Visitor: Society Determines Morality and Much Biblical Morality is Unacceptable Today

Comment: Do you believe there is an absolute morality? It appears that in the days that we live society determines morality, and it has changed quite a bit from biblical times. There is no commandment against child abuse. Very little is mentioned in the bible that protects children. But, children need special protection because they are vulnerable. There are tribal wars in the bible and ordered killing of women, children, and babies in the bible. And there are many other acts and principles that we do not accept as moral today.

Response: If there is no absolute morality then any moral judgment you make about God or the Bible or others is incoherent. If there is no objective morality, then why is our view wrong? If all morality is relative then no one's morality is better than another's, just different. Better implies an absolute standard you are appealing to. So you cannot consistently say someone else's morality is wrong unless you can show me how you know this? Either it is your personal preference or you are getting it from some ultimate authority? Don't you see the irony of your comments: In one breath you say your don't believe in moral absolutes and in the next breath you invoke them against the Bible as if you knew that your morals are correct and the Bible's are wrong. How do you know? You actually show that you do believe in moral absolutes but you cannot account for them. If you really were a consistent relativist you would celebrate our differences because everyone's truth would be equally valid, valid for them, maybe not for you.

Also I would encourage you to consider what are you trying to accomplish by telling me something I believe is immoral if you are not trying to persuade me you are right in an objective sense? If you are not trying to persuade me of the rightness of your position, then you are telling me something quite irrelevant. I frankly don't care what your personal opinion is .... it has no authority and has no bearing on reality. It is like you telling me your favorite color is purple. So what. Good for you. Mine is red.

As for your specific comments about babies, all kinds of people, including babies, not only died in Old Testament Israel, they die every day now. In fact, God takes the life of each and every one of us, young and old. This world is under God's judgment. You perhaps presume too much though ...  the post-mortem condition of the babies may be much better off with God than their life on earth with the Canaanites.  God is perfectly just, so it presumes too reach a final conclusion about the justice of God or final state of the babies in this instance  ... and contrary to your assertion about the Bible being unconcerned for children, one of the VERY REASONS God judged the Canaanites was their abuse of children and child sacrifice which was considered an abominable practice to God. (Deut 18:9-14)

Lastly, we currently do not live under a direct theocracy and are called to live as pilgrims and soujourners who bless the nations we find ourselves in...We have no command from God to go shed the blood of the nations ... on the contrary Jesus shed HIS BLOOD FOR PEOPLE from every tribe, people, NATION and language (Rev 5:0). He took the punishment we deserved for breaking God's law. So we live in an intermediate age which is a time of mercy .... a time when Jesus absorbed the wrath of God for all who believe in Him, so there is a delay in judgment and a time of mercy as He gathers His people on the earth. But don't let this time of mercy fool you into thinking that judgment will never come.  The death penalty is still valid for breaking God's law and will be enacted when the time of mercy ends. 

After you read the above if you are still interested in a particular answer regarding the genocide of the Old Testament you may see a short essay I wrote in answer to a similar question here:

Why Does the Bible Condone Genocide?

Sun, 04/27/2014 - 17:15 -- john_hendryx

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