The Student Room Group

How do Christians defend this verse in the Bible.

'
'For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.'

So people who work on Sunday should be killed? This is the student room and I presume we all have a decent amount of intellect- so how can anyone who says the Bible is a great moral compass defend this verse, I'm actually curious for an answer. If the old testament is the sacred word of God, then how can he command such evil deeds. I do not care if you Christians follow the New testament now and disregard the OT because you can't disavow the OT and the fact of the matter is it was written by God. You can't deny that and I want someone to directly answer this.
(edited 7 years ago)

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Its not Islam so it can't possibly true that violence exists in the Bible too. What a discovery that quote will be for some.
Christians do not have to obey the laws of the Old Testament except those which are reiterated in the New Testament. Christians recognise that the Old Testament was written specifically for Israelities and Jesus' teachings overruled the Old Testament.
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math42
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As far as I'm aware Christians don't have to follow the Old Testament. What Jesus said was on the whole pretty agreeable..
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Trapz99
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Original post by ihatehannah
'
'For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.'

So people who work on Sunday should be killed? This is the student room and I presume we all have a decent amount of intellect- so how can anyone who says the Bible is a great moral compass defend this verse, I'm actually curious for an answer.


Christians don't need to obey the laws of the Old Testament. It was aimed for Israelities and was overruled by Jesus Christ. Jews still obey its laws because they believe that the Messiah has not come yet but Christians believe that the Messiah is Jesus.
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Original post by hxfsxh
Its not Islam so it can't possibly true that violence exists in the Bible too. What a discovery that quote will be for some.


Christians don't need to obey the Old Testament. It is only obeyed by Jews.
Most of the bible is a joke in my opinion. People cherry-pick the verses they like, the ones that portray the Bible as a book of love and compassion. They almost entirely omit or at least ignore the Old Testament because it's too violent and claim it's antiquated and unrepresentative of the real Christianity. Anyone who believes the Bible is a guide to morality is blatantly overlooking crucial elements of the book itself and thus are way too stubborn and adamant to be rationalized with.
I'm more interested in who Hannah is and why you hate her tbh. Please explain
This is from the Old Testament - it is not supposed to be followed by Christians today.

Even Jews, who do follow similar teachings, definitely won't kill anyone for working on Fridays!
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by cashcash871
Christians do not have to obey the laws of the Old Testament except those which are reiterated in the New Testament. Christians recognise that the Old Testament was written specifically for Israelities and Jesus' teachings overruled the Old Testament.


But the fact is that if the old testament is the sacred word of God and thought to be the word of God( this is not debatable) so how can he be commanding someone to kill someone else just for working on sunday? Many people still follow the laws of the old testament, but decide to cherry pick on what to follow and ignore the horrific verses such as this. Jesus himself said the OT was the word of God and divinely inspired.
(edited 7 years ago)
Christians don't have to follow the Old Testament, since it is outdated and does not apply to modern day faith..
Original post by ihatehannah
But the fact is that if the old testament is the sacred word of God and thought to be the word of God( this is not debatable) so how can he be commanding someone to kill someone else just for working on sunday? Many people still follow the laws of the old testament, but decide to cherry pick on what to follow and ignore the horrific verses such as this.


From my understanding of Christianity, Jesus was supposed to forgive humans for their sins, thus eliminating the need for the strictness of the OT and allow for the NT.

*anyone who actually knows this please correct if this is wrong
This is why the Bible is confusing. A lot of the Old Testament is from Jewish (mosaic) Law before Jesus. However Christians believe Jesus is the Messiah unlike Jews. Jesus criticised a lot of Old Testament laws including the consumption of foods (this is why Christians eat shellfish and pork etc.) The same sort of applies to the Sabbath. It's confusing but by the birth of Jesus he fulfils the law on Sabbath. He is "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8).

This source sort of explains it:

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Sabbath.html
Original post by ihatehannah
'
So people who work on Sunday should be killed? This is the student room and I presume we all have a decent amount of intellect- so how can anyone who says the Bible is a great moral compass defend this verse, I'm actually curious for an answer.


Interesting question. Here's the answer:


The bible is not the Koran. We don't follow every single word.

The Church is a living thing, not a dead one. It changes and so do we.

Obviously some things stay the same, but many don't.


It's quite a common straw man argument that I've come across.

Atheist: "How can you believe x ridiculous thing in the bible?!"

Christian: "We don't."

Atheist: "You're so crazy for believing x ridiculous thing in the bible!"


SS
Original post by ihatehannah
'
'For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.'

So people who work on Sunday should be killed? This is the student room and I presume we all have a decent amount of intellect- so how can anyone who says the Bible is a great moral compass defend this verse, I'm actually curious for an answer.


There are three parts to the OT laws, civil, ceremonial and moral. This verse comes under the civil part (the part pertaining to the Israelites under a theocratic government) therefore it has been invalidated and no longer applied after Christ's death under the cross. Not only is not applicable due to the fact that there is not a theocracy in government but also because the laws of the OT were for the Israelites at that time to maintain a relationship before God without Sin. Christs death did that for us in the NT therefore there is no need for the laws of the OT any further.

The laws of the OT also had another purpose, to show just how high God's standards of sinlessness were and also to show humans could never attain righteousness with God without Christ
Original post by TelAviv
From my understanding of Christianity, Jesus was supposed to forgive humans for their sins, thus eliminating the need for the strictness of the OT and allow for the NT.

*anyone who actually knows this please correct if this is wrong


You are bang on :smile:
Original post by Supersaps
Interesting question. Here's the answer:


The bible is not the Koran. We don't follow every single word.

The Church is a living thing, not a dead one. It changes and so do we.

Obviously some things stay the same, but many don't.


It's quite a common straw man argument that I've come across.

Atheist: "How can you believe x ridiculous thing in the bible?!"

Christian: "We don't."

Atheist: "You're so crazy for believing x ridiculous thing in the bible!"


SS


But if the Bible is the Word of God and the way to salvation, should you not follow it literally and word for word??? Why do you have the right to cherry pick what to follow when God is clearly telling you what to do. So one verse in the Bible can be wrong, so you do not have to follow it and others are not so let's follow that. Most importantly, how can a omni-benevolent God condone slavery, genocide and as I mentioned above- killing someone just for working on sunday.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by ihatehannah
'
Original post by ihatehannah

'For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.'

So people who work on Sunday should be killed? This is the student room and I presume we all have a decent amount of intellect- so how can anyone who says the Bible is a great moral compass defend this verse, I'm actually curious for an answer.


It is a sin, the wage for sin is death.

I don't think it meant they chop there heads off.

It means they are forfeiting there everlasting life.

Ezekiel 18:20 - King James Version (KJV)

The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

Romans 6:23 - King James Version (KJV)

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The old testament is more harder to understand than the New. The New supersedes the Old don't forget.

In the old they had to make sacrifices to the lord, in the new Jesus is the sacrifice.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by ihatehannah
'
'For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.'

So people who work on Sunday should be killed? This is the student room and I presume we all have a decent amount of intellect- so how can anyone who says the Bible is a great moral compass defend this verse, I'm actually curious for an answer.


Jesus recounted some of the old testament doctrines in the new testement. These laws were put in place before the dispensation of grace where there was no complete Bible.
You'd have to study the whole Bible to fully understand all the verses and doctrines inside it.
Original post by ihatehannah
But if the Bible is the Word of God and the way to salvation, should you not follow it literally and word for word??? Why do you have the right to cherry pick what to follow when God is clearly telling you what to do. So one verse in the Bible can be wrong, so you do not have to follow it and others are not so let's follow that.


Because it says in the Bible itself that the old system (i.e: the OT laws) are no longer applicable because of Jesus

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