u/HolyTaxEvasion

I haven't seen a discussion about this here before so I thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss. Would you recommend military service to someone even if it means potential Sabbath breaking? Are there certain roles you wouldn't recommend like say a tank mechanic for the army?

For context at my current job, I finally have a position where I'm able to keep Sabbath. However, I was given the choice of taking a 33% pay cut or resigning. I took the pay cut because I'm not going to find anything better at the moment (job market is atrocious).

So after 3 years of working here, I'm right back where I started. This has prompted me to explore other options as I'm tired of corporate cybersecurity/IT. I'm currently pursing enlisting because I can do cybersecurity for them and after I get out, can easily transitions into government work which would be more Sabbath friendly. Have also considered staying in for 20 years because then I'll be set for retirement

I've been thinking about this in regards to the internet, but thought a more open ended question would produce better discussions.

Was reflecting on how the society hates Yah's commands and the internet is the latest way to undermine Yah's command to remember the Sabbath. It always has to be kept running 24/7 which requires people to do work on the Sabbath to maintain it and also the services provided through it. This prompts a very interesting question: do we break the Sabbath by using the internet? We're not supposed to make other people work the Sabbath, yet if we use it, we support people that do. It's an interesting idea I hadn't thought of before and reminds me of the old discussion regarding going to a restaurant on the Sabbath.

However, there's plenty of other things you could talk about too like how improvements in cooking/animal husbandry have lead more people not to care about clean vs unclean foods, even going as far as putting them in non food items like medicines and soap.

You could even talk about something positive like easier access to view the greek/hebrew of the texts

Christianity and many people are quick to tell you how to pray, but not why. The why is reduced to some variation of because we're told to or it's how you develop a relationship with God. How do we separate the magical thinking that is commonly taught from what Yah actually desires?

Matthew 6:7-15 NET

> When you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles, because they think that by their many words they will be heard. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 So pray this way: Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored, 10 may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 14 “For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.

Mark 9:25-29

> Now when Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 It shrieked, threw him into terrible convulsions, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus gently took his hand and raised him to his feet, and he stood up. 28 Then, after he went into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?” 29 He told them, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”

Luke 10:1-3

> After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs surrounded by wolves.

James 1:2-8

> My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. 5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways.

Philippians 4:6-7

> Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The above scriptures provide a good spread of what to ask. Now to answer the question: why should we ask?

If I trust Yah to provide for all of my needs because he knows what I need before I ask, why should I ask for anything? He provides for the birds of the air and they neither reap nor sow (matthew 6:26). It seems to me the only thing I should ask is forgiveness for those that sin against me and forgiveness for my sins. This is because I can't forgive my owns sins and if I do not forgive others, my sins won't be forgiven either. Anything else I can simply trust Yah to provide.

Philippians also reminds us that prayer should be a time of thanks rather than simply submitting your holy Amazon delivery. Doing so is how we can guard our hearts from temptations such as coveting.

James seems to be the groundwork that is used for building superstitious thinking because if your holy Amazon order got misdelivered, it means you didn't have enough faith. This sort of thinking is exactly what lead to the shipwreck of my faith. I prayed for wisdom while in the midst of suffering and instead persisted in blindness. The emphasis on the text here should be on thanksgiving during suffering which builds endurance.

This is the same idea that is discussed in 1 peter 1:7 that your faith is refined like gold whilst in the midst of trials. It is the trials themselves that will produce wisdom so if you pray for wisdom, do not be surprised when you are given more trials and suffering rather than just handed wisdom on a platter.

So in summary, we should pray so that our sins may be forgiven and so we can give thanks to Yah that our thanks may guard our hearts

Chapter 20 of Deuteronomy speaks of the laws concerning war. A common defense of this passage is that these practices were common back in the day. However, it doesn't address the criticisms that it supports both genocide and slavery. How do you respond to those claims?

NET version starting at the beginning. It does have something cool where soldiers are able to go home for several reasons which doesn't get talked about much such as going home due to fear

> When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry and troops who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. 2 As you move forward for battle, the priest will approach and say to the soldiers, 3 “Listen, Israel! Today you are moving forward to do battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted. Do not fear and tremble or be terrified because of them, 4 for the Lord your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory.” 5 Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, “Who among you has built a new house and not dedicated it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else dedicate it. 6 Or who among you has planted a vineyard and not benefited from it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else benefit from it. 7 Or who among you has become engaged to a woman but has not married her? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else marry her.” 8 In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, “Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier’s heart as fearful as his own.” 9 Then, when the officers have finished speaking, they must appoint unit commanders to lead the troops.

Waging war against a city that is not in the Levant

> 10 When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. 11 If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. 12 If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. 13 The Lord your God will deliver it over to you, and you must kill every single male by the sword. 14 However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city—all its plunder—you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you. 15 This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

Waging war against the Levantine nations

>16 As for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive. 17 Instead you must utterly annihilate them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God. 19 If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, you must not chop down its trees, for you may eat fruit from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! 20 However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, and you may use it to build siege works against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.

If you're new in the faith, please don't read this because it may cause you to doubt as well. You've been warned so continue at your own discretion.

The past couple years have been like I imagine job might have felt. It's caused me to question why Yah has turned his face from me and challenged my earlier held beliefs. The only answers I've received from people in my life were "God has a plan" and "God works in mysterious ways" which are hollow and don't really answer the question.

Last month, things came to a head when I received objective proof that what I had thought was the voice of Yah during my prayers was really just a hallucination of my own mind likely brought on by the stress I've been undergoing. This utterly destroyed my faith because it meant my entire salvation story for the past 7 years was built on a lie. This caused me to question the authenticity of the Torah/writings/prophets. Surprisingly, the answers I found made sense and it's possible that they were simply stories that were made up during the Babylonian exile to teach people morals. Not even the gospels were safe and there was an equally as good explanation for those too that I hadn't considered before.

So here I am at my wits end, considering abandoning the faith all together. I'm really at loss here and not sure else can be done. All I can really think of is this and wonder why he has decided to harden me

Romans 9:18 NET

> So then, God has mercy on whom he choses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he choses to harden

I still believe most of the Torah to be a good moral framework, but some passages I can't explain like Deuteronomy 20:10-15

> When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. 11 If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. 12 If it does not accept terms of peace but makes war with you, then you are to lay siege to it. 13 The Lord your God will deliver it over to you, and you must kill every single male by the sword. 14 However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city—all its plunder—you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you. 15 This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

I thought annihilation was reserved only for the Canaanite nations due to their wickedness, but here's a carte blanche commandment to do it to anyone. How can this be justified? It seems paradoxical.

I hope this gives you enough context to address some of these points of unbelief. As a final closing note I'd like to say thank you to all of you in this sub who've helped answer Torah questions throughout the years. It was essential in my journey the past 3 years before our robot overlords decided to give me a vacation ;)