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Fundamentalists are forever telling us how merciful and forgiving biblegod can be. When we think of merciful and forgiving, we think of a person who, having been slighted, cheated or hurt, will forgive the "debt" owed her and not hold this against the perpetrator. She will not ask for a price but will freely forgive the offense. She is magnanimous, not vindictive. To "forgive" is defined by Webster's Dictionary as:
1 a : to give up resentment of or claim to requital for <forgive an insult> b : to grant relief from payment of <forgive a debt>
2 : to cease to feel resentment against (an offender) : PARDON <forgive one's enemies> intransitive senses : to grant forgivenessFrom: Merriam-Webster Online <http://www.m-w.com/home.htm>
Is that the way YHWH the Biblegod acts? Let's look at a few examples of YHWH's mercy and forgiveness. When Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit, not even knowing the difference between good and evil, neither being warned of the full consequence of their disobedience, here's what the Genesis tale has to say concerning "The LORD's" forgiving nature:
Genesis 3:16 ¶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 ¶ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Did YHWH forgive them? No. Was he magnanimous? No. Did he even make a concession due to the fact that he had not given them the knowledge of good and evil and had not even bothered telling them that he would curse everyone and his dog if they disobeyed? Again, no.
A Jealous god
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Hardly the picture of a magnanimous deity, is it? Even though Christians will defend their god by saying that in the next verse he states that he shows mercy "unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." This all sounds good when you read this verse by itself, but when you stop to think about it, doesn't it seem odd that Jesus said he was like his Father in heaven (John 14:9) when he stated that "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father," and that he also said his disciples should imitate him and love and forgive their enemies? (Matt. 5:43)
Furthermore, didn't this same Jesus tell his disciples that they should be "perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect?" (Matt. 5:48) After all, what have you accomplished if you only love and forgive your friends and not your enemies as well? Isn't this the way Jesus is said to have acted when he is reported to have said "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they forgive them; for they know not what they do?" (Luke 23:34) Is this the way the "Father which is in heaven" acts? I think not! He loves and forgives only them that love him. Is it any wonder that so-called "Liberal" scholars see a big difference between the god of the NT and that of the OT?
Unconditional forgiveness
As mentioned above, we are told that Jesus said we should forgive and love those who "trespass" against us. In the so-called "Lord's prayer", Jesus is reported to have taught: "And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." (Matt. 6:12) Further on (v. 14,15), Jesus says: "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Isn't it odd that on the one hand Jesus taught that we should forgive unconditionally, but that on the other, YHWH the OT god will not forgive this way, even though Jesus is supposed to have been this very same YHWH? Jesus, who was said to be our "perfect" example was, by all reports, able to forgive unconditionally, but YHWH wasn't.
Some will argue that Jesus never said that his "Father" would forgive unconditionally. I find that rather odd, since Jesus never set a condition for the forgiveness of our enemies and them that offend us, and also stated that this would be in accordance with the nature of his "Father which is in heaven," presumably YHWH the OT god. Don't you find that odd?
The price of forgiveness
One of the most repugnant teachings of the bible is the one which states that a man, Jesus, had to be sacrificed in order to "pay" for the sins of others. Not only is this repugnant but it's also quite contrary to some of the teachings in the OT. I italicized the word "some" for a good reason, as you shall see.
The OT has a few verses which express YHWH's indignation with human sacrifice, so it's rather contradictory to send "his own begotten Son" to be a human sacrifice for the sins of others, don't you think?
Jeremiah 7:31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
Jeremiah 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cauat they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
2 Chronicles 33:9 So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
This last verse is about king Manasseh, the son of king Hezekiah, who built alters in "high places" and caused his children to "pass through fire" (v.6) and be human sacrifices to another god. YHWH calls this act "worse than the heathen", but YHWH himself is said to have sacrificed his own son, Jesus, for the sins of others, when the OT teaches that each should be punished for his own sins. (Deut. 25:16; Exek. 18:20) Funny how, on the one hand, YHWH says that human sacrifice is an abomination, but on the other, he himself is guilty of it, according to the NT writers who believe that Jesus was what YHWH required in order to be propitiated. (Rom 3:25)
In the book of Acts, the author goes even further and states:
Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: icked hands have crucified and slain:
Acts 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Biblegod, according to this author, deliberately and with forethought, ordained and predestined his own son to become a human sacrifice for the sins of others. I suppose that human sacrifice is an abomination when humans do it but not when biblegod does it.
Another interesting case in the OT, concerning human sacrifice, is the one about how Jephthah vowed to sacrifice the first thing that came out of the door of his house if he returned, if "the LORD" granted his request:
Judges 11:30 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If
thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,
31 Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house
to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely
be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
[...]
34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came
out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his onlytimbrels
and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son
nor daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said,
Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them
that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go
back.
His daughter, upon learning of her father's foolish vow, asked him for some time to go "up and down the mountains" to "bewail" her virginity (v.37) before he killed her for his god, YHWH. Her father granted her wish. Such was the respect that men had for women in the OT.
If human sacrifice was such an abomination in the eyes of YHWH, why didn't he simply stop ol' Jeph from making that vow in the first place? After all, YHWH knew full well, because he is said to be omniscient, that ol' Jeph's daughter would be the first thing he would see coming out the door of his house. Oh no, we can't have that, because that would mean breaking a vow to biblegod.
Conclusion
Does YHWH the Biblegod abhor human sacrifice? Does he think it's an abomination and forbid it? Well, it depends who you read in the Bible. If it's done by us sinful humans, it's an abomination, except if you've made the kind of foolish vow ol' Jeph made. But if you're biblegod the good, anything goes. You can sacrifice every first-born in Egypt, for instance, just for the sake of your ego. You can even sacrifice your own son and his followers will think it's great and bow themselves in abject submission to you. Welcome to The Twilight Zone.
