific battles - to destroy all and everything because of the wickedness of those specified
inhabitants. (He mentions this explicitly and lists their wickedness).

Other places, the Bible simply describes what happened inasmuch as a historian would; this
does not imply God's approval.

This is not an exact analogy (because software does not have free will) but if you wrote a
program and found it not to work as designed and would be too much effort to refactor it, you
have the unquestioned right to delete (ie. destroy) it and start over.

God could have done the same with the whole world; instead, He sent His son Jesus to die in
place of the world. No amount of living like Jesus will do it for we have all sinned and God
does not recognize the plus and minus of good works canceling out sins - it is solely our
invention. We have to accept His terms.