What Does Dan Barker Really Know About the Bible?

A Refutation of Barker’s Blasphemy.....Bite by Bite

Skeptics seem to delight in playing a game of “Hit and Run.” They attack God’s Word with vicious vengeance and then move on to other topics without addressing point by point the issues raised in their attack. They have time to “hit and run” but no time to answer the arguments that refute their fallacious folly. It is like drive-by shooting at God!

While Bible bashers and disinterested Christians have moved on, I am not finished with this topic. Without the distractions of PlayStation, Sci-Fi, and Facebook, the pursuit of Biblical wisdom, knowledge, and understanding remains foremost on my mind.

In coming installments, I hope to adequately answer the freethinking frivolousness fomented by former Christian evangelist Dan Barker and his “50 Questions.”

For reference, see the Answers page at Freedom From Religion Foundation Bible Quiz at http://ffrf.org/quiz/bquiz.php or click on title of post.

Question #1: What is the last of the Ten Commandments?

Lie #1 - Barker claims that “Don’t covet your neighbor’s wife and property” is the wrong answer.

Of course, it is the correct answer, as even a child would know. These days, however, few so-called Christians can even recite the Ten Commandments from memory. This is a Biblically illiterate generation in spite of the proliferation of Bibles.

Lie #2 - Barker claims Biblical sexism (by considering women the “property” of men).

Men, why do you call your wife, “my wife”? Does she or does she not belong to you, and you to her? Would you rather that other men be free to lust after her, seduce her, have intimate relations with her? Or do you cherish and protect her, along with the rest of your treasures? Women were the “property” of fathers and husbands in olden times because women were dependent on them. This was before our modern day women’s liberation movement, which has done more harm than good for society.

Lie #3- Barker claims that this is the final commandment in the Catholic version, as well as in the Protestant enumeration.

The fact is that the Catholic Catechism divides the prohibition against covetousness into two commandments in order to make ten, having conveniently excised the commandment against idolatry/graven images from their list.

Lie #4 - Barker claims that “Don’t boil a young goat in the milk of its mother” is the last commandment in the only set of stone tablets called “the ten commandments.” He cites Exodus 34:26.

The fact is that the traditional list of Ten Commandments is called such in Deut 10:4 and that both sets of tables were written by God Himself and both sets included the same commandments.

And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me.

Other precepts and expansions on the precepts were given to Moses to write, including the prohibition against following the idolatrous fertility rites of the heathen such as “seething a kid in its mother’s milk” (which the heathen then magically sprinkled on their fields). The Israelites were to trust in the LORD their God for their blessings, by obeying His righteous and wise commandments, that things would go well for them. They were not to copy the superstitious, demonic fertility rites of their pagan neighbors.

Lie #5 - Barker claims that Exodus 34:28 refers to the previous precepts mentioned in the chapter.

It does not.

Exodus 34:1 tells us that God Himself would write on the two tables Moses hewed and that they would be the same words as were on the tables that Moses broke (not in petulance, as Barker claims, but in righteous indignation that the Israelites had broken covenant with God already in the Golden Calf incident!)

The “he” that wrote on the tablets in verse 28 was The LORD, not Moses.

In verse 27, the LORD instructs Moses to write the precepts and words of chapter 34. Moses writes the more detailed instructions during the 40 days and 40 nights he was on the Mountain; God writes the Ten Commandments on two tables of stone.

In summary, the words “Ten Commandments” appears three times in the Bible, each time referring to the traditional ten, which are given in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.

And he (Moses) was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread nor drink water. And He (the LORD) wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. (Exodus 34:28)

And He (the LORD) declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments, and He wrote them upon two tables of stone. (Deut. 4:13)

And He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly and the LORD gave them unto me (Moses). (Deut. 10:4).

Lie #6 - “Jesus was unclear about the exact set of commandments.”

Jesus accurately quoted some of the commandments of God in order to make His point. The four mentioned can be summed up as “love thy neighbour as thyself.” There are three duties to God (Commandments 1-3) and six duties to man (Commandments 5-10).* They are summarized in “loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength” and “loving your neighbor as yourself”... otherwise known as “the golden rule.” Jesus had not yet mentioned the tenth commandment against covetousness, because that was His whole point. The man he was talking to thought he was keeping all of the commandments of God, yet he coveted riches and was not willing to part with them to follow Jesus. Jesus put His finger on his weakness, which was covetousness.

*[The fourth commandment, keeping the Sabbath, is like a bridge of connection between God and man. Man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for man (Mark 2:27). This time of rest, refreshment, and reflection restores intimate communion between man and his Maker, strengthening him for the busy-ness of the work week ahead.]

Lie #7 - Barker infers that God taught intolerance and unloving policies toward others.

Jesus taught the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). He spoke to a Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). The Old Testament is full of examples of kindness towards the stranger. God instructed His people to love the stranger (Lev. 19:34; Deut. 10:19) and not to abhor the Edomite or the Egyptian (Deut. 23:7). Deut. 23:15-16 instructs that escaped slaves are not to be returned to their masters and are not to be oppressed. Deut. 24 instructs the Israelites to leave food for the strangers, fatherless, and widows.

God used Israel as His instrument of Judgment on wicked nations only when their unrepentant, abominable wickedness had come to unbearable fullness. As Matthew Henry points out:

The reason why they must not have the land of promise in possession till the fourth generation was because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. Israel cannot be possessed of Canaan till the Amorites be dispossessed; and they are not yet ripe for ruin. The righteous God has determined that they shall not be cut off till they have persisted in sin so long, and arrived at such a pitch of wickedness, that there may appear some equitable proportion between their sin and their ruin;

Granted, Jewish and Christian history does not always reflect the keeping of the precepts of God. The LORD should not be blamed for the disobedience and errors of those who “take His Name in vain.” Jesus said that many would call Him Lord, Lord, yet not do the things that He said (Luke 6:46).

In conclusion, the LORD Himself spake and wrote the Ten Commandments, which are these (summarized in the form of prohibitions):

1. No other gods

2. No graven images

3. No taking the Name of the LORD in vain

4. No working on seventh-day Sabbath

5. No dishonoring parents

6. No killing

7. No adultery

8. No stealing

9. No bearing false witness

10. No coveting what belongs to your neighbor.

See Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 for complete text. We are told seven times in Scripture that God wrote these Himself (see Ex. 31:18; 32:15; 34:1; 34:28; Deut. 4:13, 9:10; 10:4).

Why a society would want to negate these precepts and live according to a different standard or no standard is beyond my comprehension. Why Christian theology would deem these precepts obsolete and nailed to the Cross is beyond my comprehension. Why Rabbinical Judaism would deny these precepts are applicable to Christians is beyond my comprehension. Why anyone would think God unfair to impose such perfect precepts upon His people is beyond my comprehension. Why anyone truly born again, with the Spirit of Grace dwelling in his heart, would think these precepts too stringent is beyond my comprehension.

O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever! (Deut. 5:29)