Everyone
who has ever studied the Old Testament has had to face those uncomfortable violent passages. The Children of Israel obediently slaughtered many thousands of
innocent men, women and children at God’s command. The victims included apostates (Deuteronomy
13:6-18), girls who were not virgins on their wedding night (Deuteronomy
22:17-21), those who dared insult the Prophet (2 Kings 2:23-24), and really
anyone who got in the way of Children of Israel’s conquest. Normally we just gloss over these passages,
tell ourselves that that was a different time, and thank our lucky stars that
we don’t see anything like that today.
Oh wait, we do, and we call it terrorism. We see it in the news all the time, and we
tell ourselves that a true god would never tell his people to do something like
that. I agree. A loving, merciful god would never command
his people to kill apostates, stone non-virgins on their wedding night, or kill
thousands of innocent men, women and children.
If it’s wrong today, then it was wrong then too.
I wish this were limited to just a few passages in the Old Testament, but it’s a common theme throughout the whole Bible, from beginning to end. Although Jesus encouraged people to show love to each other, he also warned them of God’s wrath. He taught this principle euphemistically in some of his parables, including the one about the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30). Paul explained in more direct terms that when Jesus returned in his glory, he would lift the righteous Christians into the sky to meet him (1 Thessalonians 4:17) while everyone else would burn up and die below in the earth’s cleansing process (2 Thessalonians 2:8, 2 Peter 3:10). “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37). If that weren’t enough, all of the non-Christians who ever lived would be brought back from the dead so that God could personally torture them in the Fire (Revelation 20:12-15, 21:8). Jehovah God, if he is real, is a fascist and a terrorist. When I realized this fact, I asked myself a question: how can God be our savior if the danger he’s saving us from is himself? In effect, he isn’t saving anyone. He’s just sparing those he likes.
I wish this were limited to just a few passages in the Old Testament, but it’s a common theme throughout the whole Bible, from beginning to end. Although Jesus encouraged people to show love to each other, he also warned them of God’s wrath. He taught this principle euphemistically in some of his parables, including the one about the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30). Paul explained in more direct terms that when Jesus returned in his glory, he would lift the righteous Christians into the sky to meet him (1 Thessalonians 4:17) while everyone else would burn up and die below in the earth’s cleansing process (2 Thessalonians 2:8, 2 Peter 3:10). “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37). If that weren’t enough, all of the non-Christians who ever lived would be brought back from the dead so that God could personally torture them in the Fire (Revelation 20:12-15, 21:8). Jehovah God, if he is real, is a fascist and a terrorist. When I realized this fact, I asked myself a question: how can God be our savior if the danger he’s saving us from is himself? In effect, he isn’t saving anyone. He’s just sparing those he likes.
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