Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Vote, and then explain why you hold that belief. I am assuming that no one is going to be "pro-stealing" or "pro-murder", so this is really an "all of them" vs "some of them". I'll hold my opinions until later because I don't want to unduly influence people's vote.
Here are the Unabridged commandments as a reference, taken from bible-knowledge.com
The 10 commandments come from Exodus 20:1-17. Here is the verse:
And God spoke all these words, saying: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
1) You shall have no other Gods before me.
2) You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3) You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5) Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6) You shall not murder.
7) You shall not commit adultery.
8) You shall not steal.
9) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s."
We should try to the best of our abilities, yes. Jesus said He didn't come to do away with the Law but to fulfill it. Means we still need to do our best.
Obviously, I see no need to structure my life to follow some bronze age priest's idea of right and wrong.
To sample a few things, our society is built around coveting. Sometimes this leads to bad things, but other times to good.
Adultery is ok if all parties involved agree to it.
Stealing is relative. It is ok to steal when the harm to the property owner is low, and the need great. Look at the 'looters' after hurricane Katrina. Stealing bottled water from a closed Walmart so that they might have a basic necessity of life.
Blasphemy? Give me a break. That is such a non-issue that it is not really worth commenting upon.
Honoring father and mother? This is situational. What if your father is an abusive sexual predator?
I really don't have a problem with following the 10 commandments. Not to say it's always easy, my issue would be lying!!:eek Those times when it would hurt someone,when my kids ask about the 70's just glad my husband never asks how many shoes I own!!
The 10 commandments are to keep us on a forward road and they give us respect for our selves and each other. My dad always says stay true to your self and to this day these words are of wisdom to me.
I have been told even if you break one commandment you have broken them all. Only by the grace of God and excepting "HIS SON" is the best way to assure yourself of wanting and being able to follow HIS commandments.
As a believer and child of God I try my best and know HE will be there to let me know if I have screwed up!!!
The purpose of the 10 Commandments was to show us we need a savior because we cannot keep all of them. Matt 5:17" Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings or the prophets, no I came to fulfill them".
Even "Thou shalt not kill" has exceptions. Self defense is a legitimate reason to kill someone. I'd agree with 5,7,8 and 9 because I was lucky enough to have good parents who deserve respect. As stretch pointed out, not everyone is that fortunate.
Even "Thou shalt not kill" has exceptions. Self defense is a legitimate reason to kill someone. I'd agree with 5,7,8 and 9 because I was lucky enough to have good parents who deserve respect. As stretch pointed out, not everyone is that fortunate.
minor point... but I think what you say is already covered.
The commandment says "murder" not "kill". Sure, there are some (thankfully rare) reasons to take another's life. If there wasn't, then God would be evil for having people die of "natural" causes.
Vote, and then explain why you hold that belief. I am assuming that no one is going to be "pro-stealing" or "pro-murder", so this is really an "all of them" vs "some of them".
2) You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
5) Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
I do not think it is possible to strictly obey all of the time, which is why God provided attonement as part of the covenant and why Jesus became a living sacrifice under the new covenent in the New Testament.
I do believe it should be attempted.
I have some question on the wording presented for 2 and 5. I was taught that 2 pertained to idol worship, while the text also seems to indicate any type of artistic carving would be prohibited as well. I had not encountered that intrepretation before.
My understanding of the term honor used in 5 is not the same as the word obey which is how it is usually intrepreted. Honor was used more in a way to indicate your behavior was properly reflective of your parents teaching and upbringing. It would closer to saying "Make me proud" than an admonishion to obey under any circumstance. I recall a theologian once speculated that a child could do his father more honor by showing his father that he (the child) had learned how to be an honest and ethical person by refusing to obey an unethical request in a moment of weakness. In that way, disobedience would be the best way to honor his father.
I have problems with centralized religion imposing exclusivity upon its flock because in my opinion I think the only reason that exclusivity exists is for the enrichment and benefit of individuals wielding power within the hierarchy of the religion. They want followers b/c it translates into power and money. In order to get them, they deliver threats, if you don't believe me and only me, you will suffer a great turmoil when you die. Oooo. I don't want turmoil. I'll believe you. Or, I don't believe you . . . then that centralized religion imposes that great turmoil during the life of the disbeliever with violence.
I see no purpose for that exclusivity that benefits a supreme being that is beyond human in characteristics. I think when we look at the kind of people we would like to be, a lot of these centralized religions' deities (I'd say almost all of them) don't share the high level of traits that we shoot for. They're jealous, power hungry, they suffer from needs and wants, there are conditions for their favor and they react instead of acting unconditionally. Most of these religions are ancient, and it just seems like the deities emerged as a reflection of man's understanding of the world and society at the time. In early civilizations, leaders were anointed or conquered -- kings, emperors, etc. Over time, society evolved where leaders emerged peacefully. Yet most religions still seem to preserve that sort of ancient concept of a leader -- one who is ultracompetitive and threatened, one who wields his status with force and demands exclusive obedience.
I've concluded I can't have faith in religions who are defined by a centralized hierarchy and have histories where that hierarchy has acted aggregiously in the name of that religion. If the religion is first, if man's view of God/whomever is first, then your fellow man is not, and that is a threat to the good part of our humanity. See the Crusades, Genghis Khan, wars and violent conversions as examples. In each instance, religion blinded people from their humanity. Perhaps not because of the religion itself, but the centralized hierarchy, which, unfortunately is inextricable from most religions.
The rules that aren't tied to the specific religion, those rules are very important, as evidenced by the fact that most religions share them. Which brings me to what I hope is my final point. I think there's something to be said for the shared values that arise independently around the world. And it's incredibly myopic imo to believe that only one of those religions has exclusive access to the "path." Maybe myopic is too strong, but I don't see the logic in it.
And one thing I do believe in, is that in the end, the answers to how this all turns out will not conflict with certain basic rational truths as well as the laws of physics. I don't believe that, in the end, science and spirituality will conflict, but they will go hand in hand. It may be beyond our understanding (which is distinct from saying that it directly conflicts with our understanding), just like UV rays are beyond our visible spectrum. Our eyes will never be able to see UV rays for what they are, just like we probably will never be able to fully understand the laws of how spirituality works. If that makes any sense...
I know I'm just getting silly as the night goes on, but reading the OP, all I could think of was "History of the World, Part I". Moses is holding up these clay tablets and he announces in a booming voice, "God has given us these 15..." and one tablet falls out of his hands and smashes and he goes, "...10 commandments!"
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
just glad my husband never asks how many shoes I own!!
