Does God condemn pedophilia, rape, or self-defense?
Question:
I saw your web posting about "Animal Rights and the Bible." I am glad to know there are people like you out there who can boldly say you hold God's word as the ultimate authority. Many Christians today twist God's word to fit their own feelings and forbid what God has not forbidden. I have been sad to see such writings online. Your writing came as fresh breath.
Especially in sexual matters, Christians make up their own laws ignoring what God has allowed. I was saddened by the hypocritical Christians who condemned the founder of Islam Mohammed as a pedophile. I was shocked. Nowhere in the Bible pedophilia is pronounced as a sin. Who are we to forbid what God has not forbidden?
Similarly, a guy who raped a single girl has to either marry the girl or pay a fine to her father. But even Christians want such a person to rot in jail forever. They are more righteous than God!!! What ignorance! Also, Jesus raised standards to a higher level. If a guy rapes my daughter or my wife, Jesus has given me only one choice "Forgive him." I have no right to take him to a court or try to punish him. But Christians have ignored every such teaching. If a guy tries to rape a Christian girl, she can try to run away or has to give up herself to him. She has no right to harm him in the name of self-defense. Jesus is very clear about such things. Our reward will be in heaven. I can go on and on and on.
It is extremely sad that Christians have drifted so far away from the Bible. Now after seeing your bold writings I get hopes. Please write about these sexual matters too and show Christians what God has allowed and what God expects from Christians.
May your good work continue! Thank you so much.
Answer:
I'm glad you understand that we take the Bible seriously and teach as God instructed because I must take you to task for your erroneous beliefs.
A pedophile is a person who is sexually aroused by children. To have a lust for someone to whom you are not married is condemned in the Bible. "I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced" (II Corinthians 12:21). To have sex with someone to whom you are not married is also a sin, called fornication.
Mohammad did have sexual relations with a nine-year-old girl. "Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated that the Prophet (may the blessing and peace of Allah be upon him) married her when she was six years old, and he consummated her in marriage when she was nine years old. Then she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." [Sahih Al-Bukhari, Dr. Muhammad Matraji, tr. (New Delhi: Islamic Book Service, 2002)] From the Muslim's point of view this was a legitimate marriage. But from the Christian's point of view, this was at the minimum adultery since Aisha was not Mohammad's first or only wife.
However, in every civilized country, a fifty-three-year-old man having sex with a nine-year-old girl is condemned, and with just cause. Not only is sex and the potential for pregnancy dangerous for such a young child, but we also recognize that a nine-year-old is not mature enough to give consent. Children have not developed a sense of right and wrong. "Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it" (Deuteronomy 1:39). Therefore, a child cannot make a vow, including a marriage vow (Numbers 30:3-5).
The argument that pedophilia is not specifically condemned as sin doesn't hold water. The Bible states to tell us everything concerning godliness and life. "As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue" (II Peter 1:3). Thus, to claim that something is not in the Bible is equivalent to saying that it doesn't fall into the category of life and godliness; in other words, it would be a sin. To claim that pedophilia is acceptable requires a person to prove from the Bible that it is acceptable. Since by your own statement it is not possible, the result is that it is condemned. "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it" (Deuteronomy 12:32).
Since rape is by its very nature fornication, it stands condemned. Under the Old Testament, there were a variety of punishments. The rape of a married woman or an engaged woman was an automatic death sentence. "If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die - the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel. If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you. But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter. For he found her in the countryside, and the betrothed young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her." (Deuteronomy 22:22-27). This passage covers both consensual sex and rape. Consensual sex (adultery) was punished by death for both the man and the woman. Rape was punished by death for the man only.
In the case of an unengaged woman, the law again deals with consensual and rape. "If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days" (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). "If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride-price of virgins" (Exodus 22:16-17). Here no distinction is made, likely because it would be difficult to prove whether the act was consensual or not. Instead, the father of the young woman has the choice of forcing a marriage. If he chooses marriage, then the man must pay the dowry price (which is roughly what a man could save up in seven years of common labor) and he is denied the right to divorce his wife. If the father refuses to allow a marriage, which is likely in the case of rape, the man still must pay the dowry price as a fine.
In the New Testament, punishment for crimes is turned over to the state. "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Romans 13:1-4). If your country's choice for punishing rapist is a life sentence, then as Christians we submit to the governing authority. This silliness of condemning a government for doing its God-given duty and claiming that they are trying to be more righteous than God is false!
Christians are told to forgive people who repent of their sins. "Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him" (Luke 17:3). Automatic forgiveness regardless of a person's desire for forgiveness is not taught in the New Testament. See the lessons, "Unconditional Love" and "Forgiveness" for passages about this.
The Bible does not condemn self-defense or the defense of others. See "A Bible and a Gun" and "Vengeance" for details on this matter. The idea that any young woman has to consent to be raped is sickening.
Question:
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I can see that we have a different understanding of these matters.
I strongly believe that pedophilia and rape of a single girl are allowed by God. I don't dare try to explain God's word according to what my small brain and my feelings tell me. I don't question His wisdom just because I feel something against it. I don't wonder "How God allowed such a sick thing" because I know God knows better than me. So I just accept His word as it is.
The governments may forbid what God hasn't forbidden because they don't know any better. I agree that we have to respect the laws of the land we are living in as St.Paul has said because otherwise there would be chaos. But as a Christian, I won't say a pedophile or a rapist of a single girl is a sinner. I will say the same even if the girl is my daughter. I can't put my daughter above God's word. The government may punish people who commit these things but God won't punish them on the judgment day because God judges according to His word. And no Christian has a right to judge and condemn those God hasn't condemned. As a Christian, I think it is my duty to declare what God has taught us no matter what the government laws say.
So I will say what Mohammed did was perfectly all right in God's sight. And a Christian has no right to attack anyone in the name of self-defense. Jesus is very clear about that. I won't try to explain God's words and give them some other meaning to fit my own wishes. So I don't want to read the explanations which try to give other meanings to God's words. I don't care if the whole world shouts "It is sick" when God doesn't say so. I would rather be the lone guy in the world who humbled himself before the word than aligning myself with the majority.
I was glad that I saw someone who has the courage to tell the truth as it is. But I guess I was wrong. I won't give up. I know I will soon see one of those "seven thousand" who still hold the word above everything else.
Answer:
My point is that you are teaching contrary to God and are deeply in sin as the result. You are proclaiming the right to engage in the lusts of the flesh, a clear mark of a false teacher.
"But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage" (II Peter 2:12-19).
While I laid out a clear case showing that your stance was contrary to God's teaching, you rejected it without scriptural proof, and even congratulate yourself in refusing to examine the issue. Well did Solomon peg your type: "A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart" (Proverbs 18:2).
My prayer is that the Almighty protects all the innocents from your perverse ways.
