Chosen by Satan

By Maan Khamis

The Old Testament is the foundation of all Abrahamic religions. It continues to have a sizable impact on human lives. The majority of Jews and Christians believe in its inerrancy. Muslims believe that the hands of men modified parts of the Old Testament. These believers fashion their concept of the world based on how they interpret the Old Testament. Public guidelines are also shaped to accommodate such beliefs.
Having spent years studying Islam and Christianity, I began studying the Old Testament, the source. However, it became quickly apparent to me that the Old Testament is the most evil literature ever written. It contains the worst vile acts ever committed by man. It is the most racist tribal manual ever. You can cite any evil act committed by any human throughout history, and I will show you worse in the Old Testament. If criminals are allowed to justify their actions by the actions of the Old Testament’s Lord and his agents, jails will be empty. My journey through the Old Testament felt like traveling across hell. It was very excruciating when all my beliefs crumbled around me. It was worth it, however. The experience helped me cross over to the other shore, to enlightenment.
My intention when I began reading the Old Testament was to find God. What I found was the anti-god. This book is my attempt to show why I reached such conclusions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maan Khamis
• Release date: Mar 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370534524

Maan Khamis

Maan Khamis is a lifelong God-seeker. He spent years studying Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. His lengthy analysis of the Old Testament sheds some light on its evil nature. He posits, Only Satan embraces the actions and characters presented in the Old Testament.The truth is self-evident.The Truth is eternal.The truth is God.The truth does not require apologists or theologians.The Truth is discovered, not learned.Your soul recognizes the truth.Your soul is one with the truth.Maan dedicates this book to his adopted country, USA, that he affectionately describes as the land of the free wherein such book is possible. He is a technologist and holds a position as a senior software architect in Dayton, OH.

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Abstract

The Old Testament is the foundation of all Abrahamic religions. It continues to have a sizable impact on human lives. The majority of Jews and Christians believe in its inerrancy. Muslims believe that the hands of men modified parts of the Old Testament. These believers fashion their concept of the world, and of others, based on how they interpret the Old Testament. Public guidelines are also shaped to accommodate such beliefs.

After spending years immersed in Islam and Christianity, I began studying the Old Testament, the source. However, it became quickly apparent to me that the Old Testament is the most evil literature ever written. It contains the worst vile acts ever committed by man. It is the most racist tribal manual ever. You can cite any evil act committed by any human throughout history, and I will show you worse in the Old Testament. If criminals are allowed to justify their actions by the actions of the Old Testament’s Lord and his agents, jails will be empty. My journey through the Old Testament felt like traveling across Hell. It was very excruciating when all my beliefs crumbled around me. It was worth it. The experience opened my eyes to a new reality and helped me cross over to the other shore, to enlightenment.

My intention when I began reading the Old Testament was to find God. What I found was the anti-god. Whatever you might think of me, I was seeking the truth. I was seeking God. God is the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth is self-evident and eternal. The divine spark in all of us recognizes the divine truth.

See if you can recognize the divine truth in the following statements? Can you recognize the divinely inspired verses?

Youare here to enable the divine purpose of the Universe to unfold. That is howimportantyouare!

Youshalt smite them, and utterly destroy them.Have no pity onthem.

Lovers and friends and wealth, pleasures and fame--These fail and change, and pass into decay; ButmyLove does not change; andin thyblameI blame thee not, nor turn My face away.

The first is by Eckhart Tolle. The third by James Allen. The second is from the Old Testament. I am sure; your essence recognized the truth. Your essence is the truth. Your essence is God. Eckhart Tolle and James Allen spoke from their true essence; they spoke the eternal truth.

My son recently asked, Can a machine have moral values? My answer was, Only if you input a list of our highest moral values in its programming. Only then, a machine would identify the act of killing as immoral. What might a machine moral values be if we input the Old Testament in its programming? Such machine would consider murder and rape as being highly moral.

This book is written to express the views of a large percentage of Jews, Christians, and Muslims who find it very hard, with good conscience, to continue teaching the next generation the evil doctrines found in the Old Testament.

Introduction

Throughout my life, I have been seeking a deeper understanding of my God; whoever or whatever it might be. I watched myself drifting between Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Agnosticism and various other spiritual disciplines. I was continually searching for the ultimate truth; for God.

As a child growing up in Syria, I learned about Islam in school and enjoyed the sense of community it provided. Although, I was not convinced of the majority of its teachings. After migrating to the US, I became interested in Christianity which led me to learn as much as I can about Jesus and his teachings and was fascinated with the Christian’s concept of grace. During the past few years, I started reading the Hebrew Old Testament. Since both Islam and Christianity speak of God as described in the Old Testament, I thought I would have more knowledge of my Creator by going to the beginning.

However, reading the Old Testament made me feel, to say the least, very nauseous. The Creator in the Old Testament seems very different from the Creator I imagined and learned about in Christianity and Islam. I had a hard time accepting the God of the Old Testament. The more I read, the more I lost touch with God. Actually, the Old Testament pushed me away from God. My soul was running for cover. I could not imagine worshiping such malevolent God. I was sure millions of people felt the same way and gave up on seeking God after reading the Old Testament. Eventually, it dawned on me that the Old Testament is a manifestation of evil. This also led me to believe that the Hebrew Bible is no more than a satanic cult manual, and was expressly written to drive people away from God. Upon this realization, everything in the Old Testament began to make perfect sense. What is better for Satan than to disguise himself as our Creator? He realized that being a serpent was too obvious.¹

This book is my attempt to show why I reached such conclusions. I do not pretend to be a religious expert or a theologian. Better minds have written about this subject. I intended to read the Old Testament with fresh and innocent eyes unencumbered by religiosity. I relied heavily on the King James Version (KJV) of the Hebrew Bible. As well, other scriptural sources are also cited. Many Bible defenders will twist and turn in an attempt to explain away all the satanic creeds in the Old Testament. However, I believe that the clearest and simplest explanation is usually the best explanation, i.e., when a satisfactory explanation is reached with the least amount of assumptions, no more explanation is needed.² As an unbiased reader of the Old Testament, I am asking myself What is this story telling me? Miraculously, when you consider the possibility that the Old Testament is satanic, no apologists or theologians are needed any longer. The Old Testament explains itself.

My devout Christian friends tell me that I am placing too much emphasis on the Old Testament. They assert that Jesus came to clarify and fulfill the Old Testament. I usually answer, Why is more than two-thirds of my Bible made up of the Old Testament? If we are to pay no attention to its guidance and laws, why do I need to carry it around? I might as well be carrying the biography of Mao Zedong. We also need to remember, Jesus himself emphasized the importance of the Old Testament in Matthew 5:19,

Whosoever therefore shall abrogate one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

People of the Abrahamic religions agree with the distinction between God and Satan. Almost everyone accepts that Satan represents the dark evil traits and God represents the divine, graceful traits. Declaring that God expresses both traits makes Satan redundant and leads to the fall of all Abrahamic religions.

When friends or missionaries insist on discussing religions, I usually point them to a whiteboard divided in half and ask them to list on the left side the characteristics of their God. On the right side, I ask them to list the characteristics of their Satan. All the Old Testament traits discussed in this book were taken from whiteboard right side. As humans, we label a being based on his/her manifestations. We labeled Genghis Khan as evil because of his actions. Hence, based on the actions of the Lord of the Old Testament, as will be clearly seen, we have no choice but to label him evil. We cannot, for the same actions, label Genghis Khan as evil and label the Lord of the Old Testament as good. Matthew 7:16, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." For that reason, if we match the characteristics and actions of what I call Satanic with those which are expressed and promoted by the Old Testament and its agents, then my views are confirmed.

I personally do not believe in a being called Satan. By satanic, I merely mean the harmful and destructive behavioral traits exhibited by people in this world. Their actions only seek gratification of self. Their behaviors lack love, forgiveness, grace, justice, and enlightenment. Although, even if you believe in the existence of a being called Satan, it does not affect the conclusions drawn in this book.³

Mind you; I am not alone in my views about the Old Testament and its followers.

Jesus talking to the Hebrews in John 8:44

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Martin Luther⁴

Therefore be on your guard against the Hebrews, knowing that wherever they have their temples, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer selfglory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously.

Marcion of Sinop⁵

Christianity is in complete discontinuity with Judaism and entirely opposed to the Tanakh. Yahweh was not the same god spoken of by Jesus. The Genesis account of Yahweh walking through the Garden of Eden asking where Adam was, had proved Yahweh inhabited a physical body and was without universal knowledge (omniscience), attributes wholly incompatible with the Heavenly Father professed by Jesus.

Thomas Paine⁶: The Age of Reason

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.

Mark Twain

It ain’t the parts of the bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the part that I do understand.

Maximillien de Lafayette: The Evil and Bloody Nature of Our Biblical God

"Kill, kill, kill, stone, stone, stone" are the common, persistent and consistent words and orders of Yahweh throughout the Old Testament.

Please forgive me. My intention is not to insult anyone. When I say Hebrew⁷, Christian, or Muslim, I am merely talking about religious beliefs and not people. Beliefs come and go. Whereas, the essence of every human is the same. My hope is that this book will speak to your essence; the same essence that is unchanging with the vicissitude of beliefs. You have to be willing to go wherever the truth takes you. My loving wife is a Christian and has Jewish relatives whom I love. I also have many Jewish friends who consider me a Good Samaritan. Some of my favorite heroes identify themselves as Jews, Muslims, or Christians. We are all God’s children. However, we must open our eyes and discover the truth behind our beliefs. The only way for us to see the truth is to dis-identify from our entrenched beliefs. As humans, we tend to consider our learned thoughts and beliefs as an integral part of who we are. That is an illusion. We defend our beliefs the same way we defend our honor. We think of our beliefs the same way we think of our hair, eye color, or family. As a result, when our beliefs are insulted, it triggers in us emotions similar to the way we feel when, for example, our physical appearance is criticized. Remember, if you were born during a different time in history or in a different geographic location, you would have different beliefs. Throughout this book, I ask you to keep an eye on your emotions and question their cause. Be the observer of your emotions. Do not be their puppet. Your essence is who you are prior to beliefs. Everything you perceive does not mean anything save for the meaning you give it.

Think of your brain as a mountain carved by running streams of beliefs. These streams follow their paths down the mountain. Your thoughts follow paths carved over time by what you learned and experienced. Our thoughts, like streams, take the most comfortable tracks. Unless we are willing to create new paths, we will never evolve. Remember, flat earth theory was a stream path in people’s minds for a long time. A song is also an excellent example of a brain path. We all recall hearing a song for the first time and disliking it. After hearing it on the radio several times, we begin to like it. The song, after repetition, creates tracks in our brains. Years later, the same song evokes the same pleasures and emotions in us. Similarly, after repetition, theological beliefs become familiar and pleasurable to our brains. Even people that abandon their faith might return to it years later after reading their holy book. If they believed it once, it would trigger the same emotions in them again. What does the following statement trigger in your mind? "Jesus is the son of God. If you are a Christian, you have heard this so many times that it will flow comfortably in a very deep path in your brain. If you are a Jew or a Muslim, you do not have any brain path for this statement to flow through. It is forced down different paths in your brain. Maybe down the path of Christians are deceived."

We must clearly understand what we believe in and whom we are worshiping. You are entitled to believe in and worship Charles Manson as God if you choose. However, it is your duty to understand who this God is and be willing to accept his actions and counsels. Otherwise, you are worshiping by ignorance, projection, or imitation. I promise you I am seeking the truth. If I conclude that the Hebrew God is worthy of worship, I will be the first to prostrate myself to him.

Trust me, the God that is worshipped by Christians and Muslims has no resemblance whatsoever to the God of the Old Testament. Most Christians do not even think that the verses I am citing in this book are present in their holy books. Muslims on the other hand, have their own polished up Old Testament stories. Both project their views on their holy books and make their Lord anything they want him to be. I do not blame them. When they venture to read some Old Testament books, they get bored rigid and stop reading. I have to confess, having read Leviticus several times, it is by far, the most useless book I have ever read, and if you can stand reading it, heaven should be yours for the taking. Although, you might get few chuckles reading about some of the best sacrificial gourmets.

Please understand, I am not asserting that all who gave their lives to spread the Abrahamic religions were idiots, evil, or self-interested. These beliefs were true to some of them. However, these beliefs do not serve humanity any longer. They were the truth to them, and they continue to be the truth to some. Such beliefs are not the truth that we can rely on any longer. We have reached a point were holding on to such beliefs is more harmful than helpful to our survival. Our descendants will examine some of our current beliefs and consider us irrational. That should be okay with us. We should not demand that future generations must follow our beliefs even though they are causing harm to them.

Additionally, I would like to emphasize that the purpose of this book is not to prove that the Old Testament is human-made nor to prove that God does not exist, but to prove that the Old Testament, as it stands, is satanic and the product of evil men. I do not believe that enlightened men are capable of such odium.

"This is the soul-destroying threefold entrance to hell: desire, anger, and greed."⁸

Evil Manifestations of Love

For us to understand the wicked love manifested throughout the Old Testament, we need first to understand the meaning of true love. What is true love? How do we experience love?

True love is oneness with all.

True love is forgiving totally.

True love has no opposites.

True love is unconditional and does not require reciprocation.

True love is deriving joy from the joy of others.

True love is turning the other cheek.

True love is the feeling you have when you hold your newborn baby for the first time.

True love is looking into the eyes of others and seeing yourself.

True love is accepting what is.

… In the presence of true love, the I disappears, and we become one.

…That is true love.

Rachel Corrie, a human rights activist, exemplified true love. I remember her speech when she was ten years old. If such a speech were in the Old Testament, this book would not have been written. Here is a segment of that speech for you to enjoy:

I’m here for other children

I’m here because I care

I’m here because other children everywhere are suffering

Because forty thousand people die each day from hunger

I’m here because those people are mostly children

We’ve got to understand that the poor are all around us and that we are ignoring them

We’ve got to understand that these deaths are preventable

We’ve got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us

We’ve got to understand that they are us and we are them

In the Gospel according to Thomas, Jesus said, "Love your brother like your soul, guard him like the pupil of your eye. I.e., In essence, your brother is as close to you as your soul and the pupil of your eye. How divine; unfortunately, Rachel was killed in Israel when she tried to prevent the Israeli forces from demolishing the home of a Palestinian pharmacist. I can surmise that Rachel’s last words were forgive them; for they know not what they do."

I wish I can take her place. I would have been genuinely thankful to the Israeli forces for giving me such a grand opportunity to forgive and experience true love. In the afterlife, like the father of the Prodigal son, I will be running to welcome them home. Prior to beliefs, they are me; I am them. They know not whom they are killing; they are unconsciously playing a role. Imagine, if you will, all Palestinians forgiving the Israelis totally; halting their resistance and saying to Israel, you can take away our homes, our dignity, even our lives, but you will never take away our capacity to forgive. You are the instrument that is enabling us to experience divine love and forgiveness, and we are going to use it. As a result, the conflict in the Holy Land will end by depriving it of vengeance and fuel for hate. Jesus beautifully sums up this concept in the Gospel according to Thomas, "Blessed is the man who has suffered and found life."

Regretfully, religious fundamentalists on all sides, especially Christians waiting for Jesus to come back, will be very disappointed and will do everything in their power to reignite the conflict.⁹ I firmly believe that enlightened Jews and Muslims will usher an end to the conflict in the Middle East if the Christians stop meddling with them.

The following concepts are very subtle; please read them carefully. They will open your eyes to the type of love expressed in the Old Testament. I will use this symbol, ∞, as an indicator for you to stop and ponder what you have just read.

Would you want your children to love you because they are afraid of you? Would you want them to think that you love them if you do not punish them?

Stockholm syndrome: strong emotional ties that develop between two entities where one intermittently harasses, threatens, or intimidates the other. Whereby, the victim, mistakes the lack of abuse from their abuser for an act of kindness and love.

Abrahamic religions are doctrines of punishment. All gruesome acts committed by the Lord are quickly dismissed as God is disciplining his children because he loves them. Even allowing your only son to be crucified is interpreted by some as an act of love.

∞

Traumatic bonding between the abused and the abuser is rampant in the Old Testament. Wherein, we are taught to believe that we are not worthy and deserving of punishment. We should be very thankful that God is not punishing us even more. To cope, we identify with the Lord and his doctrine of punishment. When we believe the same values as the aggressor, these values cease to be perceived as threatening. We now share the same logic with our abuser and even admire and worship him because, now, both of us believe in the same logic. Ezra 9:13,

And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;

∞

When the Lord is killing humans and animals, are you cheering him on?

When the Lord killed all the firstborn of humans and animals in Egypt, are you cheering him on? Are you doing everything you can to avoid his wrath? Are you proud that he is not killing your children?

When your abusive drunk dad is beating your sister, and you cannot do anything about it; more likely, you are glad that he is not beating you. You think, He is going to beat someone. I am glad it is not me. Your sister getting beaten becomes associated in your mind with the relief that you are not getting beaten. You might even convince yourself that she deserves it. Welcome to hell.

∞

Do you believe that Hell is for the other guy? Are you ok with Hell as long as it does not touch you? Do you think that the other guy deserves it because he does not believe what you believe and does not submit to your concepts of God? Do you truly believe that fragile mental concepts are what determines our destiny?

∞

If someone is deserving of Hell, doesn’t he deserve to be killed? Wouldn’t killing him expedite his journey to Hell where he belongs? Do religions make it easier to kill others who disagree with their concepts of God?

∞

Group ego is defined as us against them. Wherein, the others become mere objects stripped of their humanity. They are objectified and can be hated or killed. Ezra 9:12,

Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever.

∞

Do you know that the Ku Klux Klan consider themselves God’s Chosen? Does the concept of being chosen by God imply extremism and group evil supremacy?

∞

I assure you, in Hell, you’ll eventually believe that you and Satan share reciprocal love. That is the Lord’s secret sauce in the Old Testament. To explain, let us assume that you are in Hell. Satan comes every morning and pushes you and others into a giant vat of hot wax. This goes on for months. One day Satan shows up, looks at you and leaves without pushing you into the vat of hot wax. Your mind theorizes that he cares about you especially if he pushes everyone else in the hot wax; you feel chosen. Your peculiar feeling for him is derived from not being punished. To cope with such contradiction, your ego believes in the logic of punishment and justifies Satan’s actions against others and even against you. He is not a bad guy after all, you posit. You might even begin to apologize for his wretched actions. You begin to love him.

∞

Do you believe that conditional love is true love? If I assert, I only love you if you love me first and follow my commands, would you consider my love true or self-directed? Deuteronomy 5:10, the Lord declares, "And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. I.e., even my mercy is conditional. This way of thinking is even reflected in the New Testament, I John 5:3, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. How would your husband or wife feel if you tell them, Loving me means doing what I tell you to do?" When fear or desires motivate love, is it even real love?

∞

Jesus clearly expressed pure divine love. He did not demand our love for him to express love. His love for us was by choice. His love for us was not contingent on our actions. Jesus was perfect. Hence, his love is perfect. Jesus beautifully emphasized divine love in Matthew 5:44,

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Note how Jesus encourages us to express our divine love. The same love we receive from our perfect father. We conclude, our father and creator, the God, cannot express any other kind of love. His love for us is unconditional and perfect.

Conditionality is self-love. It clearly states I only love you if you make me happy, do what I want you to do, and always need me. The Lord of the Old Testament is the epitome of conditional love. He loves some individuals and hates and kills others. He chooses tribes and destroys others. Who are these others? Aren’t they his divine creation? What is better for creating chaos and animosity than loving some and hating some? If I hate and destroy an object that I created. Doesn’t that imply failure on my part? Doesn’t that imply that my creation is not perfect? Doesn’t that imply that my creation is lacking? Doesn’t that imply that I am a tinkerer?

I hope that at this point you understand the difference between divine and hellish love. As you read this book, please keep such distinction in mind.

Let us randomly reveal the type of love presented in the Old Testament.

Exodus 5:3, Moses told Pharaoh "let us go … and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword". I.e., if we, the Hebrews, do not sacrifice to the Lord, the Lord will kill us with the sword and with pestilence. Hence, if they escape his punishment, they have mistaken escaping punishment for an act of kindness and love from the Lord.

Total domination and absolute submission are what this tyrant Lord demands. Even an innocuous act of disobedience is dealt with harshly by killing the guilty party. In Exodus 31:14, the Lord tells us that the punishment for working on the Sabbath is death. "Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death. Moreover, one of the weird reasons for such punishment is that the Lord made heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. RESTED! Maybe this Lord should not have rushed the job; our week might have been ten or twelve days. I wonder if he is on the job today. Sorry for the sarcasm; I just cannot understand how anyone would believe such nonsense. When my son was nine, his Christian school teacher was upset because he was smirking at the idea of God resting. He asked, On what did God rest? A couch?" That was one of the happiest days of my life; I realized that my son is free. I am glad to report that he does not attend that school any longer.

Blasphemy was also deadly. You are as good as dead, irredeemable, if you insult this Lord in any way or even mention his name in a profane sentence. Leviticus 24 tells us that a son of an Israelite woman was in a fight and mentioned the name of the Lord while cursing. The Lord told Moses to take the youth outside the camp and let the entire assembly stone him to death. "And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him". Total respect is what this Lord demands. Amazingly, the verse that follows immediately after tells us that death is the punishment for killing someone. How is that for twisted justice? You are better off killing someone than using the Lord’s name in vain; especially, if that someone is a Gentile.

Let us examine the evil consequences of the blasphemy law. Any two people could have someone stoned to death by charging him with blasphemy in public. This is illustrated in I Kings 21, where King Ahab fabricated a blasphemy charge against his neighbor in order to take his land. I Kings 21:13,

and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.

Note how God was grouped with a King, "Naboth did blaspheme God and the king". God to the Hebrews was precisely like a King. They projected their image of a dictatorial king on God.

Even today, we abhorrently see the evil manifestations of blasphemy law in Afghanistan. Countless people are killed for this transgression. Please ponder, does the Creator of the universe need our assistance to protect his name? Furthermore, does he need us to spread his message? We like to think so. Our egos demand it. It is hard for us to acknowledge that God does not need us. So, to enlarge our egos, we keep insisting that we are so important that the creator of the universe cannot do without us. If I think logically, I can quickly conclude that God created me. Hence, my relationship with him is personal. My concept of him is also personal. I do not need someone else’s concept of my creator. It is as if they are trying to tell me who my father is and how to relate to him. Trust me, my father and I can figure that out on our own. God provided us with an unchanging universal holy book that everyone can understand; his creation.

Our legal system discourages murder by utilizing capital punishment. Our societies make it clear that intentionally killing a human being is the worst offense a citizen can commit. Although, we insist on humane killing of the offender by utilizing lethal injection. In Deuteronomy 13, the Lord used the worst form of killing to prevent people from entertaining the idea of other gods. It does not matter if the offender is your son or daughter. You are ordered by this Lord to kill him or her. Furthermore, the whole community is to join in the killing frenzy. Apparently, the Lord used this technique to instill deep fear in the heart of anyone who has doubts about him. This passage alone should be sufficient for any reasonable human being to realize the evil of this Lord. I totally understand why people are so hesitant to abandon their faith. Subconsciously, they are afraid to death of this Lord and his punishment. Not only will he painfully kill them in this life, but he will also send them to eternal Hell after they die. However, he loves us, they insist. Deuteronomy 13:6,

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.

Notice how this Lord insisted in Deuteronomy 17:12 on killing any Hebrew who refused to participate in the killing frenzy.

In Deuteronomy 13:12, this Lord went even further. He commanded the destruction of a complete city along with all its inhabitants for any hint of worshiping other Gods,

If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,

Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;

Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;

Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.

Note the polytheism in "Let us go and serve other gods". Doesn’t that mean, the Israelites were worshiping more than one God?

When I ask a Christian, would Jesus sanction such heinous acts? The answer is always an unequivocal NO. Yet, we are told, this Lord and Jesus are one and the same.

What most humans know as love is rooted in affection and intimate impulses. Our experience with love comes with opposites. Our love is always followed by its opposites: disappointment, anger, hate, and vengeance. We insist that our beloved should complete us and make us happy. True divine love, on the other hand, does not have opposites. It is not selfish. It does not demand. It does not discriminate. It is freely given. The Old Testament’s Lord vacillates with his love numerous times. In I Samuel, he loved Saul and promised him the world. Later, he hated him and loved David. The Lord was disappointed with Saul for two main reasons. One, Saul offered burnt offerings himself without waiting for Samuel, the priest, to arrive. Two, Saul did not kill every living thing when he exterminated the Amalekites—Saul left some animals for his troops. I have to say, if I was looking for any reason to stop loving someone, these two reasons would have never crossed