I thought your article was interesting, and that you are talking about things besides Ipods and Star Wars. I welcome your comments to my comments. You were right: up until about a year ago, I believed in Christianity because my parents taught me it. But now, I’m at an age where I need to really dig deep into the question of what I really believe in. Here are some of my thoughts on the verses you used.
Zachariah 14:1-2
What John MacArthur says about these verses:
“’The day of the Lord’ is a technical term for God’s wrath unleashed against sinners. Here, Zechariah is looking at the day of the Lord when his wrath is unleashed against the whole world of sinners, which results in the establishment of the Lord’s millennial reign on earth.”
This, by the way, is evil against evil; sinners against sinners. This is not Christians going out and raping people.
2 Samuel 12:11
This is God’s punishment of David after he committed adultery with the wife of Uriah the Hittite. David repented. God forgave him. God is a just God; he does not tolerate sin, so he must punish it with a curse on his household.
Deuteronomy 22:28-29
In this case, the woman was a virgin not pledged in marriage, so the man would have to pay a fine, marry the girl, and keep her as his wife as long as he lived. Yes, it may be traumatic, but that’s the result of my sin and your sin. Things aren’t always fair.
Being an atheist, OldSpeckledHen, you should know that “life isn’t fair” the best.
Leviticus 25:44-46
In this case, the slaves were usually captives from nations around the Israelites. Slavery was considered a humane way of dealing with captives and making them useful. Of course, this is Old Testament law for the Jews. Once Jesus came and died, none of this matters for the Christian. In this time period, slaves were to be treated well; not doing so could result in severe punishment and even death.
Exodus 21:7
This is on the part of the female slave’s protection. The ESV reads this way:
“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.”
The woman, if going out, could be raped if not protected properly. As for the part about selling your daughter in the first place, many people did this when they needed to pay off a large sum of money.
1 Peter 2:18
If the order will take many lives or openly break a main commandment with no reason, probably you should not obey it. If it just seems unfair, like you have to do more work than Bobby Joe over there, than the Christian should follow it.
Exodus 21:20-21
The owner of the slave had the right to punish. If the slave lived a few days or more, than it shows that the owner had no intent to kill the slaves.
Revelation 9:4-6
OldSpeckledHen: “So, God allows people to be tortured for five months, for no other reason than, they do not worship him. Very compassionate of you, God.”
I’m willing to bet a LOT that everyone reading this has sinned. The Bible says the punishment for even one itty bitty teeny weeny sin is death—torment for eternity. 5 months doesn’t seem so bad anymore, does it? The only escape from this is belief in the risen Savior.
Revelation 20:10-15
God has said over and over that the standard for an infinitely just God is perfection. The only way to, not only cover our imperfection, but to erase it, is to trust in Christ as our savior. If you don’t, God has to be perfectly just, and he did what he could to make a pathway for mercy.
Genesis 22:2-10
If you read farther in this chapter, an angel stops him and provides a lamb in his son’s place. Not only does this show the unwavering faith that Abraham had, it paints a perfect picture of the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
Exodus 12:29
Once again, God has to be just. Before this, God gave the Egyptians nine chances to let the Israelites go. Nine. That’s like saying “10 strikes and you’re out.” That’s some overly FAIR baseball.
2 Kings 2:23-24
Yea, I bet those youths learned their lesson. I also bet no one ever insulted him again.
Jeramiah 19:9
Just a symbolic picture of what God will inflict on the enemies of His chosen nation.
Ok, on to the next part.
Did you know that there is exactly 0% proof for the Big Bang? Find some solid evidence for me.
Did you know that there is at least a 99% chance of a great catastrophe, like, say, a worldwide flood? Yep, the fossil record proves it. Evolution says that fossils take millions of years to form. A fossilized fish was found in the middle of EATING another fish. Explain that. Also, thousands of clam fossils were found on the Rocky Mountains.
Where did the golf ball at the beginning of the Big Bang come from?
Did you know that when energy is turned into matter, that some antimatter is formed? And that there’s almost no antimatter in the universe? Where’d it all go?
Yea, you can ask where God came from, but no one said that non-matter things have to be created. Matter does have to be created. Matter was supposedly sitting in nowhere forever and then the Big Bang happened.
What about galaxies, planets, and orbits all spinning cockeyed directions?
I will also quickly touch on one thing: Atheism is a religion too. Also, Christianity is more than just a religion. Encarta dictionary describes “religion” as “an institutionalized or personal system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine.” Christianity is more than a set of rules and beliefs. It’s a relationship with a living, everlasting, personal God. It’s evangelizing to people who might never hear about Jesus, who, in my belief, are going to eternal suffering in hell. It embarrasses me when I hear about a person from another religion who had an experience with another “Christian” and was emotionally scarred afterward. People like this are not real Christians. You’ll know a real Christian when you see one.

I’m wearing a synthetic shirt right now. And I don’t think I’m sinning. I’d like to know where you got that one.

There is no such thing as Purgatory; the Catholics believe that--find a reference to it in the Bible: there is none. It's either heaven or hell. And no, you don't have to be perfect to go to heaven. The whole point is that we aren't perfect and that God must see us as Jesus, who was perfect.

I think that’s probably good for now. I really would appreciate your comments, especially from OldSpeckledHen. I know you most likely will not end up accepting any of this, but I wanted you—and others—to see the Christian’s viewpoint on these verses.