Should we handle victory the way the Christian god decrees?

Frank,

You are totally misinterpreting what I am saying.

First of all, I am not afraid of God. I do not want to displease Him, that is most definite. But, not because of being afraid of what He may retaliate with. I don't want to displease Him in the same way I don't want to displease my parents. It's not out of fear, it's out of respect.

When I said I didn't believe God would advocate the slaughter and enslavement of people I meant in today's times.

Once Christ came into the picture it was all different.

I can't explain that any better to you and I wish someone could.

You also need to keep in mind that we are to obey the laws of the land. Don't we have provisions in the Geneva Convention for how prisoners are treated?

But MA the rule of thumb should not just be to non-believers satisfaction, the test should be whether the explanation can stand the light of day or withstand critical thought.

It is the above explanation that to me begs the question, "Why the change from a jealous, vengeful, barbaric god to an all forgiving loving god?" The explanation that you provided earlier was that there essentially was no change. You seem to swing back and forth about change, no change depending upon the question.

I rather think that this world is full of people that think God speaks to them. The difference is that now, we understand that these voices although very real to the people that hear them are in fact caused by mental illness. What amazes me is that we readily accept mental illness as a cause of godly voices today, while at the same time readily accept that they were genuine when coming from a much more primitive, less knowledgeable, and superstitious civilization.

Yet you admit that you lobby against allowing same sex marriages.

Actually the only thing that is hard to understand about the Old Testament is how one could distort its clear message to one of love for humanity.

Yet that is very clearly what the god of the bible did over and over again.

husker, I'm just repeating what Momma said. I asked her "what the fxxx is that supposed to mean?" She never answered.

Intrepid wrote:

Frank Apisa wrote:

Since your god suggests we slaughter all male inhabitants of land's we conquer and enslave all the women and children...my question for you poor picked-upon, persecuted Christians is...

...do you agree with your god? Is that the way we should handle our victories over adversaries?

Or is asking a question like this "persecuting you?"

Over one third of the world population are Christian. You do not see men slaughtered and women and children enslaved. What is the point of your question? It appears obvious by what is evident in the world.

So you are saying that we should simply disregard the insturctions your god gave us for how to deal with victory.

Why don't you just say that?

Why the bullshyt?

Frank,

Let me put it to you this way, God is God. I do not understand all of His ways. Yes, He did advocate killing and enslavement in the Old Testament. That was the punishment for disobeying Him.

He's perfect, we are not.

Frank Apisa wrote:

Intrepid wrote:

Frank Apisa wrote:

Since your god suggests we slaughter all male inhabitants of land's we conquer and enslave all the women and children...my question for you poor picked-upon, persecuted Christians is...

...do you agree with your god? Is that the way we should handle our victories over adversaries?

Or is asking a question like this "persecuting you?"

Over one third of the world population are Christian. You do not see men slaughtered and women and children enslaved. What is the point of your question? It appears obvious by what is evident in the world.

So you are saying that we should simply disregard the insturctions your god gave us for how to deal with victory.

Why don't you just say that?

Why the bullshyt?

I answered you. If you want a different answer then answer it yourself because my answer stands. Call it what you will.

No need to call it anything. It does speak for itself.

You feel the same way I do about that pathetic passage...but you are afraid to articulate it in any kind of an out-front way for fear of offending that comic book god of yours.

You, like MA, should be ashamed of yourself for degrading the human mind the way you are. In fact, you should be more ashamed, because you've got more to work with.

Intrepid, Bush is a christian too, and he had no problem commanding a preemptive attack on Iraq that killed thousands upon thousands of innocent men, women, and children. He sincerely thinks he is doing "god's work." We are now living the atrocities foisted upon the Iraqi people by this president, a christian, at no small cost to us.

Given such a prevailing attitude, it makes sense that God would deal with people in the way that they understood.

Given such a prevailing attitude, it makes sense that God would deal with people in the way that they understood.

You, like MA, should be ashamed of yourself for degrading the human mind the way you are. In fact, you should be more ashamed, because you've got more to work with.

You want a different answer Frank? You want me to say that God is cruel and God is harsh and He had no right to do the things that He did according to the Old Testament. I agree that he did what was written. Whether I agree with it is of absolutely no importance in the scheme of things. I am but a mere ant in this world. I do, however, have opinions and I will provide you with my final answer to the specific question posed to me. Of course, this is my opinion and understanding of it. If others have a different take on it, that is their perogative.

For one thing, the types of people that He was dealing with at the time were not the same people as today. Though some may think today's society is the same or worse. During those times that the Old Testament talks about the only thing that got people's attention was raw power. The most powerful warrior would conquer territories and become King. When a more powerful person came along, that King was killed and the new person became King. Authority was almost synonymous with power. Remember, these people had been given their own free will.

Given such a prevailing attitude, it makes sense that God would deal with people in the way that they understood. He provided a spectacular creation in Genesis, and He regularly "smote" whole armies in an instant to permit victory for His favoured Tribes. We can read of this. Man tries to put everything into perspective according to the understanding of his cranial ability. God's ways are not our ways and we should not expect to be able to understand everything that God does.

If you consider a human father who finds the need to reprimand a young child he might easily attempt to seem extremely harsh and powerful in order to get necessary lessons across. That does not mean that the father is actually that way. He is doing what must be done to achieve the end result that he expects.

By the time of Jesus' arrival, men's attitudes had advanced . Jesus consistently demonstrated and taught love and generosity and gentleness. Certainly different than what we read in the Old Testament. However, we do read of His coming in the Old Testament. Now they had the experience of the wonderful love and kindness of God. That love and kindness had always been there, even in the apparently harsh Old Testament. But, during Old Testament times, such gentleness would have been perceived as weakness, and God knew that. Therefore, even though He loved His followers very much, it was not appropriate for Him to show it. We also have to remember that the people, at that time, were very rebellious and without direction and some did not follow him. Drastic actions for drastic times, if you will.

Jesus showed us that it was possible to display kindness without affecting the sense of incredible power that everyone knew that He had. Even during His trial and Crucifixion, most people seemed to believe that He could have instantly swept all that away, but that He knew that He had to suffer through those experiences in order to fulfill Old Testament prophecy.

That is why, as Momma Angel and others have said, that we live in a different time. A time that we are expected to follow the ways of Jesus. There is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is what guides us today.

That, Frank, is my answer to your question.

Lumping all Christians together is just as inappropriate as lumping all men together. We are not all the same. And Real Life is totally correct in saying that only God knows who the real Christians are." Most people understand this, but it seems some christians disagree.

Why not just give them the knowledge that their "attitude" is wrong, and just make the world a better place for us to develop in? Don't tell me, only God knows. I think this is the problem. You kept saying only God knows, etc, that it is really a matter of faith.