I wish I had a new gun for every time I’ve had an anti-hunter who (more often than not) is also an agnostic or an atheist, quote to me the sixth commandment, namely “Thou shalt not kill” as a proof text against my God-blessed pursuit of hunting.

If I had a new gun, per misquote, from the desperate bunny lovers, then my battery would make Ted Nugent’s arsenal look like Ed Bagley, Jr’s, because, OMG, do they toss that verse around like a drunken dwarf at a rock concert.

Now, before I examine the verse the anti-hunters fling about the most as an “ah-ha”, gotcha proof text that “God’s against hunting”, let me ask my anti-hunting, pro-choice lovelies this question: how come you wizards don’t play this card when talking about snuffing out the life of an unborn baby?

I hear you caterwaul about how wrong it is to make an omelet out of a whooping crane’s eggs, but I don’t hear you say squat about killing a helpless, defenseless baby in its mother’s womb. You make the connection that an unborn whooping crane in an egg is a baby whooping crane but not so much with an unborn child in its mother’s womb. What gives?

Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot. It’s not yet a baby; it’s a “fetus.” Unless, of course, it’s VIP’s baby and then it’s a baby and not a fetus. Everyone else has fetuses, and when they call it a fetus versus a baby, then according to the progressives, you may, while it is in its mother’s womb, crack its skull and suck its brain through a vacuum cleaner fitted with razor blades. My, how consistent you are with your interpretation and application of article Seis of the Decalogue.

Now, without further ado, herewith is my ham-fisted approach to the oft-ill-quoted sixth comment in Moses’ top ten list of dos and don’ts from Jehovah.

“Thou Shalt Not Kill” (Ex. 20:13)

If this commandment literally meant thou shalt not kill anything, anywhere, at any time, for any reason, then God would be in deep weeds because, in the Old Testament, he ordered animal sacrifices for sins; and in the Old Testament and New Testament, just wars against evil enemies (Rom. 13:1-3).

Also, if all killing is forbidden then Jesus could not be our savior because he facilitated the killing of fish by the hundreds (John 21:11) and ate the “murdered” meat. As Christians, we’d be lost salvifically, if that’s true because atonement had to come from a sinless sacrifice. Right? Right.

“Thou shalt not kill” does not mean kill per se, but thou shalt not murder. If you Google the sixth commandment as I did, you will quickly see that a stack of Hebrew scholars from time immemorial translate the word “kill” as “thou shalt not murder” or kill unlawfully.

What the Sixth Commandment condemns is the intentional killing of another person. This passage is not talking about the uprooting and eating of a “murdered” carrot or the legal and ethical shooting of a deer, but the intentional snuffing out of human life as in a premeditated murder, a sudden fit of rage, or in an unjust war, or abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, genocide, and suicide.

For me, Genesis 9:1-6 sums up nicely what the sixth article of the Decalogue connotes:

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 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. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.

God established that we can eat fruits, veggies, birds, fish, and animals. The only way I know to get one of the aforementioned in the eating stage of the game is to, well, kill it. I guess you could wait until the carrot or critter died of old age but I’m a guessin’ it wouldn’t delight your palette too much, eh?

The forbidding of killing anything as in the murdering of another human being and not in the hunting of a bobwhite quail.

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Clash Ministries is here to do two things, namely, put brains and cojones on Christians. Yep, our holy job is renewing minds (Rom.12:1-2) and emboldening hearts (Prov.28:1). Your generosity helps us throttle the enemy by equipping God's people to live bold, wild and free in Him. You are a vital part of this ministry and we could not do this without you. Thank you for your faithful gifts and partnership and remember to always ... stay rowdy!

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Doug Giles is Pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Wimberley, TX, and is the founder of ClashDaily.com​

Follow Doug on Instagram and Twitter @TheArtOfDoug.

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