Deuteronomy 13

Here's some very serious stuff. And very different than the "and every man did as he pleased" world of America that I live in today. God was serious about stopping people from encouraging people to leave the fold of His nation Israel. If you wanted to leave, there was nothing stopping you, but you couldn't try to entice others to do so.

If anyone, even your own family tried to get you to worship other Gods, they were to be killed. In the free speech world I live in, this is hard stuff. But it also makes it real. That is, most of philosophy and religion, spoken freely, are just that, words. But words mean things, and words used to lead people away from the Living God are a direct insult to God.

If the nation of Israel was to be the example of God's people on earth, then there was to be absolutely no worship of any other God in that land. And so it is now with our lives as Christians. This is how we are to live our own lives. I think Christ has fulfilled the Law, such that what is "inside" the borders of the nation is now no longer geographic, but within the context of the spirit of each of our Christian lives. We don't put to death other people's voices now, we are to put to death the sinful nature within ourselves.