It has been an honor as a teacher of the Word of God to uphold the standard of God’s character against these UNFOUNDED ATTACKS by a simply MISINFORMED ATHEIST!
Here are other responses at the Christian Think-tank:
Here are other responses at the Christian Think-tank:
She goes on to say:
“I hear a lot from Christians tell me about God’s “infinite compassion and mercy”.
“Instead of harping on me about something so unapparent, they should go tell it to the Midianites. “
What about Genocide & scripture, did God commit ETHNIC- {On heathen; or pagan} GENOCIDE? On heathen or pagans?
First what is GENOCIDE?
It is defined as:
“in international law, the intentional by Design and systematic by Method destroy, wholly or in part, by a government of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group. Although the term genocide was first coined in 1944, the crime itself has been committed often in history”, BUT never by OR According to the doctrines of morality.
NO CRIME OF THIS MAGNITUDE IS DONE ON MORAL GROUNDS, IT CAN ONLY BE DONE BY AN A-MORAL PEOPLE devoid of personal judgment.
So we must judge this not on the moral standings of men BUT upon the ETHICAL STAND OF A MORAL GOD!
I must also interject here that Adolf Hitler “CLAIMED TO BE CHRISTIAN” BECAUSE HE AND HIS HENCHMEN WERE CATHOLICS, JESUIT TRAINED IN FACT..ALL THIS PROVES IS THAT “RELIGION IN ANY MAN-MADE FORM” IS NOT TRUE FAITH IN GOD AND THEREFORE NOT EVIDENCE OF GOD’S IMPROPRIETY.
If anything it shows the utter contempt for life that PAGANS PRETENDING TO BE CHRISTIAN THROUGH FALSE RELIGION have for each other and the rest of us…HITLER WAS NO MORE “GOD’S CHILD” THAN YOUR A HAMBURGER IF YOU GO TO McDonald’s.
PRESENCE IN A CHURCH BUILDING DOES NOT EQUAL GOD’S PRESENCE IN THE HEART.
Here’s an example of the type of verses atheist’s misunderstand, NOT THE WORDING OF THE VERSE BUT THE INTENT OF GOD’S DIRECTION IN THE VERSE.
“Thus saith the LORD of hosts … go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”
“How Could a Compassionate God Order the “Genocide” of the Canaanites or Amalek ?”
Now of course I can give the simple answer from the Bible which is enough for people who trust God but not for those who DOUBT HIS RIGHT TO RULE!
THE BIBLE SAYS that God gave them 400+ years to repent WARNING THEM BY EVERY WAY POSSIBLE and that their sins were beyond horrible, but the real question is an ethical one.
How can God who has such compassion for the innocents in Nineveh order the wholesale killing of innocent children in Palestine?
Is the God of the OT and the God of the NT the same Person?
How can I reconcile these, in modern terms, “unthinkable” crimes against humanity with the God of compassion revealed by Jesus?
We need to revisit the assessment of the Canaanites as “innocent people.” Also remember that God sent Jonah to WARN NINEVEH WHICH WAS NOT INNOCENT or they would not have been warned!
SO THE BIBLICAL PATTERN REMAINS THE SAME-
WARNING!…. THEN SURE JUDGMENT!
From God’s perspective, there is no such thing as an innocent human being (apart from Jesus Christ).
Every human heart is born with the nature of evil and bent on sin and rebellion. I see a strong parallel between God’s actions against the Canaanites and the actions of an oncology surgeon.
He has to cut out what may appear to be healthy tissue but which is actually infected with cancer cells that ONLY HE SEES.
NO ONE would say “How could this compassionate doctor “CUT OFF” human flesh that is perfectly good?
Doesn’t he know it HURTS the patient to do this, doesn’t he KNOW that the patient will miss that part and “morn” that loss the rest of his or her life?
Was this loss really necessary?
Couldn’t the doctor have done it some other way to AVOID ALL THAT PAIN?
Or whatever else the MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK would teach?
Does not the doctor with all his vast knowledge know MORE THAN THE PATIENT ABOUT HIS PROBLEM?
This is the idea behind “PERSONAL ETHICS”THE DOCTOR MUST LOOK AT ALL AVENUES OF TREATMENT, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT ALL THE MANY COMPONENTS OF THE PATIENTS LIFE, SICKNESS, HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY IN ORDER TO COME TO THE SOLUTION HE ULTIMATELY FOLLOWS THROUGH WITH.
This is “ETHICAL BEHAVIOR” FROM THE HUMAN PERSPECTIVE, HOW MUCH MORE DETAILED WOULD GOD’S INVESTIGATION BE IN REGARDS TO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
HOW DARE ANY HUMAN JUDGE HIM!
The Canaanites were infected with sin, they practiced CHILD SACRIFICE TO FALSE GOD’S AND THE MOST PERVERTED SEXUAL DEVIANCE IMAGINABLE, with animals and human alike.
This was a judgment EQUAL TO THEIR SINS AGAINST MAN & NATURE as well as to GOD, the Utter annihilation of a civilization that was rotten to the core, BUILT UPON THE BLOOD OF IT’S OWN CHILDREN.
This kind of evil cannot ever be excused before the Cross of Christ, and the very fact that any Atheist would try too is APPALLING IN IT’S OWN RIGHT!
The children OF THESE EVIL PAGANS were not as innocent as we think they were. Remember children must be RAISED UP IN “EVIL PRACTICES” IN ORDER TO BE WILLING SACRIFICES TO THEIR GOD’S.
Look at the LRA in Uganda, and if you have a chance to watch a video called “Invisible Children”, you’ll see two opposites to children. To the same degree of innocence and the good from innocence that children can have is the same degree to which they can become even more evil and destructive.
Most of us live in a time and a place where we are mostly shielded from what true evil looks like. The evil that all people of all ages did in Sodom, Gomorrah, Canaan, Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other places dwarfs the worst acts we hear about on the news,we have not even come close to these evils today.
Until we understand what true evil looks like and the consequences of it and STOP JUSTIFYING IT AS FREE SPEECH!
We will have a hard time ever understanding God’s justice and mercy and we will be shocked at what “normal people” or even “perverts” are truly capable of.
Until then, we will be shocked that a seemingly “normal” man went into an Amish schoolhouse and murdered without remorse, or that two boys went into Columbine high school and didn’t come out alive, or that people could so hate us they will fly planes into our buildings,make no mistake about it…
THEY HAVE NO MERCY WITHIN THEM, BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN “SEARED INSIDE” by their constant sinning.
Also remember what happened in the case of Babylon/Persia bringing back the best of the children of captured countries — Daniel and his buddies became the most powerful in the land.
This was a positive result BUT the same could also happen in a reverse scenario, and in a worst case scenario they would try to overthrow or pervert the Israelites with enough time and the right catalysts.
Let’s also remember that the Canaanites did exactly the same to the Israelites (women and children included) years before, a fact passed over by those who Judge God.
Who were the early inhabitants of the Holy Land?
They were the descendants of Shem and Arphaxed (ancestor of the Hebrews).
The PRE- PROMISED { In the heart of God } uninhabited land was populated by them shortly after the flood and was an inheritance for them. Traditions regarding the early history of the Holy Land can be found in the Book of Jubilee, the Kebra Nagast and commentaries of Rash, Philo and the Sepher Hayashar.
Those descended from Ham were known as the Canaanites and were given a different inheritance to occupy, however, this was not good enough for them and they invaded the lands of Shem.
The Canaanites drove out and/or killed the descendants of Shem and then occupied the land. Although the Bible does not directly mention the Canaanite invasion it implies the occurrence in Genesis 12:6 when it uses the expression “the Canaanites were in the land”.
The Hebrew carries the connotation of, “then but not before”, as opposed to, “then but not now”, as Canaanites were present up and until the second Temple period by which time Genesis had certainly been written. Assuming this to be true the Israelite invasion was nothing short of an eye for an eye and was a righteous judgment according to Mosaic law.
BUT, please think about this- in the Old covenant relationship, God dealt with man WITHOUT A BORN AGAIN SPIRIT.
So God could not control men from the “HEART” like he can now in the New covenant,THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE…IT IS SIMPLY A REASON AMONG MANY REASONS FOR GOD’S ACTIONS!
Had the Israelites not eradicated the Canaanite people, I dare say you would have had land disputes much like you see in the Holy Land today.
Just as if the doctor HAD NOT REMOVED THE “CANCER INFECTED CELLS” in the body of his patient, DESPITE THE PAIN AND SUFFERING THAT ACTION CAUSED, IT WAS “FAR BETTER” than the alternative!
It would have greatly hindered if not prevented the Israelite nation from EVER forming.
It was not just forming the nation God was worried about it was forming a nation free of the corruption and idol worship of the Canaanite people. God did not need more of the same from the Israelites as he got from the Canaanites.
Looking back you can see that God was successful only to the extent { HIS ULTIMATE PURPOSE FOR ISRAEL } that they were able to bring the Messiah into the world and preserve a remnant of the chosen people to serve him.
Let’s be very clear here, God acted in the BEST INTEREST OF HIS END GOAL- TO BRING ULTIMATE DELIVERANCE OF THE SIN PROBLEM, BY THE BIRTH OF HIS SON INTO THIS EARTH!
She says: “I have discovered via my discussions that there are two major forms:
the corruption argument
and the mercy argument.
The former says that those slaughtered were evil and deserving of their fate; the latter says that since they were religiously incorrect, it was a mercy to terminate their existence.”
Notice the precise wording of this statement, in order to give God no way out of the argument-
“Evil and Deserving”there is no MEAT in the middle with which to judge the action as I have plainly given, there is MORE between the EVIL and the DESERVING.
“RELIGIOUSLY INCORRECT” what does that mean exactly?
Numb 31:2
“Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.”
AGAIN….
” Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites:
” DID YOU SEE THAT? THESE MINIANITES HAD DONE THE SAME THING TO ISRAEL THAT GOD INSTRUCTED ISRAEL TO DO TO THEM, “AN EYE FOR AN EYE !”
For the injury they had done them, by sending their daughters among them, who enticed them to commit uncleanness with them, and then drew them into the worship of their idols, which brought the wrath of God upon them, and for which 24,000 persons were slain.
Now, though the Moabites had a concern in this affair as well as the Midianites, yet they were spared; which some think was for the sake of Lot, from whom they descended; but why not the Midianites for the sake of Abraham, whose offspring they were by Keturah?
Jarchi says, they were spared because of Ruth, who was to spring from them; and so she might, and yet vengeance be taken on great numbers of them: but the truer reason seems to be, either because the sin of the Moabites was not yet full, and they were reserved for a later punishment; or rather because they were not the principal actors in the above affair; but the Midianites, who seem to have advised Balak at first to send for Balaam to curse Israel, and who harboured that soothsayer after he had been dismissed by Balak, and to whom he gave his wicked counsel, and which they readily followed, and industriously pursued.”
ETHER WAY YOU LOOK AT THIS- IT WAS “JUSTICE” and NOT “GENOCIDE!”
