If God is "good..."

[Capstone]

There's no way around it; the God of the Bible was portrayed as a megamaniacal psychopath.

For many literalist fundies, Dispensationalism seems to be the preferred apology for absolving their God of responsibility for "HIS" reported actions (especially in the OT). This theological system holds that God has interacted with humanity in different ways in accordance to (pre)ordained "ages". It also draws a distinction between God's treament of Israel and the Christian Church. Of course, this is a recipe for divine moral relativism which fails miserably in terms of providing a reasonable justification for placing such a horrific MONSTER on a pedestal to be 'worshiped' and 'praised', because saying something like, "Well, most of the really bad stuff happened prior to the Dispensation of Grace.", fails to address the objective rightness or wrongness of things like infanticide and genocide.

 

[Capstone]

...but then, as any fundy worth his or her salt would tell you, "God works in mysterious ways." ...

 

[Mr.Right]

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Why must you parade your Biblical ignorance in front of everyone? A simple Google search will answer your questions. That's assuming you really want answers, and aren't just being a troll.

How is it ignorant when I supplied numerous examples with chapter and verse? If anyone's ignorant or a troll around here it's the one replying sans chapter and verse.

I'm simply saying that the answers are out there. You simply have to look.

Well I must be really dumb then because I can't find them. Help me out here will ya?

Ok. Let's start with God killing innocent children. Are you familiar with the age of accountability, mentioned in the Bible?

No actually, was under the impression 'accountability' was a Catholic thing. Age of 12/13 is the Jewish age of adulthood though. Catholic's too if not mistaken. But wasn't aware it's actually in the Bible.

It is the age at which a child knows right from wrong, as well as being able to grasp the concept of salvation.

Keeping that in mind, the Bible tells us that all men were wicked, with the exception of Noah and his family. Now. What would happen to those innocent children, when they grew up? They would become just like their parents, wouldn't they? They, like their parents, would go to hell. So one could argue that God saved those children from an eternity of suffering and gave all future generations a chance of eternal life. Does this make any sense?

 

[September]

Contrary to popular belief, I perceive YHWH as a perfectly morally balanced God... and a Master of Creation, as well as a Master of Destruction.

Understanding God in this manner, there is no conflict when reading about the destructive side of YHWH.

​

 

[ABikerSailor]

Yes................God IS good. Granted there are some instances where He did some things that may be considered "bad" by people, but understand something...........

Before He took out Sodom and Gomorrah, He sent angels to find 10 good people in those cities. If He found at least 10, He would spare the city. Matter of fact, Abraham bargained with God to get it from 50 down to 10.

In the matter of the plagues of Egypt? Well........He sent Moses to warn the Pharoh that if the Israelites weren't released, bad things would happen until he did.

But..................blame for all the bad in the world isn't God's doing, it's mankind's.

God gave us free will so that we could choose to follow His rules or not, and when we don't, evil is the result of our actions as humans.

God is good................people have free will, so they can choose to be evil.

It all gets down to taking responsibility for your actions. Remember..........the original sin of the Garden wasn't that they ate the apple, it was the fact that both Eve and Adam didn't want to take responsibility for what they did and tried to blame it on someone else.