Hello everyone!
I was researching info on the bible and found an article talking about many criticisms of the bible. One of the portions that hit me rather hard read the following:
"Cruelty in Basic Christian Teachings
Instances of cruel and unjust behavior by the biblical God are seen in the most basic Christian doctrines. Some of God’s acts that harmed the innocent are as follows.
God did not harm any innocents. If you read the bible sections you are talking about the people involved were sinners and not innocent. They had been judged, warned and then punished when they did not repent. Just as we do for those who break the law.
He damned the whole human race and cursed the entire creation because of the acts of two people (Genesis 3:16-23; Romans 5:18);
God did not damn anyone. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. It was the introduction of sin that damned the human race just like when someone chooses to smoke and introduces cancer that damns their body.
he drowned pregnant women and innocent children and animals at the time of the Flood (Genesis 7:20-23);
As mentioned there were no innocents. As the bible says everyone was continually thinking and doing evil. Sin had stamped itself into humans and it was never going to come out.
Genesis 6:5
The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
he tormented the Egyptians and their animals with hail and disease because pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt (Exodus 9:8-11,25); and he killed Egyptian babies at the time of the Passover (Exodus 12:29-30).
This is Gods judgement. The plagues were warnings. As there were 9 plagues this shows there were a lot of warnings and God was not rushed to judge and punish. The taking of the first born was a punishment. Not all first born were babies or young children and any young ones that were taken went to heaven as they were yet to know right from wrong. They died in their sleep as the bible verse talks about them being taken at midnight.
Ultimately God is the creator of human life and therefore has the right to take it. This is not the same as we think of taking a life. This is oppose to Herod taking the Hebrew children’s lives by drowning them in the river. But there is more to these passages that we cannot comprehend. It was to do with Gods ultimate plan for his people and the coming of Christ to save all humans. Therefore, a greater good was at hand. We cannot make judgment on these things as we do not understand all the divine consequences in our limited earthly judgments.
But as humans if we agree that wrong should be judged and punished, then why cannot God who is the ultimate law maker do the same. In fact, being all knowing doesn’t God have greater knowledge about judgment and punishment than our worldly system that is fallible and makes mistakes. How can human subjective morality make any ultimate judgments about Gods actions. Modern day morality is relative and has no grounds for objective right and wrong? What someone deems as being wrong is only an opinion.
When we hear of the UN or NATO dishing out sanctions to regimes that people and deny their rights or when women and children die in war, we go along with this as it is part of stopping a greater evil. Yet people want to judge Gods morality when he is the ultimate law maker and judge and more deserving to be in that position.
After the Exodus he ordered the Israelites to exterminate the men, women, and children of seven nations and steal their land (Deuteronomy 7:1-2); he killed King David’s baby because of David’s adultery with Bathsheba (II Samuel 12:13-18); he required the torture and murder of his own son (e.g., Romans 3:24-25); and he promised to send non-Christians to eternal torture (e.g., Revelation 21:8)."
Christs sacrifice was necessary for the salvation of all. Just like soldiers lay down their lives while their fathers are willing to allow them to go into battle for the sake of a nation. But once again we must ask on what grounds do, we as humans judge morals. Subjective morality has no basis, yet many want to judge the ultimate judge who is deserving of being the judge of all more than anyone else.
We must ask ourselves if there is wrong and evil do, we need justice. Does evil need to be punished. We as humans seem to think we have the right to judge and punish wrong doing and in fact see this as part of an orderly and sane society. How much more does there need to be an ultimate judge for wrong for evil committed that goes unpunished by human systems which are incapable of being fair and consistent.
I have always believed in a loving God, so these points did make me think for a while. I would love to hear other Christian (or otherwise) perspectives on this!
I find the evil verses loving God of the bible a challenging topic. But I think if we stop and understand the context and I mean not just in a human context but also the divine plan at play we can get a better understanding. Still we cannot fully understand as our human understanding only sees part of the big picture of God.
The problem begins when we as humans start to make judgement based on our subjective morality which is very unreliable and inconsistent and of course we put ourselves above God who is ultimately the law giver and supreme judge. It would be like a lay person saying they know better in how to do heart surgery and making judgement on a heart surgeon who actually wrote the book on heart surgery.
Don't feel like it's something you 'need' to buy. I'm just giving you a stepping stone for some orientation on my own view. Besides, I'm just a reader of the book, not its author.
