First of all, I have never revealed this to anyone, but this particular passage in the bible was the straw that broke the camel's back. This made me renounce Christianity altogether. I and a friend used to have this bible questions discussions and so from time to time I would bring up a bible question or something that was bugging me in the bible so that she could answer. And truth be told, this my friend who I shall term as "Goddess" was usually on point when it came to answering bible questions. She did her best to answer my questions about the bible, so on a certain day I discovered this passage in 2 Samuel 12. I had read this passage so many times, but never took the time to really meditate on it, so as usual I brought this passage to the notice of "Goddess" and for the first time in our religious discussion history she did not have an answer. She flatout told me that "controversy, I honestly do not have an answer to this" I thank God that "goddess" is one of those sincere christians who say the truth no matter what.And with this introduction I present this blog post to you.
P.S. So as I was about to post this blogpost, I open my email and staring right at me is an email from my aunty. Who I shall call "Aunty O". Aunty "O" is my favorite aunty and apparently she's discovered that I've become a deist. Surprisingly, I am not worried about whether Aunty O will seek to inform my parents that their "First son" has turned into a deist. My parents are btw, firebrand christians. I am quite relieved, I knew that this day would surely come I do not agree with my parents religion, and it's about time that they know about that. I believe that every man/woman must do two things alone in this world, he/she must do their own believing and their own dying. Anywayz BACK TO THE MAIN POST.
The question is "Is God obligated to follow the laws he himself laid down for us to follow? Or can he flout them whenever he chooses? Does he rule arbitrarily and are we forbidden to question his laws even when he himself fails to obey them? Why is it that so many Christians strongly believe that God should be able to get away with anything? If God kills, lies, cheats, discriminates, and otherwise behaves in a manner that puts the Mafia to shame, that's okay, he's God. He can do whatever he wants.But anyone else who adheres to this same philosophy is said to have had his/her sense of morality, decency, justice and humaneness warped beyond recognition by the very book that is supposedly preaching the opposite.
And I ask you, are we truly all equal in God's eyes? Lets be honest, everyone preaches that everybody is equal in the eyes of the Lord, but is that really the case? Take for example, the book of Deuteronomy 24:16. Where God explicitly commands/states that "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin"
Fast-forward to 2 Samuel 12, God apparently does a roundabout when he kills/murders the innocent child of King David after David had Uriah the husband of his current wife Bethsheeba killed.This is what Nathan the prophet told David
2 Samuel 12 - 13
"For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
13And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
My fundamental problem with this passage is the very clear and straightforward fact that God cut David some very serious slack and openly flouted his own Law that he himself had created. The child did not deserve to die for the crimes of David. David committed the crime, David deserved to pay for it by himself. Common sense tells we humans, that we do not punish somebody else for the crimes of another, that is totally wrong and if we humans created by God have been able to come to that very same conclusion. Why would God go ahead and break his own law, so that he could protect David? Was David that great a man, that the almighty himself was forced to break a law on his behalf? When Moses disobeyed God by striking the "rock" in exodus God punished him by not letting him into the promised land, when Jonah refused to obey God's orders to go to Ninevah in the book of Jonah, God also punished him by putting him in the belly of a whale for three whole days. When Paul, persecuted Christians in the new testament, God struck him blind for three days. The sins all these people committed ultimately "pale" in comparison to that of King David. Kind David murdered a man, a husband and moreover a God fearing man and King David got to escape scot free. His new born baby had to bear the brunt of his punishment, when God had explicitly stated that the "children will never pay for the sins of the father".
In conclusion, if any one of you can provide me with a clear/succint explanation to this question, I might gradually start to regain faith again.
BY CONTROVERSY
