Detailed response to CES Letter, Scriptures

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Response to "Scriptures Concerns & Questions"

[[../Science Concerns & Questions|Science Concerns & Questions]]

A FAIR Analysis of: [[../|Letter to a CES Director]] A work by author: Jeremy Runnells

[[../Other Concerns & Questions|Other Concerns & Questions]]

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• Response to claim: "that Laban would send his servants after Nephi and his brothers is ridiculous considering that the same God who had no problem lighting stones and taming swarms of bees"
• Response to claim: "God kills all the firstborn children in Egypt except for those who put blood on their doors?"
• Response to claim: "Got a rebellious kid who doesn’t listen? Take him to the elders and to the end of the gates and stone him to death!"
• Response to section: "I’m asked to believe in not only a part-time racist god and a part-time polygamous god but a part-time psychopathic schizophrenic one as well"

"that Laban would send his servants after Nephi and his brothers is ridiculous considering that the same God who had no problem lighting stones and taming swarms of bees"

The killing of Laban in the Book of Mormon

Jump to Subtopic:

• Jeffery R. Holland: "It is wrong to assume that Nephi in any way wished to take Laban’s life"
• Question: Did Nephi commit "cold blooded murder" when he killed Laban?
• Question: Could Satan have deceived Nephi into killing Laban?
• Question: Could the angel which came to Nephi have been a demonic "angel of light" sent to deceive him?
• Question: Was Nephi simply listening to "a voice in his head" telling him to kill Laban as the result of a psychosis or delusion?
• Question: Why didn't God simply preserve Nephi's life using divine power instead of requiring him to kill Laban?
• Question: Do the legal concepts in the Book of Mormon better match Joseph Smith's day, or the ancient world?
• Question: Since Nephi beheaded Laban, wouldn't there be a large amount of blood afterward?
• Question: Is the story of Nephi killing Laban and then putting on his clothes believable?

"God kills all the firstborn children in Egypt except for those who put blood on their doors?"

Why would a loving God allow the death of innocents?

Jump to details:

• Question: Why would a loving God would kill innocent children in the flood of Noah's day?
• Question: Why would a loving God kill the firstborn of Egypt? (Exodus 12:12)
• Joseph Fielding Smith: "This was also in the similitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ"

"Got a rebellious kid who doesn’t listen? Take him to the elders and to the end of the gates and stone him to death!"

Old Testament penalties for disobedience

Jump to details:

• Question: Why are Old Testament penalties for disobedience so harsh?
• JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy: "Filial insubordination is a grave offense because respect and obedience toward parents is regarded as the cornerstone of all order and authority"

"I’m asked to believe in not only a part-time racist god and a part-time polygamous god but a part-time psychopathic schizophrenic one as well"

Criticisms regarding the character of God

Jump to details:

• Elder Jeffery R. Holland: "it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much"
• Question: Why would God send poisonous serpents to kill the Children of Israel?
• Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a "part-time racist" and "psychopathic schizophrenic" god?
• Question: Does the Book of Mormon refute Joseph Smith on the nature of God?
• Question: Did Elder Dallin Oaks say that "so-called Christianity sees God as an entirely different kind of being"?