Let’s do something fun today!
I’ve gotta a little 7-question Bible quiz for you today to see how well you REALLY understand what’s REALLY said in the Scriptures.
So here goes!
Tell me if the following statements are Scripturally TRUE or FALSE:
A) The Bible forbids believers from drinking alcohol.
B) You must ritually wash your hands before eating.
C) The Lord only helps those who help themselves.
D) The only type of marriage the Lord recognizes as valid is between ONE man and ONE woman.
E) The Bible condemns all forms of prostitution.
F) Being in debt is a sin.
G) After Sinai, the ancient Israelites believed in many gods.
Okay, so how did you do?
Here are the answers.
A is FALSE.
The Israelites drank wine on many festive occasions.
Heck, Yeshua even turned water into wine at a wedding.
And yes, it was wine, not some grape juice as some pastors like to assert.
B is FALSE.
In Judaism, ritual hand washing is called NETILAT YADAYIM and it was just a tradition.
A tradition Yeshua spoke out again nonetheless.
The Pharisees accused Yeshua of breaking the Law when they said “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” (Matthew 15:2).
Yeshua shot back with:
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”-Matthew 15:17-20
C is FALSE.
Quite the contrary actually.
The Bible teaches that those who rely on their flesh to achieve will more often than not end up falling flat on their faces.
God doesn’t help those who help themselves.
He helps those who serve Him and come to Him for help.
D is FALSE.
Look at every great Biblical character such as Jacob and King David and we’ll see they had multiple wives without condemnation from the Lord.
Heck, even Caleb, one of only two men allowed to enter the Promised land, had two wives.
Also take a look at these rulings from the Torah.
“If a man takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights.”-Exodus 21:10
If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:-Deuteronomy 21:15
“If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is depravity; they are to be put to death by fire, both he and they, so that there will not be depravity among you.”-Leviticus 20:14
Every one of these rules would be irrelevant if having more than one wife was a sin.
E is FALSE.
The Scriptures make a distinction between COMMON prostitution and CULTIC prostitution.
The latter involved engaging in a sex act (usually anal sex) as a form of worship to another God.
And Paul lambasting the Corinthians in his letter to them was all about them participating in cultic prostitution.
In Paul’s day, the gentile world was awash in pagan temples whose worship activities consisted of having sex to worship a deity.
But on the other hand, we can see that common prostitution was permitted.
The Lord never departed from Samson when he was sleeping around with prostitutes.
He only departed when Samson broke his covenant with God by allowing his hair to get cut.
Also consider the incident of the two common harlots who came to King Solomon over a dispute over the death of one of their sons.
Solomon issued his ruling but never said one word of condemnation to them about their occupation.
Heck, even Yeshua said “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.”-Matthew 21:31
Of course, a lot of folks will insist that Yeshua is talking about prostitutes who have repented of their profession and stopped being prostitutes.
I call that a bunch of BS eisegesis.
They’re reading into the Scriptures what they SUBJECTIVELY want it to say because it doesn’t jive with their own ideas.
Onwards!
F is FALSE.
Debt isn’t condemned.
Making a deliberate decision to NOT pay back debt when you very well could have is what’s condemned.
In fact, using debt as leverage to get ahead is a wise strategy that successful business owners employ all the time.
Money hoarded instead of circulated is money wasted.
G is actually TRUE.
Even after Sinai and well into the time of Solomon, the Israelites continued to believe in the existence of other gods.
They believed the nations had their gods and they had theirs.
Check out these statements:
“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords,
the great God, mighty and awesome,
who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.”
-Deuteronomy 10:17
“Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.”
-Psalms 136:3
Understand that the ancient Israelites actually believed those statements LITERALLY.
To their minds, it wasn’t just some metaphorical or hyperbolic statement extolling the magnificence of their God.
They really believed there were other “lords” or other “gods”.
It was just that their God was more powerful than the gods of the goyim (gentiles).
Alrighty, so that ends our little quiz.
How did you do?
The statements I picked are a pretty good reflection of the false beliefs so thoroughly embedded in Christian culture (in some cases Judaism too) that no one even questions it.
We all just walk around assuming we are in the right.
This leads us back to our story of Micah, the Levite and the tribal leaders of Dan.
We can see that they too were operating under a variety of false beliefs.
Micah had created a false silver idol to worship HaShem (this makes me laugh).
In addition to that idol, he also had a bunch of other idols lying around in his home.
He also thought that by hiring a Levite to be his own private priest that would automatically cause the Lord to bless Him.
And we can see that the leaders of the tribe of Dan had also fallen for the same set of false beliefs.
That’s why they had returned to Micah’s house.
They wanted to steal all of his idols and take the Levite to be their own priest because they thought by doing so they would be blessed by the Lord.
Now here’s your takeaway for today.
Just because Micah, his young Levite and the leaders of Dan were ignorant of what the Bible really says on certain matters didn’t mean God let things slide.
In other words, ignorance was NOT accepted as an excuse for disobedience.
They had been given the Torah.
So they could have inquired of it as to what was right or wrong.
But they didn’t.
And the same goes for us.
More than any other generation in human history, we have instant access to the Scriptures (if you have the internet that is).
But are we taking advantage of this access?
Or are we instead relying on doctrines, traditions and the teachings of men?
Have we surrendered our God-given brains to our pastors, preachers and teachers instead of going to the Word and checking things out for ourselves?
I have no idea what the divine consequences are for ignoring the Word especially when we are blessed to have instant access to it.
But I’m pretty sure there is both an eternal and earthly cost for not studying AND APPLYING the Word to our lives.
Maybe we should wake up from our state of complacent ignorance.
Especially since the end of days is fast approaching.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Do not think that I have come
to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them
but to fulfill them.
For truly I tell you,
until heaven and earth disappear,
not the smallest letter,
not the least stroke of a pen,
will by any means disappear from the Law
until everything is accomplished.
Therefore anyone who sets aside
one of the least of these commands
and teaches others accordingly
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven,
but whoever practices and teaches these commands
will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I tell you that unless
your righteousness surpasses
that of the Pharisees and
the teachers of the law,
you will certainly not
enter the kingdom of heaven.“
-Matthew 5:17-20
Do you know who Heck is? I suggest you check it out and examine yourself. A fool hates instruction. I have mentioned this before to you and you stopped using the name of a god for a while.
But thanks for talking of Dan. I see his name does not come up in Revelation 7. I thank you for your help and appreciate all you say. Nevertheless a small fly Heck makes the whole ointment stink for me.
Because I care about you I speak these words for healing.
Very good article. Perfectly reasonable, too.
BTW, I am a husband of one wife by choice … I choose life, and mine would be forfeit if a married a second. My Lovely Bride would kill me in my sleep.
BTW, I aced your quiz.
Hey Mark, Congratulations on acing the quiz brother!
I think you made a WISE choice in choosing to be a husband of one wife…
I do believe that is God’s ideal…
Remember in the garden, there was Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and Eve and Sarah and Mary…
It says the TWO shall become ONE flesh…
Your are a blessed man!
Shalom.
BTW, are you a Newfie? I ask because I am in Ohio, which is US Eastern time and you are 2 hours ahead.
Originally born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota but now living in Tokyo, Japan which is my father’s country. Shalom.
Engaging post as usual! Regarding other (little-g) gods: The divinely-inspired words of Deut. and Psalms are portraying the case accurately – the world is full of other gods, however b/c they are (1) created rather than uncreated as YHWH is, and (2) have such small (delegated) powers compared with Him . . .It can accurately be said He alone is God.
Like comparing a bunch of matchbox cars with a ’66 GTO. It can correctly be said the GTO is the Car among cars, or also that it alone is the Car. Shalom!
Great comment Eric. Thanks for sharing. Be blessed!
Really! Common prostitution is permitted by God! Your arguments are very weak for this. Are you suggesting that women prostituting themselves is ok in the eyes of God or that men who visit prostitutes are also doing right by God? Surely not! What about Deuteronomy 22? So much is said about Gods view of sexual promiscuity. As well as many other places in the old and New Testament. Bit confused why no one else has yet commented on this! Am I alone in thinking prostitution is not what God wants for his people?!
I’ve enjoyed reading your views on many verses and topics in the bible (the focus on sabbath was great!) but can’t stay silent with your view on prostitution!
Hi Dawn,
Totally understand your feelings.
Look, it’s not like God is promoting prostitution.
And I’m not promoting it either.
Just like God doesn’t promote divorce but He does permit it.
God’s ideal has been and will always be to keep sex within marriage and that divorce should never happen.
Here’s an interesting article to check out: http://www.godrules.net/articles/harlotry.htm
Shalom.
Thank you for your reply although you didn’t address the verses where God clearly condemns sexual promiscuity! It seems to me that you would have to ignore quite a lot of verses to hold your view. Prostituting yourself or visiting prostitutes really isn’t similar to divorce or Gods view on it. End of the day we all have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and decide what is truth for ourselves. I find your view scary in light of the society that most of us live in now that is going further and further away from the Torah and from what God says brings life. You may not be encouraging prostitution but you’re half way there by implying God doesn’t condemn it and is a dangerous precedent. Search your hearts people!
Dawn, I gotta agree with your overall point.
The author of the godrules article says
At times it is Biblically permissible to have more than one wife, get a divorce, have pre-martital sex, or have sex with a prostitute
But he is only partly right. Two of these are explicitly listed as sin in scripture, and two are not. Do you know which two are which?
Matthew 19 covers divorce as sin.
1 Corinthians 6 covers prostitution as sin. Let’s look at that one more closely:
The godrules article creates three escape hatches which he uses to move plain ol’ prostitution into the “non-sin” category.
The first escape hatch is the brutal condemnation of false-god-temple-prostitution in the Torah, along with the absence of condemnation for Jews who participate in garden-variety-prostitution. This conflates normal and normative.
The second escape hatch is to claim a limit on Newer Testament pornea (sexual immorality) as only the sins listed in Exodus 18. Which, incidentally, would throw out 1 Cor. 6!
The third escape hatch is to claim 1 Cor. 6 is referring to temple-related-prostitution only. He bases this on the “temple” and “dowry” language of the passage, as well as outdated and discredited ideas about temple prostitution in the ancient Greco-Roman world.
Regarding the “temple” language – see Chapter 3 where the same language is related to building – raising the temple on a good foundation with righteous works that will stand the test of time. No mention of prostitution either 🙂
Regarding Corinth’s prostitution industry being related to temple worship: Interestingly . . .the *very article* he quotes to convince us of this . . .comes to the opposite conclusion!
That article concludes: “I do not believe that cult prostitution was practiced in Greek (and Roman) regions of the NT era”
Whoops!
In fact, the author of the article quoted says
“Hopefully Ephesian [the strongest ‘evidence’ was for Ephesian, even stronger that Corinthian] cult prostitutes will soon disappear from our literature and from our pulpits, for these chimera exist only in the minds of people today, not in the past.”
In other words, “hopefully people who write godrules articles will stop claiming the NT era was full of temple prostitution” LOL
Further,
(1) There is no shortage of gospel passages that use pornea in an exclusively non-idol context – see below for some examples
and
(2) Pornea in Greek non-biblical literature means “sexual immorality”, not “temple prostitution”
The author *could* make a case that the **Torah** does not explicitly condemn non-idol-related prostitution
but regular, garden-variety prostitution is clearly immoral sin, based on 1 Cor. 6 alone:
“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality.”
Mt. 5:32
Mt. 15:19 / Mk. 7:21
Mt. 19:9
Jn. 8:41
Now, regarding
pre-marital sex
and polygamy
(and slavery too, by the way)
the godrules guy is right — totally dumb, but not always sin
The New Testament can’t supersede Torah. EVER!
Here’s an interesting opinion shared by an Orthodox Jew on the whole Tamar incident:
Here’s also another article I wrote about Samson: https://messianic-revolution.com/ju16-2-why-didnt-god-depart-from-samson-when-he-was-sleeping-with-prostitutes/
“The New Testament can’t supersede Torah. EVER!”
Agreed!
The Sadducees couldn’t find Resurrection in the Torah, but through the light of the NT we realize it was there all along. “Not the God of the dead, but of the living!”
We know (A) Paul is correct in 1 Cor. 6, (B) From Yeshua’s use of the word pornea
and (C) from history that pornea means sexual immorality, not idol-prostitution
therefore, in light of the fact that Torah contains the perfect revelation of HaShem . . .I am more than confident prostitution is a sin in the Torah. I just can’t quote you a verse that shows it 🙂
(In the same way Yeshua could not quote a verse
“I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”
that outright says: “resurrection is REAL”)
Thanks for sharing.
Interesting is right 🙂
Favorite quote from the video: “there’s nothing unhealthy about prostitution if you do it the right way”
LOL
(sorry didn’t get this in with the other replies – not trying to overwhelm your thread with comments 🙂
Deut. 22:21
…Shall stone her with syones…she has played prostitute…
Deut. 24 1-4
Divorce has no penalty
She is sent away
Can’t remarry each other
Prostitution = divorce?
Not even remotely.