What Does the New Testament Say About Violence?

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I have recently finished reading the New Testament and I am collecting my thoughts about what I read in this series of posts. Today I am writing about what the New Testament says about violence. Other entries in this series:

1. Slavery
2. The Apocalypse
3. Women

Often Christians will claim that the words of Jesus are of paramount importance when it comes to determining what we should learn from reading the bible. Given that their religion is named after him, this seems somewhat reasonable, so let's start our exploration of violence in the new testament by examining what Jesus himself says. In Matthew 26:52 Jesus explains that you should put down your sword, because those who live by the sword will die by the sword. A pretty clear anti-violence message it would seem, and with a good reason; if you are a violent person, you are likely do be met with violence. But as often happens in the Bible we get some mixed signals here. In both Matthew 10:34-39 and Luke 12:51 Jesus says that he does not bring peace to the earth, but a sword. I'm not 100% sure what this means, but he certainly seems to be advocating some type of violence here.

I would like to explore Paul's writing next, as he wrote a huge number of the books of the new testament. We can start with 1 Timothy 1:9-10 which names people who attack their parents as well as murderers in a list of bad people. Paul also argues that we should not repay evil for evil in 1 Peter 3:8-9 as well as 1 Thessalonians 5:15. With these instructions, Paul is saying the old law of eye for an eye is a thing of the past. Hilariously, in 2 Thessalonians 1:6 (the very next page in my bible) Paul states that God considers eye for an eye just. How is that for mixed signals?

If you are inclined to focus on the anti-violence verses, you might think that the message is that we should not only avoid violence with others, but we should actually wish everyone well. You might cite Matthew 5:44 which says that we should love our enemies. While this does sound quite good, it is contradicted in the bible as well, in 1 Thessalonians 2:16 Paul seems to delight in the fact that his enemies will be punished by God. Granted, he is not attacking them himself, but he is reveling in the fact that they are being punished. Similarly, in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 those Paul writes that those who do not know God will receive vengeance from God, and again there seems to be a sense of glee from the author.

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As we continue to focus on to divine violence the message gets much more clear. In Hebrews 1:13 and Hebrews 10:12-13 there is mention of Jesus making his enemies into footstools. He's going above and beyond simple violence and is humiliating his enemies. And of course there is all of the horrible imagery from Revelation. We see God threaten to kill people if they don't follow him in Revelation 2:15-16 and we see him start to follow through with this plan in Revelation 6:4,8 by releasing the horsemen of the apocalypse. And simply killing them is certainly not enough, in Revelation 14:20 God put a huge number of people in a giant winepress and killed them all, producing a river of blood 184 miles long. Just...why? But even killing people is not enough for God, in Revelation 9:5-6 he torments people to the point that they wish they were dead, but he doesn't allow them to die, instead he would prefer that they are tortured for five months. But torturing people for five months is clearly just the beginning with God, we see in Revelation 14:10-11 and Revelation 19:20-21 that God has no qualms about providing someone with an eternity of torture.

When it comes to violence down on the earthly realm, the bible just seems to serve up a big pile of mixed messages. This to me is worse than having nothing. If both sides of an issue can each find a verse to support their position, everyone will think they are supported by God and progress toward some kind of agreement will basically impossible. When we consider violence on the part of God, we get a pretty clear picture of the nature of God, although it is probably not the God that most people envision.

What Does the New Testament Say About Women?

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I have recently finished reading the New Testament and I am collecting my thoughts about what I read in this series of posts. Today I am writing about what the New Testament says about women. Other entries in this series:

1. Slavery
2. The Apocalypse

We might as well start this off with 1 Timothy 2:12, which says in no uncertain terms that women are not allowed to hold authority over a man, ever. The only way a woman is allowed to hold any position of authority is if there are only women subordinate to her. It seems reasonable to assume that 'man' doesn't include male children, so I suppose women could be teachers, but they probably need to be careful of teaching high school aged boys, who knows where the cutoff between man and boy is exactly. 1 Timothy 2:12 goes further to say women should "remain quiet" and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 builds on this saying it is shameful for women to speak in church. If there is anything they want to learn they can ask their husbands when they get home.

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Titus 2:3-5 specifically addresses older women and tells them that if they are not irreverant, slanderers, or drunks they should teach the younger women. What should they teach them? Obviously to "love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands". Telling women to love their children seems unnecessary, but in this society I suppose they might need to tell women to love their husbands. The rest of it seems like a stereotypical picture of a "good wife", now why is it that the women should act this way? According to this verse, it is to reflect well on the religion. It's not for the woman's benefit, it's not even for the husbands, although he certainly benefits here, the motivation is to benefit the church.

But it's not just the passage from Titus which tells women to be submissive to their husbands, 1 Peter 3:1,5, 1 Corinthians 11:3, Colossians 3:18, and Ephesians 5:22-23 all give this same message, that women should be submissive to their husbands. But it is not just that, women are clearly portrayed as second class citizens in other ways. 1 Timothy 5:13 says that young women are gossips and busybodies, so they need to be married and have children to stop this behavior. 2 Timothy 3:6 says that women are weak, burdened with sin, and led astray by passions. Finally, in Revelation 20:2 a bride is portrayed as a gift from her father to her new husband, clearly the woman is being portrayed as a commodity.

But it's not all bad for women, in exchange for all of that Ephesians 5:25 instructs husbands to love their wives. Well that pretty much balances things.

What Does the New Testament Say About the Apocalypse?

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I have recently finished reading the New Testament and I am collecting my thoughts about what I read in this series of posts. Today I am writing about what the New Testament says about the apocalypse. Other entries in this series:

1. Slavery

My primary concern with this post is when the apocalypse will happen. Ideally, I would be able to post a complete list of new testament verses that reference the end times, however, the specific purposes of my bible reading evolved a bit over the year and this is not something I had my eye on at the beginning. It is entirely possible that there are more verses that I have missed, especially early on. However, I have plenty of material here, so there is little harm.

The first verse that I have which mentions the return of Jesus is 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16 will happen before those in the crowd die. Unless someone in that crowd has a life span of at least 2000 years, I think this verse is pretty well busted. At the time of reading 1 Thessalonians, I hadn't started consulting the Christian commentaries yet. I was curious how this particular problem would be solved and looked up Guzik's article. He focuses on the fact that those who happen to be alive will not get favoritism over those who died before the event. To address the fact that the apocalypse would occur before they died, he said that Paul was setting up expectancy in the church, it is supposedly good for churches of all ages to expect an imminent return of Jesus. So Paul wasn't wrong, he was just lying to the future church? Seems to be a pretty poor defense to me. This mentality will be reflected in the next point.

There are a huge number of verses that simply mention that the apocalypse is coming very soon. 2 Timothy 1:12,18, James 5:3,8, 1 Peter 4:7, 1 John 2:18, Jude 18-19, Revelation 1:1,3, Revelation 3:2,3, Revelation 3:10-11, Revelation 22:6,7,10,12,20. What exactly does very soon mean? It never gives a specific amount of time, so arguments could be made for all kinds of different time frames, even years, but millennia? I find it hard to accept that a perfect God would be that sloppy with his communication. Not surprisingly, the theists have an answer for this, and also not surprisingly, I find the answer unsatisfactory. Guzik advanced the idea a number of times that the Greek word that "very soon" is translated from means quickly, not soon. So what the verses really mean is not that the end is about to happen, but that once it starts to happen it will happen quickly. I addressed this best in Revelation 1 with help from the lexicon, in short, there are some verses where this defense might hold up, but others where the Greek word clearly does mean soon, and not quickly. Furthermore, as we see in Revelation 13, the beast is allowed to rule for three and a half years. I would hardly say that is particularly quick.

Another argument that Guzik puts forward multiple times involves an analogy of the apocalypse as going over a cliff. He says that we are not running toward a cliff's edge, but instead we are running alongside a cliff, and at any moment we could make a left turn and fall off. In this way we are always on the edge, although we might be on that edge for thousands of years. I must say that I find this argument beyond silly. There is a big difference between "you could fall at any moment" which is what Guzik seems to be proposing here, and "you will fall off soon" which is what actually seems to be contained in the bible.

I am mostly interested in the timing of the apocalypse for this post, but while we are talking about it, what are the end times like? The only place where this is really explored is in Revelation, and it is pretty hard to know exactly how much of that is supposed to be taken literally. But the clear point of the story is that anyone who is not on God's side (including those who were tricked into following Satan) will suffer a very violent and painful end followed by an eternity in a lake of fire. This message is very hard to square with a loving God.

What Does the New Testament Say About Slavery?

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I have recently finished reading the New Testament and I am collecting my thoughts about what I read in this series of posts. As this is the first post, I obviously can't link to any other posts in this series, unless of course you are reading this in the future and I have come back and edited things. I figured, why not start off with a bang and look at what the New Testament says about Slavery?

When looking back on the noteworthy verses in the New Testament which mention slavery, the first question I wanted to answer is how many of them seem to cast slavery into a bad light. I have heard the statement from atheists a number of times that there is not a single verse admonishing slavery, and given that I have never seen a Christian counter that statement with an example, it seems pretty credible. Nevertheless, I looked for such verses and found a few potential candidates. These verses aren't particularly strong, I'm not surprised Christians don't try to use them as a defense, but they deserve to be looked at nonetheless.

The first is 1 Timothy 1:9-10 which puts "enslavers" in a list of various kinds of evil people along side the unlawful, ungodly, murderers and homosexuals as well as a few other groups. This passage casts these people in a bad light and seems to say that those who engage in these activities are generally bad people. However, given that it is thrown in a big list of bad things, and it doesn't go so far as to explicitly say to stop enslaving people, this verse isn't very effective on it's own to argue that the bible is against slavery. 

There is one other incident in Philemon where Paul tries to argue that Onesimus should be released from slavery. I could imagine someone advancing the idea that this is an argument against slavery in general, but this would be a fairly dishonest interpretation of the scripture in my opinion. I think it is pretty clear that the plea from Paul was about a single slave who he cared for on a personal level, rather than a broader statement on slavery in general.

As far as I noticed, that is the extent of the verses in the new testament that can even be manipulated to have an anti-slavery message to them. It's possible that there are other verses like the 1 Timothy verse that slid under my radar, but it is hard to imagine any bigger statements that passed me by. 

What about the other side of the coin? Are there any clear messages that the New Testament says about slavery? The strongest message seems to be a message to the slaves themselves that they should be obedient to their masters. Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22, 1 Timothy 6:1, and Titus 2:9 all give this exact message, 1 Peter 2:18 takes it a step farther and tells slaves that they should treat their masters with respect even if the master is unjust. This verse speaks volumes, it doesn't give an example of behavior that the slave should put up with that I have come along 2000 years later and decided was unjust. It says that unjust treatment (according to their metrics of that time) should be considered acceptable when a slave is the recipient.

Everything isn't directed at the slaves though, the slave masters have some instructions as well. Ephesians 6:9 tells the master that he should stop threatening his slaves, the reason behind this instruction seems to be that he should know his place, and his relationship with God should be the same as his slaves relationship with him. A similar message is seen in Colossians 4:1. There you have it, this religion explicitly says it wants to make slaves out of it's members.

One final example, there is a story in Galatians 4:21-31 which involves Abraham and his two sons, one from a slave and one from a free woman. In the story the slave woman and her child were cast out in order that her son would not take any of the inheritance, this action is applauded as "we are not children of the slave". Abraham is a monster in this story, he throws a woman and her child (his child!) out on the street. He should be railed against, not applauded. It would seem that these people thought of as slaves merely property to be discarded when it is convenient. Slaves are so low, that it is appropriate to abandon them even when they are your own children.

Christians will often try to claim that the New Testament did not endorse slavery, or that slavery in the bible was a very different thing from what we think of today. I think the verses I provided today demonstrate pretty well that such claims are woefully misinformed in the best case, and downright dishonest in the worst.

8% of Irish Catholics are Atheists

Last summer I was listening to a podcast (can't remember which one) and it was mentioned that 8% of Irish Catholics don't believe in God. I assumed I misheard things as that sounds completely crazy to me, but I made a note to look it up later and then forgot about it until I found the note earlier this week. After a quick google search, I arrived at the following news story which confirms that 8% of Irish Catholics do not believe in God.

The article references a survey and has a ton of interesting numbers. In addition to 8% actually being atheists, 15% "do not believe that Jesus is the son of God", so they are not Christians. I find it strange that these people even call themselves catholic. I'm sure it is for the social aspect, in the same way that many Jews are culturally Jewish but don't really believe any of the supernatural stuff. I wonder what labels they would find acceptable, culturally catholic, catholic atheist? Would they be offended by such labels? It's a shame the article didn't go into more detail on this, I would love to see an in depth interview with one of these people.

What Next?

So the new testament is done, you might be asking yourself what is next for this blog. I started the blog with Matthew for various reasons (primarily to avoid the "that's just the old testament" defense) and now it is time to circle back and read the old testament. Long term I plan to read the book of Mormon and the Koran as well, but that is years away so it's not worth thinking too hard about just yet.

Before I start in with the old testament though, I am going to do a series of posts about what I read in the new testament. I will take various topics and look at what is said about it across the entire new testament. I would like to see what topics have a somewhat consistent message and which ones have verses which support opposite positions on an issue. I am not sure how many of these posts I will do (still organizing), but it looks like I will have about 2 weeks worth of this type of material.

One other thing I wanted to point out, I have combined all of the verses from the overview posts into a single page and put a link to it at the bottom of the new testament list on the side bar. I originally made this list as a source for the next couple weeks of posts, but I realized other people might be interested in it as well. I doubt anyone will just browse through the list, however if you are trying to find some half remembered verse from my overviews, they are now all on one page. Perfect for Ctrl+F. I'm not sure if anyone else will find this useful, but I've already used it once :) I think when I do the old testament I'm going to build up such a list slowly as we go.

Revelation Overview

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At the end of each book in the bible I take a look at all of the noteworthy verses at one time and try to take an overall view of what was contained within. Here is what caught my eye in Revelation. I've dispensed with grouping them according to good and bad, but looking over it there is basically nothing good in here unless you think the destruction of the "evil people" is positive thing.

--Afterlife--

Revelation 7:15 Heaven is serving God day and night

"Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple"

--Apocalypse--

Revelation 1:1,3 The end is near

"must soon take place", "the time is near"

Revelation 3:2,3 The end is near, although you can't be sure exactly when

"strengthen what remains and is about to die...I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you."

Revelation 3:10-11 Jesus is returning soon

"...I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon...."


Revelation 22:6,7,10,12,20 Jesus is coming back soon

"what must soon take place...I am coming soon...the time is near...I am coming soon...Surely I am coming soon"

--Blasphemy--


Revelation 13:5-6 Blasphemy is apparently the beasts biggest sin

"And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven."

--Deception--


Revelation 20:7-9 Satan allowed to trick people and get them killed by God

"when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,"

Revelation 19:20-21 Killed for being tricked into following the beast

"And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword"

--Evil--

Revelation 2:2 Avoid or expose evil

"...how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false."

--Faith--

Revelation 2:19 Faith is a virtue

"I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first."

--Fear--

Revelation 14:7 Worship God out of fear

"Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come"

--Free Will--

Revelation 6:4 God messes with free will

"...Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another..."

Revelation 13:10 Even the beast is following God's plan

"If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain..."


Revelation 14:8 You are not responsible for your sexual immorality [x-post to sexuality]

"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality."

Revelation 17:8 Whether or not we are saved was determined at the beginning of time [x-post to justice]

"And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast"

Revelation 17:17 God forced the kings to help the devil [x-post to justice]

"for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled."

--Justice--

Revelation 14:9-10 Have the mark required for commerce nets you God's wrath

"If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath"

Revelation 16:13-14 People are tricked into following Satan

"And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty."

Revelation 17:8 Whether or not we are saved was determined at the beginning of time [x-post to free will]

"And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast"

Revelation 17:17 God forced the kings to help the devil [x-post to free will]

"for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled."

Revelation 20:15 Eternal punishment

"And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

--Lists-- 

Revelation 20:8 These things earn you hellfire

"But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

Revelation 22:15 list of things that will keep you out of new Jerusalem

"Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."

--Love--

Revelation 2:19 Love is a virtue

"I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first."

--Obedience--

Revelation 2:5 Worship God or else

"But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first [for God]. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first [worshipping God]. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent."

Revelation 2:10 Die for me and be rewarded

"Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life."

--Patience and Endurance--

Revelation 2:2,3,19 Patience and endurance are virtues

--Science--

Revelation 7:1 The Earth has 4 corners, where wind originates from

"After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree."

--Sexuality--

Revelation 2:14,20-22 Sex is bad

"But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality."

"But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works"

Revelation 2:23 God will kill you if your mother is a prostitute

"and I will strike her children dead..."

Revelation 14:4 Girls are gross

"It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins..."

Revelation 14:8 You are not responsible for your sexual immorality [x-post to free will]

"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality."

--Violence--

Revelation 2:15-16 Worship God or he will kill you

"So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth."

Revelation 2:23 God will kill you if your mother is a prostitute

"and I will strike her children dead..."

Revelation 6:4,8 God is a violent monster

"...Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another...they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth."


Revelation 9:5-6 God loves Torture

"They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them."

Revelation 14:10-11 God wants to watch you suffer

"and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever"

Revelation 14:20 God's punishment is sick and twisted

"And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (about 184 miles)"

Revelation 19:20-21 Violent punishment

"These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.  And the rest were slain by the sword"

--Women--

Revelation 20:2 Women are commodities

"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

--Worship--

Revelation 4:11 God is worthy of our worship

"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power..."


Revelation 5:13 Jesus is worthy of worship

"And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!"