After reading your post, it appears to me that I am clearly answering your position.

You are putting the command to "stone" in the same category as commandments as to how a person should live.
You are putting it in the same category as "don't eat pork".
Just do it and don't ask God any questions.

Dedication,

There are two basic categories that I'm aware of: Moral Law and Ceremonial Law. Which category is stoning in?

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

You're problem is that you are taking this personally. I never suspected or asked if you were still stoning Sabbath breakers or anyone else.

So your allusion to "Are you still beating your wife" is rather off the topic and a strange comparison.

Your comparison to Abraham and David doesn't make any connection.
Abraham directly heard the voice of God and obeyed. It wasn't some general code, but the direct voice of God speaking to a specific event, place and act.

David committed adultery and murder, but wasn't stoned as the code required. What's the connection????

As to dietary laws -- no of course they shouldn't be begging the Lord to allow them to eat pork. Don't eat pork, that's a principle of health.

But how that links to "STONING PEOPLE" who were created in God's image and for Whom Christ died and whose probationary period they would be taking away is a totally different matter.
People are motivated by all sorts of distorted jealousies and sinful emotions and it's just not safe to place that kind of thing in human hands WITHOUT DIVINE direction.

Circumcision was a routine thing, as were the sacrifices.

But marriage and divorce YES THEY SHOULD ask the Lord about that. As we learned later, out of the hardness of their hearts Moses allowed for divorce but it wasn't really God's plan from the beginning. (See Mark 10) It would have been far better to earnestly seek the Lord on those issues.

And no, I don't see the law for stoning in the same category as "do not eat pork".

And I made that clear in my answer to you previously.

Three --
Moral
Ceremonial
Civic
Stoning was in the third

What other laws are in the "civic" category?

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Regarding this, I was referring to some Levitical laws such as do not marry a woman and her sister in her lifetime...stuff like that. Don't marry your aunt, your father's wife, your daughter-in-law...etc.

This whole time I've been talking about the law. There is no law that specifies whom someone should marry by name. But there is a law that identifies certain persons whom one must not marry.

In light of such laws, if I were living in those days, should I feel I need to take it to Urim and Thummim to see if I may marry my daughter-in-law?

Consider the law:



Can I marry her? Shall I ask the priests to tell me God's will on the matter? Or does God expect me to already know that His law is His will?

(Naturally you realize that I am speaking hypothetically here, as this marital situation does not apply to me at all.)

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

All the laws that deal with how the judges are to handle different cases. All the "legal" laws that judges enforce.
Inheritance laws
Property laws
How to deal with different crimes people committed.
City of Refuge laws
There are lots of them.

You said "marriage and divorce"

My answer to that remains the same.




When it comes to the principles governing my life -- of course I am to follow and not try to find a loophole.
Principles should become so much a part of my life that I should not want to find a loophole to excuse disobedience.


You may think my position is a STRAWMAN, but I KNOW this type of reasoning of elevating the CIVIC law into the moral law is exactly what produces the most horrific persecutions that gave the world the 1260 years of terrible trouble, and will again do the same in the time of the end.

When religion gets hold of government and adopts the civic laws of the old testament pretaining to worship, that's when the persecution starts again.

I've read catholic defenses of their inquisition and it's based on exactly those texts, plus the commands to Israel to exterminate the heathen in Canaan.

It's no strawman.

When people start bringing up the command to stone "Sabbath Breakers" every red light starts to flash!
Because IT WILL be used against those so called "Judiazers" who observe the 7th day and refuse to sanction the so called "Christian Sabbath".

If we go and teach that Stoning Sabbath breakers is something that was to be done without asking God, and put it into the category of the moral law -- we are walking right into their trap.

Dedication,

Why did they ask God in the case of the Sabbath breaker?

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

I'm going to go right back to the original question of this thread.

Why don't we stone Sabbath Breakers?

Let's turn to Matt. 13 and see what Jesus says.



Now let's look at the above closer for Jesus Himself explains it in verses 36 to 42.


He that sows the good seed is the Son of man --Jesus Himself.

What is the field?

The field is the world

What is the good seed?

the good seed are the children of the kingdom

What are the tares?

tares are the children of the wicked one
The enemy that sowed them is the devil;


Jesus' servants ask -- should we pull out and get rid of the tares?
Translate -- should we stone the evil doers?

Jesus says NO, leave them till the harvest when the reapers will do the job.

When is the harvest?

the harvest is the end of the world

Who are the reapers?

the reapers are the angels

What happens to the tares at the end of the world?

As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

The tares and the wheat are to grow together until the harvest; and the harvest is the end of probationary time. The destruction of the lawless ones is not to be carried out now, the angels will take care of that at the end of the world.