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We are to observe carefully every lesson Christ has given throughout His life and teaching. He does not destroy; He improves whatever He touches.—Letter 135, 1897.
1SM 118.1
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1SM 118.1
The Veil Over Western Christianity
We recommend reading this book first if you have not already.
We recommend reading this book first if you have not already.
At-One-Ment
We recommend this book for further reading.
We recommend this book for further reading.
In Deuteronomy 7:2 we read
Deu 7:2 and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
The command to utterly destroy in Hebrew is the verb charam or the noun cherem. In this discussion we explore whether this is a direct divine command or an accommodation to human perceptions of justice because of texts like this:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. "But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own counsels. Psalms 81:10-12
In taking all that inspiration tells us we see that the cherem is part of human justice that God is required to accommodate to in order to remain in covenant relationship with men. This principle extends all the way to the cross which becomes a mirror of human morality as expressed by Caiaphas that it was better for one man to die than the whole nation perish.
