Category Archives: Leviticus

Keep calm and carry on

Suppose I’m trying to live a Christian life.

Jesus is the Word, and the Word clearly says that the most important rules in life are to love God and to love others.

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Then one of [the Pharisees], which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (KJV)

I’m an abject sinner. Nonetheless, I do try to do what’s right. In fact, I’ve mostly always tried to do what’s right. Even before I turned to Christ. You see, I have an inbuilt moral compass. A God-given moral compass. God is the font of morality.

Just as we all have an inbuilt knowledge of God, so, too, we all have an inbuilt moral compass. What is a moral compass, exactly? The term ‘moral compass’ is shorthand for a set of moral sentiments, certain basic moral beliefs and the ability to engage in moral deliberation. And empathy. Hence the Golden Rule.

Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. (ESV)

Your moral compasss is kind of like a speedometer in a car. If you’re trying to keep to the speed limit (as, of course, you should) then respect what your speedometer tells you.

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We’re all supposed to have a God-given moral compass, one that points due moral north. Just in case it’s a bit broken and wavery, our parents are supposed to teach us right from wrong.

Not all parents are perfect, however. As a result of imperfect parenting, sometimes our children turn out to be gluttonous, stubborn, rebellious drunkards, who curse us.

Sometimes our children even commit heinous crimes and end up in jail.

I was in prison and you came to me. (ESV)

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them. (ESV)

As parents, we stand by our children. We love them, no matter what. At least, that’s what most parents do or would do and it’s what my moral compass tells me is how parents should treat their prodigal offspring. (I’m lucky in that my own children are model citizens. šŸ™‚ )

But certain passages in the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament, also known as the Pentateuch) tell an entirely different story.

For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him. (ESV)

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ā€˜This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.ā€™ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. (ESV)

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Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (ESV)

I wish that others wouldn’t batter me with rubble.

I was once a stubborn and rebellious son who didn’t obey the voice of his father. Had I been stoned to death with stones by all the men of the city I wouldn’t be writing this here today. Luckily all that happened was an interview with my school headmaster. Hang all the Law and the Prophets!

When my moral compass and the Torah collide, I follow Jesus.

Should Christians kill all the homosexuals?

I chose the title of this post carefully in order to comply with Betteridge’s law of headlines.

Should Christians kill all the homosexuals? (Let’s be clear. The answer is NO.)

Not even Pastor Logan Robertson thinks that Christians should kill all the homosexuals. He thinks that’s a job for the government.

I believe every single one of them should be put to death. Obviously Christians shouldn’t be doing it. I’m not going to do it. It’s the government’s job to be doing it.

Which is worse? Pastor Logan Robertson’s appalling homophobia or his abject statism? (Let’s be absolutely clear. It’s NOT the government’s job to kill homosexuals. It’s no one’s job. No one should kill anyone. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.)

Presumably Robertson is somewhat cynical about the government’s ability to do whatever it is they’re supposed to do, and that’s why he says he’ll pray that Marjoram tops himself, rather than patiently wait for the state to embark on genocide.

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I’m downgrading my assessment of Pastor Logan Robertson from stooge to sitting duck.

I was by no means the only one to suspect that Marjoram and Robertson were colluding and that it was all a set-up to gain publicity for and sell Marjoram’s book. Or, worse, that it was a cunning plan by new atheists to discredit Christianity. Investigative journalist Ian Wishart says

Maybe it’s the investigative journalist in me, and the sceptic in someone else who shall remain nameless, but something seems fishy about this story of the pastor abusing the gay author.

Logan Robertson does not seem to have much of a digital footprint pre-dating this. In fact, his “church” is so obscure it runs from a house and its website was only established a matter of weeks ago. Frankly, I’m surprised Jim Marjoram was able to find so obscure a church to send an email to…because I couldn’t find it in the usual church email directories he would ordinarily have used..

Maybe I missed something…

What Wishart missed, and what I missed, is that Robertson has a history of serious mental illness.

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Here ends the short sad sorry saga of Pastor Logan Robertson and his Westcity Bible Baptist Church with its congregation of three.

Or does it?

What about the elephant in the room?

Let’s grab it by the tail and look the facts in the face. The Bible quite clearly tells us, as Pastor Logan Robertson reminds us in his email, to kill all the homosexuals.

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (KJV)

So shouldn’t Bible-believing Christians be coming out and putting homosexuals up against the wall?

There’s a standard form of reply to this last question, which has to do with covenants and/or dispensations. A typical reply goes something like this.

The prohibition on homosexuality in Leviticus is part of what Bible scholars often call the ā€˜Holiness Codeā€™. Its purpose was to maintain the distinctiveness of the Israelites from the Canaanites.

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So we’re no longer required to kill homosexuals? Well, that’s nice and all, but I just don’t swallow the dispensationalist defence. Do I worship a God who, at one time, commanded the Israelites to stone their gay brethren to buggery? Or not? That’s the question I ask myself and my answer is NO.

I suggest that the repository of bigotry and bans that is the Book of Leviticus isn’t God’s word and doesn’t belong in the Bible. It’s canon fodder, i.e., expendable. (I leave everyone free to hold his own opinions. I would not have anyone bound to my opinion or judgment. I say what I feel. Let everyone think of it as his own spirit leads him. My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book.)

One lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel

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Consider this.

Rosenthal predicts: “A sizeable number of our young people will not mature as they should. Instead, we can look forward to a growing population of immature, under-qualified adults, many of whom will be unable to live without economic, social or clinical support.”

The inescapable fact is that marijuana will have drastic long-term effects on young users and, with pot-smoking reaching alarming proportions, on the future of society.

And now consider this.

“We are sitting on a timebomb with these,” said Leo Schep, of the National Poisons Centre.

“It’s not just the acute effects, it’s the long-term psychological effects.”

Even if the Government banned all legal highs tomorrow, users would have ongoing issues, he said.

“They are going to be a huge burden on the state, possibly for the rest of their lives.”

The first passage is from the January 1982 issue of the NZ Reader’s Digest.

The second passage is from Fairfax NZ News earlier this week.

Nearly a third of a century has elapsed. Yet the rhetoric and dire predictions of societal peril are virtually identical. The only apparent difference is the drug(s) in question. What do these similarities and difference signify?

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Note that Rosenthal’s prediction has come to pass!

Today we do, indeed, have “a growing population of immature, under-qualified adults, many of whom [are] unable to live without economic, social or clinical support.” But it is surely wrong to blame the rise of the welfare state on the popularity of marijuana! After all, Stoners Are Well Educated and Make a Lot of Money.

No, marijuana was a scapegoat back in the day. A scapegoat for what? A scapegoat for all of society’s ills but especially for society’s drug problem(s), such as they are.

What’s really responsible for society’s so-called drug problem? The answer is simple. It’s a lack of self-responsibility and a lack of parental responsibility that is mainly responsible. But who’s to blame for that?!

Fast forward to today and we’re scapegoating synthetic cannabis instead.

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One good thing about fake cannabis (“legal highs” or “legals”) … is that it’s taken the heat off real cannabis!

But there’s something we need to be clear about. Today’s propaganda campaign against synthetic cannabis is not simply a re-run of yesterday’s propaganda campaign against natural cannabis. The drugs are different in more than just name only.

The recently released Noller report finds that synthetic cannabis is significantly more harmful than natural cannabis. (For example, today’s synthetic stoners are broke and unemployed. They aren’t well educated and don’t make a lot of money like natural stoners do.) This unfortunate fact means that we can’t simply write off the current outcry against synthetic cannabis as simply MSM-driven sensationalism and mass hysteria.

Certainly, most of those who protested nationwide earlier this month, calling for a ban on synthetic cannabis, were ignorant peasants with lynch-mob mentalities. Speakers who addressed the witch burners at the Invercargill and Dunedin rallies and who happened to mention that legalising natural cannabis would help to solve the synthetic cannabis problem were met with boos, derision and pitchforks.

Most, but certainly not all. Many of the protesters are former synthacrack addicts themselves or parents of synthacrack addicts. I know some of these people. They’re well meaning and far from stupid. And they’re probably right that an outright ban on synthetic cannabis will fix our problems, at least in the short-term.

So, is a lack of self-responsibility and/or a lack of parental responsibility mainly responsible for the anti-synthetic brigade’s problems? Yes, I insist that it is. But there’s none so blind as many of my libertarian friends and fellow drug law reformers who will not see that government and opportunistic greed are also very much to blame. Because synthetic cannabis is far more dangerous than we were led to believe. The plain fact of the matter is that New Zealand society is not yet ready to accept untested, dangerous, legally available designer drugs. We need a transitional policy to get from where we are now to a safe society where all recreational drugs are legal and the Psychoactive Substances Act is not it, for a multiplicity of very good reasons.

Comparisons are odious. But the synthetic cannabinoid products now available in New Zealand are seemingly so bad that even former prohibitionists are now seeing sense in legalising the real deal. And that, at least, is a good outcome.

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http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2016&version=KJV

Did Aaron the High Priest smoke? || The biblical roots of Jews and marijuana:

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Aaron… The ‘High’ Priest. šŸ™‚

Doctor, mohel, and former IDF lieutenant Yosef Glassman finds surprising links between controversial plant and ancient Judaism.
ā€œAlso, one will beautify [Shabbat candle lighting] when the wick is made from cotton, flax or cannabisā€¦ā€

Thatā€™s right, cannabis.

This dictate, found in the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), piqued the curiosity of Boston geriatrician Yosef Glassman when he was reading about Sabbath rituals on a religious quest nearly two decades ago.

The future doctor decided to embark on a project to learn whether cannabis was also used for medicinal purposes in ancient Jewish times. At first, he proceeded hesitantly ā€” the federal ban on marijuana stigmatizes even library research on the drug, he said.

But in recent years, with medical marijuanaā€™s legalization in several states, Glassman felt more comfortable delving in. What he found was a wealth of references in the Bible and beyond. Marijuana usage, he contends, is an aspect of Jewish law and tradition that had long been buried, and one that deserves ā€œresurfacing and exploration.ā€

ā€œThere is no question that the plant has a holy source, God himself, and is thus mentioned for several ritualistic purposes,ā€ said Glassman, who is also a mohel and a former Israel Defense Force lieutenant. He lives in Newton, Mass. with his family.

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Glassman also found many references to non-medicinal uses of marijuana. ā€œIt is clear that using cannabis for clothing and accessories was very common, according to the Talmud,ā€ he said. It was used for making tallitot and tzitzit, as well as ā€œschachā€ (Sukkot roof coverings).

Glassman also found that cannabis fit into the category of kitnyos on Passover, meaning that Ashkenazi Jews were prohibited from using it on the holiday. ā€œOne thus might assume that it was also consumed, perhaps as food, during the remainder of the year,ā€ he said, noting that hemp seeds are a non-intoxicating form of protein.

Glassman first presented his findings in late October during grand rounds ā€” a medical teaching session ā€” at the New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton, Mass., where he is a physician. He has since gone on to give the same lecture to lay and medical professional audiences. ā€œThe goal is to educate practitioners on the rich cultural history behind the use of cannabis as a medicine, explain its mechanism of action, and dispel myths about its safety profile,ā€ he said at one such presentation open to the public in Brookline, Mass. in November.

He explained that he had received no commercial support for his research, that no exhibitors were present, and sorry, but there were no free samples. ā€œNot even in those brownies in the back?ā€ joked one audience member.

In the talk, Glassman described finding several biblical references to the herb that include Book of Numbers 17:12-13, where Aaron the High Priest, ā€œno pun intended,ā€ probably burned marijuana as an incense offering ā€œduring a time of turmoil.ā€ Other passages include Godā€™s instructions to Moses to ā€œtake for yourself herbs bā€™samimā€ ā€” herbs of medicinal quality ā€” and instructions in Exodus to ā€œtake spices of the finest sort, pure myrrh, five hundred shekels, fragrant cinnamon, and ā€˜keneh bosem,ā€™ā€ which literally means ā€œsweet cane,ā€ but possibly refers to cannabis, said Glassman. ā€œKeneh bosemā€ is also mentioned in the Song of Songs 4:14, Isaiah 43:24, Jeremiah 6:20 and Ezekiel 27:19. Another pronunciation is the Aramaic ā€œkene busma,ā€ which, perhaps unsurprisingly, is also the name of a modern reggae musician.

Glassmanā€™s research revealed that cannabis may have been used as an anesthetic during childbirth in ancient Israel; he described an archaeological discovery of hashish in the stomach of the 1,623-year-old remains of a 14-year-old girl in Beit Shemesh. Maimonides was also an advocate of using cannabis oil for ailments such as colds and ear problems. ā€œThere are complex laws of plant mixing and hybridizing from the Talmud, which Maimonides comments on,ā€ said Glassman. ā€œCannabis specifically was taken especially seriously in terms of mixing ā€¦ and could, in fact, incur the death penalty. This shows me that apparently, cannabis was treated quite seriously.ā€

Ancient Jews werenā€™t the only people to use cannabis medicinally, of course. In his lecture, Glassman noted that cannabis has been used in Chinese medicine, as one of the 50 fundamental herbs, for 4,700 years; ancient Egyptians used it in suppositories and for eye pain; and Greeks made wine steeped with cannabis and used it for inflammation and ear problems.

Read more >>>here<<<

Ye shall have their carcases in abomination

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Oyster stout? WUT is the world coming to?!

TASTING NOTES

This silky-smooth stout contains select malt and hops to produce a beer that is rich and complex. It contains Bluff oysters and has a slightly smoky flavour.

Contains Bluff oysters?! A “slightly smoky flavour”?! No wonder, this ungodly beer is a burnt offering to Baal! It’s an abomination! It goes directly against God’s word as clearly spelled out in Leviticus 11:9-12.

These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.

And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:

They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.

Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

I have previously warned of the addition of foodstuffs to beer. Beer is water, malt and hops ONLY. Chocolate and coconut were but thin ends of the wedge. And now, alas, it’s come to this.

No doubt, my Dispensationalist co-blogger will tell me that these dietary strictures do not apply in the present Age. I am unmoved.