God commands genocide?

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steffenlaursen said:
Hi Liberian,

Thanks for your answer.

It just seems so awfully practical… in a bad sense. It is a completely logic, but awfully cruel God who kills babies because it would be to much trouble taking care of them! It is a mindset much like that og pro-abortionists.
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Does God ever will the death of babies?

Why did God command the death of everything in those cities "wherein there was breath?

It broke God’s heart to see those babies die. Furthermore it broke God’s heart to see any of those people die" because He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance". The commandment to destroy those cities came forth from his throne with more anguish than we could imagine.

However God has a universe to run. He knew that those cities were full of infectious diseases. Diseases that have come back only in recent times, for which there is no cure.

Archeological excavations have revealed that, in many of the cities where God said “destroy everything wherein there is the breath of life”, every thing that moved or breathed including the animals was full of deadly disease that would have wiped out civilizations had they not been destroyed.
 
Servus, that’s very interesting. Can you give us a link to your source, or a book title to go check out at the library?
 
Hello steffenlaursen,

you are right that the holy catholic church has an answer for your question. it is not just an opinion of a lay catholic man. as i read through some of the threads it summarizes into one account “The Dignity of Human Life”.

i would like you to refer to the encyclical of Pope Paul VI “Humane Vitae”. i beleive that this would answer the problem that has been bugging you. please let me know how does the pope’s encyclical answers your question.

thank you very much

in Christ,

erwin
 
If the Tsunami disaster has anything similar relating to the deathe of babies, children and the innocent this is an article for your reflection

The Problem in a loving God and the Tsunami Disaster

In the wake of the Tsunami disasters,: we ask
  • If there is a God, how could a destruction of such a magnitude be possible?
  • Is it Punishment from God?
  • Is it a Wake-up call from God to evaluate the quality of our lives?
  • Is God is control?
  • Can God be good?
Is this a Punishment from God”?

Retribution Theology:“
If I do good, I will be rewarded; but If I do evil, I will be punished” As our knowledge of God is enlightened through time (development of the understanding of God in the Old Testament) as paraphrased in the Bible, we know that the above vision is not from the New Testament Gospel message. Mt 5:43-48

On the cross, Jesus asked his Father to forgive those who were killing him and not to punish them.God do not punish people for doing bad; and bad things do happen to good people (refer the Book of Job).To the Catholic, the Tsunami disaster cannot be seen as a punishment from God.

Is this an Act from God or the Will of God

“We do not really know the difference between the two.God wishes us to have a good and full life and cannot be on the side of evil.James 1:13-15 , 1 Cor 10:13

A God who asks us to kill (even for which we think would be for the “better good”) could not himself kill: that would be a wicked God. Hee the whole vision of suffering is to be corrected.

Suffering in itself is never good. But what can be good is the love which we may be able to express even though we are suffering.

The Tsunami disaster has brought a lot of goodness all over the world – the outpouring of empathy and kindness, solidarity beyond race and religion. – but we can never say that it was worth for around 290,000 people die for Would we be able to tell that to the family of the victims?

God doesn’t send or ‘allow’ the tsunami (in a sense that he alco could have ‘not allowed’ it.)

God is the one who still continues to call us to love.

God’s true desire is that we may be able to love despite the pain, that we may be able to give despite the loss, just as Jesus did on the cross.

Is God not in control?“

We don’t know all of God. Wee perceive Him only in what we read in the Bible and understand from the Church tradition.

God may not be in control of everything in which we perceive God to be. We can look at Jesus on the cross and say that God the Father is not in control.

Another thing is that God has given us a free will.God does not control our thoughts and actions. Our faith is based on God’s love for us, not on the power of God over everything. (event) – since He has given us the free will to love or to reject goodness.

God doesn’t mind us asking ‘Why?’ since our relationship with God becomes more real when we can express our anger and pain to Him.

(Extracted from a Diocesan Catholic Newspaper article)

The folly of the Cross

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Corinthians 1:19-25).
 
I am curious, based on what the above poster said, about what the Pope wrote in his encyclical if they could summarize it.

A few points to consider on this issue are:
  1. It could be that these passages should be interpreted allegorically. As I’ve heard from people like Father Barron it could be that they were killing the iniquities or sins within the people or forcing them out due to their sins, as Origen interpreted the passages.
  2. I believe Paul Copan has written that these cities were more like military outposts so it could have been that few women and no children, other than Rachab and her family, were actually living in them.
  3. The word used for utterly destroy is herem which means to set aside for a deity, so it could be that instead of set aside as in kill, it’s set aside as in drive out. Other passages in the Bible talk about God driving the inhabitants out of the Promised Land and don’t describe killing them. I have also read on another site, that God said he would use insects and disaster to drive the people out. Later on then the Bible I believe the Canaanites still exist, so this is a possibility.
  4. The conquest is lead by the Angel of God so it could have been that God used a different means to conquer or destroy the people than just commanding the soldiers to wipe them out, as I mentioned above He could have used insects and disasters. Also through supernatural means He could have saved the souls of any of the children without having to kill them or rescued them for the Jews.
  5. Also 1 Peter talks about Chritst preaching to souls in prison who were lost in the flood, so these punishments in the Old Testament are a means through which God is saving the people from themselves and helping them towards Salvation.
Overall it should be kept in mind that very few details are given and that God is completely just so one shouldn’t need to worry about these passages.
 
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