Muslims promote Sharia law. Why do Christians not promote their law?

You mean 613 commandments.Otherwise you would be letting the gays and wizards off. Matthew 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.Ta da! So you want and foul planet, more poor people and faceless corporations running the country?Just wow.Edited by Larni, : No reason given.Edited by Larni, : No reason given.

A swell example of quoting out of context. Here is the context:

quote:

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Matthew 10:16—23 (NRSV):

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'See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

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Matthew 10:21 is not a commandment; it is not a promotion of violence. It is a prediction. It is Jesus telling his disciples what to expect as they go about preaching the gospel.And, in fact, reading more of the chapter shows very clearly that there is no promotion of violence. Jesus tells his disciples to 'shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town [of unbelievers]' (Mt 10:14), not to execute the unworthy. He advises them to run away when being persecuted (Mt 10:23); not to fight back.Matthew 10:21 is not a promotion of violence.Jon

Who is being put to death in Matt 10:21 as a result of Jesus' decisions?

His own followers.

He sends his own followers out to certain death to do his PR for him?Man, that's cold.

Well. calling it "doing his PR for him" is pretty sophomoric but if stuff like that makes you feel better, go for it.

Nonsense. He's warning them of the dangers of being a disciple.It is so far from promoting or even condoning violence that it isn't even funny.Except maybe to you.

There is, of course, the fact that the book of Revelations gives a fairly thorough account of what God thinks about the use of violence.

Well, not quite.Revelation (no 's') is a book written in the apocalyptic medium and format. It's also one of the books that many thought should not be included as canonical.The problem is that most folk are not taught about the apocalyptic tradition and literature and so don't understand that it was speaking not of some distant future but rather the immediate era concurrent to when it was written.

Which has nothing to do with Matthew 10:21.

Ah yes, no s. Perhaps you could offer a blurb about what the apocalyptic tradition is and how it changes the prophesy of God's wrath into a message of love and kindness.My point is that the Bible clearly describes God as a violent and vengeful creature both in the past and in the future. We are instructed, under threat of eternal damnation, to fear, emulate and worship this entity.

Right but it has everything to do with God's appreciation for and the Bible's promotion of the efficacy of violence.

And the Bible also describes God as a loving father, a guardian shepherd, as a giver of life and comfort. Apocalyptic writings don't change the nature of God but they do portray how the author viewed his world where he saw God; as an avenger, a rescuer. Remember that Revelation speaks of an immediate future relative to the author, of things that would happen within the lifetime of the author; Revalation speaks of stuff that would be 1800 or so years in our past.Which God is described in any given book of the Bible is simply a record of how the author (or authors) of that particular work viewed God and their relationship to God and other men, nations and cultures.But what does any of that have to do with the topic anyway?

To quote a female friend of mine: What kind of man reads the instructions?If you can't figure it out by looking at the picture on the box, you probably shouldn't be messing with it.

jar asks: Perhaps the thread subject, Muslims promote Sharia law....., brought up poorly thought-out issues that are at least as mildly guilty of similar quote mining techniques. For example marc9000 posted this in Message 12: *shrug*