many questions

Answer

Answered by Aaron Abadi

I'll gladly explain. Yes, God's word is eternal and unchanging. However, we need to study the texts thoroughly to properly understand God's word. A) Since the construction of a temple, the sacrificing of animals is only permitted at the Temple. The only exception allowed was by Elijah the Prophet, on one occasion under special circumstances. Your neighbors win this time. If you are commenting on the barbaric and cruel tone of these rituals, then you really need to become a bit more objective. There is clearly a spiritual world out there that we cannot see and can barely understand. We see that in people’s souls that leave them upon their death. We can't touch a soul, but we see it clearly when the person is alive. He runs, talks, walks, thinks, and so on. A minute later he is dead and there is a big peice of dead meat on the floor. Where did that soul go? What is a soul? Clearly there is spiritual world beyond our physical world. In this world there is a "nature," just like in our physical world. An animal that is sacrificed to God properly in his Temple is brought to the highest levels in that world. The best thing you can do to an animal is to bring it as a sacrifice. It certainly beats becoming a hamburger at Burger King. B) Again, you suggest sarcastically that this is barbaric. There is no law requiring you to sell your daughter. People did sell their daughter. Usually they were very poor and hoped for a better life for their child. The chances of their daughter marrying into a well-to-do family and having a comfortable life were very low. By selling her to a wealthy family, the sale includes the Master's right to marry her himself, or have his son marry her. There were very good chances for Cinderella to become a Princess. And being a Jewish slave at a Jewish home was a pretty good life. There are many restrictions on what type of work they can be given and they had to be treated extremely well. They ate the food their master ate, drank the wine he drank, slept on beds that he sleeps on, or even better. Today we would call her a "Mother's Helper." C) The contact that is prohibited is between Husband and Wife. In this morally defunct world, we have difficulty differentiating between a person's wife and every other woman. It's just a Husband and Wife issue. A man cannot touch women that are not his wife, not his daughter/granddaughter, and not his mother for other reasons. This is to keep us far from ever coming to sin. D) Today slavery is considered barbaric. Yesterday killing millions of people was sophisticated. When slavery was in, everyone had slaves. There is no law requiring you to have slaves. Thieves were often sold as slaves. Many slaves were comfortable in their environment. The laws referring to slavery dictate the laws pertaining to people who do own slaves. E) You are not allowed to kill him. He must go before the Jewish court. This would only apply in the time when we lived in our land and controlled the Country based on Jewish Law. With all the capital punishment you hear of, they barely ever came to using it. There was a saying that a Court that killed someone once in 70 years was a "Killer Court." In Singapore the law is "drug dealers will be shot." They have no drug problem there. F) Homosexuality is worse, since it calls for capital punishment. G) You don't die for this. Additionally, it is permitted to trim the hair at one's temples. The prohibition is to use a razor and cut off all the hair until there is no corner. H) Two different crop must meet specific criteria to be prohibited. The same goes for the garments. I'm certain your uncle does not meet these criteria. His cursing, although vulgar, is not the cursing referred to. There is a lot of information you are missing or just ignored. Following God's laws is a much simpler process than they would have you think. Try studying a bit more objectively and wait to understand an entire picture before passing judgment on it. AA