If God gave Moses a righteous, just form of law... then why not uphold the sanctioned stonings today? It makes sense to do away with ceremonial laws since they appear to have been pointing to (and fulfilled in) Christ himself. But don't we Christians usually argue that the "moral aspect of the law" is to be upheld today? Since homosexuality and rebellion are considered moral choices, why are we more lenient on those issues? Sure, Christ put an end to the law of death, according to NT scripture, but Jesus pulled most of his teachings from the books of Moses. "Love your neighbor as yourself" and "love your enemy" are both OT mandates and could be considered part of "the law." So why did Jesus yank those commands forward, and not the other moral obligations, such as stoning the rebellious?
I've heard it reasoned that we don't use that form of judgement any longer because we're not living in a theocratic society like ancient Israel was. But is that true? Is not the church itself a theocratic society, governed by God himself? It would then seem that, according to this explanation, stoning the rebellious could be allowed inside a close-knit Christian society if governmental laws don't prohibit it (such as Pope-rule in ancient Europe). And yet Jesus says if the rebellious person doesn't listen even to the church's admonition, the person should be left alone to fend off the adversary. Why not stone him?
Now, of course I'm being tongue-in-cheek about some of this and, for the record, I don't condone stoning the rebellious.
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