If you are a man imagine how a woman should answer the questions in relation to her husband.
Members of UBF often teach that children should obey parents and wives should obey their husbands. In fact I bet you are so familiar with it you could find or write down the verses that teach that yourself. If you can not ask your Bible teacher or Pastor to remind you or do a search for it on the internet.
Write a list of these verses on one sheet of paper
Now take a second sheet of paper and write down the following verses
Now take a second sheet of paper and write down the following verses
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
Exodus 20:13-16 NIV
Accessed online on 2018 January 20
Now I want you to ask yourself the following questions
1A If one of my parents tell me to murder someone should I obey the verses I just listed saying not to murder or should I obey the verses I listed saying to obey my parents when I can not obey both?
1B If my husband tells me to murder someone should I obey the verses I just listed saying not to murder or should I obey the verses I listed saying to obey my husband when I can not obey both?
2A If one of my parents tell me to commit adultery should I obey the verses I just listed saying not to murder or should I obey the verses I listed saying to obey my parents when I can not obey both?
2B If my husband tells me to commit adultery someone should I obey the verses I just listed saying not to commit adultery or should I obey the verses I listed saying to obey my husband when I can not obey both?
3A If one of my parents tell me to steal from someone should I obey the verses I just listed saying not to steal or should I obey the verses I listed saying to obey my parents when I can not obey both?
3B If my husband tells me to steal from someone should I obey the verses I just listed saying not to steal or should I obey the verses I listed saying to obey my husband when I can not obey both?
4A If one of my parents tell me to bear false witness against someone should I obey the verses I just listed saying not to bear false witness or should I obey the verses I listed saying to obey my parents when I can not obey both?
4B If my husband tells me to bear false witness against someone should I obey the verses I just listed saying not to bear false witness or should I obey the verses I listed saying to obey my husband when I can not obey both?
Now substitute any other authority figure you think the Bible teaches you to obey, such as Caesar, a police officer, judge, congressman, president, commanding officer, tax collector, boss, co worker, school professor or teacher, one to one Bible teacher teacher, Pastor, friend, neighbor, anyone.
Write the verses indicating that you should obey them on the same piece of paper where you wrote that you should obey your parents or husband.
Did you answer I should disobey Exodus 20:13-16 or that I should disobey the authority figure because you have to disobey at least one.
Now try to find other prohibitions in the Bible that you think are relevant today and do the same thing all over again substituting those prohibitions for the prohibitions listed above in Questions 1 through 4
When you do this write the Bible verses for the prohibitions on the same sheet that you wrote Exodus 20:13-16 on
I bet you are feeling pretty good about yourself now, all confident that you would not murder anyone. But it is one thing to say you would not murder anyone and another thing to actually not murder anyone.
Most people would obey the authority figure even those who have never attended UBF that is why our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against authority figures called "rulers" or "principalities" according to Ephesians 6:12 KJV.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Accessed online on 2018 January 20
Would most people would murder, steal and bear false witness on behalf of a perceived authority figure?
How far “completely normal people” can go in submitting to an authority and following obviously inhuman orders, has also been documented by the social psychologist Stanley Milgram in a famous experiment in the 1960s. He wrote: “I set up a simple experiment to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study…”
Accessed online on 2018 January 20
http://web.archive.org/web/20180104023204/http://ubfriends.net/bonn-ubf-the-subtle-methods-of-mister-chang-and-the-bonn-syndrome/
University Bible Fellowship only makes this problem worse by misusing the Bible to teach obedience to authority figures.
Maybe I am wrong and obedience to a husband, wife, brother or sister should take precedence over obedience to the command not to murder?
6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, 7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), 8 do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. 9 You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10 Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.
Deuteronomy 13:6-11 NIV
Accessed online on 2018 January 20
But my question was about murder not about worshiping other gods but pay attention to what these idol worshipers did.
2 “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molek is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him. 3 I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiledmy sanctuary and profaned my holy name. 4 If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, 5 I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molek.
Leviticus 20:2-5 NIV
Accessed online on 2018 January 20
An idol like a Molek statue was just another authority figure used to justify murder much like the orders of a politician are used to imprison people for non violent crime or start wars in other countries or to declare that abortion is not murder because it has been legalized.
I suspect that since the method of idol worship in that place and time was often to murder an innocent person on behalf of an authority figure and not merely to believe another deity exists such as being a modern Hinduist (as opposed to Hinduism during a time when some but not all Hinduists burned widows) the penalty was death as it was for murder in general in the old testament
5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.
Genesis 9:5-6 NIV
Accessed online 2018 January 20
I am not necessarily advocating the death penalty here in modern times but showing these verses to show the consistency with the rest of the old testament of executing those idol worshippers whose method of idol worship was to murder people who should not be killed
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