Is it okay for God to kill someone?

[Mike_Gallagher]

I work with a lapsed Catholic whom I am trying to encourage back into practicing the faith. In discussing various topics, he asked me why it was okay for God to kill Onan for his sin when he commands humans not to take anyone else’s life. To him this seemed like flat out contradiction. I have heard this charge in similar words before. How can I answer this question?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

There are two responses:

First, God is the author of life, the creator of all human beings. It is within his just authority to give life and to take it according to his judgment. Because Onan was committing a mortal sin
(cf. Gen. 38:8-10), a sin which causes spiritual death, it was not unjust for God to take Onan’s physical life although God does not ordinarily punish mortal sin in such a manner. In this case, he may have chosen to do so in order to teach humans the gravity of sexual impurity.

Second, even human beings are not forbidden *ever *to take a human life. They are forbidden from ever unjustly taking another person’s life. When a person is acting in self-defense or in the defense of other people, under certain conditions it can be justified to take another human being’s life.

Recommended reading:

Why is masturbation considered to have been Onan’s sin?
Onan’s Real Sin by Fr. Brian W. Harrison