{"id":39452,"date":"2015-08-27T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=39452"},"modified":"2017-10-24T14:18:03","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T21:18:03","slug":"atheist-maker-verses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/atheist-maker-verses\/","title":{"rendered":"These 11 verses turn Christians into Atheists. How do you explain them?"},"content":{"rendered":"
I was recently having a discussion with an atheist who had grown up in a Christian family and had gone to church for the first twenty years of her life. But she became an atheist in her 20s.<\/p>\n
When I asked her why she became an atheist, she said, “I started reading the Bible.”<\/p>\n
We Christians often tell people that if they would only read the Bible, they would come to see that God is real and that He loves them. We hear testimony after testimony about how drug addicts and hookers were considering suicide but somehow got a Bible and started reading it and ended up giving their life to Christ.<\/p>\n
I am not in any way denying such accounts or stories.<\/p>\n
But I think it is also time to admit that while many people decided to follow Jesus as a result of reading the Bible, there are many others who turned away from God after reading the Bible.<\/p>\n
Part of this, I am convinced, is because we Christians have said that the entire Bible is the Word of God, but then we sort of ignore, gloss over, conveniently forget, or are simply dishonest about some of the more troubling portions of Scripture.<\/p>\n
And there are many troubling portions of Scripture! (If you don’t believe me, read this book: Drunk with Blood<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n I call these troubling texts “Atheist Maker Verses.” They are verses that do not point people to God, but lead people away from Him instead. Here are a few of the more blatant Atheist Maker Verses:<\/p>\n “See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As a father of three daughters myself, I cannot imagine offering my daughters to get raped so that I could protect the strangers under my roof.<\/p>\n And yes, I have heard the Christian explanation of this text that this was how the ancient Middle Eastern people valued hospitality. But how does that make it okay? It doesn’t.<\/p>\n Rather than trying to explain away Lot’s behavior according to “hospitality laws” we must condemn his behavior as horribly barbaric.<\/p>\n “And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod, so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his property.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This was a favorite verse of slave-owners during the period of slavery in our country. In fact, all of Exodus 21 talks about the rules for treating slaves.<\/p>\n And apparently, you can beat your slave all you want, even within an inch of their life, because the slave is your property.<\/p>\n Of course, even if you kill your slave, you won’t be put to death yourself, but only punished.<\/p>\n This sort of verse about slaves has caused many people to turn away from God and Christianity.<\/p>\n And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have– from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nGenesis 19:8<\/h2>\n
Exodus 21:20-21<\/h2>\n
Leviticus 25:44-45<\/h2>\n