Deut. XIII. says that a husband should stone his own wife to death if she try to persuade him to join her in idolatry. “Well now,” says Ingersoll, “I hate a god of that kind, and I would not do it.” Did God make a mistake, or is Deut. wrong?

Ingersoll, as usual, makes many mistakes. Firstly, he forgot the theocratic nature of the nation of the Jews at that time. God was the direct ruler of the Jews, and idolatry was going over to the king’s enemies, and an act of treason, even in the temporal order. And God has full rights over life and death. Secondly, if Ingersoll were a judge administering the law of the land, and his own relatives were the criminals brought before him, he would have to act according to the law with impartial justice. He could not condemn others and exempt relatives because they were relatives. Thirdly, Almighty God took necessary precautions to bring home to the Jews the full malice of a blasphemous idolatry. Ingersoll, with childish imagination, concentrates upon material details, ignoring the vital reason behind them. Ingersoll’s mistakes are nearly as great as those of the man who takes him as a mental and religious guide, regarding his every utterance as infallible.

Radio Replies Volume 1 by Rev. Dr. Leslie Rumble MSC and Rev. Charles Mortimer Carty