Why were 42 children slayed by the bears for saying Elisha was bald?

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@Spyridon Sometimes it’s hard to square the compassionate God of Jesus with some of these OT stories. I believe in God’s justice, but the details of these kinds of stories come across as odd. Also, we shouldn’t equate all historical OT events as equivalent. Noah’s flood may not have been universal in nature, for instance. And still other faithful Catholics, like Jimmy Akin, have indicated that the author’s intent (of Noah) seems to be to correct a notion of why bad things happen----due to sin, not just carelessness of the gods, for example.
 
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It’s only an issue if you don’t understand Divine Justice.
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Perhaps. But I think there is something to the objection that an immutable God who is love would directly intend horrific and painful deaths.
 
I believe Noahs flood was most likely a localised flood somewhere in Turkey (although I’ve heard good arguments placing it around Lake Chad in Africa or in Armenia).

I also believe it’s technically possible it was global, but in the face of geological and historical evidence that is extremely unlikely.

However, there is zero precedence for simply mythologizing and theologizing the story away to the point where it’s claimed to just be a made up story.

If Noah didn’t exist then it introduces a host of theological issues, not least because Jesus is said to be a son of Noah in the Gospel. How can Jesus be the son of an imaginery figure? He can’t. Which would mean either Jesus himself is imaginery, or the Gospel record about him is a flight of fancy and should be discarded. Which means Catholicism is false.
 
How can Jesus be the son of an imaginery figure? He can’t. Which would mean either Jesus himself is imaginery, or the Gospel record about him is a flight of fancy and should be discarded. Which means Catholicism is false.
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I guess that’s why the doctrine of inspiration and inerrancy has always been perplexing to me.

I’m still working on what it means.
 
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It is important to put things in context. I highly doubt the two bears could kill so many young adults. They aren’t grizzly bears like you’d find in America but the Syrian brown bear most likely, as it is the native species of bear to the area.

They likely scared off the kids.

But, it is important to remember that the slain Lamb is who can open the sealed scroll with seven seals.
 
God is the Author and Sustainer of Life and Just Judge.

Therefore, if the Just Judge makes the decision that every baby on Earth is to die a slow painful death from suffocation, it is a perfect and just Judgment.

Man has no business questioning the Judgment of God.
 
if the Just Judge makes the decision that every baby on Earth is to die a slow painful death from suffocation, it is a perfect and just Judgment.
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Hard to square this with Jesus’ compassion.
 
I don’t see why.

Who’s the Judge of what’s right?

God the Just Judge?

Or you the piece of dust? Who are you to tell the Potter how to mold his vessels and what to do with them?
 
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Well, God’s justice in not arbitrary. It is his nature. He is Justice.

So I would ask you, what would be an unjust action on God’s part?
 
catholic1seeks said:
So I would ask you, what would be an unjust action on God’s part?
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Nothing, that’s a nonsensical question.

How can Justice be unjust?

God could cause all 7.6 billion people on earth right now to spontaneously combust and it would be perfectly righteous.
 
I’m not so sure if that’s true.

What is good and what is evil flows from God’s very nature. That is, for example, the Ten Commandments are not arbitrary laws. Things aren’t good just because God says so. Things are good because God is goodness.
So God could never sin, for example.
 
Again, you’re placing your own judgment above God’s.

God isn’t just a being who acts with justice…

God Is Justice Itself. The very concept of Justice flows from his being, he is Perfection and Justice.

Justice cannot act unjustly.
 
Haha yeah I basically said the same thing.

I just don’t see how it follows that God can order anything whatsoever. Maybe that’s not what youre saying. But just as it would be inherently wrong for me to murder an innocent person, because that moral command flows from God’s very nature, so I don’t see how God could thereby kill an innocent person especially by deliberately intending pain and suffering
 
God wouldn’t just order anything whatsoever.

But God can judge that a person is to die a certain way. It is his prerogative.

Lamentations 3:37-39

“Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?
Why should the living complain
when punished for their sins?”

Romans 9:20-22

"One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?"
 
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You post views as if they are more infallible than the Pope’s
…so whatever you say 😂.
 
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The views I am expressing are perennial Church teaching - they ARE infallible. Show me one single Father or doctor who dismissed this historical story as a non historical “theological opinion.” Or who claimed God was unjust or rash in his judgment.

What have I said which goes against the Faith of the Holy Fathers and Doctors and Pontiffs?

Why is Church teaching hilarious to you?

But hey, what else is new. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen people discard, mock, and laugh to scorn traditional and perennial Catholic tradition.
 
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Awww him so cute I wanna snuggy wuggy him!

I’m a little surprised @Tis_Bearself hasn’t checked in on an explicitly beary thread.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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Autumn-Smoke said:
don’t think the scripture is condoning his actions, rather it reminds me of Jesus’ words when he cautions us to bless others, not to curse them. I don’t think we realize the power of our words. Jesus said that if we had true faith we could move mountains with our words. He also said we’d be judged by every word we speak.

Elijah had great faith, but here, it seems, he used it for the wrong purpose.
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It was Elisha, not Elijah.

And the Scripture clearly condoned it - it is implied the LORD himself sent the bears.

“From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.”
 
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oh, my mistake. It’s what comes of pulling something out of your memory from long, long ago without re-reading the story. 😊 Thanks for quoting it!
 
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