CTS-Evils of the Torah

This is Charlotte's first essay on the "evils" committed in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. To start off let us again point out that moral relativism, the belief that morals are subjective to the individual, is non-existent. This article in itself asserts that there are evils that cannot be denied as evil. For these to exist there must be a law that states as such, and for there to be a law there must be a law-giver. Any human created law will ultimately have flaws in it, which must leave the perfect law of a perfect God. Granted, if these turn out to actually be evil, that God will not be perfect, fragmenting the law, so let's take a look at a few of these examples.

Gen 2. 16-47: God did not create us with rebellion, that was a product of the Fall. Adam and Eve knew full well what they were doing by disobeying. They put a created thing over their relationship with God, and Satan played a vital role in this. Remember, God never said don't touch it. They actually even could have picked all of the fruit and burned it if they wanted, but they didn't. Adam and Eve knew exactly what they were doing.

Gen 3.16: This was a product of sin entering the world. Adam and Eve caused it, not God.

Gen 4.3-5: This "favoritism" came from Abel being the one following God's commands, Cain was offering whatever he had left over. Read Gen 3, God gives guidelines. He even pursued Cain in verses 6 and 7 and reminded him he could still please God.

Gen 7.23: Look back 1 chapter to Gen 6:5, "every inclination was evil to them". Every single person on earth, save Noah, had a heart that had no inclinations toward good any more. This revealed the need for a law, and to start again, they were beyond redemption.

Gen 16.7-9: God never told Hagai to have any children, Sarai told Abram to sleep with Hagai, her maidservant. He did this and Hagar got pregnant, so Sarai mistreated her. God told Hagai that if she went back he would turn her into a great nation, so he was rewarding her obedience. Nowhere did God tell Abram to sleep with her, else this wouldn't have happened.

Gen 19.23-25: Not only were they homosexual, the wanted to rape God's angels! They came to visit Lot in Gen 19.5 "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them to us so that we can have sex with them!" God is not a fan of rape.

Gen 38.7: Isn't "He was wicked in the sight of the Lord" enough? A perfect God wouldn't lie.

Gen 38.10: Incest is illegal sex within one's immediate family. This was only to take place because Er had no given Tamar a son, and that was seen as a dishonor, so it was fixed. Remember in the verse it says "to keep from producing offspring for his brother". He was killed for selfishness, not refusing to commit incest. He actually still had sex with her anyways, merely practiced birth control, defeating the purpose.

Ex 12.29: The Egyptians were enslaving, beating, and murdering the Israelites. God was judging them for this. Each plague was also aimed at showing the lack of power of the Egyptians gods that they were worshipping, so maybe they would turn to Him. Dr. Geisler, a prestigious scholar, even says that God did not harden Pharaoh's heart directly, Pharaoh initiated the process which God then facilitated. For a better explanation click here.

Ex 20.5 & 34.7: They apparently missed "forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin." in Exodus 34.7. Inherent sin is a doctrine well-explained within Scripture, for some information on sin click here. They don't have to be punished, God always provides a way out and that was denied.

Ex 21.2-6: This has already been explained, see "Slavery in the Bible" here.

Ex 21.7: Explained again. Daughters were sold in order to pay off debts, and slavery in Bible times was what we know today as indentured servitude, not the slavery of America's history.

Ex 22.18: God orders the death of these magicians because their powers come from Satan. They are relying on evil forces such as demons for their convenience, and manipulating the public.

Ex 32.27: Harsh? Arguing with opinions has no merit, capital punishment was understood by all of the Israelites, and yet the did it anyway.

Lev 20.9-10: Again, Charlotte is arguing with her opinions. They ignored the law and violated what God had commanded them, in spite of saving them from countless enemies and creating the very world we stand on. You can't validly argue against capital punishment with opinions.

Lev 20.13: This is violating the purpose of sex, and doing something very unnatural. Homosexuality is condemned throughout scripture, more about this here. Women were created as a completion of man, the two to become one and reproduce. This violates the sanctity of marriage.

Lev 21.16-23: First off all, let's clear things up. This is dealing with the duties of the High Priest. These blemishes are not allowed because people generally look down on those who have defects, thus injuring the influence of the High Priest. God simply knows how sinful people work.

Lev 26.29: Charlotte put verse 30, but the quoted part is verse 29. God was predicting one of the results of the judgements of Israel for unfaithfulness, and was fulfilled in 2 Kings 6:29. This is condemned, not condoned.

Lev 27.28-29: This was a capital punishment for completely giving oneself to Satan, not at all a human sacrifice. Also, I've already dealt with human sacrifice in the Bible, click here.

Num 16.31-32: Another verse issue. These men were punished for attempting a rebellion against Moses, God's chosen leader.

Num 16.35: The princes were killed for heavy involvement in the rebellion. The rest of the people directly went against God's judgement and tried to kill Moses and Aaron.

Num 21.1-3: The Israelites were migrating to a new land and were attacked by the Canaanites, who are frequently attacking them. God destroys them for attacking his chosen people, I suppose Charlotte objects to war?

Num 21.27-35: Again, Charlotte is objecting to war. These were nations committing the very acts the Bible condemns, such as human sacrifices, idolatry, sex slavery, etc. The Israelites were following God's commands of judgement, and the nations always could have joined the Israelites, there was a ritual established in which they could essentially become Jews, but they denied God's mercy.

Num 31.17-18: God had told the Israelites to attack the nation of Moab because they had been practicing idolatry and trying to force the Israelites to do so.This, again, was war. They had won and taken the spoils, including flocks. However, they had also taken the Midianite women, who they weren't supposed to. Throughout Scripture taking these women to be wives ended up in going against God and worshipping idols, like Solomon did. This is why God told them to kill the women. He spared the virgins because women captured through war were to be slaves, let free after a while. Virgins were, in God's eyes, considered clean. This was God showing mercy.


Deut 3.3-7: It is worth pointing out that when the word destroy is used, it means giving over to the Lord. This was God's judgement of cities doing all the things EB condemns so easily, sacrificing humans, raping sex slaves, and worshipping false idols and demons. They were utterly destroyed because to keep some and integrate them into your society leads to pressure into worshipping false idols, which the Israelites were prone to do.



Deut 7: This was, again, war. They were rival civilizations that hated the Israelites because of ties of their forefathers. The Lord ordered their total destruction because any sort of treaty and the cultures would begin to mix, and the other peoples would pressure the Israelites into worship of idols and false gods, resulting in things like human sacrifice. By the way, this is actually the beginning of chapter 7, not just verse 12. Verse 12 is actually talking about God's covenant of love with them.

Deut 20.16: This was for the exact same reasons as the last two examples. Other civilizations in the same area despised Israel because of how the nation was started, from a child branching of from lineages that can be traced through Genesis. See above.

Deut 23.2: The word "assembly" here means holding an office in Israel, not worshipping. Ruth was a Moabitess, and became a proselyte into the Jewish culture and was permitted to worship, wasn't she? Many Israelites weren't even permitted high offices, most were reserved for Levites.

So ends Charlotte's first article, the attempt on showing various acts of evil within the Torah. God's law was perfect, and, like EB's article on murder, most every killing here falls within Capital Punishment, a commonly debated idea which Charlotte cannot condemn with the emotional argument found here. Keep in mind "Got Questions", "Reformed Answers", and "Resources for growing Christians" all have answers to some of these as well, so check them out.