skepticdude

Let's take Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and transplant it back into the days of Moses.

This might be laughable for those who hold a naturalistic view of religion. If the Israelites acted according to the higher ethics of the Sermon On the Mount, they would have quickly been defeated, slaughtered, and disappeared from history by any nation that knew their pacifist beliefs.

However, putting the Sermon on the Mount back into the Old Testament is NOT quite as laughable for fundamentalists....who say the same God who ordered all that brutal bloodshed and stealing of land and kidnapping of virgins, is also the the God who said "turn the other cheek", to those who would hurt you.

The apostles did not conclude Jesus was wrong, simply because their pacifist stance caused them to endure much suffering. Their attitude was not "this isn't the time or place to exhibit the pacifism of Jesus", but rather "they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name."

As such, yes, the Israelites would indeed have probably disappeared from history had they aspired to the higher ethics of the NT, but....so what?

If the Hittites, or whoever, took advantge of the Israelites' pacifism by stealing their land and enslaving them, why couldn't Moses' followers simply rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jehovah?

"They'd lose the promised land!"

So what? They'd be losing their land because they stayed true to god's higher ethics. What's more important, keeping one's possessions, or being consistent in one's walk with God?

In short, I transplant the Sermon on the Mount and it's pacifist principles back into the time of Moses, to expose the absurdity of the fundamentalist position which says God gave both the brutal death orders of the Pentateuch and the pacifist commands of the NT.

After doing this, it is extremely unlikely any fundie will be able to make sense of this anachronism....and precisely because the OT and NT are indeed two CONFLICTING covenants.

ohwow

Chili

The apostels once were the shepherds of Joseph and the sheep that they were herding in the middle of the night were the unsawered questions that kept Joseph awake during the night and on the very night that Christ was born unto him. The extacy here was like doing 400 virgins at once in that this event answered all these questions by the virgin of virgins for once and for all. One must be walking with God first for that to be true. Otherwise it is best to keep your possessions and not enter the promised land.But 2 convenants nonetheless wherein the testator has a story to tell.

dog-on

OT and NT are conflicting because....

OT = Hebrew

NT = Roman

Clivedurdle

As the story of Moses was made up on the banks of the rivers of Babylon by a defeated homeless people, the sermon on the mount might fit better under Cyrus. Love your neighbour as yourself - does that date from Cyrus?