And as always, context will bring the correct meaning of the verses into the light.
6Now Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
7But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD took his life.
8Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
9Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother.
10But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD; so He took his life also.
11Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”; for he thought, “I am afraid that he too may die like his brothers.” So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
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Roman Catholics are living under the Old Testament.
Read the verse again: “But what he did...”
He was slain for a positive act; there’s no statement asserting that his death was due to disobedience.
But see the question I put to Dartoid; you’re free to take a stab at it as well. (I hope he didn’t disappear. The Protestants seem to always disappear when I put a direct question to them.)
Were the Protestants who shunned birth control from the time of Martin Luther to the time of the 1930 Anglican Lambeth Conference also incorrect in their interpretation of this passage? (Were they too, “living under the Old Testament”?)
Then let’s quote all of Genesis 38, and not stop simply where you find it convenient.
There were TWO men who were disobedient; one was Onan, and the other was Judah himself, who did not give his son Shelah to his daughter-in-law Tamar (and who ended up disguising herself like a harlot because Shelah had not been given to her).
But only Onan was killed; Judah was not.
If Onan’s only offense was disobedience, as you and others here claim, then why was Judah not put to death for his sin of disobedience?