Morality in the Bible

According to Bible 

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Man has to obey God's  laws

The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen to him.  Deuteronomy 26:16-17

Violating God's laws is a sin.  

Sin is nothing but violating God's law.  

In fact, if there is no law, there is no sin.

Breaking a law brings God's wrath.

Anyone who sins breaks God’s law. Yes, sinning is the same as living against God’s law. 1 John 3:4

because the law can only bring God’s anger on those who disobey it. But if there is no law, then there is nothing to disobey. . Romans 4:15

You might think I am saying that sin and the law are the same. That is not true. But the law was the only way I could learn what sin means. I would never have known it is wrong to want something that is not mine. But the law said, “You must not want what belongs to someone else.”  And sin found a way to use that command and make me want all kinds of things that weren’t mine. So sin came to me because of the command. But without the law, sin has no power.   Romans 7:7-8

In my mind I am happy with God’s law. But I see another law working in my body. That law makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and that law makes me its prisoner.  Romans 7:22-23

Punishment for Not Obeying God

"But if you don’t obey me and all my commands, bad things will happen to you. If you refuse to obey my laws and commands, you have broken my agreement. If you do that, I will cause terrible things to happen to you. I will cause you to have disease and fever. They will destroy your eyes and take away your life. You will not have success when you plant your seed. And your enemies will eat your crops. I will be against you, so your enemies will defeat you. These enemies will hate you and rule over you. You will run away even when no one is chasing you."  Leviticus 26:14-17

Let us look at the story in the Bible of Prophet Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal   1 Kings 18

• Elijah's God was Yahweh.  Elijah is insistent that people of Israel quit believing in Baal and switch their belief to Yahweh once and for all.

• Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest

• Contest was to kill a bull, one for Baal another for Yahweh and invoke them to light fire for the sacrifice.  Which ever God lights the fire is the true God.

• Priests of Baal make sacrifices, even hurt themselves, to get Baal's attention.  Nothing happens after several hours.

• Elijah prepares his sacrifice.  He pours water on it three times, and prepares a moat to keep the water in.  This makes the offering difficult to set fire to.

• Elijah calls on Yahweh once.

• Yahweh sends fire which consumes the wet offering!

• The people recognize Yahweh as true God and bow down in prayer.

• Then Elijah says, “Get the prophets of Baal! Don’t let any of them escape!” So the people captured  all the prophets. Then Elijah leads them down to Kishon Creek and killed them all - all the 450 prophets of Baal.

Here is Prophet Elijah killing 450 prophets of Baal for believing in Baal instead of Yahweh.  (In case you are not familiar with the Bible, Prophet Elijah is one of the major Prophets mentioned alongside Moses and Jesus. Matthew 17:1-3)

What does Yahweh think of this mass murder?  

• As the Bible tells us later, Elijah goes to Heaven.  2 Kings 2:11

•  In other words, Elijah committed no sin in murdering 450 prophets of Baal.

• What is the justification?  

• One of the ten commandments that says "You shall have no other Gods before me." By violating that command of Yahweh, those prophets of Baal sinned.  

• For that sin, their punishment was death. 

• Yahweh does not seem to mind very much that Elijah chose to execute this punishment on his behalf.

Is morality just a violation of Yahweh's law?  

• It is one thing to say that the Universe is governed by God's laws.  It is entirely another to say that what is in the Bible is God's laws.  Given stories such as the above, can we accept that Biblical laws are God's absolute laws for all humanity?

•  Can you understand why it is offensive when I am told that it is immoral to harm me only because God, or in the Bible Yahweh, (allegedly) says so?   

• Can you see the danger in such a position where now we are giving the extreme power over humanity's fate to someone who claims to have in his hand the word of God?   

• Conversely, can you see why someone who claims to have the word of God in his hand want you to believe that morality is what God says it is?