The Diablocritics Ep 4 - ‪@TruthUnites‬ and Apologetics for War Crimes in Deuteronomy 21

Join us LIVE on Father's Day for a live discussion and Q&A!
The Diablocritics is a monthly livestream in which five scholars tackle bad biblical scholarship and apologetics on a more in-depth level, and to answer your questions about the Bible.
In this episode, we will be watching a recent video from Gavin Ortlund at ‪@TruthUnites‬ in which he attempts to tackle the disturbing procedures for dealing with female war captives in Deuteronomy 21.
Original video: • War R*pe in Deuteronom...
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For general information and sources relating to the Ancient Near East, we recommend these websites:
ABZU - bit.ly/2Cr1A8u (collection of free and open-access data)
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Livius.org - bit.ly/2Gzj5rx (general encyclopedia on the ancient world)
ETCSL - bit.ly/2QJsAZS (Sumerian literature)
ORACC - bit.ly/2QJsL7u (collection of projects relating to Mesopotamia)
EPSD - bit.ly/2PY99aw (Online Sumerian dictionary)
CDLI - cdli.ucla.edu (Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative)

[@DomingoAviles-j1v]

1:05:00 I'm just a man, too, so someone correct me if I'm wrong: women menstruate once a month, unless they are pregnant. So if the captive girl menstruates during that so-called month of mourning, then she's not pregnant. If she doesn't, then she must be pregnant. So one month is enough to know whether she's pregnant or not. Am I wrong?

[@timothymulholland7905]

All-Star panel! Great!

[@kyleepratt]

1:25:31 - yeah, it would be nice if USA law could learn that you don't need to step in to actively protect the powerful person from the weak person 🙄

[@massdebation]

It would be rather nice if you could find the time to discuss 2 Thessalonians 2 in the context of how US evangelicals use it to justify financial support for Far Right parties in Israel. My understanding is, the passage's villain (The "Lawless Man") was a reference to Caligula, who had attempted to place a statue of himself inside the Jerusalem Temple. However, those inclined to see it as prophecy contend that the eschaton cannot begin until someone (they tend to believe it's the Antiichrist) enters the Jerusalem Temple and proclaims himself to be God. Since the Temple does not currently exist, they need it to be rebuilt. The main barrier to this reconstruction is the Al Aqsa Mosque, which sits atop the Temple Mount. The only political parties in favor of demolishing this mosque and building the Third Temple just so happen to be the Far Right political parties. Therefore, \Us evangelicals such as Pastor John Haggee urge their parishioners to dionate heavily to these Far Right Israeli political parties. There's alot of irony here. For one, the Far Right Israeli parties hold evangelical Christians in as much contempt as they do Muslims. This is primarily because evangelical Christians only go to Israel to try and convert Jews, which is seen by these Far Right Parties as a form of cultural erasure. However, US evangelicals do send quite alot of money, and therefore, these parties gladly accept the cash and use it to fuel their campaigns for office. Further, these US evangelicals are not as philosemetic as they may seem. Their goal is certainly not to empower Jewish people to remain Jewish, but rather, the evangelicals believe that all Jews within Israel will either be forced to convert or be executed when Jesus returns. US evangelics are merely using these Far Right Israeli parties in a cynical way to get the Temple rebuilt so they can initiate the End Times. And, the Far Right parties cynically use the US evangelicals to initiate an eschaton of their own, as they believe a rebuilt Temple will call the Jewish Messiah into existence, and once that messiah arrives, that these US evangelicals will automatically covert to a very fundamentalist form of Judaism. So both groups are cynically using the other with the expressed hope of erasing the other. Now, my understanding could be wrong, and that I why I am seeking a biblical scholar's perspective on the matter. Merely dismissing this request on the basis of it being another country's politics is odd. Were this a discussion of the UK's monarchy, I dont think anyone would be this shy. Or if we were talking about Marriage Equality in Canada, or the legalization of divorce in Ireland. Were it not for the unfortunate events taking place in Gaza, which are not directly related to this topic other than geographic coincidence, I have a feeling the prohibition on international political discussions would not be trotted out quite so conveniently.

[@tekdev]

Guys, you just have to read the Bible the way Jesus did! ;)

[@missylee3022]

I saw this before he said it and I thought you were joking 😂

[@TheDanEdwards]

Marcion was right.

[@massdebation]

A dog walked into a tavern and said, "I can't see a thing. I'll open this one." The Sumerian Dog Joke

[@smitty1647]

LMAO!!! 🤣😂 i don't get it

[@Christian___]

@@smitty1647 You had to be there.

[@smitty1647]

@@Christian___ lol nice

[@TruthUnites]

This was even worse than I expected. I stopped watching at 1:35:03 where it was suggested that people in my congregation are not safe from abuse. This is after the same guest felt it appropriate to degrade my scholarship without needing to read it. The amount of psychological projection, motive questioning, and general demonizing of me here is quite nasty. My scholarship is well reviewed (google my CV) and I advocate against abuse in every way I know how (and have done so as a pastor). It would be better if we could disagree about whether these texts falsify Christianity without resorting to such tactics.

[@karldubhe8619]

If you're trying to defend rape and genocide, you should expect some criticism.

[@smitty1647]

at no point do they argue that the texts falsify christianity, and clearly state that is not their intention in this very video. their intention is to address misunderstandings and misinformation about the texts from the perspective of scholars. i don't know about everyone on the panel but vishanti is jewish and josh's wife megan is christian. clearly they do not feel that acknowledging these historical facts precludes being religious if you're looking for another way to advocate against abuse, you can unequivocally denounce the abusive practices advocated in certain books of scripture such as deuteronomy, rather than trying to paint them in the best light you can the reason your scholarship was called into question is because it seems to the panelists that you are putting your open objective of strengthening the faith of your viewers above good scholarly practices in this video. it's an extrapolation

[@JoeThePresbapterian]

The person speaking during that timestamp really needs to rethink what a false accusation they have thrown there. Shame on them.

[@smitty1647]

@@JoeThePresbapterian he wasn't accused of anything. they said that they worried that victims of sexual assault in his congregation wouldn't feel safe coming to him about it, because he clearly doesn't understand consent and looks for excuses to portray sexual assault in a positive light. why don't you clarify precisely what the "false accusation" is?

[@JoeThePresbapterian]

@smitty1647 I have commented in Bird's channel if you would like to know further.

[@goodquestion7915]

Gavin says that a Liberal Christian (not "real" or "good" christian) "CONCEDES to the world" (BAD) on his principles, and also says that God (being nice) "CONCEDES to the world" (GOOD) allowing slavery. Gavin is a Moral Relativist.

[@inthesprawl]

My parents wouldn't let me cross the street alone when I was a child, yet they would cross the street alone. Such tyrants!

[@smitty1647]

@@inthesprawl so it's a safety issue? god is responsible enough to allow slavery, but humans aren't responsible enough to legalize gay marriage?

[@goodquestion7915]

@inthesprawl it would be analogous if you are a girl and your parents praised you for being obedient, well-behaved, and chaste and criticized you for going to a party, while they paid for misdemeanors and breaking-and-entering your older brother did with minimal frowning and some rules for the maximum amount he's allowed to steal.

[@CAPSLOCKPUNDIT]

Poor Mr Hovind! I hope he returns to former health, but prospects are not good when relying on secular medicine. Doesn't he remember the biblical remedy for snakebite?

[@JoeThePresbapterian]

Why did some of the speakers need to throw false accusations? There is a reason I never like showing off my doctorate degree, and some of the people here just showed me that would be for the best. Shame on them.

[@Christian___]

This used to be a cool wee scholarly channel about ancient Mesopotamian history; how has it turned into a bigoted sectarian 4Chan atheist debate bro channel?

[@joshridinger3407]

so bigoted against genocide and rape supprters

[@karlu8553]

It's always been against poor scholarship

[@smitty1647]

keep throwing buzzwords at them, hopefully it'll distract from the substance of their arguments. why does denouncing rape feel like a personal attack to you?

[@Christian___]

@@smitty1647 Well, I'd just rather learn about Mesopotamia than be implicitly accused of rape by some 4Chan galaxy brain like yourself.

[@Christian___]

@@joshridinger3407 Right, you think they'll be doing one of these on Islamic interpretations of the texts?