TC is not aware of the new covenant, and the fact that the text he cited was written for the Jews of that time, which was thousands of years ago.
Christianity is, in fact, not a bad ideology. And if practiced properly, it would have nothing but a positive effect in our world.
"practiced properly" is entirely subjective, though.
destrian522 posted...
Asherlee10 posted...
destrian522 posted...
I can give you a theological answer. The laws of the Old Testament are still generally applicable for Christians. The punishments are not. That was the whole point of Jesus's birth and death. The established punishment for sin is death (one's own or in many cases blood sacrifice). Jesus was killed to pay that price indefinitely.
So yeah, if you stone someone for violating a law, you're a murderer.
As an aside, there is a difference between law and custom, and Paul makes it clear that following Jewish custom isn't necessary for Christians. Your example regarding idol worship is a law, though.
I think I'm even more confused now. How do you decide, as a Christian, which part of the OT is supposed to be followed or taken seriously?
There are so many conflicting answers in this topic.
All of it. It is confusing, though, because like with most reading you aren't going to get a complete picture without context, and it's so old that context can be difficult to establish.
I think the "official" Christian answer would be to read corporately and supplement with research into history and commentaries and prayer. If you read by yourself and assume that every passage is literally a commandment telling you do to something, you will walk away with many harmful ideas. Extremism exists when people elect not to use their brains and let a poor or incorrect understanding dominate their decision-making.
This seems so subjective that I don't think it's wise for people (especially in this topic) to express their opinions as truth, then. One person says OT should be ignored, another says it should be evaluated a certain way, etc.
It's not subjective. It's objective, and people will be varying degrees of right or wrong. Truth isn't relative, regardless of the religion one espouses, or lack thereof. That's just an excuse for legitimizing harmful ideology.
I'm not suggesting that you should believe certain things. Rather, I was providing information on the religion about which you were asking questions. I'll stop now. ---