Is the God of the OT all-powerful, all-knowing, good?
We assume this now. I'm curious what passages from the OT support this.
The best way I’ve ever heard it stated is there are three things people want to believe when they believe in God: God is good, God is all knowing, and God is all powerful. But if all three of these things are true, then how can child rapists (and a myriad of other ills in this world) exist?
The answer is, God cannot be all three at once. In order to reconcile your belief in God with what you see in the world around you, you have to pick no more than two. I believe God is all knowing and God is good, but God is not all-powerful.
Is God All-Powerful?
Bear with me as I try to explain things from a different angle....
These questions betray a basic ignorance of the Creator himself and his purpose in creation to begin with.
Answer the question.....“what was God’s purpose in creating a vast universe, but only making one small planet habitable and teeming with life?”
Why did he do that? The Bible tells us....
The existence of the universe itself is testimony to God’s incredible power. Through his immense energy, he created matter and fashioned it to suit his purpose.
His choice of this planet, in this solar system, in this galaxy also reveals the wisdom of his choice. Everything about the size and placement of planet Earth is ideal. His preparation of the Earth to support all the life that he placed here, is logical and even the order of creation shows that he planned everything very carefully.
No one with any intelligence can look at the wonders of creation and imagine that it all happen by undirected chance, IMO...in the face of the evidence, you have to want to believe that to overlook the ingenious design in everything.
So, as the crowning achievement of his creation, he created permanent caretakers who would be given his moral attributes and creativity along with free will....something no other sentient creature possesses.
In order to give humans free will, God had to set limits as this was very important. When free will is abused, only harm results. So there was only one negative command in the original idyllic home created specifically for humans by God. He placed determining "good and evil" in his own jurisdiction. IOW, he told the humans that the difference between good and evil was to be determined by him, not them. All they needed to do, to enjoy all that he had put before them, was obey his directives. If they did that, then no harm would ever come to any of his creatures.
Originally, humans and all creatures were given vegetation to eat.
Genesis 1:29-30....
"Then God said: “Here I have given to you every seed-bearing plant that is on the entire earth and every tree with seed-bearing fruit. Let them serve as food for you. 30 And to every wild animal of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving on the earth in which there is life, I have given all green vegetation for food.” And it was so."
If we doubt that this was the case, think of some of the world's most powerful creatures who are all still vegetarians. No creature was to kill another for food. The only creatures designed to eat flesh were the carrion birds and animals who were part of the 'clean-up' crew assigned to keep the earth clean. Animals and other creatures were to have a life cycle, but only man was offered everlasting life in their mortal flesh. He alone was given the means to keep living without aging, sickness or death.
From this wonderful start, how did it all go pear shaped? The story told in Genesis reveals that a spirit being, carried away by his own magnificence, wanted the new intelligent human beings to give him the worship that was due the Creator, so he plotted to steal them away from him by lying to the woman about him. She fell for the deception and lured her husband to commit the same crime.....grand theft. They stole something very valuable and wanted to keep it for themselves, imagining that they would be better off making their own decisions about what was good and what wasn't. And here we are. Have humans proven that they can govern their own lives without God? He stepped back and allowed them to find out first hand what self-determination would mean.
They were told by their Creator that deciding some things for themselves was not good, but they abused their free will to try it on. The first rebel got his wish, to have the humans, now alienated from God, to do his bidding and to abuse their freedom as he had done. What has been the outcome? Where have the child rapists and all other evil that humans perpetrate come from? NOT GOD.
This is the greatest object lesson that humans will ever have to undergo. It has taken thousands of human years to prove that, no matter what religion, or government, or scientific undertaking they make....nothing has really benefited mankind in the long term. Everything that seemed like a good idea in any of those fields, has failed humankind as a whole. As long as people live in misery and poverty whilst the rich prosper off the backs of the poor, things on this earth will never change....because humans never learn, and are doomed to repeat past mistakes. They continue to use their free will to suppress and exploit the free will of others.
All that has been done since man's rebellion in Eden has been an opportunity for God to record it all in his book of Earth's history so to speak. Like a criminal court case, a slanderer and been given ample opportunity to prove his case. Witnesses have given their evidence and now the verdict is in.....the slanderer and all who have believed his lies of their own free will, have been found guilty and will have their lives terminated, so that God's original purpose for this earth can go ahead as he planned all along.
All the events and horrible things that have resulted from man's rebellion have set precedents for all time to come, so that if, in the future, any free willed creature (human or angel) were to abuse their free will, they will be dealt with swiftly. None of the horrors that we have experienced at the hands of other humans, will be in man's experience in the future. There is no longer any need to prove anything. Its all been done.
That is the story as I understand it from the Bible.