polite_gandalf wrote on Jan 20
th, 2014 at 2:45pm:
Just to clarify, the question of whether God Himself has power over all beings and can at any time take any life away at any time - is *NOT* the issue.
The issue is the idea that God would command his followers to carry out His wrath/justice for Him.
Why would God "condition" his followers to become monsters? Why would God compel someone to go through the trauma of hacking to death a terrified woman and her children? What sort of society does God envisage for his people - a mob of brutal baby killers? Or a compassionate people with an acute sense of justice and morality?
It just doesn't add up.
Here's a good essay on the topic:
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/DidGodCommandGenocide.pdf gandalf,
Thank you for the link.
2014-Jan-21 Tue 4:39 am
gandalf,
I'm reading;
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/DidGodCommandGenocide.pdfWesley Morriston
Did God Command Genocide?
A Chang h Bibica Inani
gandalf,
Do you have a link to a quotable copy of that article ?
It is going to be cumbersome to critique the argument made in this article, if i can't copy parts of what it says, e.g.;
......No doubt the autho?(?) of Deute?onomy
believed
thatGod had commanded a genocidal attack on the inhabitant? of the P?omi?edLand. But that i? not what a pe?fectly good God would do. so if we believethat God i?, and ha? alway? been, pe?fectly good, why ?houldn’t we ?implyconclude that the human autho?(?) of Deute?onomy we?e mi?taken?He?e i? a mo?e ca?eful fo?mulation of the a?gument that I wi?h to di?-cu??.(1) God exi?t? and i? mo?ally pe?fect.(2) so God would not command one nation to exte?minate the peopleof anothe?
unless He had a morally suf?cient reason for doing so
.(3) Acco?ding to va?iou? OT text?, God ?ometime? commanded the I?-?aelite? to exte?minate the people of othe? nation?.(4) It i? highly
unlikely
that God had a morally suf?cient reason for is
-?uing the?e alleged command?.(5) so it i? highly
unlikely
that eve?ything eve?y book of the OT ?ay?about God i? t?ue.I believe that thi? a?gument con?titute? quite a ?t?ong
prima facie
ca?eagain?t ine??ancy. Unle?? a bette? a?gument can be found fo? ?ejecting it?conclu?ion, then anyone who think? that God i? pe?fectly good ?hould ac-knowledge that the?e a?e mi?take? in ?ome of the book? of the OT.
Few Ch?i?tian? would have any doubt about p?emi?e (1), and I think nea?ly all would accept the move f?om (1) to (2). If God i? mo?ally pe?fect,then He mu?t be pe?fectly ju?t in Hi? dealing? with all c?eated pe??on?. Hemu?t al?o love them, de?i?ing what i? be?t fo? each of them. We can be ?u?ethat He would not command a genocidal attack unle?? He had ove??iding?ea?on? fo? doing ?o—?ea?on? that a?e compatible with Hi? pe?fect ju?ticeand love.
+++
Wesley Morriston is mistaken.There is no contradiction between, for example;
Leviticus 20:26, Jeremiah 9:24 and; Deuteronomy 7:1-2
Leviticus 20:26
And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy,....
Jeremiah 9:24
.....I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
Deuteronomy 7:1
When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:i
That image is not depicting a child, and a group of men.
That image is depicting a polluted and defiled land.
That image is depicting moral monsters [who are inhabiting God's holy land].
They are moral monsters which my God is justified to destroy as he chooses, both here, and in the spirit realm.n.b.
Numbers 35:33
So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are:
for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
gandalf,
People like you, hate God.
I love God.And i love God's righteousness.
And that is the difference between men.
"Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."
Golda Meir
gandalf,
Men need to get right with God.
But
most men think that the 'fault' which we see, lays with God, and so they
remain in rebellion.
2 Chronicles 19:1
And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.
2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.
Matthew 12:30
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Back later, with a fuller reply.