Ten Commandments Purpose

[ShazaamsCape]

I have a question, and I hope this is the right place to ask in the religion section. I understand that this is an atheist site and not a Christian site.
So, for those Bible-thumping, card-carrying, wafer eating Christians that are in here:

What is the purpose of the ten commandments? Seems that in the world we have no one that follows them. Are they outdated now or what's the deal?

[steenkh]

Originally Posted by ShazaamsCape

So, for those Bible-thumping, card-carrying, wafer eating Christians that are in here:

What is the purpose of the ten commandments? Seems that in the world we have no one that follows them. Are they outdated now or what's the deal?

I wonder what you expect to get out of this. Asking a Bible-thumping, card-carrying, wafer eating Christian if a pillar of his faith is outmoded, seems to be a bit of a waste of time, IMHO.

But you could ask them why they always claim that the ten commandments are the foundation of Western society, when in fact the only rule in the cen commandments that is also part of Western culture is "Thou shalt not kill" (and Christians are no better than others in keeping this rule - statistically speaking they are worse!)

[Marc Lund]

Originally Posted by steenkh

But you could ask them why they always claim that the ten commandments are the foundation of Western society, when in fact the only rule in the cen commandments that is also part of Western culture is "Thou shalt not kill" (and Christians are no better than others in keeping this rule - statistically speaking they are worse!)

I'd consider "Thou shalt no steal" and “You shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" as applicable as well.

[steenkh]

Originally Posted by Marc Lund

I'd consider "Thou shalt no steal" and “You shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" as applicable as well.

You are quite right. I was too fast there!

The second one is interesting, because it can be interpreted in a number of ways. Culturally, I think that "bearing false witness", is definitely bad, but from a legal point of view, bearing false witness is only forbidden under certain circumstances. You are, for instance, not allowed to lie in court, but lying in general is not punishable. I will accept, though, that the commandment is only concerned with lying in court. Do the Christians here agree on that?

And is lying only forbidden when it is "false witness against thy neighbour"? What about lying about being able to fulfil a contract. Would that be covered by the commandment? It is definitely covered by all legal systems that I know of.

[xcept2010]

I dunno how long this will take to post on here, since I'm being babysat in here right now, where all posts can and will be used against me in the high atheist court of blog.

The Ten Commandments... hmmm.... Why are they in existence? Why are they so hard to eliminate?

Firstly, you must understand that the (preaching alert) 10 C's aren't established for us to follow each and everyone to the letter. Because even if we did, we still wouldn't be redeemed or saved and enter into Heaven.
(Uber preaching alert, warning! This post mentions the name of Jesus and makes references to several Bible verses. Please avert your eyes if you are easily offended by this type of language. Any continued reading is at the risk of the reader and not the responsibility of the poster)
Jesus was approached by a rich man who asked Him (Jesus) what he needed to DO, in order to attain eternal life and get into Heaven. Jesus told him to sell all he has and give it to the poor. The man, being a wealthy man, realized he had much, and walked away. This is because there is nothing the man could physically do in order to get into the kingdom of God.

The 10 C's are there to show us that we need someone to go in our place.

A few examples: Your heart is dark like a basement with all kind of things dwelling in there. The Law (10C's) is like opening all the windows and doors at once in there letting the light into all the corners of that dark basement, revealing all that is down there. Showing what is wrong. It's like that light.

You can choose to be a good person and give and tithe to a church and do right from this point forward and believe your deeds will save you. This is wrong, and this is also what the 10C's show us.

If you go to your local grocery store and set up a line of credit with him, maybe he knows you from growing up. So you come and buy things there, then after a few months you have a debt built of of $5,000. Then one day you walk into that store and the store owner frowns, you tell him "From this point forward, I'm gonna pay with cash. I've got money from now on to pay when I come in here with money, no more credit needed" Well that's great! But what about the $5,000 you still owe? Is he gonna be happy about that? No. Because you still owe him. I'm sure if it were you and I came in there, you wouldn't forgive me of my debt.

This is what Jesus does. He takes all our past, present, and future debt on His shoulders and paid it upon the cross, in our place. The 10C's merely reveal that we truly need someone to go in our place. The world is an evil place, you know it, and I know it. You can see it by the posts in here how people blame God for all the "evil" in the world. It's plainly obvious.

Cast away your doubts, and your fears and trust Jesus. You cannot possibly live by your own goodness, because we simply do not have enough to be good all the time. We need help to do so.

I'm sorry if this is too much preaching, but please hopefully this will help you with your question.

[ShazaamsCape]

Originally Posted by xcept2010

I dunno how long this will take to post on here, since I'm being babysat in here right now, where all posts can and will be used against me in the high atheist court of blog.

Why is this?

Originally Posted by xcept2010

The Ten Commandments... hmmm.... Why are they in existence? Why are they so hard to eliminate?

Firstly, you must understand that the (preaching alert) 10 C's aren't established for us to follow each and everyone to the letter. Because even if we did, we still wouldn't be redeemed or saved and enter into Heaven.

Why do we have them if we aren't to follow them? Or do you mean we cannot follow them because they are so restrictive?

Originally Posted by xcept2010

(Uber preaching alert, warning! This post mentions the name of Jesus and makes references to several Bible verses. Please avert your eyes if you are easily offended by this type of language. Any continued reading is at the risk of the reader and not the responsibility of the poster)
Jesus was approached by a rich man who asked Him (Jesus) what he needed to DO, in order to attain eternal life and get into Heaven. Jesus told him to sell all he has and give it to the poor. The man, being a wealthy man, realized he had much, and walked away. This is because there is nothing the man could physically do in order to get into the kingdom of God.

The 10 C's are there to show us that we need someone to go in our place.

A few examples: Your heart is dark like a basement with all kind of things dwelling in there. The Law (10C's) is like opening all the windows and doors at once in there letting the light into all the corners of that dark basement, revealing all that is down there. Showing what is wrong. It's like that light.

You can choose to be a good person and give and tithe to a church and do right from this point forward and believe your deeds will save you. This is wrong, and this is also what the 10C's show us.

If you go to your local grocery store and set up a line of credit with him, maybe he knows you from growing up. So you come and buy things there, then after a few months you have a debt built of of $5,000. Then one day you walk into that store and the store owner frowns, you tell him "From this point forward, I'm gonna pay with cash. I've got money from now on to pay when I come in here with money, no more credit needed" Well that's great! But what about the $5,000 you still owe? Is he gonna be happy about that? No. Because you still owe him. I'm sure if it were you and I came in there, you wouldn't forgive me of my debt.

This is what Jesus does. He takes all our past, present, and future debt on His shoulders and paid it upon the cross, in our place. The 10C's merely reveal that we truly need someone to go in our place. The world is an evil place, you know it, and I know it. You can see it by the posts in here how people blame God for all the "evil" in the world. It's plainly obvious.

Cast away your doubts, and your fears and trust Jesus. You cannot possibly live by your own goodness, because we simply do not have enough to be good all the time. We need help to do so.

I'm sorry if this is too much preaching, but please hopefully this will help you with your question.

No sweat on the preaching parts. I expect it from bible thumpers.

So in a nutshell you are saying that the only way we can get into heaven is with Jesus. And this is because everyone in the world is bad. That these commandments are there to show us we are bad people and fallen short of what your god wants from us.

So tell me why god let jesus die for this then? Couldn't he have just done something else?

[xcept2010]

Originally Posted by ShazaamsCape

Why is this?

I posted too much of an article at one time. Them's the rules I guess.

Originally Posted by ShazaamsCape

Why do we have them if we aren't to follow them? Or do you mean we cannot follow them because they are so restrictive?

We are to follow them. But even in following them we still cannot do them all, always. Everyone is human and falters or makes a mistake. This is what satan wants us to do. He wants us to make a mistake, then think that the mistake is so bad that God won't take us back. He wants us to drift away from God so far in our own minds, that we believe we cannot get back right with God. Truth is we cannot drift too far from God for God to take us back. If God didn't love us, then maybe, but God always loves us and provided a way for us to be saved even in this world.

Look, if you take a kid who lives in the slums of India, and you raise him up in a wealthy and loving environment and he goes on to do great things because of how you spared him and treated him, is that such a bad thing? No! I say No it isn't a bad thing at all. Christians are like that child. We grow up in a world full of evil and sin and hatred and death, God brings us out of this with His love. We have the opportunity to be a light to this world. Christians are to be in the world, but not of it. When we as Christians do fall, we can get back up knowing God is still there for us.

Originally Posted by ShazaamsCape

No sweat on the preaching parts. I expect it from bible thumpers.

So in a nutshell you are saying that the only way we can get into heaven is with Jesus. And this is because everyone in the world is bad. That these commandments are there to show us we are bad people and fallen short of what your god wants from us.

So tell me why god let jesus die for this then? Couldn't he have just done something else?

I don't really know God's reasoning, since He knew before the world was framed that Christ would come and die for our sinful nature. He knew before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, He knew when He created the angelic hosts. He knew satan would fall away. I think that God makes us to love Him, but we have to realize this of our own free will. In order to please God we must have a measure of faith. We can have all the knowledge, but without faith we cannot please God.
Again, sorry if there's too much preaching, just trying to answer the questions.

[Martin]

Originally Posted by xcept2010

I posted too much of an article at one time. Them's the rules I guess.

Whatever happened to the commandment about not bearing false witness?

[wheels5894]

Well, guys, passages from the bible are not going to carry much weight on an atheist forum and you know, xcept2010, you are not likely to convert any atheists to your religion either. However, your talk about the purposes of god before the world was made etc are rather lacking in any evidence, even in the bible, so be careful of the views you post.

Now, we are only talking about the Big Ten so I expect we can manage that. Let's see -

• The first few are all about god so not relevant to atheists at all.
• The Sabbath has not relevance to atheists either though taking a day or two off each week is a good idea in our society these days a particular day is not significant.
• the remainder are fine in themselves though I have managed not to covet any slaves lately.

It is for these reasons that I am surprised the judges in the USA want to install the list in court rooms as so few have any relevance to what goes on in court.

I rather think we have gone beyond these old laws in our modern system or laws and moral and think they are really only for those who like reading the bible.

[Nikitta]

Originally Posted by steenkh

You are quite right. I was too fast there!

The second one is interesting, because it can be interpreted in a number of ways. Culturally, I think that "bearing false witness", is definitely bad, but from a legal point of view, bearing false witness is only forbidden under certain circumstances. You are, for instance, not allowed to lie in court, but lying in general is not punishable.

If the lies you tell about someone outside of court damages them, they can take it to court as libel.