Lev 19:15 God says, “In righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.” But in Matt 7:1 Jesus says, “…judge not that ye be not judged.”
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Doubting Thomas' Weblog 
May 27, 2008 at 6:48 am
Context.
May 28, 2008 at 4:29 am
Michael,
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my site. However, I must take issue with your repeated “context” complaint. It is a lazy and typical complaint from Christians when a non-believer uses passages from the bible to reveal the ugliness of the Christian religion. It’s clear that theists (god worshipers) are MASTERS at picking and choosing which passages from their holy books they want to follow/accept. But then I’m pretty adapt at ‘picking and choosing’ the ones I think are most revelatory of the contemptibility of their god and belief systems. Now I would argue that their selective preferences are the result of a careful, stubborn, WILLFUL naivety, while mine are the result of a determined desire to reveal the REST of what their holy books have to say. In other words, I wish to bring to light all the ugly stuff they purposefully ignore or even refuse to acknowledge/accept. So the out of context argument never holds any weight with me. I VERY CAREFULLY choose passages that were blatant, obvious and as black and white as they could be. Nothing written before or after could possibly ‘redefine’ what they were saying. But Christians just HATE it when you confront them with the undeniable truth that their holy book clearly depicts a god that can only be described as a bigoted, petty, vile, cruel, merciless, brutal, bloodthirsty, depraved, petulant, monster Yes, There are many beautiful passages in the bible as well, but I REFUSE TO IGNORE the ugly parts. I just wish more Christians would take a more honest look at this particular book. Especially if they are going to dedicate their whole lives and every decision they make in their lives on its words. I take the bible literally. I believe it must be either accepted as the genuine word of God or dismissed as a fairy tale. The concept of God, any god, is ALWAYS a personal one shaped by personal desire. Depending on the issue your god may be all goodness and light or vengeance and wrath. But how do you keep your own personal desire to view him one way or the other from shaping him? Those who find the bible loathsome need not take anything out of context to support their position. Only those who defend it need do so.
So I ask that you don’t simply comment with this single word but with a full explanation of how these passages could mean anything else. To simply state that what something means is actually NOT what it means and offer NO details to enlighten our sad, confused minds serves no purpose at all.
Take Care,
DoubtingThomas
June 1, 2008 at 11:32 am
Ok, I’ll bite. What’s the contradiction here?
Both verses say that you must be careful how you treat others. In Leviticus 19, there are a series of commands to instruct the Israelites how they are to treat one another. Specifically, verse 19 talks about not treating poor or rich any differently. Matthew 7 records Jesus words in the discourse that is called “The Sermon on the Mount.” In this discourse, Jesus is showing that self-righteousness does not really live up to the standard that God has for his people. In the first 5 verses, in particular, he talks about how important it is to know your own state of sinfulness before you go pointing fingers at others. Again, one must practice great care in judging others. Now, to make things interesting, how do Paul’s remarks in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 add to or take away from this understanding of judgment? By the way, verses 12-13 belong in a greater context of 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.
Thanks for the conversation,
Michael
June 3, 2008 at 3:41 am
Alright, I will clarify. First, for any man to consider themselves righteous is an appalling idea to me. But the contradiction is reflective of the glaring difference between the Christianity of the Old Testament and the God depicted there and the Christianity of the New Testament and the God depicted there. In the Old, judging others in righteousness was the norm but in the New, with its tye-dyed Jesus, it’s suddenly declared forbidden. I see a contradiction here. If you do not, so be it.
DoubtingThomas