Alrighty...your first question's good for tonight.
QUESTION 1- How can you worship the God of the Bible considering the atrocities he committed? EX... One of his commandments is, "Thou shall not kill". Yet breaking any of those commandments invokes the death penalty.
I certainly won't deny that God did, and ordered done, many things that we would consider atrocious today. But, you have to remember, God wasn't dealing with us in the Old Testament. He was dealing with people and cultures from around 3500 years ago. The Old Covenant was a physical covenant, and its focus was physical - physical Temple, physical Laws, physical actions to achieve physical goals. For example, God commanded the Israelites to take the land of Canaan, and they did so through war (what other way was there?).
Also, take note of the fact that it was God who gave the Law. And, contrary to popular belief, the Law wasn't meant to establish right versus wrong, in the typical sense. Rather the Law was designed to set the Israelites apart from their neighbours. God wanted his people to be unique, not perfectly moralistic (not yet, anyway). If the point was to make a "good" people, then why bother with the clean and unclean foods? This was to set them apart from the others, who sacrificed those foods listed as unclean to their idols, it wasn't because it's morally wrong to eat certain foods.
Considering, then, that the Law was not moralistic, it should be reasonable that God could choose to command his people to break one or more of those laws in order to achieve his plan. Yet, he never did. But, to see that, you have to have a deeper understanding of theLaw in its original language. For example, "You shall not murder." The Hebrew for "murder" is 'ratsach'. In all OT contexts, this word refers either to reactionary killing out of anger or to some sort of premeditated, animalistic attack - not nearly as general as the English. Therefore, the punishment of death for certain violations of God's Law is not covered by this commandment. In fact, I wonder how many times anyone was ever actually murdered because they violated one of these Laws. Such harsh punishment would certainly be incentive enough for most people (that is, people who aren't masochistic, psychopathic, and/or otherwise unconcerned with their own fate).
But let's cover God himself. He got ticked off and put one family on a boat and killed every living thing on the earth. If he wasn't your God, wouldn't you consider that evil?
Depends on your definition of "earth." Is it Earth "earth" or is it land "earth"? Is it entire world "earth" or is it Mediterranean region "earth"?
Besides, the people he wiped off the face of the "earth" were sinful and disobedient. Noah built the ark, and those around him obviously had plenty of time to repent (120 years), but they didn't. Only Noah's family followed him into the ark (plus all those animals), and the rest perished for their disobedience. Ultimately, the choice was theirs, just as it is for all of us.
There are numerous passages that show God killing tens of thousands of men himself not to count the people he had slaughtered on his behalf by people or angels.
You're still thinking like someone from the year 2012. You can't do that with the Old Testament. This was a different culture. God showed himself to them in whatever ways would get his point across. You'll notice, he doesn't do any of these things anymore. Plus, some of the most graphic passages in the OT are more symbolic than anything. For instance, Leviticus 26:29. Certainly you can see the hyperbole in this description of God's punishment for continual disobedience.
He also makes it clear that women are inferior and substandard. I think everyone knows the bible is sexist.
That is superficially true, but people conveniently forget the reason why women were considered to be inferior:
1 Timothy 2:13-15 - "... Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner."
Of course, this is easy to forget if we reject the Creation account, but, if we do that, then we reject the Biblical God altogether, and there's nothing left to discuss.
Woman was deceived. Woman sinned first. Woman caused man to sin. Woman became subservient to man. I know it's not what progressives and feminists like to hear, but, according to Scripture, it is what happened. And, you'll notice, this didn't make man entirely superior; rather, man became sinful as well, and both man and woman need the sacrifice of Christ equally to atone for their sin.
How and why would you worship someone like that?
It's not just "someone"...it's the Almighty God and sovereign Creator who sent his son to die for us. The Father has proven his love. That's enough for us.
edit on 8-2-2012 by CLPrime because: (no reason given)
