Would it be "moral" for God to order the killing of children?

com7fy8 said:

But what about the con-text of the rest of the chapter?

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Caliban said:

No need to be rude. I simply informed you of my experience studying the Bible because you said the following:


I was merely explaining that I am highly familiar with the Bible and several theological traditions.

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com7fy8 said:

You identify as Christian; so possibly you already know some of what would answer your question, based on your own experience and your knowledge of the Bible. So, I will offer my personal take, which is not all there is to say about this, to go with what you already might know >

I'll start with how I was. I could have been stoned, no question. All I was about was candy and ice cream and dog friends, as a younger kid > totally nothing to do with God. Then I became a gratuitous bully who was secretly planning to derail trains in order to kill and cripple as many people as I could; during the seventh grade, I was exercising my mind for that (about 65 years ago when we didn't have mass sucker killers running around; they would have made me jealous!); I was planning that as revenge against all humans, because a church doorman refused to babysit my dog friend until I got back out of Mass.

God stopped me, to keep it simple.

So, I would be one example. But it seems people hardly knew the difference, so they could have stoned me. I now would say it is good to get to know your children, really, and share enough with them so they do not value dog friends more than sharing and caring as family with other people.

In the early scriptures, in Moses' Law, we have a number of death penalty offenses for children, things which would mean they are evil, I understand.

But - - deeper . . . what can make even little kids be evil?

All have been born in sin. This is a Bible basic, I would say; there is "the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience," we have in Ephesians 2:2; the spirit of selfishness can get the better of us, because of the weakness of any person's selfish nature without Jesus. Plus, with this I personally accept that a child could not be a perfect angel and saved, in the womb, and then every one of them would fall to Satan and all be "short of the glory of God" like the Bible says in Romans 3:23. That would mean they lost their salvation, and other things . . . that God had them saved in the womb but then let go of every one of us. I find that God's word says that when He adopts a child out of Satan's kingdom > Acts 26:17-18 > He keeps someone He has adopted.

Jesus, now . . . then . . . of course . . . would say "let the one without sin cast the first stone." All of us have been guilty of some sort of death penalty thing, inside of us, at least. Our Apostle Paul says all of us have been "children of wrath" (in Ephesians 2:3). That would mean we all have been evil.

So, however you yourself have been selfish and whatever without Jesus, that would be included in what makes a child evil. You can answer this from your own experience.

One thing I note is how, often enough, a child can be oriented mainly or only to oneself and can be very mean when not getting his or her own way. This is directly contrary to how Jesus says every one of us needs to deny oneself in order to follow Jesus >

"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up His cross daily, and follow Me." (in Luke 9:23)

The evil is not always obvious. But while we are not real and strong in Jesus, we still can have ready-to-go ability to react in a very dangerous and cruel and abusive way if and when someone effectively messes with something we have for a pleasure treasure . . . maybe . . . like ice cream and candy . . . even such innocent sounding things. But you have seen how certain people have turned into acting like lunatics when they do not get what they dictate. Any of us, I now would say, is at risk of this, if we keep holding on to any pleasure which is a treasure.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," Jesus warns > Matthew 6:21.

By evil, then, I mean what can be anti-love or weakening us from how we could be loving. But, then, I would not say every child has to be evil because of not being perfectly strong in Jesus' way of loving. But whatever is stopping or hinders us is evil.

But in my case . . . I was evil.

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