Donna Danna (19 June 2006)
"Re: Does God Rate Sin?"


Thank you for your input on my 6/17 post Does God Rate Sin?
 
Another example would be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which shall not be forgiven neither in this world or the world to come according to what Jesus said in Matt. 12:31-32.  If God didn't rate sin, then blasphemy against the Holy Spirit would be forgiven by God.  However, it is not forgiven by him so this must be one of the worst sins.
 
As for some of the punishments for sin in the Old Testament, they varied as you pointed out. While homosexuality (Lev. 20:13), bestiality (Lev. 20:15-16), cursing one's Father or Mother (Lev. 20:9), having a familiar spirit or being a wizard (Lev. 20:27), premeditated murder (Deut. 19:11-13), stealing a man (Ex. 21:16), or adultery with a married woman (Lev. 20:10) were punishable by death, stealing an oxen or sheep had a different punishment depending on the whether the animal was killed (Ex. 22:1) or found alive (Ex. 22:4), and the man guilty of manslaughter (Lev. 19:4-8) was not put to death was able to flee to a city of refuge.  There were also different punishments for adultery and/or fornication depending on whether it was adultery with a married woman, a virgin betrothed to a husband with the adultery being committed in the city or whether it was rape committed in a field, or whether it was fornication with a virgin who was not betrothed to anyone.  And if God didn't rate sin, then why didn't  both the man and the woman in all the following verses receive the same punishment of being put to death.
 
Deuteronomy 22:22, "If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel."
 
Deuteronomy 22:23-24, " If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you."
 
Deuteronomy 22:25-27, "But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die: But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter: For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and thee was none to save her.
 
Deuteronomy 22:28-29, "If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold of her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath not humbled her, he may not put here away all his days."