CelticBear’s Musings

One of the comics I put up in my last post:

points up one of the many foundational conflicts within Christianity:
Luke 14:26: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” (NASB)

and Mat. 10:35: “For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;” (RSV)

So, hate your parents (or, at least, be prepared to hate your parents and absolve all family ties,) in order to follow Jesus.
Yet…according to the Law God gave Moses, if a son rebells against his father, the son is to be killed (Deut 21:18-21.)

But that’s Old Law you say. Except wait:
God: Psalm 119:151-2 The commandments are Truth (assumption: God’s Truth is everlasting and immutable otherwise there’s not “absolutism” one can hang their hat on.)

God: Psalm 119:160: “The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” (Well, is it, or isn’t it?)

Jesus: Matthew 5:18-19: “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others {to do} the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches {them,} he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Uh oh, sounds like “God on earth” is saying we must still sell our daughters, keeps slaves, and kill family members for minor infractions.)

Jesus: Luke 16:17: “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.”

Well that settles it. Jesus himself said even the smalled of God’s Laws in the Old Testament must be observed. Whose to disagree with God on earth? So follow Jesus and hate your father, and be prepared to be stoned for doing so by people following God’s Law.

(I would so love to see the mental gymnastics and cognitive dissonance an apologist would have to go through to explain this one.)