Why was God so precise with the laws & ordinances? Dr. Robert M. Price

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:02]help midvision keep bringing you material by becoming a patreon member as well as paypal like share subscribe and comment [Music] join the patreon to get early access to videos and check out the website dr price david edwards has a question he says you invite biblical questions for your programs experts here's mine when one reads the first five books of the bible one is struck actually overwhelmed by the sheer enorm enormity of the rituals god requires of the israelites in the wilderness the precise materials and exacting dimensions of the ark the tabernacle the tent of meeting the precise styles and whereabouts of the cuts to sacrificial animals their various cooking ingredients and presentations the specifics of all of the priests presentation i'm sorry priest clothing and their duties although all this at least to me may appear weird or otherworldly it nevertheless does does hint very strongly that god in fact has a science here and perhaps more importantly one is impressed that some things so special coming essentially out of nowhere must be actual proof of god's existence christian doctrine has it amongst other things that one this was all the work of jesus all along although such specific a connection seems difficult to reconcile and two that the disobedience of adam caused sin to be carried through perhaps not just the israelites but us all to today question given the absolute precision of god's requirements here do we think that god rigged it all up subsequently in response to adam's sin or do we think that god had got that god had all his plans going to the next page uh plans dimensions materials etc his science all laid out in a b e y a n c e a bands abands for such an event long before the creation of adam perhaps what i'm really asking is whether adam was just a patsy all the best david at david edwards uh well you know there's uh there there's two types of calvinism that stem from this very question there is supralapsarianism which means before the fall-ism and that says that god predestined everything including the sin of adam and eve and and so he he had to create the sin from which he was rescuing them and that's uh that's a hard thing to say but they felt that if they were going with the idea that god foreknows and causes everything that you kind of had to say so otherwise weren't you saying if you take the other view in fro lapsarianism after the fall then you're saying god was experimenting and he wondered how the whole adam and eve thing was going to turn out and that can't be if god defined abstractly is omniscient and knows the future and is there ultimately a difference between god knowing it and predestining it no way there's no real chance involved is there if all is set in advance and uh but i think it goes down the problem goes down deeper than that if you're going to say as theists like to do that god exists outside of time that he created the world of time as well as space welcome to non-dualist vedanta hinduism uh you're you're saying the real god is um brahman without qualities uh you're you're talking about what the demiurge ishvarah can do because he's like a a theistic god in the mythical sense like jehovah getting angry at the sinners and i'm gonna flood those bastards out then when it uh when they're almost all days you know i guess i kind of flew off the handle here i'll promise never to flood you out again what mankind i'm sorry i made him and uh oh boy it just is is this really any better than zeus it just seems to me that that's the god you're talking about when you raise questions of his constructing a plan of salvation or in case it's needed or if he just decreed the whole thing ahead of time and the way uh francis turton uh an important calvinist theologian put it he said now we don't really want to say god caused adam to sin that would be kind of uh unbecoming how about this uh he simply withdrew his grace at the crucial point which always reminded me instantly of a great stanley jack kirby thor comic book when uh thor is for some reason i can't remember fighting hercules in new york city they're throwing buses at each other it's one of the great illustrated stories and uh thor's uh holding his own and is probably about to beat him when odin thinking he has to punish thor for something pulls the plug and reduces thor's power to half its ordinary capacity in which case uh hercules knocks them out like what like as thor calls him in a later comic old one-eyed bastard uh and and this is this you're making a joke of your god don't you realize that you're making the whole thing laughable and even despicable and uh so the the whole thing depends on a mythological framework that i think is not only unbelievable but unworthy it's an apologetic most often that they're trying to rectify yeah and i think most of the stuff happens after the story develops and yeah it's too late they already put god out there is this angry snap-off you know just doesn't think before he speaks or does sometimes and then he thinks about what he does okay well you know what uh i said i was gonna annihilate the nation it would be no more and that uh you know your children would end and cease but listen uh i have i promise that i'm not i'm gonna restore you don't worry i'm gonna i'm gonna like really bipolar and when i was extremely calvinistic i have to mention this because i was trying to rectify this philosophical approach because it's kind of a philosophy in my mind on a philosophy of god if you will and i said okay i went ahead and admitted look that's all bogus to say retracted his you know like i don't see that he causes all things but i had to try and make sense of the stuff that you're talking like he repented and make man or uh you know i changed my mind or those things really what i had to do is the calvinists like to talk about the two wills of god i could not accept the treaty isn't permissive yeah i could not accept the secret will and the open will i couldn't accept it even though that i understand why they did it because you know there's a place for example where god hardens pharaoh's heart and then has moses go to tell him to let his people go like you set him up for failure you literally said in in a few chapters prior i hardened pharaoh's heart then he says now go tell him to let my people go you just said you hardened his heart now you're telling moses to go do something that you know isn't going to be successful so that he would say no so that you would cause another curse to come on them and another problem to arise so i had to go you know what how can we make god's will one will well these are just anthropomorphic statements is what i did already in the middle ages they were starting with that yeah that was my approach as a calvinist was look it's that's not really god's will that don't say that's his second will or another will no no no to me i had a you know the the greek kind of idea the omniscient all-powerful spirit god that is like beyond comprehension kind of like the muslims like to say about allah he doesn't even have a connection to humans he's so beyond well that was the kind of mindset calvinism started to draw me toward and i said no he has one will that he can't have two he can't be schizophrenic he can't be bipolar he's one idea one will he can't be shocked and surprised when something happens he planned it and purposed it and made it happen so that that whole notion had to go so i said that was all anthropomorphism that was humans trying to describe something for us humans to grasp and understand but really his wills beyond even the words that are written in the text well what is it that it's supposed to be symbolizing or representing it was in my way of trying like i was saying i was trying to make sure god was all powerful all-knowing all-powerful omnipotent because you know with calvinism there's a huge thing about power yeah their big thing isn't they can't let god like be deistic in any way there cannot be open theism in any way everything is coordinated and operated by god i felt like calvinists were afraid when they started talking infra when they started infralapsarianism when they started talking about god just detracted his powers a little bit i thought you're telling me god would reduce his power for a moment uh-uh that doesn't even make sense so as a calvinist power was the chief and we would always say oh no it's so good and comforting knowing that god purposes and causes all things because for those he loves he makes sure that he he looks out for him but eventually you realize what a con game that is oh yeah because uh the world and your life look just as they would if there was no god involved you can't tell the difference and so then when you realize that you say oh well maybe all things work together for good for those who love him because stoicism whatever happens no matter how horrifying it makes you more virtuous and that's the only desirable thing okay but that's bait and switch that's that's not what you were led to believe by that language that's why i think also afterlifes have to play a role in these systems because all things work together for those who love god joe pagan over there uh does not worship my god and man he's rich he has everything he needs he has you know you name it plenty i'm over here suffering i'm poor i have leprosy i'm losing my four fingers and uh i thought everything was gonna work together for my good oh you know what there's a place you're gonna get all that don't worry it's called heaven it's after this life uh yeah so anyway we've kind of detracted off of the trail that he that this guy this gentleman is asking this is like when freud says there could be life after death there could be a heaven but what reason is there to think so other than wishful thinking is there any real reason to and that's hard to to beat i mean people like the sound of it so they they want to believe it there is a comfort in wondering if you'll be with your loved ones because we've grown attached in this world you know i've thought about that but yeah anyway the uh the whole notion of these the question i think begs to ask the scientists developed in the cult of the the way he developed this question i think it it kind of points out like why all these instructions and these specific ordinances and all these like well i think did most colts in those days have special particular rituals and practices that made them unique and yeah but there's the issue as i see it here what came to my mind at least as soon as i heard this part of the question was not that it was unusual to be so choosy and specific about how you're going to do this because you it's like interior design you want to create a certain effect like i'd much rather that's one of the things i loved about the episcopal church the uh the design of it the architecture the music the incense and all that it's all special effects it create it knows human psychology well enough to know what will be um an environment to foster certain attitudes and feelings there's nothing there's no trickery about that it's it's just uh conducive well so you can you can easily see how people would have said we've really got to make this fantastic uh for people to be impressed and it has to look unlike the grubby crummy world they live in during the week by necessity and they'll feel like they've gone to heaven and in fact apparently the jerusalem temple they thought they were in heaven margaret barker talks about this but the notion so i understand that but what strikes me as ludicrous about it is that god has these particular choices it matters to him whether you make this cloth covering out of uh manatee hide or seal hide and that you have this kind of fringe and and so on and so on you're telling me that the absolute spirit is an interior decorator it just seems ludicrous it's obvious that whoever came up with this and they did a good job are saying and this isn't just my idea it's jehovah's so you better do it right yeah i saw this design on top of the mountain yeah sure you did it's just a classic case of priest craft [Music] [Music] you