Looking Back On A Year In Scripture

I realize some of this, if not all of this, is repetitive with the rest of my most recent entries, but I want to talk about it all the same.  I read the whole Bible this year- the Old Testament once, the New Testament twice, and Psalms and Proverbs more than twice.  This is what really struck me in it's reading.  Also, the teachings of Mike Winger impacted me as well, though I don't agree with him on everything.

First of all, God is a proponent of the death penalty against capital offenses (murder mainly, but perhaps other extremely egregious crimes).  My feelings on this were less clear before this year- I wasn't really sure how God felt about it.  Now I'm pretty confident, even with Jesus' teachings against "eye for an eye," that Jesus would be for the death penalty, at least in capital murder convictions.

Next, God's views on abortion are less than clear- at least based on scripture.  I know long-time readers of my blog will know I'm prochoice, but... what I DIDN'T necessarily know is that there's a passage in Exodus where God actually teaches if a guy strikes a woman in the middle of a fight and she prematurely goes into labor and the baby dies, the guy is NOT to be killed, but to pay a sum of money.  This is very telling- because any cursory reading of Leviticus will tell you that if God thought a fetus was a human being, it would be "life for life."  To me this makes scripture's views more clear on the matter.  Other than that passage, there's very little in scripture pertaining to abortion.

Exodus 21:22 NASB1995:

“If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide."

Another thing I've noticed- the gospels aren't so clear cut on salvation.  

The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in general teach salvation as more of a process- particularly the synoptic gospels (Mathew, Mark, and Luke).  John is the only gospel that talks about being "born again," and while it seems all gospels do mention accepting Jesus as the messiah as being a condition on going to Heaven, it isn't unanimous.  One passage teaches we'll be judged by how we treat "the least of these," which is different than being judged either by believing Jesus is the messiah, believing Jesus has been resurrected from the dead, or being "born again."  Also, there are multiple passages where it seems the poor are given preferential treatment by God- in the above passage it doesn't say how "the least of these brothers of mine" will be treated, and in the parable of "Lazarus and the rich man," it says nothing of the virtues of Lazarus, only that his life sucked so he got to basically go to heaven, while the rich man received his blessings on earth and then suffered for all eternity.  To me, salvation is not a clear-cut subject- but plainly the rich will be judged differently than the poor.  That much is clear from the gospels.

I think... a few other things I've noticed about God- God is all in on genealogies.  Why that is I don't know.  Throughout the Old Testament, whenever someone is mentioned it's always "son of <name here>."  This tradition is sometimes continued in the New Testament, but is much more common in the Old.  Also, God is ALL IN on the details.  Seriously.  Numbers are EVERYWHERE in the Bible.  You can't swing a proverbial dead cat without hitting a number, particularly in the Old Testament.  And the temple?  God cared about every single freakin' detail about the temple.  You could almost say that God is OBSESSED with the details.  Don't think God doesn't care about the little things- any cursory reading of scripture will tell you that with so-called little things... to God there is no such thing.

God sees vengeance very differently than the original crime.  Some people who have sinned like to look down on those that struggle to forgive, because a plain reading of Jesus indicates that God takes unforgiveness seriously.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Not only did Jesus ALSO preach hard about making amends when you've wronged someone, I think it was somewhat taken for granted in Jesus' sermons in the gospels that the audience understood that it was MUCH WORSE to sin against someone, than it was to be bitter about the sin committed.  Do not think for a second that God will be more lenient to a sinner who refuses to make amends with the person sinned against than for the person who is bitter about being sinned against.  This is an inaccurate view of scripture.  In the OT, God even sanctioned people taking justice into their own hands- even accidental killings!- God hates evildoers that much.  Do not think, if you've sinned against someone and not gone and apologized that you'll get away with it.  YOU WILL NOT.

I think this is a good percentage of what I've learned.  I'm planning on continuing to read the Bible- this time hopefully in an English Standard Version, to gain an even deeper understanding.  Also I'm hoping to start studying the Bible- I could use to deepen my knowledge of scripture even further.  

Thanks for reading.