20 Terrible Ideas from the New Testament (feat. CosmicSkeptic)

hello viewers and welcome to this video in which Alex O'Connor otherwise known as cosmic skeptic will be joining me to talk about the Bible Alex thanks so much for joining me a little it's my favorite subject Alex and I were in Zagreb plus my doing a special event which went quite well didn't it it did it should be on my channel probably by the time this is uploaded maybe not that certainly at some point very soon you'll get to watch the whole thing yeah so there's a great event we have some fantastic questions to answer but again in this video we're focusing purely on the Bible and to give you some kind of background and a couple of years back I did a video 10 the 10 most immoral verses in the Bible I think most if not all from the Old Testament and I think sometimes we can think of we can we can reach the assumption that all of the really terrible stuff in the Bible is in the Old Testament and the New Testaments is just full of really lovely verses and there are some nice verses in the New Testament it's not all terrible by any stretch but there are also some really terrible ideas present in the Greek scriptures which we're going to go through now and just as another disclaimer I think it's important to note that I'm not trying to persuade people to view these verses or interpret these verses the way I view them I think it's just a case of Alex and I giving our opinions on what these verses mean to us on a take-it-or-leave-it basis and you can reach your own conclusions so let's get one with the first verse the the idea that there that the Bible is giving us here is that women should be silent there is the verse of 1st Corinthians 14 verse 34 let the women keep silent in the congregation's for it is not permitted for them to speak rather that let them be in subjection as the law also says and first Timothy 2 verse 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over an but she's to remain silent Alex good idea well I think this at the very least explains some of the problems with the Church of England allowing women to become priests in my country there was there was a bit of an exodus to the Catholic Church because and I think it obviously had a lot to do with with this verse it's quite surprising when you read a verse like this it sounds like something straight out of the Old Testament it sounds like something out of the old laws of Moses and oftentimes if somebody is asking me what some of my problems with the Bible and I'll reel off some verses from the viscous or Exodus and I'll say but you know you wouldn't you wouldn't find something as horan as this and I read this first and so you wouldn't find that kind of thing in the New Testament and they say no of course you wouldn't and you watch their eyes kind of fill with shock and an aura when you reveal that actually and that's where it came from mmm this has a very real effect for jehovah's witnesses as well because it's basically this thinking that that requires women to not even allowed to be able to again teach on the platform so they're not allowed to be elders they're not allowed any role in the congregation involves teaching they're essentially just there to make up the numbers and occasionally do a presentation on the platform it really is awful so that's idea number one Alex do you want to take us through idea number two sure so the second idea that we've come up with is an idea about forgiveness but for all the Bible has to say about forgiveness and it's virtue it has this strong implication that forgiveness needs to come at a cost and usually one that's quite unjustifiable specifically here we've got this idea of no forgiveness without bloodshed and I'm reading which version of the Bible using it so you're gonna read from the King James Version II so and it's Hebrews 9 verse 22 and almost all things are by the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood is no remission this of course is clearly in reference to the forgiveness of the sin of man with with Jesus on the cross one of the most obscene teachings I think in in the Bible let alone just the New Testament the idea that the in order to be forgiven for the sins that you didn't even yourself commit there needs to be a sacrifice and a human sacrifice to you know Christianity at its core is a cult of human sacrifice and people don't tend to think about what that really means because of the way that the cross story is presented is this wonderful valiant story of forgiveness and but really it's it's human sacrifice so terrible idea number three don't save money give up all your possessions Matthew 6:34 so never be anxious about the next day for the next day will have its own anxieties each day has enough of its own troubles of course more famously us translated as spare no thought for the morrow I'm Matthew nineteen twenty one Jesus said to him I think this is the rich young ruler if you want to be perfect go sell your belongings and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come be my follower and in Luke 12 16 to 21 there's the story of the man who has an abundance and he built storehouses and and saves his belongings is his produce and he's condemned for doing that so quite a pernicious idea that you shouldn't really be thinking about the next day there's no thrift there's no it's kind of looked down on to assume that the world's not going to end well that's the thing it's not such a bad idea if the world was about to end yeah you know if Jesus hadn't been right about that it seems that Jesus subscribed to what could be called Jewish apocalypticism this idea that the world is about to end and there's some sort of theories about the character of Jesus and how his original predictions about the world ending that's there's the part which he says some of you standing here will not taste death until the Second Coming effectively saying that he'll he'll be back within some of their lifetimes and when he wasn't there's this idea that the disciples or the writers of the gospel sort of twisted the story to turn it into this everlasting story because otherwise people would realize that the faith had no ground but when you look at you can't just get rid of these verses which clearly imply that Jesus was very much a believer that the world was about to come to an end and and their idea is that if you live by them if you if you put them into practice you'll be worse off you know you'll you'll basically be poor so Donna take us through terrible idea number four so mark chapter four verses 11 to 12 and he said unto them unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables that seeing they may see and not perceive that hearing they may hear and not understand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them yeah so it's almost kind of reveling therein in a finite number of people understanding what Jesus is saying through means of parables and everyone else being confused and you know that's apparently a good thing that only a small number can actually understand what God wants them to do yes yeah I think that's one of the worst parts it's this sort of tribalism idea we have the arts as everybody else is doomed I'm not not even kind of sorry about it not like it's such a shame that's I mean so you know well here only they could understand yes you know like no we have the answers you don't and then you're going to suffer for it it's it's obscene because the whole premise of the Bible is this it's God's message to mankind yeah and I think it's been discussed before by you know greater Minds than me that if God wants humanity to understand his intentions the Bible is an appalling way of thinking clearly this it's favoritism mmm clear there's clear favoritism within the Bible which doesn't seem to fit in well with the idea of an eternal message for all peoples of all time indeed so moving on to terrible idea number five and that is predestination now I've dealt with this a little bit in one of my earlier rebuttal videos it was actually a former Westboro Baptist Church member megan phelps roper who kind of put me onto this fish because she was talking about in the Joe Rogan podcast it's Romans nine verses 9 to 24 rather than read the whole thing I'll just read you three verses but who are you a man to be answering back to God does the thing mold it say to its Mulder why did you make me this way what does not the Potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for an honorable use another for a dishonorable use what then if God had the will to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known and he tolerated with much patience vessels of Wrath made for dismayed fit for destruction so it's this idea that we're all vessels created by the great potter he makes some vessels fit for mercy others fit for destruction designed to be destroyed and it gives the example of Jacob and Esau and says that before Esau was even born God hated him I can't think of a better way of describing predestination and people being damned before they've even had a chance yes I've never understood of course there are there are numerous theological attempts and and plenty of schools of thought with which discount predestination hmm but I'm yet to find the compelling reconciliation between God knowing all and knowing the future and yet being able to justifiably punish people for their actions knowing full well when he conceived them that they would go on to do these things it's it's one of those things which shows God to be completely ruthless and completely unthinking and in the way he sort of uses humans as tools for his some kind of game or something it's like we're pieces in a game because he's he's saying it's for our benefit but again that that itself is predetermined I've never quite understood how you can believe in a God that knows everything and knows the future and yet somehow when somebody goes off the rails God is able to punish them for it when he knew full well that that was going to and he had the power to to stop it it's not the only time that God has done something like this to an example that that springs to mind for me is it's the Pharaoh of Egypt when when Moses goes to the Pharaoh and says please let our people go and the Bible says and God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he would not let them go and then God punishes the Pharaoh for having a hardened heart it's this idea that you can be punished for something that's completely out of your control it's absolutely obscene and of course the icing on the cake is that if you dare to ask these questions if you dare to say well we know why is this the answer there for you in Romans is but who are you what a man to be answering back to God you don't get to ask the question it's just been decided for you so Jonah moves on to terrible idea number six which which is God requires all revels in torture Hebrews chapter 10 verse 28 to 29 he that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace yea so on the one hand in verse 28 you've got a contrast you said what that they're saying well if you died under the law of Moses or if you were if you transgress the law of Moses you're just gonna die and then it says well how great a punishment do you think a person will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God and blah blah blah so if it's it's actually invoking or suggesting that there needs to be a greater punishment than that then death yes and what can possibly be greater than the punishment of death if death is death death is the the terminal punishment it's the last step in any kind of court of law or moral code death is the final judgment and so the only thing that can be worse than that well it's just unimaginable the kind of the kind of nonsense non-existent made-up punishments and that can be can be instilled if you have to go beyond the point of death there's another verse I've selected revelation 6:8 it's actually talking about the four horsemen it says on a saw and look at pale horse and the one seated on it had the name death and the grave was closely following him and authority was given them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with a long sword and with food shortage and with deadly plague and by the wild beasts of the earth so you're thinking okay well they're gonna be killed by the sword no no I've actually also liked them to be killed by plague and by food shortage and by being mauled by wild beasts that's how I'd like it done if that's okay with you we were talking about this yesterday and as many of you can see this is my Watchtower collection this book here is a concordance of every word in the Bible and I thought it would be interesting to look for the word torment in the Bible and if you look for its torment tormented tormenting and torment there are 18 instances all in the New Testament all in the Greek scriptures and eleven of them refer to torment of divine origin and of those eleven ten are all in Revelation so like God's last words a mankind in bowls yeah if you don't do why I've told you to do so which kind of brings us on to our next subject Alex and this is one thing that we were kind of discussing before before the video because Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in hell Alex obviously grew up as a Catholic believing in Hell and I think I'm writing in saying that it still kind of disturbs you yes of course I mean the idea of Hell what could possibly be more disturbing than that and being taught it as a reality it does stay with you it really does and I know that we were having this discussion because we were considering whether or not would be worth including verses that imply hell and here because the majority of people watching wouldn't have believed in hell anyway but of course the way I was looking at it was for instance you know no contemporary Christian denomination really relies on slavery anymore but if you're compiling a list of bad Bible verses you'd still include the verses about slavery just because a certain denomination ignores them or tries to sort of do theological acrobatics to get around them it doesn't mean they're not there and so I think there's still some value in sort of presenting them here indeed so I'm obviously presenting a list at the bottom of the screen of verses that I think give a very clear indication of Hell and probably one of the most compelling of those verses I'm not going to read the whole thing but it's the the verse in Luke 16 verses 19 to 31 about the rich man and Lazarus and how the rich man kind of looks down on Lazarus and doesn't show him any mercy but then the rich man ends up being tormented and looking up at Lazarus and the roles are reversed so why would the rich man be tormented if he's if he's dead now for Jehovah's Witnesses they go through all sorts of acrobatics to to say the the reasoning mostly boils down to oh well it's just a parable and they also say things like well we know that this can't be held because other verses in the Bible tell us that God wouldn't torture people yes so discounting the the likelihood of the Bible contradicting itself basically so Europe now Alex terrible verse number 8 you shouldn't defend your sons where are we Matthew 5:39 just 39 yeah okay Matthew chapter 5 verse 39 but I say unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also yea so in the newald translation do not resist the one who is wicked but whoever slaps you on the right cheek turn the other also to him and Romans 12:17 famously says return evil for evil to no one so yeah it's just this idea of just capitulate if someone is an aggressor towards you imagine if foreign policy was was dictated on those turn yes or even hidden the criminal justice system and and it goes just did sort of give a sneak peek at the next verse that the will that we'll be covering this has horrific implications for social and family life you know if you're in a position if you're in like a abusive relationship say you're sort of taught to just take it that that's how it should be and I think the same principle can be applied in fact to the actions of God himself it's like I'm going to do what I like with you and you just have to take it you know sort of one of the worst values that you can instill in people especially as you're bringing them up into children is this idea that they have to be complicit when things aren't right that if things are going wrong if they're being treated unfairly or being treated poorly that they should just take it one of the things that we most need and one of the only things that can instill sort of progressive a progressive nature and people to want to sort of change things for the better is an idea to recognize when things aren't right and be able to say something about it one of the most harmful things we can do for the progression of society and and of mankind is to say just be happy with the status quo including and especially when somebody is persecuting you indeed and actually this has reminded me of giving me flashbacks to when I was a child actually writes about this in my book because it was precisely this kind of thinking or these ideas that led to my parents to say to me when I came home from school saying oh I'm being bullied because I'm a Jehovah's Witness mostly they would say well you're not to fight back and they even said if the bullies chase you into a corridor and there are walls on on every side if possible you should try and climb up the wall you know don't don't and this would just lead to long lunch breaks of me just running for my life because these people were all kind of ganging up on me awful now we're gonna I know what you were alluding to earlier and but we're gonna now do I did terrible idea number nine on slavery oh yes I skipped one that's okay we're coming up to that so slavery is acceptable now there's two scriptures here that give that impression first Peter 2:18 lets servants be in subjection to their masters with all due fear not only to the good and reasonable but also to those hard to please an Ephesians 6 verse 5 slaves be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your hearts ask to the Christ now it isn't too difficult to figure out that slavery is about thing and if God is writing a message to mankind touching on how he wants mankind to treat each other you would think it would be don't own each other yes when I asked when I bring things up with people such as slavery verses in Leviticus and instructions on how to keep slaves they often say well look the reason for that was because God couldn't just abolish slavery people wouldn't be ready for it he needed to make a step in the right direction which is what he did by an ensuing rules and then he came along in the New Testament and and and got rid of it entirely and I've pointed this and say well how do you explain it many times they'll say well slaves in those days weren't actually treated too badly you know they they had an alright life and the problem is that even if that were the case ownership of human beings is always a no-no you know that there's simply no way to justify that but it's it's not just as though these these verses are saying you know if you're a slave and you're living your you're your master quote-unquote is treating you well and giving you a life then you should be obedient because it's good for you they're saying no you should you should be obedient even if they're they're treating you harshly I can't think of a more disturbing thought than than to say there's some kind of virtue in allowing yourself to be owned but of course this is this is the nature of Christianity allowing yourself to be owned allowing yourself to be property of a God of another person where where you're sort of fate and and the way that you should live your life is out of your control I think if the Bible had of abolish slavery and instilled this idea of liberty of humans they might have taken it too far and said well if I can be free from this master why not from this master and I think perhaps that explains why the Bible was so overt in not just not condemning slavery but actually explicitly condoning it it's another great example of the Bible writers being captive to the times that they lived in yes when slavery was perfectly normal so why would they condemn it because they've been raised to think of it as perfectly fine so moving on to terrible idea number 10 which is your turns my Alex and this is actually what Alex alluded to earlier namely the idea that divorce or marrying a divorcee is wrong Matthew chapter 5 verse 31 and 32 it hath been said whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement but I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery yeah so on on the one hand you can understand people saying well marriage needs to be sacred it needs to be permanent what's the point of two people pledging to spend the rest of their lives together if they can then go back and divorce each other but when you actually think of this in practical terms on what this leads to it leads to a great deal of misery and even can put lives in danger because with Jehovah's Witnesses they take this verse so literally that they say the only terms in which there can be a divorce is through adultery and even if there is a violent spouse who's beating his wife well even then the marriage needs to stay together the best you can hope for is that you two get separated but at the moment one of you remarries they've essentially committed yeah this is the reason that my mother primarily left the Catholic Church was because of their insistence after she had a divorce from my father they just refused to recognize it that they wouldn't have it and she felt like she was unwelcome and she couldn't take communion I mean it caused her to leave the church and it's it's just to think that there are there is no situation under which people should divorce to think that the promises you make at marriage are you know completely on this yet that you can completely predict what's going to happen you know what do you expect if if somebody gets into a marriage and it later turns out that this person is not who they thought they were you cannot expect this person to stay in this relationship because if it comes to pass that this person isn't who they thought they were then that's not who they were making the promises to if they say I promise - I promise to be with you but it turns out to be someone else entirely and that the promises is is hasn't really been made it's just such a such a terrible idea I remember and people often don't people often don't realize just how bad it is until they sort of experience it personally because they'll say like I'm sure that in a situation where something bad was happening in a marriage you could get by by just separating I'm sure there'd be a way to do it but once you actually experience it with somebody you know you realize that's not the case an example of that interestingly enough mother Teresa who campaigned ruthlessly against the legalization of divorce in in Ireland and and spoke out saying divorce is his terrible thing effectively just peddling what the Bible at the taught but then when Diana got her divorce she was saying that that she was glad for it because as soon as it happens to someone that you know you realize that there are situations in which marriages do need to end and that for the sake of the happiness of both parties there needs to be the ability for remarriage and for moving on and trying to restrict that is is just completely characteristic of the oppressive nature of the Bible yeah anytime that you have kind of black and white rules in which there is no flexibility and you know you know you make the point of of people changing I feel as though I changed over the last 10 years I feel as though I'm not the same person I'm 38 now I'm not the same person that I was when I was 28 and 28 year old Lloyd wasn't the same Lloyd as 18 year old Lloyd and so on so you have the fact that people change as they mature or as they develop as people you know negatively as well as positively and you also have the possibility of people do pink others intermingle and just in concealing let's say a violent street yeah they don't want you know to scupper the marriage so yeah awful awful idea we'll move on now to terrible idea number 11 which it's a bonkers one this isn't it self-mutilation is better than dying sinful so you'll all be familiar with the verse in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 5 29 and 30 if now your right eye is making you stumble tear it out and throw it away from you for it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be pitched into Gehenna also if your right hand is making you stumble cut it off and throw it away from you which is better for you to be for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to land in gana III somewhat interpret this a bit allegorically and I think a lot of people would but of course that doesn't solve the problem did the the obvious idea here is basically saying you should be willing to sacrifice everything for the cause of retaining the morality that that's dictated by the Bible and this wouldn't necessarily be such a bad idea if firstly awesome so black and white and secondly if the morality of the Bible wasn't so awful you know the the main problem I see with this is that they're saying that they're presenting this morality which is completely twisted and and disturbing like we've the versus we've been going through but it then says you need to sacrifice everything you can to keep these Commandments and so the very fact that the people will need to make these sacrifices goes to show that in their nature they're recognizing that a lot of these things don't sit right with them you know there there has to be this kind of verse because people recognize that the things in the Bible are not moral it's not moral to condemn homosexuality to condemn divorce to condemn or any of the things that we've we've listed here this is not a moral thing and so you have to put in this disclaimer to say but if you start having these thoughts and recognizing that these things that the more like the the morality that would be that we've been taught isn't actually moral at all you have to just deal with it you have to sacrifice everything you have sacrifice your moral compass cut out your eyes so you can't see cut off your ears so you can't hear if you have to to keep these Commandments and they again and there will be many who say always just you know it's it's a symbol we know we don't literally have to do this but the principle I would argue has caused so much misery I mean II you'll know Catholic history I suppose better than I will but I'm thinking about you know monks and nuns who kind of live this life of self deprivation I think there's certain orders of the Catholic Church where they've maybe done self flagellation in the past they've really considered it their obligation to make themselves as miserable and deprived as possible if that means obtaining their salvation through history so moving on to terrible idea number 12 Alex is now going to read from Romans 1 verse 27 where we learn that homosexuality is obscene so Romans 1:27 and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in the law the natural use of the woman I said if the wording is perfect burned in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet yeah so the non Shakespearean version he's likewise also the males left the natural use of the female that you say as astonishing wording and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another males with males working what is obscene and receiving in themselves the full penalty it's not the worst verse anti-gay verse that you will find in the Bible but it's tying the Greek scriptures with the Old Testament where it says that Leviticus 20:13 that gay people are deserving of death yes their blood is upon them it's I just can't get over the wording there you know the natural use of the woman because of course we know we know sort of what that means and you could interpret that in in in in the sort of in the context of sexuality the natural way of doing things but just a penis it's just one of those golden nuggets you know the natural use of the wall that wording is actually resulted in real ramifications for jehovah's witnesses because it's not so much a thing now but for a period in in JW history oral sex was forbidden even for married couples I'm the same with anal sex so you have this policy where the the the married couples what happened in a married couples bed was effectively being police yes because it wasn't the natural the natural way of doing it just takes a small phrase like that to have such ramifications and that's why it might seem like we're nitpicking or that we're cherry-picking but these verses are in the Bible and and it only takes the smallest wording the smallest phrase to have incredible ramifications it's incredibly important to identify them even if they don't even if they crop up only once and regardless if they're their wants or if they're there are a hundred times and they can they can have the same effect and when you're growing up with a farm in a family that takes the Bible literally whether it's you know Catholic or some other denomination it's just another and if you're gay it's another barrier that you're kind of coming up against where you're essentially being raised to believe that there's something wrong with you and I've spoken to people on my channel who've been through that and I really do empathize with them because I know what it feels like to grow up and to have doubts about my beliefs but that's one thing but then to be thinking oh my very nature no matter what changes I make and the matter how I try and reconcile myself with my beliefs I will always have this what is one of the characteristic stamps of Christianity you you are born in sin you will never be worthy of God you must throw yourself on to our scripture and on to at the Son of God in order to be saved because you are not worthy of salvation indeed so terrible idea number thirteen wives should be in a subjection so Ephesians 5:22 says let wives be in subjection to their husbands ask to the Lord 1st Corinthians 11 verse 3 but I want you to know that the head of every man is the Christ in turn the head of a woman is the man in turn the head of the Christ is God yes it's it's not just saying that wives ought to be obedient to their husbands but with the same kind of reverence that man is supposed to show for God and the same kind of obedience just completely unwavering I will do as you say Lord that the same attitude should be taken for women towards their husbands and again this just creates a perfect storm for spousal violence yes because an abusive husband can just say you're supposed to be in subjection yeah no matter what no matter what they do it's like when when God floods the earth well of course he can do that you don't you don't get to question why he's doing that he just has authority over this earth and over you and he can do as he pleases with you to give that kind to give even a taste of that kind of authority to a man over his wife is just a complete recipe for disaster and you know there's so many verses throughout the Bible that kind of paint this idea I mean I know we're not talking about the Old Testament but the impression you get when you're reading the Old Testament is that women are kind of basically chattel they kind of almost in there with the livestock and in terms of things that can be owned and the fact that we get to the Greek scriptures and even with with Jesus and this sort of enlightened kind of thinking know that they're still not quite as as valued as seems like female representation in stories and in the media has been a problem since long before our modern era indeed now this is one that you weren't too familiar with him when we're going through this terrible idea at number fourteen Jeff that was a hero do you want to have a stab at reading he was 11 yeah Hebrews 11 chapter 32 and what shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell of gideon and of bara they rack they rack I'm gonna it's either by rack or Barak you decide I'm gonna go to Vera but the time would fail me to tell of gideon and of bey rack and of Samson and of Jeptha Jeff sir yes yeah correct Christ and of Samson and of Jeptha and of David also and Samuel and off the prophets right so the significance here is that Hebrews 11 is giving a list of all of the heroes from the Old Testament who we can think of as as being good as being you know great role models and in there well there's a number of of names in there who can't really be thought of as role models but in my view one of the worst names that pops up is thus of Jeptha because in judges 11 it describes Jeptha pledging that whatever or whoever came running out of the house if he if he won a victory whoever came running out of the house would be offered as a burnt offering and the first to come running out of the house was his daughter and in judges 11 verse 30 I'll give you the vow it says then Jeptha made a vow to Jehovah and said if you give the ammonites into my hand then whoever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the ammonites will become Jehovah's and I will offer that one up as a burnt offering and the chapter goes on to say that that's exact clear what he did which is you know we're talking about burning a man burning his daughter and then in the Greek in the Greek scriptures in the New Testament well that's thus the ideal when it comes to faith now interestingly Jehovah's Witnesses have an interesting way of dealing with this they've essentially reinterpreted it so that well he didn't burn his daughter he let her serve essentially as a nun for the rest of her life at the tabernacle which is not what it says so they're kind of layering on their own interpretation but what an awful thing that someone who would do that is venerated in the Greek scriptures it's not just recorded it's celebrated and oftentimes when you bring up the story of Abraham and Isaac I was gonna mention it yeah people will say well he didn't kill his son in the end so it's fine firstly that's not fine because the moral of the story is that you should be willing to do so but secondly you can you can just point them here and say well this person did follow through you know and it is venerated as a hero of the Old Testament indeed so moving on to terrible idea number fifteen God allows people to become diluted and second Thessalonians two verses 11 and 12 it says that is why God let's a deluding influence mislead them so that they may come to believe the lie in order that they all may be judged because they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness it's very similar to what we were saying earlier about confusion it's not like a regret of all know that deluded how do we make them sing you know what God really wants it's yay they're deluded actually that's what God's arranged yes it's again it's sort of predestination almost yeah I've decided that you're gonna be deluded that you're not gonna know the truth and then I'm gonna punish you for it you know whose God is this I mean really hmm so that brings us onto terrible idea number 16 thoughtcrime is a thing and Alex has couple of verses from the Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 5 - yes we'll start with verse 22 but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment this is a clear indication that you can be punished you can be judged for something going on in your head the last thing I mean think back to the last time you were angry with somebody it's it's not like it's a choice that you make it's an emotion that comes about of course an emotion that was instilled in us in the first place by the Almighty and so to punish us for having this thought is it is thoughtcrime through and through and there's also the verse in 28 but I say to you that everyone who keeps on looking at a woman so as to have a passion for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart there's also we were talking about this the verse back in the Old Testament which it kind of ties into where one of the Ten Commandments is that's of envy you know mmm being your neighbor's property yes including their wife including their wife yeah so it's kind of again tying together with these abominable life it's another indication that the New Testament is fulfilling much of the Old Testament prophecy which is so easily discounted for the sake of morality but it's clear to see the inspiration and the following through of Old Testament prophecy in Old Testament law in the New Testament so a bit of George Orwell therefore as thoughtcrime but we're now moving on to terrible idea number 17 withholding money from God is punishable by death now this is actually a really troubling passage in acts 5 verses 1 to 11 some viewers may be familiar with the names Ananias and Sapphira these were too early Christians who were supposed to donate some money to the church but they don't donate quite enough or they withhold some money I haven't the the penalties death they get struck down and what it's kind of quite morbid so it says on hearing those words these are the words of Peter Ananias collapsed and died and great fear came over all those who heard about it then the younger men rose wrapped him in cloths carried him out and buried him now after an interval of about three hours his wife came in not knowing what had happened Peter said to her tell me did you to sell the field for so much she said yes for that amount so Peter said to her why did you two agree to make a test of the Spirit of Jehovah look the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out it's absolutely appalling it's just one of many examples in the Bible where the punishment far outweighs the crime it's it's not a case you know we're not trying to say that you know lying or the withholding of money isn't necessarily worthy of punishment in some contexts but the punishment but death like you say it doesn't fit the crime would you rather have someone take money out of your wallets or kill you yes they should they should be comparable the punishment should always fit the crime we can recognize now as rational people that any punishment should fit its crime and the crime worthy of death needs to be worthy of death and the crime worthy of eternal punishment beyond that well there can be no such a thing indeed so terrible idea number eighteen Alex actually that's quite a long Romans one verses 30 and 30 sorry Romans 1 29 to 32 I guess we can we can just allude to it but it's basically talking about how gossiping and disobeying parents is punishable by death it gives a big long list of all these supposedly terrible things including being a being backbiters being insolent haughty boastful disobedient to parents and then it says although these know full well the righteous decree of God that those practicing such things are deserving of death they not only keep on do them but also approve of those practicing them so Alex being disobedient to parents worthy of death well I think the worst part about this is again like with the the condemnation of divorce if a child is in in an abusive family it's one thing to not know that things are wrong this is one of the reasons why abusive families can get away with things for so long because children don't realize that they're being victims that's one thing and that that's often unavoidable but to then say furthermore that even if they were to recognize what was going on that they would have to obey anyway to be disobedient to their parent is is worthy of death again is one of these black and white rules which just simply cannot work in any society you can't say that under no circumstances should a child disobey their parents of course there's no commandment that the parents must respect their children in return it's a one-way street and the parents can do whatever they like to the child and also I wonder you know at what age this this law comes into comes into power there seems to be no real line drawn in the sand I mean I'm sure that if a if a one or two year old were to disobey a parent's command would it you know would any rational person be able to justify killing that baby I don't think so where are you going to draw the line of course I don't think you could justify killing any child of any age and for for dissipating parents but but if you think about especially that the young age not understanding not even being able to understand what's going on or being able to understand why they need to obey their parents and and you know how how deep does it go is if they disobey them on something important or can it just be little things if I tell a child come over here and they refuse am I supposed to just kill them for it the Bible is completely black and white it allows no room for maneuver no room for situational analysis and that's again another characteristic problem of Christianity it's another one of those where you hear the you hear people say if you're gonna live in a society a kind of policed by robots that were programmed according to you know the Bible humanity would die out it would die out because all of the children would be dead it would indeed so almost at the end now terrible idea number 19 religion should make family members hate each other this is one I think we're all familiar way legend would never do that Matthew 10:34 236 do not think I came to bring peace to the earth I came to bring not peace but a sword for I came to cause division with a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law indeed a man's enemies will be those of his own household and Luke 14:26 if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes and even his own life he cannot be my disciple charming ideas there again it's it's just this idea that you need to sacrifice every single thing you have we've already seen that you need to sacrifice your moral compass you need to sacrifice your limbs and your organs and now you need to sacrifice your family and and your friends in the pursuit of religion and again I think this is one of the this can be wanted to justify the justifications in a roundabout way of the kind of shunning that we see in cars like the jurors witnesses because it's this idea that if the if you're not willing to completely dismiss your family and the people you know and your own children and even your own in a moral conscience for the sake of religion then you're not a true follower of God indeed and in fact that scripture in Matthew 10 I came I came to bring not peace but a sword that was actually used in a convention talk for Jehovah's Witnesses as justification for them to shun disfellowship family members so even though I don't think that the Bible describes shunning the way it's implemented by witnesses and it with the kind of ruthlessness with which it's implemented by witnesses there you have a verse it can very easily be twisted into something like that arrangement and you would think that if it's an all-wise all-knowing God he would you would have thought thought that through ahead of time yes so final terrible idea of our 20 thank you for bearing with us and love apparently can be compulsory do you want to read first Corinthians 16 verse 22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema nothing rose a word yes I know I know don't use it a little bit after that map maranatha no Moran shall I read the new test at the Newell translation if anyone has no affection for the Lord let him be accursed o our Lord come that is compulsory love it's saying you have to love God and if you don't you're a curse what a disgusting idea I mean really what it what a despicable idea that you must you must love and fear to say it the same person you're obedient to them and you also must love them I mean and yet you still get Christian apologists who say oh well it's all about free choice yeah is it really I mean firstly you don't you don't choose who you love it doesn't work like that you do you didn't choose to love your children to love your spouse it's just something that happens likewise you couldn't choose not to love them you know if you don't believe this this idea that I'm trying to promote here that you don't choose who you love think about someone you love and try not to love them you know it's it's not something that you're in control of you know if I don't love the Lord and he decides to punish me for it he just seems to have such an elementary understanding of what love really is and how it comes about for him to design love in such a way that it can't be chosen and then to punish people for not choosing it is just obscene and I've used the word obscene more times than I can count in this video already but I think that just goes to show exactly what I think about this horrendous book yeah well it's one thing to kind of know that this stuff's in there it's another thing entirely to have it all kind of stucked back to back and to think oh good grief I used to want to respect this and again I can understand that there being some of you watching this you are maybe taken aback by this because you do respect this you do think it's it's God's Word and you maybe even can come up with excuses or reasons why some of the verses shouldn't be interpreted the way we've interpreted them that's fine if if nothing else at least you can understand why when you're dealing with an unbeliever when you're dealing with an atheist it isn't as simple as just simply saying well all you need to do is read the Bible hmm but alas whilst you can't choose who to love you can indeed choose something as something you can choose to do is to give a like and give a subscribe to the john cedars channel if you've enjoyed this video and feel free to check out mine as well I'm sure you'll put a link down in the description I will plug your channel to hi her and because I think it's it brilliant cosmic skeptic is the channel just click on the link and subscribe you will not be disappointed by the content that Alex uploads again we'll be having these a grab event YES on my channel on the channel soon Alex thank you so much for joining me it's been so much fun to go through the good book I'll have to do it again sometime we will and as always thank you for watching

Channel: John Cedars

Views: 211,178

Rating: 4.7256365 out of 5

Keywords: jehovah, bible, christianity, new testament, faith, jehovah's witnesses, cosmicskeptic, divorce, morality, philosophy

Id: 94GlsIUj7A8

Length: 52min 48sec (3168 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 21 2017