razzelflabben
Contributor
okay, before I tackle this point specifically, I got to ask this question, when I repeatedly say I am not justifying anything, when I specifically say that I would personally neither do such a thing nor accept it as good, you still insist that I am justifying the act.....sounds like your trying to flame me on this issue....as I also clearly stated many times over, there is a huge difference between agreeing with someone and understanding why they did or do what they did or do.....I'll share a story with you in a bit about perspective but first the above concern.The justification for genocide that people were sacrificing their babies is one I've heard before and one that makes no sense. The logic is terrible.
1. They're sacrificing babies and having orgies!
2. We'll kill all of them, including their babies!
That's a lame justification because it contradicts itself with the results.
Why did God want them all killed, including the babies? WE talked about this, from the standpoint of trying to understand what another does or wants, what was God's reasoning? First we see that God wanted to wipe out the evil religions and their practices from the earth....these were some pretty nasty people who in todays discussion would be listed as having no morals...they were killing their own babies for heavens sakes, that is pretty evil. You all like to talk about the evils we do upon children today and where is God, well here is a case where God stepped in and your all upset because HE did....is it possible, in your minds, for God to do anything at all that would win? Man is evil, man's evil hurts kids, where is God why doesn't He step in, God is evil or He would do something for the kids being treated with such evil? But man is evil, man's evil hurts kids, where is God, why doesn't He step in, oops, there is God, He stepped in and did something, God is evil, He stepped in and stopped the evil that was hurting children? there is no winning in your minds, because in your minds, God is evil both when He steps in and when He doesn't.
But maybe your only objection is not that God stepped in, but rather that He killed the children at the same time...this is where perspective comes in, God's perspective is one of eternity, He doesn't see things the same way you and I do....like out child who got hit by the car, God had a choice, allow a few days of pain so that the child could be well and live or stop the pain immediately and allow the child to die at a very young age, He chose life. The bible (God) views this life as short term, a vapor, it is not lasting...that includes the pain we know here on this earth. so look at the children you refer to as God saying it is better to allow them pain for a few days that they might live, or to be pain free immediately that they might live a short painful life....personally I'll take the few days of pain any day of the year, for me and my children, if it means long and healthy life, instead of short, painful life.
Now a story, one day, I was sitting at home sewing. My sister came in the room and laid on my back...I asked my sister to move, she refused...I told her to move, she refused....I took her by the arms and set her off me....she went crying to my father that I scratched her and showed my father an old scratch that was healing....my father went bolistic and took off his belt and began to beat me with the belt.....now let me say this, I cried, I was a kid, tired of the abuse, tired of being falsly accused, etc. and I cried....but perspective is important in any situation, you see, the one thing I did not cry over was the pain of the belt stricking me....I didn't cry over it because the pain was not there, neither were the marks that should have been there....God stood in my place that day and took the beating that was meant for me. The point is this, there are many things in this world that color our eyes to the events that we witness, but seldom do we have all that we need to see them from anothers perspective....that day, my perspective was vital to understanding what was going on inside of me....you might look at the situation as an outsider and complain, grip, you might have even (if brave enough) have held my fathers arm from beating me so much, but what you couldn't do, is stop what and how that event affected and changed my life. That is mine to hold and mine alone, because my perspective shaped the event in my life. The same is try here with the children in the bible....what and how the events changed and shaped their lives (eternal and temperal for those who survived) is not yours or mine to own....how the events affected and changed our lives today, is not ours alone, God is responsible for what He ordered and as such, He is responsible for how it affected others....In God's mind, the eternal nature of His decisions outweights the temperal. Take the story I just related, in God's mind, the life long change that was the result, far outweighed the temperal pain, just like in our analogy above. You and I see things as temperal only so we can't see or imagine the eternal nature of God, that is why it helps to use analogies....
yep...and so your point? We aren't talking about man's perception here but God's, so I'm stumped as to what your point is....I tend to agree with most of this, actually I would have to disagree about the part history is written by the winners, history is told, or revised by whoever is telling the history, the perspective by which it is told is revisionary in it's very nature, but the rest is spot on.History is written by the winners. It's hard to tell who was the aggressor back in those times. It was a pretty violent life for most groups of people back then.
Think about it- if a group of people start to invade a land, and claim that their god has given them that land- who are the aggressors? They claim that it was their right and they don't care what gods other people have, so why should those people respect the god of the invaders and just step aside? It's like when America claimed all this land for itself and pushed the natives out of what had always been the land of their people- then pointed out how violent the natives are.
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