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 Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:10 pm
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edited
Something about how this was handled was bothering me and I didn't know what, but I finally see it: whatever character assassination (or lack thereof) that the adulteress is suffering should be equal to that of the adulterer. Otherwise, it's not actually Lawful (sinless) to condemn; why are they character assassinating either of the equally guilty party if they won't expose both...?
Leviticus 20:10 New International Version
10 “‘If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.
But if adulteress is spared, then so is adulterer. If adulterer is spared then so is adulteress. In this case, the adulterer is dead and you want to character assassinate him, then character assassinate the adulteress too. And if he's already dead, it's overkill. The ones to suffer death are the still-living adulteresses if you want to condemn his case. And if the gentiles won't punish to death, then humiliate both equally, yet that isn't being done either, by the church...so why isn't mercy shown to both adulterer and adulteress, sin covered, not condemned... as the Law would mercifully have you do...?
Deuteronomy 17:6 New International Version
6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.
Was there not more than one witness for each separate count of rape or adultery (twofold criteria here: [1] not just one witness but two to three witnesses per caught in the act when it happened and [2] not fellow participants but actual witnesses plural)...? Then it shouldn't be exposed. Even if they're truly guilty...
John 8:3-15 New International Version
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one.
Fellow participants of the act (the adulterer half or the adulteress half) are not witnesses, but fellow participants.
Deuteronomy 17:7 New International Version
7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
Jesus did not commit adultery with her. He's just a witness (if He saw the sin omnisciently/prophetically; or not a witness at all from an earthly perspective). But these Pharisees, are they her adulterer-half of her adultery? or even witnesses at all? just overhearing after the fact? did they actually see the act not just hear about it/rumor? Witnesses, true witnesses, and not a fellow participant, are the first to condemn. But fellow participants (unless actually rape victims according to YHWH's Law, that didn't submit to the situation; but someone who submitted to the sinful situation equally) are not witnesses, but fellow participants and are not in a place to lift up allegations / condemnations; they must equally be stoned along with the adulterer; adulterer AND actual offending adulteress brought forth or not prosecuted at all, let alone by the sole witness (if there were even any). Prosecuted and condemned first by actual true witnesses (plural); only they can initiate the prosecution. Not fellow participants (who Lawfully are to suffer the same fate as the one condemned for being complicit in the act).
But the world likes to lump together what YHWH clearly makes a distinction between and the world ambiguates this / lacks discernment by calling even fellow participants as "victims" so you never discern their complicit hand in the sin. If you try to rightfully do so, the world cries out "victim blaming / victim shaming" even when you try to rightfully discern the cases when a victim was equally complicit. Lawfully, sometimes you have to; not all "victims" are equal.
This worldly "way" of never victim blaming is not YHWH's way. Eve had some culpability rightfully-acknowledged, not downplayed despite acknowledging her weakness in the situation, but called out for the sin that it is with its consequences. Eve victim (worldly label), sure, but she's not blameless; she sinned too. Was complicit. And all equally would suffer the same death and same character assassination; even if Adam is more accountable, they all played an equal hand. Serpent too.
So, what's bothering me (the Holy Spirit sounding the alarm to rightly divide/make a fine distinction here that they're failing to): they're talking about the victims as if they're all equally blameless. If you're ousting the adulterer, THEN oust all the actual adulteresses too (not true rape victims but those who didn't protest the act; those who submitted to it). Otherwise, you're being just as sinful in condemning Ravi Zacharias (for not equally condemning the true adulteresses along with the adulterer) as the lawless/sinful act he did in the first place (because your condemnation is being equally as lawless/sinful). And if it's not expedient to expose the true adulteresses, then don't expose the adulterer half either. Lawfully show mercy to one, then Lawfully show mercy to the other too.
Equal treatment of adulterer and adulteress caught in the act by two to three actual witnesses (not fellow participants [i.e. Judah wanting his daughter-in-law Tamar burned in fire for prostituting when he's the one who slept with her - Genesis 38 and there were no witnesses there at all, all the more lawless, let alone the punishment. Why did he get so severe with it...? The Law says to stone. That's what's in our human jurisdiction concerning adultery. Was she even a priest's daughter [Leviticus 21:9]?).
On the flipside, let's remember that Bathsheba was truly an adulteress. She was married to Uriah. She knew she was married to Uriah. Nothing in the passage suggests that David raped her (like the Bible is clear of in other cases when rape IS involved e.g. the rape of David's daughter Tamar by her half-brother Amnon. That was lure and rape. David and Bathsheba was not a lure and rape, just outright adultery). And yet Bathsheba is not getting stoned to death for being an adulteress and neither did Dawid for being an adulterer (there were no two to three witnesses to raise up the allegation); instead David reaped the same behavior back onto his own household from God: took another man's property forcefully? now someone forcefully "takes" yours...
Obadiah 1:15 New International Version
15 “The day of the Lord is near
for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.
..no justice in man's courts according to His Law was lawfully allowed according to YHWH's own criteria [where are the two to three witnesses of the act? No? Then God's Law says you can't condemn. It's in YHWH's divine court alone], then He will execute judgment divinely outside of man's courts according to His Law/His standards. Eye for an eye: God does it when [A] man's courts can't [B] man's courts won't and /or [C] nothing has truly been forgiven, resolved/reconciled between the offended parties. Murder (or grudges) still in the heart. No repentance.
But not to digress my point: neither Bathsheba nor David were stoned, but equally met with mercy; God met the situation with mercy because in that specific case, there were no two to three witnesses of the specific one count of adultery. Witnesses plural of the one count/act is the focus, not, "one witness on this occasion, one witness in another occasion", added up. No, but two to three truthful witnesses of the one act to be condemned. If that's not the case here, then it should've been met with mercy because lacking sufficient witnesses, God did not allow more than one person to see the act happening but gave the people chances to repent (and since it's outside of man's judgment at that point, allowing God to divinely judge outside the situation, outside of man's hands, through what He manifests in their lives, if nothing is truly repented from and reconciled/forgiven, but offense left in anyone wronged and in any of the offenders).
That being said, we must be truly merciful and truly just in our treatment of these cases (and in how we react to these cases in our heart) according to the Law of YHWH; otherwise, our verdicts are not truly just nor truly merciful. And if that's what we have in our hearts and in our courts (actually Lawless), we're only storing up wrath even by how we "execute" so-called "justice and mercy". That is a warning written to the church; until we truly start doing things YHWH's Way, this is true:
Romans 2:5 New International Version
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
Galatians 6:7 New International Version
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
Romans 2:6-15 New International Version
6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”[a] 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)
Footnotes
a. Romans 2:6 Psalm 62:12; Prov. 24:12
The focus of this topic is when actual sin has been committed (please don't try to conflate this with examples of righteous suffering; that's another topic, both equally true, both happen on earth, but we cannot disregard this one: God repays you according to your deeds and God judges sin on the earth, with human beings involved in executing the justice and mercy, but also without us. But when without us/man's courts not truly doing justly and mercifully as He said, when we don't judge things correctly, erring on over-merciful or over-condemning, things just get more tragic on a larger scale and involves a whole lot more people unnecessarily, even on a national catastrophe, sending war, famine, animal attacks, plagues of all sorts. Whatever behavior mankind is doing brought back onto the nation in other ways by other hands, large scale: sword for sword, kidnap for kidnap, theft for theft, ridicule for ridicule, etc).
All that to say: the church is too "puffed up" by worldly ways of looking at "crime/"sin/lawless behavior, at looking at "wrong". The ways of our culture / nation are clouding true judgment and true mercy. When does YHWH's Law ever use the word "victims"...? Assess who is truly blameless/who resisted and who is equally complicit; then, if there are sufficient witnesses expose/condemn accordingly (if the Law doesn't allow for mercy in that case)—and equally if the adulterer will be put to death too, do the same to the adulteress. Otherwise, show mercy to everyone involved in the act because they're not witnesses of the act but all equally complicit in that act. But if you don't Lawfully show mercy to one, then don't Lawfully show mercy to the other; if you Lawfully show mercy to one party involved, Lawfully show mercy to all parties involved in that act being brought forth for prosecution in the courts (even the courts of public opinion).
And know that if you condemn when the Law tells you to have mercy, then you're equally being Law-less—being a sinner—for condemning when the Law / God Himself tells you to show mercy in that set of circumstances instead. And if you then proceed to condemn anyway, when He said don't in such a case, not only are you being a merciless, lawless condemner (sinner), but you're being a worldly hater, not a lover of your fellow brother in Christ, but a hater holding lawless grudges/seeking revenge not true justice.
Leviticus 19:17-18 New International Version
17 “‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Proverbs 10:12 New International Version
12 Hatred stirs up conflict,
but love covers over all wrongs.
I cannot tell by how this was reported whether any of it should have been exposed to the public (which counts are a case of two to three WITNESSES, not fellow participants [the latter of which the world calls victims, but the complicit equally along with the non-complicit], being interviewed. It all sounds like a muddled mess of injustice; not discerning as God/Jesus does in a matter, as He revealed that He wants us to discern the matter).
But unless the church truly / actually starts being Lawful (and merciful) according to the Father and the Son's standards (which do not contradict but agree), they're just storing up wrath for themselves, more conflict, more upheaval on a greater and greater scale, reaching more and more people; we will never live in peace until we submit to YHWH and stop acting like worldly Jezebels.
2 Kings 9:22 New International Version
22 When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”
“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”
Revelation 2:18-29 New International Version
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’[a]—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Footnotes
a. Revelation 2:27 Psalm 2:9
Jezebel was a lawless idolater doing her own thing, ruling by what appeared right to her, not right according to what is written / according to YHWH, our Heavenly Father; she was unjust, lawlessly killing men just to get more land (more power, more influence, "more" under her reign/her name). Seeking to make "herself" increase / her earthly power or influence increase / what she preferred to see an increase of on earth, instead of what He wants to see increase on the earth, His power/reign over the land and people's hearts increase on earth, establish YHWH's Way what He'd like to see done instead (actually right and merciful) on earth.
Let's not be like her (lawless/adulteress "church"/set-apart community to YHWH/ekklesia; a lawless, adulteress to the covenant, so-called "set-apart from the world's ways" people of God), but actually be set-apart, faithful to Him/His Way, according to what is written.
TL;DR - whatever you seek to do (or seek to not do) to the adulteress, do (or don't do) to the adulterer-half of the adultery too. Equal treatment of all complicit parties in the act given by the witnesses (and then by the rest of the community too). Otherwise you all/we all are being Lawless too: they for the sexual sins [lawless sexual behavior], but we in our executing justice and mercy (reaching a verdict) lawlessly (sinfully, not Lawfully). Expose both or expose neither. |
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