Tous ceux qui prendront l'épée périront par l'épée.
That is, all who draw the sword will die by the sword (Matt 26:52, NIV; title taken from the Louis Segond French version).
Looking at Yahoo ! Questions-Réponses (the French edition of Yahoo! Answers), there was one question that asked "what do Christians think of what their God 'Jesus' wrote in the Old Testament!?" and followed up with the "contradiction" between Jesus's exhortation to Christians to love their neighbour in the New Testament whereas many people died by stoning in the OT. The so-called 'best answer' said that Christians give themselves up to contradictions and followed up by saying "your question is well-thought-out but their heads are badly-developed"; following that, the asker's reaction came along the same line: "when they understand the question, they feign incomprehension; it's like the Bible - they've understood it but they claim to have another understanding! I hope they know God isn't stupid!"
... yes, God isn't stupid, and, in fact, the Bible does tell us to be critical of all we read, hear or experience. But the question is already fallacious in itself. Jesus never wrote anything; the Biblical authors did, with all their mindsets and their bias. And the contexts were different. And understanding of the nature of God is completely missing here.
The holiness of God cannot tolerate sin and untruth. That is why they cannot be pardoned and why people were often put to death in the OT for their sins - to make people realise the gravity of their error in comparison to God's holiness. But this no longer happens in NT times because Jesus came to bear the sins of all the generations of the world and to die for us; after three days, He was resurrected, and then later rose into Heaven, and will return again to judge the living and the dead. This is why, to paraphrase Jeremiah, vengeance is His. And with us thence discharged from the duty of vengeance (in the OT, relatives of a murder victim were charged with avenging the murder by killing the murderer, for example), the only duty of the Christian is to obey the two greatest commandments as pointed out by Jesus:"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
-- Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)
~~~~~~~~~~
If the question hadn't been declared closed, I'd probably be translating all that into French in order to post it up in response.
Finally, before I end...
God bless Darcy and Ju, for their answers - however out of point - definitely were offered up with patience in response to a question that doesn't even merit an answer, but needs it. Isn't that what Jesus did for us all, too, dying for our sins when we didn't merit it, but needed it?
Looking at Yahoo ! Questions-Réponses (the French edition of Yahoo! Answers), there was one question that asked "what do Christians think of what their God 'Jesus' wrote in the Old Testament!?" and followed up with the "contradiction" between Jesus's exhortation to Christians to love their neighbour in the New Testament whereas many people died by stoning in the OT. The so-called 'best answer' said that Christians give themselves up to contradictions and followed up by saying "your question is well-thought-out but their heads are badly-developed"; following that, the asker's reaction came along the same line: "when they understand the question, they feign incomprehension; it's like the Bible - they've understood it but they claim to have another understanding! I hope they know God isn't stupid!"
... yes, God isn't stupid, and, in fact, the Bible does tell us to be critical of all we read, hear or experience. But the question is already fallacious in itself. Jesus never wrote anything; the Biblical authors did, with all their mindsets and their bias. And the contexts were different. And understanding of the nature of God is completely missing here.
The holiness of God cannot tolerate sin and untruth. That is why they cannot be pardoned and why people were often put to death in the OT for their sins - to make people realise the gravity of their error in comparison to God's holiness. But this no longer happens in NT times because Jesus came to bear the sins of all the generations of the world and to die for us; after three days, He was resurrected, and then later rose into Heaven, and will return again to judge the living and the dead. This is why, to paraphrase Jeremiah, vengeance is His. And with us thence discharged from the duty of vengeance (in the OT, relatives of a murder victim were charged with avenging the murder by killing the murderer, for example), the only duty of the Christian is to obey the two greatest commandments as pointed out by Jesus:"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
-- Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)
~~~~~~~~~~
If the question hadn't been declared closed, I'd probably be translating all that into French in order to post it up in response.
Finally, before I end...
God bless Darcy and Ju, for their answers - however out of point - definitely were offered up with patience in response to a question that doesn't even merit an answer, but needs it. Isn't that what Jesus did for us all, too, dying for our sins when we didn't merit it, but needed it?