No. The father should not kill his son.

APL, the Bible and the SOP are too plain to misunderstand. There are times when Jesus destroys. There are times when He commands holy men and holy angels to destroy. And there are times when He permits evil men and evil angels to destroy (within the limits He sets and enforces).

We cannot force all the stories to fit one model.

You must have misunderstood. I did not ask if the father should kill his son. My question was much more open-ended, and requires an action, not a non-action, as a response. Again: What is the loving thing to do?

Or perhaps I misunderstood your response. You say the father should not kill the son. Is that the extent of the father's response? The father can watch his son hurt himself and others, and it is loving as long as he doesn't kill his son? He can continue to provide his son with the resources necessary to continue his destructive behavior, and it is loving as long as he doesn't kill his son? Is it sufficient merely to refrain from killing his son?

If the father decides to deprive the son of food and water, given that the son cannot provide it for himself, does that qualify as killing his son? Or can the father deprive his son of life-giving resources and still meet your non-killing requirement? Or if the son begs his father to "unplug" him from life, or maybe the father gives the son the tools he needs to kill himself, does that still satisfy your non-killing criteria?

I guess I was approaching it like a Dave Ramsey point of view. People call in saying shouldn't we go in debt if such-and-such happens, or what about this, or that, or our circumstances require it.

The response is: going in debt is not a solution. All kinds of situations and emergencies come up, but no matter what, the solution always is: not to go further into debt.

So until you agree killing the son is not a solution, you won't be any more open to exploring other solutions as the debtors are.

M: APL, the Bible and the SOP are too plain to misunderstand. There are times when Jesus destroys. There are times when He commands holy men and holy angels to destroy. And there are times when He permits evil men and evil angels to destroy (within the limits He sets and enforces). . . We cannot force all the stories to fit one model.

A: Deuteronomy 32, Who did what and how? Use the plain reading you advocate.

In bringing forth Israel from Egypt, the Lord again manifested His power and His mercy. His wonderful works in their deliverance from bondage and His dealings with them in their travels through the wilderness were not for their benefit alone. These were to be as an object lesson to the surrounding nations. The Lord revealed Himself as a God above all human authority and greatness. The signs and wonders He wrought in behalf of His people showed His power over nature and over the greatest of those who worshiped nature. God went through the proud land of Egypt as He will go through the earth in the last days. With fire and tempest, earthquake and death, the great I AM redeemed His people. He took them out of the land of bondage. He led them through the "great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought." Deuteronomy 8:15. He brought them forth water out of "the rock of flint," and fed them with "the corn of heaven." Psalm 78:24. "For," said Moses, "the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him." Deuteronomy 32:9-12. Thus He brought them unto Himself, that they might dwell as under the shadow of the Most High. {COL 286.4}

"He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye." "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Deuteronomy 32:10; Isaiah 63:9. {PP 407.2}

Yet the only records of their wilderness life are instances of rebellion against the Lord. The revolt of Korah had resulted in the destruction of fourteen thousand of Israel. And there were isolated cases that showed the same spirit of contempt for the divine authority. {PP 407.3}

On one occasion the son of an Israelitish woman and of an Egyptian, one of the mixed multitude that had come up with Israel from Egypt, left his own part of the camp, and entering that of the Israelites, claimed the right to pitch his tent there. This the divine law forbade him to do, the descendants of an Egyptian being excluded from the congregation until the third generation. A dispute arose between him and an Israelite, and the matter being referred to the judges was decided against the offender. {PP 407.4}

Enraged at this decision, he cursed the judge, and in the heat of passion blasphemed the name of God. He was immediately brought before Moses. The command had been given, "He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death" (Exodus 21:17); but no provision had been made to meet this case. So terrible was the crime that there was felt to be a necessity for special direction from God. The man was placed in ward until the will of the Lord could be ascertained. God Himself pronounced the sentence; by the divine direction the blasphemer was conducted outside the camp and stoned to death. Those who had been witness to the sin placed their hands upon his head, thus solemnly testifying to the truth of the charge against him. Then they threw the first stones, and the people who stood by afterward joined in executing the sentence. {PP 407.5}

This was followed by the announcement of a law to meet similar offenses: "Thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death." Leviticus 24:15, 16. {PP 408.1}