Why Did This Happen???

[Crepusculum]

Even down to marking the doors so that God knew which houses to target. Is God so bad at target recognition that he needed marks on houses?

Question: Does God ever ask a question he already knows the answer to?

Let’s take a look at Genesis 4:9, in which God finds Cain after the first murder: “Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’
‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’”. Now let’s take a look at the next verse: “The LORD said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.’”. It is clear then that God does answer questions he knows the answer to - we do it also. Why does God ask Cain when he knows the answer? Why does God ask the Jewish people to put a sign above the door when he knows where they live? Because the test is for us, to exercise our free will, to do the right thing when confronted and to demonstrate our love and trust of Him.

we have to square the circle of past scripture.
we can do this by saying “the kids deserved it” or “they were youths not kids”. ive even seen thm described as a mass of ancient Hoodies about to attack poor old Elisha and his cursing was self defence.

These are not the only possible interpretations: It could be that these 42 were being spared an even worse fate (there were plenty); it could be that the person who recorded these events was living at a time when the devil was mistaken for God.

Question: can an old testament author confuse God with the devil?

Let’s take a look at 2 Sam 24:1 in which David counts the fighting men: “Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.’”. Let’s now look at 1 Chronicles 24:1 in which David counts the fighting men: “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.”.

Militant Atheists talk a lot about people believing in God because they so desperately want to believe “despite lack of evidence to the contrary”. Well given that in this passage (2 Kings 2:24) alone we cannot tell whether God was defending Elisha, whether the children were being spared, or whether it was even God who sent the bears, doesn’t that indicate a desire to see evil in God?

More questions, and this is meant more as a personal reflection than as an accusation: When you examine scripture, do you take the entirety of scripture into account, or just the bits that sound exciting? I’m not talking about just reading it all - anyone can skim and still find what they want to find, I’m talking about comparative analysis of texts you do know about and re-evaluating your position based on new pieces of scripture you become aware of - such as one might do with evidence in the geological record. If your answer is “no”, then how is this any better than when folks find a picture of a parasaurolophus skull in cross section and go “Ooo fire breathing dragon!”? Does it get the entire population of humanity any closer to unity or understanding? Just a disclaimer for anyone who thinks I’m talking down to them: I am not perfect - I aspire to be made perfect, but am not there yet .

All christians feel uncomfortable when they read this. As they do when they read pretty much any part of the OT. Rape , genocide, murder, patricide, incest, homosexuality, the passages keep on flowing.

Bit of an over-generalisation there methinks - about “all christians” as well as the old testament .

 

[marymol]

Question: can an old testament author confuse God with the devil?

Let’s take a look at 2 Sam 24:1 in which David counts the fighting men: “Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.’”. Let’s now look at 1 Chronicles 24:1 in which David counts the fighting men: “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.”.

Thank you for the many insightful points ; esp. found the above passage fascinating …more than any contradiction , it seems to help to identify how being against God leaves one open to the ’ anger ’ ; that anger which is personified as the ’ he’ who incited David !

This also answered what I had thought of as a little ’ out of character ’ point in the Fatima Apparitions where Bl.Mother talks about her not being able to withhold the anger of The Father , which can be expained better as the weight of evil that had been accumulating !

Peace !

 

[Crepusculum]

and thank you - your focus on it made me spot a mis-citing - the passage in Chronicles where Satan incites David to take a census of the fighting men is 1 Chronicles 21:1.

My apologies for any confusion caused.

 

[lmac393]

I just joined this forum so I could get a serious reply to this question. An atheist I know likes to pull this scripture out to prove her point and I’d like a good counter-point, not a joke about she-bears and couldn’t ‘bear’ it…