ok so I was reading Joshua and it got me thinking, why does God
command the Israelites to kill entire cities even innocent children? I
mean if God loves everyone than why does he command the Israelites to
kill even the innocent? And if God ordered us to kill a city wouldn't
that be somewhat wrong? and would we even do it? I wouldn't cause to
me it seems wrong. I know God is good and this is the Old testament
but doesn't this seem umm wrong?
5 comments:
The fact that God would kill so many people, including children, does seem pretty harsh. I guess the question we have to ask is whether the children were really innocent. Remember the story where God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah in Gen 18? Due to Abrams begging God says He will not destroy the cities if He finds just one righteous person in the city. But God does not find a one.
I think it is also important to recognize that God may have showed mercy to some or even many people in the cities the Israelites raised. Even if they died in battle, they may nevertheless have been granted a chance to ask God for forgiveness.
Ladydeathmaggot's comment compliments mine. We're both saying, sometimes we just don't know what's going on "behind the scenes." From God's perspective, sometimes people can be worse than they seem, and then again sometimes they can be better.
But this is a REALLY HARD issue, one of those, like the story of Job, that is worth thinking about for a whole lifetime.
In the Soddom and Gomorrah situation... isnt it true that all people are born in to sin? so is no one truly innocennt? You cannot be held responsible for the sins of your parents, but if you have commited no actual act of sin are you still innocent??
I think it all goes back to what Tom mentioned at Wheatstone...original sin. Maybe the question we should ask is: 1.Are we punished/guilty because of the actual sin cause by sin nature or 2. Are we punished/guilty because of our sin nature alone?
I have no opinion on this yet but I am looking at Romans 5 with my Friday Night Bible Study Group in hopes of finding an answer...I'm not sure that we will.
Let us know what you come up with. I'll keep thinking about it, too.
Just FYI, most Christians throughout history do seem to have held that unbaptized infants, and the unborn dead, do indeed go to hell. But this has always seemed somewhat repugnant to God's love, so some theologians have posited a kind of Hell Light, called Limbo, where the infants spend eternity in a state of neither suffering nor joy, just stasis.
Few will go all the way and just assert that the babies will burn forever. There is theological consistency to that position--the correct inference from a certain view of how original sin works--but I myself don't trust a man who can say that about the babies without going weak in the knees.
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