Was it wrong of God to execute the evil offspring of the immoral Amalekites and

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   Joseph O Polancoposted 10 years ago

   Was it wrong of God to execute the evil offspring of the immoral Amalekites and Midianites?
   
   Should he have, instead, allowed these to grow up to victimize innocents and then execute them?

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2. 70

   Titen-Sxullposted 10 years ago

   This depends on whether it is morally okay to repay evil with evil or violence with violence. Certainly the Old Testament God was an eye for an eye sort of God and also openly admitted in Exodus that the sins of the Father pass to their offspring.
   
   From the point of view of the Biblical authors and Biblical God in the Old Testament it was not evil. They found ways to justify and rationalize it just as modern apologists do.
   
   In modern times we do not base our morality on such accounts, rather we use a combination of reason and natural empathy to arrive at conclusions and make improvements to our moral understanding. Today we also understand the psychology of dehumanization involved in most genocides and other immoral endeavors.
   
   Smearing the Amalekites and Midianites as evil pagans worshiping dark false gods would have allowed such ethnic cleansing atrocities to have seemed necessary. In much the same way that Nazis and other racists saw Jews as parasites and foreign enemies, xenophobia and dehumanization allowed them to carry out their acts of genocide.
   
   Thanks to a better grasp on reality and the consequences of our actions on others (reason and empathy) we can see that things like genocide are always wrong. If the scriptures were written today they would reflect this more nuanced moral understanding and depict God differently.

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      Stargrrlposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Pay evil for evil?  Titen, you can't hold God to the standards he set for men. So God wanted to make an example.

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      Titen-Sxullposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Genocide is one of the most heinous acts anyone an commit, it would be even more damning an act if someone who claimed to be morally perfect was okay with it. Of course I do not believe God actually condoned these actions, my answer reflects that.

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      Joseph O Polancoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      @Titen
      
      So it would have been better to let these grow up to victimize innocents? Where's the justice in that?

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      Stargrrlposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      But you have to understand that He did condone it.  I get what you're saying--that you think the bible was made up and that God's/Man's views were views at that time period, and that is a logical argument to make, but consider that God is real...

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      Link10103posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Joseph, why did god immediately issue a death sentence, rather than see that they werent born to begin with or more rationally simply change their minds?

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      MonkeyShine75posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Change their minds? God doesn't want robots that's why we have free will. He wants us to choose him. God is both merciful, and just He always has his good reasons

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   7. 39

      Joseph O Polancoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Very well put Mara!

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      Link10103posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Decent point Mara. Now with that in mind, would you agree with Josephs viewpoint that god selectively limits his all knowing abilities in order for humans to enjoy free will?

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   Stargrrlposted 10 years ago

   J, everything God does is right and just.  He probably either wanted to make an example of them, or knew that they were going to be lost to him.

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      MonkeyShine75posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with you.

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   MonkeyShine75posted 10 years ago

   Those people were offspring of the fallen angels mixed with humans. They were very large people who ate humans. The Hebrews called them the blood people.
   God never meant for man to mix with anyone except other humans, and even then he told them to stay within their own community/nationality
   Whatever God does is okay because he is the source of all life according to scripture
   His law says an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth
   The Amalekites were violent, and murderous men
   God is Just, and he is merciful
   Being just does not always mean you're merciful

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   tlmcgaa70posted 10 years ago

   who is man to stand in judgement of GOD, the creator of life and laws. it is arrogancy to even ask if what HE did was wrong. GOD does whatever HE wills...and whatever that may be is righteous. does the pot demand of its maker to explain HIS actions in making the pot? or destroying it? GOD created all and HE alone not only has a right, the only right, but would also, always, be justified...in destroying HIS creation...without explanation, or warning.

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