A bloodthirsty god?

[gnostic]

I don't see the God of the bible to be a nice god. There is something horribly unfair and bloodthirsty with this god.

One example is this.

When Saul was king, Samuel, the prophet and the last Judge, gave God's order to the king.

Originally Posted by 1 Samuel 15:1-3

Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over His people Israel. Therefore, list to the LORD's command!
Thus said the LORD of Hosts: I am exacting the penalty for what Amalek did to Israel, for the assault he made upon them on the road, on their way up from Egypt. Now go, attack Amalek, and proscribe all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike, men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses!"

Why does a god want to or need to punish generations of people that were not directly involved with what happened to the Exodus?

The war against the Amlekites in Moses' day (Exodus 17:8-16) was fought and won.Why punish the Amalekites centuries later?

It would seem that God can hold a very long grudge against people.

I don't remember where exactly in the bible, but it say something like children shouldn't have to pay for the sins of the father, and the father shouldn't have to pay for the sins of his son.

Certainly God don't practice what he preach, and can be as pettily mean and vindicative as any human.

Is there really any justification for the genocide of the Amalekites?

[gnomon]

There were a lot of bloodthirsty Gods back then.

[gnostic]

How many of these bloodthirsty gods do you know that have demanded a genocide of a whole kingdom?

Beside this is a Biblical Debate, so I have chosen something from the bible, which have nothing to do with other gods. Please stick to the topic.

[Green Kepi]

Okay...this is just my opinion that I've formed thru study but...like everything I've been reading in these Forums..."just my opinion". However, I think God had to do it for a reason. His Plan, once man and woman screwed things up with that "mess-up" in the Garden, was to pave the way for the Messiah to come and save mankind. During all this, Satan tried his best to stop it and still does. When the angels came down and mated with earthly women, the union produced some strange soulless beings. To me...this is why God would wipe out a whole nation of people...including women and children. Noah wasn't perfect...but his lineage was. This was why only his family was saved from the second flood. Then when the Messiah came along...things changed. The Old Law was done away with and the "eye for an eye" thing...was put aside. Okay...there's a lot more but in the effort to save time and space...what do you think so far?

[3.14]

people liked killing people better if a god ordered it so they said to profets
yo we need a good reason to kill someone, and there like ok wel just say god told us to do it
happend alot back then

[Riverwolf]

I've noticed similar things in Joshua, where YHWH told Joshua to slaughter people who did nothing against the Jews. This is how I interpreted those parts of the Bible:

And God said: Here, I now declare this land your land. So make sure to kill everyone you see and destroy everything they own so they can never live in harmony with you, because that will cause you to do bad things. Don't worry, they aren't anybody special.

One argument was that the Canaanites sacrificed humans to Baal, but the people being sacrificed wanted to do it for the most part. It was considered the highest honor at the time. Understand that I do not condone human sacrifice at all. But I think that they could have preached and preached and preached instead, while destroying the shrines. That's not something I condone either, but it's better than genocide.

[logician]

The xian bible is a book of stories, mostly fiction, the gods represented change with the telling of the stories.

[Melissa G]

God of the OT, Judaism: Bloodthirsty, hate filled, revengful. Taken literally when necessary

God of NT, Christianity : Love, Forgiveness, Salvation. Ignored when necessary.

Melissa G

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by Melissa G

God of the OT, Judaism: Bloodthirsty, hate filled, revengful. Taken literally when necessary
God of NT, Christianity : Love, Forgiveness, Salvation. Ignored when necessary.

Superficial generalizations. Disregard as worthless.

[Dunemeister]

This and other threads explore the possibility of theodicy, which is basically the attempt to exonerate God in the face of the evil apparent in creation or evil done at his hands or by his authorization.

As a Christian, I find this among other passages deeply troubling. But the real issue, for me at least, is the question of God's attitude toward his creation and the people that populate it. And to answer that question, my controlling image is the cross. There, God demonstrated his love for all of humanity and made a full disclosure of his character -- nonviolent and longsuffering. Yes, this observation must be held in tension with passages as we see here. But in the end, we are looking through a glass darkly, as they say. We know only in part, and what we do know we're apt to confuse. In the end, we can only place ourselves at the mercy of the Creator, whether he is a tyrant (as you may fear) or a benevolent father (as you may hope). What other option -- assuming the existence of a creator -- are open to us?