@Nathaniel I still think verse search questions are nearly always bad. And this is a bad one in particular. It's not help-me-remember-a-particular-verse, which is the only kind which people were proposing be allowed
It's a classic what-does-the-bible-say-about-X question. It's rather broad, and not particularly well defined. None of the answers actually focus on violence in the name of God, and the OP isn't clear whether they actually care about that phrase, or whether they just want to know about God instructed violence
All of the answers go on to contrast the OT and NT, which is not the focus of the question. When every answer uses the question as a springboard to something else I take that as further evidence that the question is not sufficiently well defined.
Honestly I don't see any redeeming features of it! Why do you think it should remain open???
"Assuming a standard consensus view of when each book of the Bible was written" None exists!
"And by Hell, I am assuming a place of eternal torment to which those who have died and are to be punished are sent. The letters "H-E-L-L" are less important than the locations Gehanna, Sheol, Hades, etc... that are used to refer to them." He wants the first mention of eternal torment, and then says that any of Gehenna, Sheol, Hades are allowed. This is the classic problem with verse search questions! All answers will depend on which of those you think are places of eternal torment!
@curiousdannii about my answer on the question about quran, one cannot just say: yes, you do have this and this and this verses where God encourage hurting and killing others in his name without giving the context. My answer is divided in two: no and yes. No because there is no such verse that applies for a modern reader. and yes because there is, in fact, these verses about death penalty. So, i'm dealing with the ambiguity of the question.
@FilipeMerker I'm not faulting your and the others' answers, but the question. That type of question always causes problems
But actually, you could just give a list of verses without context. All of those verses apply to the modern reader. Just because you're not an Israelite doesn't mean you ignore the OT!
The Question does not ask for a theodicy of God instructed violence. It does not ask for the NT perspective. The fact that all answers do that shows that if the community does decide the question should remain open, then it should be edited to add a disclaimer that those things are not what is being asked about.
@curiousdannii I don't have as much experience with the negative effects of verse search questions so I'm having more difficulty just dismissing the entire category wholesale... I like the idea of us being able to answer a question like this, and would like to figure out ways to do it well.
@FilipeMerker I don't mean that we fall under their jurisdiction! We don't obey them. But there is a sense that they apply to us
@Nathaniel Maybe verse identification questions could be allowed, but not give-me-a-list-of-verses on a topic. It's list based, it's opinion based. Often the function as discussion starters.
@curiousdannii of course, as a glimpse of God's moral standards, but not with literal implications for the modern reader, and this is what i mean by "no such verse that applies for a modern reader"
@curiousdannii Yep, I see the distinction now; very helpful. I wonder if this could be turned into a biblical basis question somehow... "what is the biblical basis against violence in the name of God?"
@Nathaniel Maybe, but the OP would need to be a lot clearer, like whether the "in the name" part actually matters. And if it's just about Christians acting violently in the name of God then I'd guess that it's already been asked
@FilipeMerker But many Christians think that the Noahic covenant still covers all of humanity. If that is true, then there is one OT law of capital punishment that still applies to every nation
@curiousdannii you mean the " whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed" thing? Ok, but this still be noahic law, as you said. The mosaic one, like killing for adultery is strictly allegorical for the moder reader. At least i don't see much people doing this at all.
@Nathaniel wow, living and learning. But are these folks are following all the civil laws? even when it comes to slavery and death penalties? I'll check this out.
@curiousdannii Because I wasn't paying attention, apparently. I looked at the edits and it looked answerable, but it is a verse-search question. That said, I'm still not 100% sure it should be closed. I believe that it's objectively answerable. The OP certainly has a habit of asking off-topic and borderline questions, and it's not the greatest question in the world, but to me, it's a borderline question, not a cut-and-dried case.
I cast a vtc since there were two others, and a review of the timeline showed that I probably acted a bit too rashly in casting a re-open vote, but I'm still on the fence and am going to leave that one alone going forward.
@David I don't think it's objectively answerable because he's leaving it to the answerers to decide whether sheol, ghenna or hades are places of eternal torment. But anyways, it's closed now.
May I shop at a thrift store owned by a church, such as the Salvation Army Family Store?
What if the only other thrift store is half an hour away?
