Jagella wrote:
Consider this story from Numbers 15:32-36(NRSV):
When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to the whole congregation. They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp.� The whole congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Question for Debate: If you were there with these Israelites, would you stone this man in obedience to Moses and to Yahweh?
Keep in mind that this man may have been gathering sticks to build a fire to cook for for his family and to keep them warm. After the Bible god had him killed, any wife he had would be left a widow and any children he had would be left without a father to provide for them. They would be left cold, hungry, and facing poverty. Any friends he had among the Israelites would be obligated to kill their friend.
Despite these consequences of Yahweh's order to stone the man to death, all the Jews and by extension all Christians coming later must obey the Bible god. Any objections you have to this cruel act are nothing to Yahweh and may even result in a similar punishment for disobedience to him. You have a god you must believe in and obey without question and without reason.
I predict that few if any of the Christians here will answer this question honestly and sensibly. To post such an answer is to expose Christian beliefs for what they are.
Mosaic Law is a consequence of men lost godly conscience. That's why a set of black and white requirements are set forth for the Jews to obey.
The Jews are God's people thus they are trained to obey God through Moses instead of applying their moral judgment for the moment. This is so because God has a different base of morality that His people, the Jews need to implement His will such that salvation will extend to save today's souls.
If on the other hand, when you have to apply humans' morality which is different from God's then God's will for human salvation won't last till today. The Jews will have their judgment above that of God's and human decision will override God's and naturally salvation won't be able to reach today's humans. Any failure in soul-saving is against God's morality.
To put it another way, men's morality is based off physically bodies (that's why stoning may be referred to as cruel), however God's morality is based off souls. If the disobedience of His chosen people the Jews will result in less souls to be saved, or the failure of carrying forward God's messages then it's God's morality to be questioned.
Under that circumstance, it means God asks the Jews to kill whoever, they need to do as instructed as it's out of human evaluation on how many souls are affected in human history by not to obey so! On the other hand, the Jews are trained so that's why they are good message carriers. The Jews are the only ethnic group which can keep their custom and religion after 2000 years of exile without their own homeland. This characteristic contributes to how God's message of salvation conveys to reach today's humans.