I really enjoy reading the bible but i just can't get over the cruelty of it. [Spirituality & Religion]
Every time i read something like "And then they burned him and his family alive" or "and they killed every man, woman and child" it just bums me out. How can this be the will of a loving god? That's a hard pill to swallow.
Thoughts?
[c=#BF0000]Edit*[/c][b][i][c=#BF0000]Can you imagine killing even a single little girl? That sweet, round little face looking up at you in terror as you cut her open? Much less THOUSANDS?! And that is what a just, loving, RIGHTEOUS god orders? I can't see that.[/c][/i][/b]
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Reading the Bible to you is kind of like abortion to a believer...we don't understand it. The old testament when a nation is killed it was the judgment of God on a wicked nation.
I don't think there's ever a justification for murdering women and children by the tens of thousands. I don't think there's ever a justification for murdering the family of a person who committed a crime on their own.
@Pikachu There seems to be a double standard on everything. The bible is something that cant be understood by picking at it. It can only be understood when its taken as a whole.
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@Pikachu I've already explained in a previous post that the Hebrews couldn't take care of the children. There were only a few thousand Hebrews and there were over a hundred thousand children. Why would God put such a burden on the Hebrews? The Canaanites had their chance and they had to die. Sorry for the children but it was like a mercy killing.
@Pikachu That my friend is why you don't understand it. Its not made up stories and you know that yourself, otherwise you would have never made the post. If you're expecting and saved Christian to explain to you Gods nature in either the old or new testament, you're asking something that cant be explained. The tiny brain of human cannot understand Gods justice system or nature to any lengthy extent.
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@Reverend Not everything can be explained but what he's talking about is easily explained. God ordered the Hebrews to destroy them because they were doing evil things like sacrificing children to Baal by burning them alive. Sleeping with animals and other wickedness. God is right to destroy a nation like that.
As for the children, it wasn't the Hebrews responsibility. God didn't want to place that burden on them. Plus, there were too many children for them to take care of anyway. The Bible says there were 7 nations that God wanted wiped out and each nation was way larger than the Hebrews. It's impractical to think that God would order them to take care of the children, while trying to build a country and go to war with the other nations.
No. You declared that the hebrews couldn't take care of the children. You are wrong. With every conquest they gained money, land and resources. At the very LEAST after a few victories they could easily have taken the children in. And MURDERING CHILDREN IS NOT EXCUSED BY HAVING LITTLE TO SPARE. [i][b]OBVIOUSLY[/b][/i]!
[quote]There were only a few thousand Hebrews[/quote]
Nope. There were hundreds of thousands of them. Just read numbers. Even the men of fighting age numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
[quote]Why would God put such a burden on the Hebrews[/quote]
So god chose that hundreds of thousands of children should die than that he provide something extra for the israelites to support them. Go on, justify that for me. It was more moral of god to order the deaths of children than to provide for them with his infinite power. Go ahead.
No it IS made up of stories. I'm not saying that in the sense that they are not real, i'm saying that you can't ignore the bad so that you can call the whole good.
[quote] The tiny brain of human cannot understand Gods justice[/quote]
And that to me is nothing more than an abdication of moral responsibility. Sure, murdering hundreds of thousands of women and children SEEMS like a horrifying act of butchery...but you can't understand that it's actually good.
That doesn't cut it for me.
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@Pikachu it doesn't matter how much land they got, they could not take care of hundreds of thousands of children and take care of their own and build their country and fight off other tribes. It's impractical
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@Pikachu I see nothing wrong with murdering the women. The women were just as guilty as the men.
@Pikachu Yes the entire book is Good and you'll never know how good it is until you read it in its entirety. I wont go any further as it is pointless. You have your opinion and i have mine.
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It would be idiotic to let the women live. The Hebrews had their own women. Why would they need to let all those women live who would plot against them?
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@Pikachu Do the math. That's like the USA taking care of all the children in China, India, and Africa combined. And the USA has far more resources and is far more stable than the Hebrews were. 😂
Well i've read the new testament and most of the old testament so i don't think i'm missing any of the major bits. But maybe you can explain to me how many good bits there have to be in order to accept the moral correctness of mass murder.
😂 lol so is one man killing one thousand warriors with the jaw bone of a donkey. So is feeding an entire nation on mana from the heavens. So is two men sending and entire army into a panic.😆 You don't get to accept that god can do [i]that[/i] and then make the excuse that he could not provide for the Israelites to take care of the children from the nations they butchered. It's an EXCUSE and a feeble one at that.
[quote]It would be idiotic to let the women live[/quote]
I think it's been a while since you read the bible. The Israelites DID take women from the people they conquered. There were rules for it. You kill the women who have known a man but keep for yourself the virgins. You let them mourn the parents you killed for a couple months before you make them your wife. It was a thing that happened. Just not in all cases. Sometimes it was apparently preferable to kill all the women and little girls.
[quote] Do the math. [/quote]
Yes. Let's do the math. What's the math on what [i][b]god can do[/b][/i] if he wants to? Ex[i]ACTLY[/i]. So then what god [i]wanted[/i] was for all those women and children to die. That's an act of horrifying barbarism at which [i][b]you would SCREAM murder[/b] [/i] if it were [i]anyone[/i] else or even any other god.
@Pikachu If you've read the new testament and can't see the conclusion based on what you have read in the old testament, theres not much I can do for you. I don't seek moral correctness as God is just in his every decision. I take it as morally correct the way it is written.
@Pikachu Its completely faith alone plus nothing. Question is why do you stir up commotion on something you don't even believe to be true? Why not fight the abortionists that has the blood of of over 40 million babies on their hands, along with the mothers? If i didnt believe something i sure wouldn't make it a point to post about it. Thats just me though.
[quote]Its completely faith alone plus nothing.[/quote]
Couldn't agree more. There is [i]nothing[/i] but faith which allows a person to excuse actions like that. I question these things because i'm reading the bible. I'm discussing the book i'm reading. Since this is meant to be a book to [i]live by[/i], i think i am entirely justified in exercising robust criticism and i don't appreciate any attempt to undermine the validity of that inquiry.
@Pikachu if you didn't believe the first chapter why would you continue? Also, was you reading the bible in the same place the last time you inquired on this issue several months back?
Oh, you would recommend to people that if they don't believe genesis then they should just [i]abandon[/i] reading the bible? Interesting take. Not a good path to salvation perhaps, but interesting.
[quote]several months back?[/quote]
No...i don't think that was me. Although this is an issues that i've had since the first time i read the bible more than a decade ago.
@Pikachu Definitely not a good path to salvation, I would have to agree. I take the Bible as being inerrant at a whole which is why I stated that...I suppose everyone doesn't accept the Bible as I do. I'M also a KJV bible believer. I think newer bibles have been corrupted and have an agenda behind the changes. I retract my statement regarding the first chapter of the bible. Its good that you are reading it. Thats more then a lot of people can say, Christians in majority. I thought it was you that mentioned it before, my apologies if im incorrect.
