Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Does Christianity, Like Islam, Order the Death of Apostates?

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

Some skeptics of Christianity allege that the Bible, like Islam, commands Christians to kill apostates. Alan addresses this claim and explains the three steps he took to resolve this challenge.

Does the Bible command Christians to kill apostates similar to Islam's injunction to kill those who abandon Islam? Well, some skeptics of Christianity argue that Deuteronomy 13 commands just that. Well, I'd like to consider this challenge in this episode of my podcast, Thinking Out Loud with Alan Schliemann. It's well known that Islam strongly discourages apostasy. In fact, if you abandon the faith, you might end up dead. Now, though many Christians will point to this practice as a kind of a blight on the Islamic faith, you might end up dead. Now, though many Christians will point to this practice as a kind of a blight on the Islamic faith, some skeptics of Christianity claim that even Christianity requires a similar punishment for disbelievers. Now, they allege that this command is found in Deuteronomy 13, verses 6 through 10. And so, therefore, if that command is also in the Bible, then it's just as

unjust as it is in Islam. Now, this challenge and how the challenge is resolved demonstrates the importance of knowing your theology and knowing proper interpretive principles, right? So, when I recently heard this challenge, I was obviously not familiar with it. And I want to point out the steps that I took to resolve this challenge. So the first step was, and I encourage everybody to do this whenever they're confronted with a challenge, is it's important to read the challenge yourself. Like read the passage specifically, because this is a claim about a Bible passage. Read the passage yourself. And of course, that's what I did. I read the text. In other words, don't just assume that another person's interpretation is correct. In fact, let me

read to you the passage in question, okay? Now, I'm going to skip some of the verses, or no, some of the sentences in the passage, but I encourage you to read the whole thing yourself so you can see that I'm not taking anything out of context or skipping something that's important, okay? But what I'll read for you here, I think, is the relevant material for this particular passage, okay? So again, this is Deuteronomy 13, verses 6 through 10. It says this, Again, this is Deuteronomy 13, nor shall you spare or conceal him. But you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Okay, so there's the passage. And I want you to notice that upon just a sort of cursory reading, there's no command to kill apostates, right? I mean, think about the definition of an apostate. An apostate would be someone who was a person who was once a Jew, but has now abandoned his religion. And there's no indication in this passage that someone has fallen away from their faith. Instead, what the passage does is it commands you to stone a person who tries to, quote, entice you secretly to go and serve other gods. Okay, end quote. Now, why is that a problem? Well, it's a problem because these people are tempting you to break the first commandment, which is, you shall have no other gods before me. So notice also that the problem isn't merely

having another God, it's serving another God, right? That's what the text says. God it's serving another God right that's what the text says and this is a very important distinction and this next point or the next step that I take reveals why so the second step I took to kind of resolve this particular challenge remember the first step is to read the passage yourself the second step is to never read a Bible verse which means I was trying to take the passage in context, right? So this idea of never read a Bible verse is a very familiar axiom that stands to reason, that we at Stand to Reason talk about a lot. And it's a reminder to never try to understand the meaning of a passage without reading the context. In other words, always read the text before and after the passage in question so you better understand what is being said. Now, in this case, the preceding

chapter, which by the way is only eight verses away, provides valuable information that explains why enticing a person to serve another god is an abominable crime, all right? So this is Deuteronomy 12, verses 30 to 31, and listen to the warning that is given to the Israelites. It says, Beware that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise? You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God, for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods.

For they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Okay, so that's the, you know, context, just the chapter beforehand. Okay. And notice in the context that you see that serving other gods entails sacrificing their sons and daughters by burning them. Okay. So, this explains why the Israelites were commanded to kill those who enticed them to serve other gods. Because the other nations were sacrificing their children in fire and they were enticing the Israelites to do the same with their own children. Therefore, this passage is not a command to kill apostates. Rather, it was a command intended to protect innocent children from being burned to death in ritual sacrifice. And, of course, it also deterred the Israelites from following those same practices of these pagan nations. All right, so that's the second step, is to read it in context. And the third step that I took to kind of resolve this challenge was to consider relevant theology.

So the passage in question, which is, you know, the passage that they're claiming is a command to kill apostates, which is Deuteronomy 13, verses 6 through 10. This passage is part of what's called the Mosaic Law. And the Mosaic Law was a contract that God established with the Jews that was meant to govern the theocracy in Israel. Now, that particular contract and all of its 613 commands are no longer in force for the New Testament believer for three quick reasons I'll mention. Number one, the laws were only relevant for theocratic Israel. Number two, Jesus fulfilled the terms and the requirements of that Mosaic law contract. And three, God established a new contract with his people called the New Covenant in Christ. So those are the three quick reasons and i've unpacked this elsewhere but those are three quick reasons why we don't follow the mosaic commands uh from that were intended for theocratic israel okay so so therefore even if deuteronomy 13

verses 6 through 10 were a command to kill apostates which i've just shown in the previous two points that's it's not a command to kill apostates but even if it were a command to kill apostates, which I've just shown in the previous two points, it's not a command to kill apostates. But even if it were a command to kill apostates, that law would no longer be in force. No Christian, no New Testament believer today would be obligated to kill an apostate. So those are the three steps I took to resolve this challenge. And notice by taking a little time then to read the text in question, it becomes very obvious quickly that the passage isn't referring to apostates. Rather, when you read the context, you discover that believers were simply being enticed to serve other gods, which of course would entail sacrificing children on an altar. to serve other gods, which of course would entail sacrificing children on an altar.

And so therefore, the passage isn't about killing apostates, but rather about punishing people who sacrificed children and enticed others to do the same. So again, reading the text, studying the context, and then considering the theology of covenants enables you to address this objection. considering the theology of covenants, enables you to address this objection. And what I want you to take away from this is it provides you a technique for answering countless other objections and challenges that are raised against the Bible. Okay, well, that's all I have for you today. If you've enjoyed this episode, I encourage you to share it with a friend. And also, don't forget to subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss any episodes in the future. And again, thank you for listening. I look forward to thinking out loud with you next time. Thank you.