Why does God "kill" in the Bible?

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What is the proper response to someone who states that in the Bible, God “killed” many people, in violation of His own rules and ethics?

I could reply that life is God’s to give or take away, but I don’t think that would fly with this particular person. If God’s commandment says “do not kill”, why is God portrayed in the Old Testament, especially, as being behind human destruction?

Thank you!
God believes in the death penalty and we can all atest to that. We all have it. But just as today God is justified in our death penalty He was justified in the Old Testament. Actually our death penalty is an Old Testament death penalty. The New Testament killing isn’t going to be pretty either, but just as much as God is Just God is Merciful.
 
God believes in the death penalty and we can all atest to that. We all have it. But just as today God is justified in our death penalty He was justified in the Old Testament. Actually our death penalty is an Old Testament death penalty. The New Testament killing isn’t going to be pretty either, but just as much as God is Just God is Merciful.
Well, when the death penalty applies to children…
Oh- it does! Abortion!

Don’t you see the inconsistancy here?
 
Well, when the death penalty applies to children…
Oh- it does! Abortion!

Don’t you see the inconsistancy here?
No. It’s called Original Sin and yes even babies are born with it including the affects of it, death. It’s very consistent across all humanity all children of Adam have the affects of Original sin. But, just as we recieved death through Adam we recieve life through Christ.

Even though God has pronounced the death penalty we do not have the right to kill children. Life is a gift from God and children are a gift from God. Humanity has intrisic value because God loves us. This is what gives us value irregardless of what we can do or think or not do. The love of God for us, gives us value.

So, if He loves us why would He pronouce the death penalty upon us. I think it is because we deserve it. God is Just. But because He loves us He has decided to save us.

God made you an eternal being to live with Him forever. He offers us salvation but we must accept the gift.

The short answer is that there is life after death thanks to Jesus laying down His life for our sake.
 
This is not salve on the wound here. Jesus did not give up his life as an infant!
And the babies that God killed didn’t give up their lives, He killed them. But then of course, God loves us. He just didn’t love those babies. Or He loved them so much that He killed them. How does that work?
 
And the babies that God killed didn’t give up their lives, He killed them. But then of course, God loves us. He just didn’t love those babies. Or He loved them so much that He killed them. How does that work?
That’s my concern. Killing of babies.

God killed babies in the OT.

Maybe the guilt complex makes Catholics the strongest defenders of life in the womb, due to this OT baby killer God.
 
This is not salve on the wound here. Jesus did not give up his life as an infant!
But Jesus was more innocent than any baby past, present, or future. He deserved death even less than an infant.

Even babies’ lives belong to God, and we have no right to question if he decides to take their lives at any time and any manner he decrees. He can strike you or me dead here and now even if merely pleases him, and may his will be done. I will trust that even though it offends our human sensibilities, everything God does is good. Even “killing babies”.

I suggest we accept as a given that God is infinitely good and everything, as in everything, 100% he does is good. This is part of faith.
 
But Jesus was more innocent than any baby past, present, or future. He deserved death even less than an infant.

Even babies’ lives belong to God, and we have no right to question if he decides to take their lives at any time and any manner he decrees. He can strike you or me dead here and now even if merely pleases him, and may his will be done. I will trust that even though it offends our human sensibilities, everything God does is good. Even “killing babies”.

I suggest we accept as a given that God is infinitely good and everything, as in everything, 100% he does is good. This is part of faith.
We have every right to say its intrinsicly evil to abort a baby in the womb.

We give God a pass for killing the babies at the same time?

:dts:

To top it off with a cherry, they are maybe in another state other than the beatific vision?
 
I suggest we accept as a given that God is infinitely good and everything, as in everything, 100% he does is good. This is part of faith.
God killing babies is 100% good? Very sick thinking. You are welcome to that god…
 
We have every right to say its intrinsicly evil to abort a baby in the womb.
Yes, by divine law. We do not own the lives of babies in the womb, and we have no right to take them.
We give God a pass for killing the babies at the same time?
Yes, because God owns those babies’ lives, has complete and absolute lordship and ownership over them, has the full and complete right to give and take them. Because God is infinite good, everything he does is by definition good, and he answers to no one.

The difference lies in who has the right over life. We don’t, not even over our own. But God owns all life, and has the right to them, either to give or take according to his will. Abortion is wrong for man to do because man has no lordship or ownership over another person’s life.

Killing is not wrong for God because to create or kill us is his right, by virtue of his being the Supreme Being over all creation. This you must accept. We do not dictate what God can and cannot do.

But the comforting thing is, because God is all-good, everything happens because he brings a greater good out of it.

This you must trust and accept by faith.
To top it off with a cherry, they are maybe in another state other than the beatific vision?
We do not know, as this is not part of divine revelation. However, we can speculate that because these babies died before the age of reason, they may very well have been counted among the righteous of the Old Testament who waited for Jesus in Sheol until the time he opened heaven to them after he rose.
 
God killing babies is 100% good? Very sick thinking. You are welcome to that god…
Yes. And no, that is not sick thinking. It is merely an affirmation of what God is. I do not believe God is good based on what he does. I believe he is good based on what he is. That everything he does is good follows from his very definition as God.

The same Old Testament God who “killed babies” is the same God the Old Testament sings of as one whose “love endures forever”.

So I do not work backwards from our moral standards and apply them to God. God gave us the moral law and we answer to him. We do not apply the moral law back to God and he does not answer to us. He owns me, he owns you, and he owns those babies we lament over. We recognize his right and lordship over all creation.

If he kills me, then his will be done if it pleases him, for I know that greater good comes out of it.
 
Yes. And no, that is not sick thinking. It is merely an affirmation of what God is. I do not believe God is good based on what he does. I believe he is good based on what he is. That everything he does is good follows from his very definition as God.

The same Old Testament God who “killed babies” is the same God the Old Testament sings of as one whose “love endures forever”.

So I do not work backwards from our moral standards and apply them to God. God gave us the moral law and we answer to him. We do not apply the moral law back to God and he does not answer to us. He owns me, he owns you, and he owns those babies we lament over. We recognize his right and lordship over all creation.

If he kills me, then his will be done if it pleases him, for I know that greater good comes out of it.
Fine. But your god killed babies. Just think on that a while. He killed little babies. That isn’t a god I would follow. I would want a god of love. A god of love doesn’t kill babies, ever!
 
Fine. But your god killed babies. Just think on that a while. He killed little babies. That isn’t a god I would follow. I would want a god of love. A god of love doesn’t kill babies, ever!
Again, it’s not for you or me to define what a “God of love” does or does not do. After all, it is because of his great love and condescension that he sent his completely innocent Son to die a most horrible death for me and you.

God is a God of love, period. The God who ordered the death of babies in the Old Testament is a God of love. We do not shirk from that based on our human definitions or on the standards HE set for us. That God is a God of love is a postulate, so to speak, not a theorem. So he killed babies, babies he had complete lordship over. And their deaths served his divine purpose, which we may never completely understand in this life.

Such is faith. God is love. Even during the Old Testament.
 
Again, it’s not for you or me to define what a “God of love” does or does not do. After all, it is because of his great love and condescension that he sent his completely innocent Son to die a most horrible death for me and you.
I didn’t do anything to need that.
God is a God of love, period. The God who ordered the death of babies in the Old Testament is a God of love. We do not shirk from that based on our human definitions or on the standards HE set for us. That God is a God of love is a postulate, so to speak, not a theorem. So he killed babies, babies he had complete lordship over. And their deaths served his divine purpose, which we may never completely understand in this life.
Such is faith. God is love. Even during the Old Testament.
Such a god isn’t one I would choose to follow. If that’s what you call love you are welcome to it. It’s not what I call love. Most people that I know are much better than this god you speak of.
 
Yes. And no, that is not sick thinking. It is merely an affirmation of what God is. I do not believe God is good based on what he does. I believe he is good based on what he is. That everything he does is good follows from his very definition as God.

The same Old Testament God who “killed babies” is the same God the Old Testament sings of as one whose “love endures forever”.

So I do not work backwards from our moral standards and apply them to God. God gave us the moral law and we answer to him. We do not apply the moral law back to God and he does not answer to us. He owns me, he owns you, and he owns those babies we lament over. We recognize his right and lordship over all creation.

If he kills me, then his will be done if it pleases him, for I know that greater good comes out of it.
This is the same god that dooms us to hell if we don’t worship him? That’s love?
 
Huiou,

I am sorry- there is no reasonable way to see God killing innocent babies! This is the one thing, my husband keeps drilling in my head each day!
Apparently you are neither sorry nor a careful reader.

Have you any irrefutable evidence that God has done such a thing himself: Eg: not by allowing the demons to do as they would if he does not restrain them, or the fallen nature of the universe which fell with man?
 
We have every right to say its intrinsicly evil to abort a baby in the womb.

We give God a pass for killing the babies at the same time?

:dts:

To top it off with a cherry, they are maybe in another state other than the beatific vision?
To top it off, you don’t know where they are – and are judging God without evidence. They might NOT be in another place than heaven.
We can neither confirm not deny this, so why bring it up except to say that because one can’t see the end result – one has the right to judge the other evil. – Guilty until proven innocent.
 
Apparently you are neither sorry nor a careful reader.

Have you any irrefutable evidence that God has done such a thing himself: Eg: not by allowing the demons to do as they would if he does not restrain them, or the fallen nature of the universe which fell with man?
Okay. He never ordered a massive geoncide that included pregnant women. I guess I am not sorry, and I can’t read the plain words in the OT.
🤷
 
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