Why don't Christians kill their children for cursing?

[Major Nikon]

To be clear, I'm not suggesting they do so, I'm just wondering why they don't.

If it's really true that following the teachings of Christ is a requirement for being a Christian, why do so many conveniently ignore this instruction? It's not as if Jesus wasn't quite clear on the subject. In fact, if you don't He thinks you're a hypocrite and worship Him in vain.

15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’[*] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[**] 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[***]”

Footnotes:

* Matthew 15: 4 Exodus 20:12; Deut. 5: 16
** Matthew 15: 4 Exodus 21:17; Lev. 20: 9
*** Matthew 15: 9 Isaiah 29 : 13

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A1-9&version=NIV

[safeinOhio]

1. They found loopholes

in the OT and Paul, mostly.

[Major Nikon]

3. No loophole with this one as the law is underscored in the NT

[atreides1]

4. Mosaic law doesn't apply to Gentiles.

It is important to remember that the Mosaic Law was for God’s covenant people, Israel, living in a theocracy.

Seven Laws of Noah were established for non-Jews

1.Not to worship idols.
2.Not to curse God.
3.To establish courts of justice.
4.Not to commit murder.
5.Not to commit adultery or sexual immorality.
6.Not to steal.
7.Not to eat flesh torn from a living animal

[Major Nikon]

6. The idea that all the Mosaic laws no longer apply to Christians is a minority opinion

Most accept some form of it, especially the parts Jesus was most emphatic about.

[safeinOhio]

8. Thanks to Paul.

Other wise only Jews could be Christians. Some say Paul never met Jesus except in a dream.

[Major Nikon]

11. Paul self-describes himself as an "apostle"

He claimed the Holy Poltergeist whispered in his ear after a 3 day bender. I find it interesting how Christians follow a 2nd hand account from someone who admittedly never met Jesus in the flesh over Jesus himself and those who actually did know him in the flesh.

Paul's changing of the mosaic covenant wasn't arbitrary. The reason why he did it was to bring the gentiles to the party and thus the donation money from the far richer Romans and Greeks. The circumcision requirement was a non-starter.

[safeinOhio]

5. What about....

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?

[Major Nikon]

7. That's the first one to go out the window

[atreides1]

2. Interesting.

I've never been able to get a straight answer to this question!

However, the Bible never records these laws being enforced!

[struggle4progress]

9. X says to Y: You don't follow our rules

Y says to X: Yeah? You don't follow your own rules
Major Nikon says: See? Y wants you to follow the rules!
I say: Major Nikon missed the point

[Major Nikon]

12. Strawman

I could really give two shits whether Christians follow their own rules or not.

I'm asking the question because other believers in this forum have claimed those who don't follow the teachings of Christ are false Christians. By that standard it seems the pool should be considerably smaller.

[struggle4progress]

13. The dialog reports that the Jew, Jesus, was criticized for not following the Law and

that Jesus replied that the complaint was hypocritical, since the critics did not follow the Law either, insofar as they did not kill their children for disobedience. You want to read this as dialog as indicating that Jesus taught that we should follow the Law and so should kill disobedient children. I say you misread the dialog

You are (if course) free to dislike Christianity and dismiss it, but your misrepresentation of its teachings seems ugly and unwarranted

[NeoGreen]

14. Who are you to say...

..."your misrepresentation of its teachings"?

Are you now the determiner of what is or isn't a "proper" interpretation or "proper" presentation?

[Major Nikon]

17. Everyone is certainly free to interpret it anyway they want

Most Christians certainly do. That's pretty much the whole point.

I have no issues with someone who wants to just completely dismiss all the laws handed down by the bible, I just question how some can do so while simultaneously faulting other Christians for doing the same thing.

[marylandblue]

21. Because they disagree with each other?

Is it really any more complicated than that?

[struggle4progress]

18. As indicated by the dialog (and by later Jewish commentary) the actual Jewish practice

was not to execute rebellious children; and the Christians did not break with the Jews in this regard

This historical observation does not require me to claim that I am the determiner of what is, or is not, proper interpretation

[Igel]

22. Grammar, in this case.

He points out the dilemma: "Honor your parents, and if kids curse their parents they should die" is what you get out of the quotes.

Nowhere does he say to kill kids who curse their parents. Instead, the argument goes another way: That in fact the Pharisees de facto curse their parents by declaring their possessions a gift to God. If it's a gift to God, well, it can't go to help their parents, who remain old and without necessary money or goods. That's equivalent, you'd have to assume, to cursing them.

Now, if you want to take snippets and individual verses out of content, it could mean all kinds of things. Best to try to figure out what the text was intended to say and understood to be saying. That way we at least read what it meant instead of what we can possibly get it to mean.

[NeoGreen]

23. I will concede the point...

...you make in regards to grammar, but you're the only one to clearly raise that issue. As far as what it all means, that is a road with many, many twists, turns, forks and branches. Nobody ends up in the same place.

[Major Nikon]

24. He's saying they should be put to death

Some translations say “they should die”, while others say “put to death”. Either way the clear meaning is the punishment described in Exodus. Exodus 21:15 describes children who strike their parents and 21:17 describes children who curse their parents. Both are capital offenses with the usual method of being stoned to death.

[Major Nikon]

16. I find it amazing the pretzels people have to tie themselves in to come up with such things

Jesus is referring to a law handed by god to Moses directly over one that is purely ritualistic in nature. To put it into today's perspective you're claiming Jesus is saying it's OK to rape someone because He parked in a handicap spot.

[struggle4progress]

19. People regularly call others hypocrites without implying agreement

If, for example, a very vocal married opponent of adultery and abortion is discovered to have paid for an abortion for his mistress, one calls the person a hypocrite without necessarily implying any particular stand on the topic of abortion

No particular contortions are required there

But based on your bizarre assertion that I am claiming Jesus taught it's OK to rape someone parked in a handicap spot, I might wonder if your difficulty understanding the reported dialog reflects some deeper cognitive or psychological problem

[Major Nikon]

20. You know that wasn't my claim

If you can’t take the short amount of time required to read and comprehend what I wrote or you just want to be obtuse, I really don’t see the point in attempting substantive discussion with you.

[Cartoonist]

10. The death penalty

‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

I thought Jesus loved us. This makes him an asshole in my book. Any defenders of this shit?

[Runningdawg]

15. If Christians followed these rules there wouldn't be any of them left.

Obviously my fundy parents didn't kill me for cussing. But to this day the smell of Zest soap gives me an anxiety attack and makes me want to puke.