Really.
Think about that for a minute -- different than this world's.
So different, in fact, by the end of this blog post, I guarantee many of my secular readers will be saying, "That God of the Bible that Judah's talking about can't be God, because that God doesn't fit my understanding of what God should be!"
Yes, you will be determining whether God is real by what you want God to be. And because you will find out that God is not who you wish him to be, you will question whether he's God.
Because God does not fit into your modern, pluralistic, western idea of God -- all love, peace, equality, tolerance, never raising a finger of judgment, never condemning an immoral act -- you will say, "That's not my God!"
And for you religious folks who already believe God, you might be in for a little shock too. What I will show here will go against some of your doctrines. You might question whether all of Scripture really is from God, because you too have been influenced by our pluralistic, secular western culture, and have your own ideas about who God is.
You will see why no one talks about these things, why they're so taboo! Because secular people will refuse to see a God who doesn't fit their definition, and religious folks will be weakened because their doctrines don't hold water.
Nonetheless, these taboo facts should be stated, if only to get a better picture of who God really is. Minus man's doctrines, ignoring secular conjecture.
So here are some taboo statements from Scripture, stated as concise and matter-of-factly as I can. Explanations for tricky ones at the end.
If any of you have some to add, or think I'm wrong about any of these, or have questions, please ask in the comments.
Without further ado,
Sexuality
The Torah prohibits male homosexuality and calls it sexual immorality on par with promiscuity, adultery, incest, and promiscuity.
The Torah does not mention female homosexuality, however Christian Scripture lumps both male and female homosexuality as sexual immorality.
Jewish and Christian Scriptures do not mention masturbation.
Polygamy is not commanded, but neither is it outlawed.1
Pornography is adultery: Messiah stated that if a man so much as looks at another woman in lust, he is committing adultery in his heart.
No mixed marriages: if you're an Israelite, God commanded that you do not marry a non-Israelite.
Servitude
The Torah does not command slavery, but neither does it outlaw it.2
In the New Testament, Paul comments on slavery, admonishing masters to be kind to their slaves, but does not abolish or condemn the practice.
God commands the wife to serve the husband, and the husband to serve God; the husband is the head of the family.
Hatred & violence
God commanded Israel go to war against the peoples occupying the land he gave them.
God killed the firstborn child of each family in Egypt.
God destroyed the cities of G'morah and S'dom and all the people within because of human sin, likely sexual immorality including homosexuality.
God commanded the Israelites in the Torah to destroy and drive out the people that were occupying the land he promised to Israel.
God does not love everyone. God spoke through a prophet, "Jacob (Israel) I loved, but Esau I hated."
Esau's grandson, Amalek, was especially hated by God; God commanded that Amalek's name be blotted out of memory, as God would be continually at war with Amalek and his descendants for what they did to Israel.3
The writer of Psalm 137 hated Edom (Esau) with passion, going as far to say happy is the one who seizes Esau's infants and dashes them on rocks.4
The writer of Psalm 139, attributed to King David, encourages the reader to hate those that hate God.
Messiah commands that you pluck out your eye if it causes you to stumble, or cut off your arm if it causes you to sin, or cut off your foot if it causes you to sin.
God commands that a woman's hand be cut off if she broke up a fight by grabbing one of them by the testicles. Yes, really.
King Josiah performed what many would call a religious cleansing in Israel5, including killing priests of other religions and tearing down their altars and places of worship, and was considered righteous for doing so.
When Israel was on its journey to the promised land and began fornicating with Moabite women who introduced idol and Ba'al worship, Moses commanded they be killed: "Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the Lord's fierce anger may turn away from Israel."
In response to Moses' command, a Levite named Pinchas saw one of the children of Israel fornicating with a Midianite woman in front of Moses and the whole assembly. Pinchas drove a spear threw both of them, and was considered righteous for it.6
God commanded that the parents of rebellious, gluttonous, drunken son can put their child on community trial if they choose. If the son is found guilty, he should be stoned to death.7
Jesus was violent on at least one occasion and was considered righteous for it.8
Jesus was not tolerant of other religions. In fact, he actively subverted the religious leaders of his time.
Jesus called people names: hypocrite, white-washed tomb, prophet-stoner, thief, murderer, son of the devil, to name a few.
Dress and appearance
God told us that clothing made of mixed materials is forbidden. Yes, really.
God commanded that men do not shave the sides of their beards or heads in mourning for the dead.
God told us that tattooing, piercing, or otherwise marring oneself in mourning for the dead is wrong.
God commanded that men do not shave the sides of their beards or heads in mourning for the dead.
God told us that tattooing, piercing, or otherwise marring oneself in mourning for the dead is wrong.
Christian doctrines
The term "trinity" is not found anywhere in Scripture.There is no Scriptural basis for a "3-in-1" God, either from the Christian or Jewish Bibles.9
No where in Scripture is a record of anyone asking Jesus into his heart.
The apostles, including Paul, ruled that new gentile believers should start by follow 4 laws from the Torah, 3 of which are dietary. Modern Christians do not keep
Easter, Christmas, Lent, and many other Christian holidays are not found in Scripture.
Adoration and Eucharist (Communion) are not found in Scripture. Penance (confession to Catholic priests) is not found in Scripture.
Paul commanded gentiles keep the feast of Passover, yet Christians do not keep this.
Christians do not keep a succinct commandment of their own Messiah, where he told his followers to keep the Torah.
Alcohol is permitted throughout Scripture; even Jesus drank strong wine.
The word "church" does not appear anywhere in the gospels.10
Jewish doctrines
While modern religious Jews wear hats (either yarmulkes, top hats, or turbans), there is no such commandment in Scripture.11
While modern religious Jews do not shave their beards or sidelocks, there is no such general commandment in Scripture, only a specific one in relation to mourning for the dead.
The Jewish practice of separating meats and dairy is not found in Scripture.12
According the the Jewish Bible, in the book of Daniel, the Messiah must come before the destruction of the 2nd Temple. The Temple was destroyed ~30 years after Jesus.
While many Orthodox Jewish men in Israel live off welfare and study Torah as their profession, there is no such commandment in Scripture. It is arguable they are breaking a commandment to work by the sweat of their brow.
God instituted animal sacrifices; only blood atones. Since there is no Temple, Jews have no atonement for sin.
There is no commandment that the Temple must be in Jerusalem.
There is no commandment that there must be a Temple. 13
God commanded Israelites to occupy all the land He promised them which includes all of modern-day Israel, all the Palestinian territories, all of Lebanon, large parts of Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.
God commanded Israel to drive out the inhabitants of the land he gave them, otherwise they would be a thorn in Israel's side.
Israeli democracy is not Scriptural. The western idea of democracy itself is Greek, not Scriptural, and it's triumph in Israel is a postmortem defeat of the Maccabees.
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Whew. Have you deleted this blog from your bookmarks yet?
We just exposed the trinity, Roman Catholic sacraments, democracy, the sinner's prayer, Palestinian rights to Palestine, Jewish religion, Christian religion, the church, homosexuality, Israelite mixed marriages, pacifism, and Christmas. Oh, and I mentioned that God hates some people!
See what I mean? God is not your idea of Him.
For many of you, your mind is fighting you, trying either to explain away God's deviation from your understanding of what he should be, or trying to discredit these things and put them aside.
But a wise person understands God's reign is very different from the world's perception of good. God's goodness doesn't always match our idea of goodness.
God isn't what the world wants -- a tolerant, passive, many-paths-to-him, never angry kind of God. God isn't what the world expects.
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1. Several of the patriarchs, including Abraham, Solomon, and possibly Moses had multiple wives. We must remember that at this time in history, many women died in childbirth. Polygamy may have been a way to ensure the survival of one's offspring. Messiah later commented on marriage, saying, "From the beginning, God made them male and female, and for this reason a man shall leave his parents and cling to his wife." This statement suggests a monogamous, heterosexual relationship as God's ideal for humanity.
2. Instead, it regulated slavery, perhaps because the agricultural society of the time so heavily relied on it. Our western minds, perhaps thanks to Hollywood, tend to picture slavery with an abusive slaveholder whipping some poor slave. The reality would have been different, however: slavery at that time was much like the employer/employee system of today, where one serves another in order to survive. Israelites were not allowed to take fellow Israelites as servants.
3. Who is Esau's descendants today? Some have suggested they moved into the Middle East with his near relatives of Ishmael and his descendants. Ishmaelites today are modern Arabs. Another theory according to Jewish tradition, Esau's descendants were the progenitors of Rome.
4. The psalmist hated Edom (Esau) for their taking Israel captive and sending them to Babylon as slaves, saying, Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it they cried, "tear it down to its foundations!" O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
5. Josiah tore down all the houses of worship of Ba'al, rounded up their prophets and families of prophets and killing them all. He destroyed the fertility Asherah poles setup in the Temple courtyard. He removed the Topheth, where parents were sacrificing their children to Molech. He dug up the bones of pagan priests and burned them on their own altars, then destroyed the altars. He used tax money to repair the Temple in Jerusalem.
6. God considered this single act of Pinchas so righteous, God removed the plague he put on Israel for their nation-wide fornication.
7. Given the preconditions for this community trial, we conclude the son must have been at least a teenager or young adult.
8. See Righteous Anger, Righteous Violence
9. The theology of Trinity is taken from the a verse in Matthew 28 where Messiah tells the apostles to baptize in "the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit". However, some ancient translations do not have Matthew 28 present, thus this may have been a later insertion. Either way, trinity is not mentioned.
10. In modern translations, Matthew contains 2 references to "church", but there is no basis for this translation, as literal translations render it "assembly". Further, some ancient translations actually render it "house of prayer". See Upon This Disciple I'll Build My New Religion for more info.
11. The Cohen HaGadol, high priests, however, are commanded to wear turbans.
12. The practice comes from ruling of Jewish sages who saw the Scriptural commandment "Do not boil a goat kid in its mother's milk" and took it a step further and separated all meats and dairy.
13. There is, however, a commandment that there must be a Tabernacle, a kind of movable Temple.