Bible Bigotry

I'm of the view that people form their values out of sentiment. At some point they become selective about which sources are credible to them. The Bible is one of those sources. Written over 2,000 years ago, its moral and unscientific overtones are hardly relevant to the modern world. The Old Testament was focused on a theocratic Israel, and the New Testament was concerned with preparation for the end the world. For these reasons, Scripture has to be taken out of context.

I came across a fascinating book called The Bible Tells Me So: Uses and Abuses of Holy Scripture for which I am going to rely heavily on for scriptural sources. The best part of the book is the history behind each subject. It is not within the scope of this report to go into the history.

Wherever it can, the book lists scriptural sources in opposition to the abuses. This report is focused on the abuses. These examples illustrate how useless the Bible is as a guide to moral behavior. One decides what purpose he wants the Bible to serve, then searches for fitting passages. Many are taken out of context. Others are nonspecific. While pious Christians argue that Jesus' sacrifice nullified the old laws with the exception of the Ten Commandments, they don't hesitate to use whatever serves their purpose.

Civil Rights

For Slavery

²When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
³If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.
⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's and he shall go out alone.
⁵But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'
⁶then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for life. (Ex. 21:2-6)

²⁰"When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished.
²¹But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be punished; for the slave is his money. (Ex. 21:20-21)

⁴⁴As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you.
⁴⁵You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property.
⁴⁶You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession for ever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness. (Lev. 25:44-46)

¹Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. (Col. 4:1)

¹⁸Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to the kind and gentle but also to the overbearing.
¹⁹For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly.
²⁰For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God's approval.
²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
²²He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. (1 Peter 2:18-21)

White Supremacy

¹I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
²Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.³For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. (Rom. 12:1-3)

¹⁹Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
²⁰No, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head."
²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom. 12:19-21)

¹⁸For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. (Phil. 3:18)

To persecute Jews

²²Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Let him be crucified."
²⁵And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" (Matt. 27:22, 25)

¹After this Jesus went about in Galilee; he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. (John 7:1)

⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

⁵¹"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
⁵²Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, (Acts 7:51-52)

¹⁴For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men (1 Thess. 2:14-15)

Women's inequality

¹⁶To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." (Gen. 3:16)

¹⁹"When a woman has a discharge of blood which is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
²⁰And everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean.
²¹And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. (Lev. 15:19-21)

¹⁹"You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. (Lev. 18:19)

¹⁹It is better to live in a desert land than with a contentious and fretful woman. (Proverbs 21:19)

³But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. (1 Cor. 11:3)

³⁴the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says.
³⁵If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1 Cor. 14:34-35)

²²Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.
²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
²⁴As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. (Eph. 5:22-24)

¹²I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent.
¹³For Adam was formed first, then Eve;
¹⁴and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
¹⁵Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. (1 Tim. 2:12-15)

Church Authority

To accuse and execute women as witches

¹⁸"You shall not permit a sorceress to live. (Ex. 22:18)

³¹"Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. (Lev. 19:31)

⁶"If a person turns to mediums and wizards, playing the harlot after them, I will set my face against that person, and will cut him off from among his people. (Lev. 20:6)

²⁷"A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned with stones, their blood shall be upon them." (Lev. 20:27)

¹⁰There shall not be found among you any one who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, any one who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,
¹¹or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. (Deut. 18:10-11)

¹⁹And when they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the wizards who chirp and mutter," should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?
²⁰To the teaching and to the testimony! Surely for this word which they speak there is no dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

¹³You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons predict what shall befall you. (Isaiah 47:13)

Against the ordination of women

³But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
⁷For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.
⁸(For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.
⁹Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.) (1 Cor. 11:3, 7-9)

⁸I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; (1 Tim. 2:8)

¹¹Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness.
¹²I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. (1 Tim. 2:11-12)

Against the marriage of priests

¹⁰The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry." (Matt. 19:10)

¹²For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it." (Matt. 19:12)

¹Now concerning the matters about which you wrote. It is well for a man not to touch a woman. (1 Cor. 7:1)

²⁵Now concerning the unmarried, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.
²⁶I think that in view of the present distress it is well for a person to remain as he is. (1 Cor. 7:25-26)

Behavior

To define and treat sodomy as a punishable crime

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 is the main source. God destroyed the two cities because the men of Sodom wanted to have sex with two male visitors.

²⁴and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nation which the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. (1 Kings 14:24)

⁷just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 7)

To prevent masturbation

⁷But Er, Judah's first-born, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
⁸Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother."
⁹But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother.
¹⁰And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD, and he slew him also. (Gen. 38:7-10)

¹⁷And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the evening.
¹⁸If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening. (Lev. 15:17-18)

¹²Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
¹³Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. (Rom. 6:12-13)

Against abortion

¹³"You shall not kill. (Ex. 20:13)

¹³For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb.¹⁴I praise thee, for thou art fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are thy works! Thou knowest me right well;¹⁵my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. (Psalm 139:13-15)

⁵"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jer. 1:5)

⁴¹And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
⁴²and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! (Luke 1:41-42)

To justify the physical punishment of children

⁹For every one who curses his father or his mother shall be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his blood is upon him. (Lev. 20:9)

³Lo, sons are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. (Psalm 127:3)

²⁴He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. (Prov. 13:24)

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. (Prov. 22:15)

¹³Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.¹⁴If you beat him with the rod you will save his life from Sheol. (Prov. 23:13-14)

²¹Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. (Col. 3:21)

To regulate clothing and hairstyles

²⁷You shall not round off the hair on you temples or mar the edges of your beard. (Lev. 19:27)

²⁸You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD. (Lev. 19:28)

⁵They shall not make tonsures upon their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. (Lev. 21:5)

⁵"A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God. (Deut. 22:5)

¹⁷And he told her all his mind, and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I be shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man." (Judges 16:17)

²I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you.
³But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
⁴Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head,
⁵but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonors her head-it is the same as if her head were shaven.
⁶For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil (1 Cor. 11:2-6)

⁴Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head,
⁵but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonors her head-it is the same as if her head were shaven.
⁶For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil. (1 Cor. 11:4-6)

¹³Judge for yourselves; is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that for a man to wear long hair is degrading to him,
¹⁵but if a woman has long hair, it is her pride? For her hair is given to her for a covering. (1 Cor. 11:13-15)

⁹also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire
¹⁰but by good deeds, as befits women who profess religion. (1 Tim. 2:9-10)

Guilt, crime and punishment

To assign guilt for disease

AIDS is the current bogeyman, but cancer claims far more lives.

⁹But after they had brought it around, the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out upon them. (1 Sam. 5:9)

²⁷Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cleave to you, and to your descendants for ever." So he went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow. (2 Kings 5:27)

³⁵And that night the angel of the LORD went forth, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. (2 Kings 19:35)

²⁰And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they thrust him out quickly, and he himself hastened to go out, because the LORD had smitten him.
²¹And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper dwelt in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD. And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land. (2 Chron. 26:20-21)

⁷For my loins are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.⁸I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.⁹Lord, all my longing is known to thee, my sighing is not hidden from thee. (Psalm 38:7-9)

⁹And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed;
¹⁰and when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. (Num. 12:9-10)

Inferiority of blacks

²⁰Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard;
²¹and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent.
²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
²³Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.
²⁴When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,
²⁵he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers."²⁶He also said, "Blessed by the LORD my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave.²⁷God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave."²⁸After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years.
²⁹All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died. (Gen. 9:20-27)

²²And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these things come upon me?' it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up, and you suffer violence.²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.²⁴I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert.²⁵This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, says the LORD, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies. (Jer. 13:22-25)

To justify discrimination, intolerance and violence towards homosexuals

²²You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Lev. 18:22)

¹³If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them. (Lev. 20:13)

¹⁷"There shall be no cult prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a cult prostitute of the sons of Israel.
¹⁸You shall not bring the hire of a harlot, or the wages of a dog, into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God. (Deut. 23:17-18)

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, (Rom. 1:24)

²⁶For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural,
²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. (Rom. 1:26-27)

⁹Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts,
¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6:9-10)

To support capital punishment

I'm not entirely against capital punishment, but the biblical standards advocate a low standard.

²Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
⁴for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. (Rom. 13:2-4)

See Killer Laws

To mistrust and persecute Catholics

¹⁶What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Cor. 6:16)

¹Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
²through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared,
³who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
⁴For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving;
⁵for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. (1 Tim. 4:1-5)

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)

²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21)

¹⁰Then Jesus said to him [Peter], "Begone, Satan! for it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" (Matt. 4:10)

²⁴For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. (Matt. 24:24)

The way things ought to be

Marriage

In every case, marriage is defined as a commitment between male and female. It precludes gay marriages.

Against divorce under any condition

⁶But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'
⁷'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
⁸and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh.
⁹What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." (Mark 10:6-9)

⁶So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." (Matt. 19:6)

¹⁰To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband
¹¹(but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband)-and that the husband should not divorce his wife. (1 Cor. 7:10-11)

²⁸Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (Eph. 5:28)

A woman shall remain with her husband even if he is an unbeliever.

¹³If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.
¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy. (1 Cor. 7:13-14)

But the unbelieving husband may dissolve the marriage with his wife.

¹⁵But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace.
¹⁶Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife? (1 Cor. 7:15-16)

The man should be head of the household and the woman submissive.

²⁴As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
²⁵Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
²⁶that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, (Eph. 5:22-26)

One should marry rather than risk promiscuity.

⁹But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.(1 Cor. 7:9)

Shotgun marriages or a money substitute are justified.

¹⁶"If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall give the marriage present for her, and make her his wife.
¹⁷If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equivalent to the marriage present for virgins. (Ex. 22:16-17)

Divorce is justified on grounds of extramarital sex.

³²But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (Matt. 5:32)

A man may initiate divorce from his wife, but there are no provisions for a wife to initiate divorce.

¹"When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
²and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, (Deut. 24:1-2)

If a man divorces his wife and marries another, he commits adultery.

⁹And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery." (Matt. 19:9, Mark 10:12)

Adultery violates one of the Ten Commandments.

¹⁴"You shall not commit adultery. (Ex. 20:14)

Adultery is punishable by death.

¹⁰"If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. (Lev. 20:10)

A man may take a wife as the spoils of war.

¹¹and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have desire for her and would take her for yourself as wife,
¹²then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails.
¹³And she shall put off her captive's garb, and shall remain in your house and bewail her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
¹⁴Then, if you have no delight in her, you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her for money, you shall not treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her. (Deut. 21:11-14)

Polygamy is justified because David had two wives. Later he married third, Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:26-27).

³And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal's widow. (1 Sam. 27:3)

Polygamy is justified because Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.

¹Now King Solomon loved many foreign women: the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,
²from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods"; Solomon clung to these in love.
³He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. (1 Kings 11:1-3)

Interracial marriage is condemned because God intended to keep the races separate.

⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. (Gen. 11:8)

Interracial marriage is justified because Moses married a black woman.

¹Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman; (Num. 12:1)

To prohibit consumption of alcohol

¹Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. (Prov. 20:1)

⁴It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink;⁵lest they drink and forget what has been decreed, and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. (Prov. 31:3-5)

⁷These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are confused with wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in giving judgment. (Isaiah 28:7)

¹³also that it is God's gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. (Eccl. 3:13)

To forbid work and commerce on Sundays

²³he said to them, "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay by to be kept till the morning.'" (Ex. 16:23)

⁸"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
⁹Six days you shall labor, and do all your work;
¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; (Ex. 20:8-10)

¹⁵Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death. (Ex. 31:15)

³¹and if the peoples of the land bring in wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or on a holy day; and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. (Neh. 10:31)

To justify school prayer

¹⁷pray constantly (1 Thess. 5:17)

⁸I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; (1 Tim. 2:8)

Science, Medicine and the World

To oppose medical science

²⁹that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell." (Acts 15:29)

¹³Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.
¹⁴Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
¹⁵and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (James 5:13-15)

¹And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.
²And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."
³And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming."
⁴But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?
⁵For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?
⁶But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins"-he then said to the paralytic-"Rise, take up your bed and go home."
⁷And he rose and went home.
⁸When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (Matt. 9:2-8)

To justify war

³The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. (Ex. 15:3)

⁴for the LORD your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.' (Deut. 20:4)

¹⁸This charge I commit to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophetic utterances which pointed to you, that inspired by them you may wage the good warfare, (1 Tim. 4:18)

To prove that earth is at the center of the universe

⁷And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. (Gen. 1:7)

¹⁴And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,
¹⁵and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so.
¹⁶And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also.
¹⁷And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, (Gen. 1:14-17)

¹¹And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any man, because of you; for the LORD your God is he who is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. (Josh. 2:11)

⁷He stretches out the north over the void, and hangs the earth upon nothing. (Job 26:7)

¹⁸Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror? (Job 37:18)

⁴yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:4)

¹The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. (Psalm 50:1)

⁵The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. (Ecc. 1:5)

¹After 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. (Rev. 7:1)

To prove that God created man and the universe

¹In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
²The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the the face of the waters.³And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. (Gen. 1:1-3)

²And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. (Gen. 2:2)

⁷then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Gen. 2:7)

²¹So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh;
²²and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. (Gen. 2:21-22)

¹⁷The flood continued forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.
¹⁸The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
¹⁹And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; (Gen. 7:17-19)

²⁰O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge,
²¹for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith. Grace be with you. (1 Tim. 6:20-21)

To predict the time of the end of the world

²⁴For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. (Matt. 24:24)

¹⁰And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. (Mark 13:10)

²⁴"But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, (Mark 13:24)

³³Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. (Mark 13:33)

¹⁷then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thes. 4:17)

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)

⁷Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. (Rev. 1:7)

¹⁸This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six. (Rev. 13:18)

¹⁴for 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.
¹⁵("Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!")
¹⁶And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14-16)

⁶Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years. (Rev. 20:6)

²And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, (Rev. 20:2)

End