Questions About The Sodom And Gomorrah Situation

[ebia]

In the scriptures, did God know what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah before he destroyed those cities?



Why would God need to go down to those cities to see how bad things were? Doesn't God know everything?

The account in Genesis is a story with a point, not a historically accurate account.

BTW, the reason why I'm bringing this up is because the situation does seem questionable and because I am not straight and this issue has been attributed to homosexuality, which is why it bothers me to read about it.

The book of Ezekiel is perfectly clear, the collective sins of Sodom were greed, lack of charity, lack of hospitality,...
The central 'crime' of the Sodom story in Genesis is rape of the two strangers - the ultimate in lack of hospitality. It's nothing to do with sexuality or sexual gratification.

I also believe that it wasn't the right move to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. I think that, with faith, whoever it was who was crying out against the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, could've prayed to the LORD for help with getting things worked out without those cities being destroyed and prevented that from happening.

Like the Flood, it's an illustrative story.

 

[Rafael]

But in the Bible he didn't go down to Sodom and Gomorrah. He sent his angels to do his dirty work for him. Quite similar to the ways of men, when they are in power and send troops over to foreign countries to bomb them to smithereens because they can't find a peaceful way to deal with the situation. The thing is, God's ways are different from man's ways and he can find a peaceful way to deal with the situation!

God could've saved Sodom and Gomorrah... but the fact is, the Bible tells us that he chose to destroy those cities. That's what bothers me the most about that story.

God told Abraham, through the "three men" He sent, that if he could find but ten men there that were righteous He would not bring judgment upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God's words say that it was wicked, and I trust what He says because of the rest of His word. The three men could barely get inside of Lot's house before being raped by a crowd of men that cried into the house saying, ""Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them." (NLT version) So now, even today, we don't have crowds of men beating on our doors demanding to have sex with our guests or at least I haven't seen it on TV yet ( I might, though if I live a little longer). Doesn't this give us a clue about the rest of the city.....? and that if we knew the whole story, at least giving God the benefit of the doubt in His power and love to mercifully to warn them through prophets and messengers like Jonah, who successfully warned Ninevah to repent as a city, would we not be able to see that God bent over backwards to give light when only darkness and evil was desired by this bunch? God does not violate the will of Sodom and Gommorah and He says to us that it is not His will that any person perish, but that they repent and enjoy life with Him. It, life, is a gift from God and not a priviledge to practice evil with forever. This temporal life we have in these temporary tents as bodies is where we make our choice between love and hate, good and evil. It is a full choice where true love exists as the prize.
God is never unfair or unjust, and we often struggle judging Him, being ignorant of so much of the whole story, when we should be placing our entire trust in Him. He can can save us from ourselves - from our fallen natures born dead to God's Spirit.

2Peter 3:9 ¶ The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.

 

[dvd_holc]

What if your children were possessed by demons and because of this they were wicked in every which way possible and were enjoying being that way? Are you just gonna continue to allow them to be that way because they enjoy it or are you gonna cast the demons out of them?

Why were the people of Sodom and Gomorrah the way they were? Were they created evil or did Satan get in them and start messing those people up? Are people created with the desire not to repent or is it shoved down their throat by Satan? Or are there reasons why people don't want to repent that (something that happened to them that made it impossible for them to have any desire to serve God)?
It's better to be a puppet of God than a puppet of Satan.

We were made for worship and service of God. It was what we were created for. But God did make us puppets. Being a slave to God is not being a puppet. Instead, God calls us friends and wife because of the intimacy of our relationship. God also gives us authority to be rulers of the creation. There are many promises and one central hope, the restored garden of Eden with the indwelling presence of God shining in all of creation and full present in and with us.

If my child becomes possessed, I will pray for God to free her and/or to give me to the authority to command the demon to leave her. There is a difference between a person possessed and a slave of sin. A possessed person does everything of the demon’s wishes. A slave of sin chooses to serve sin. The slave of sin can freely choose to love but they have no lasting commitment toward love. The possessed person only does nothing but the wishes of the demon.

Listen to the very words of God in Isaiah 1:
8 Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege. 9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us (a seed, NKJV), we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies. 14Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; 16 wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right!

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
18“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; 20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Listen to Paul from Romans 1:
14I am obligated both to Greeks and non- Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
17For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Chapter 2:1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3So when you, a mere human, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
5But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6God “will repay everyone according to what they have done.” e 7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11For God does not show favoritism. 12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) 16This will take place on the day when God judges everyone’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Romans 6:11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is (everlasting harmony with the way God made you to be which produces life, my words) in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

[ZACTAK]

CLOSED!

This forum is not for debating. It is for non-Christians to ask genuine questions about Christianity and get an answer from a Christian.
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