Is God A Moral Monster?

hmm I just read most of Joshua 10 and 11 there seems there was about a half dozen or more cities completely wiped out with no one left breathing, I assume that included the old, young, new born, mothers and fathers.

can anyone shed some light on that topic?

We have to remember a God command to a certain man Joshua to a certain ancient Nation Israel should be noted as that especially if not repeated in the NT.

Romans 12:21 New International Version (NIV)
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This command is given to the individual. God gives different commands as like a separation of power. The individual, church, and government. There are commands to government that the individual cannot do for example be enforcers of the civil law ( Romans 14).

Overcome evil with good. Because we are not in position to judge nations on the issue of sin against God or have the authority to bring judgment then we do not have the power to go off crusading and bringing judgment to foreign lands. None are without excuse and all sinful.

This however doesn't mean God expects a nation not to defend itself in a just war, or a person not to defend themselves in a just defensive against evil.

Without going in detail even if the other cities was commanded to be totally annihilated then the original post still speaks about God's role as justified.

But just to note not all cities was commanded to be completely destroyed as God judges nations differently based on sin and foreknowledge.

Deuteronomy 20:14 New International Version (NIV)
14 As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies.

Well God is sovereign and never needs to explain anything to anybody. While conversely we must humbly and courageously obey. In some cases, we learned overtime why. Like, so many people have deadly allergic reactions to shell fish or get food poisonings eating improperly prepared pork so they were temporarily banned. Perhaps some of the early tribes of peoples had diagnosable and/or incurable STD's plus they were Idolaters. Perhaps it was actually more merciful to kill them than have the suffer a long protracted disease like AIDS or syphilis. They might have been worth risk of spreading what they may have had to others. It's ok to feel sorry for them and Judgement day is at least 1,000 years from now if he returns today. Remember that life and the first death are only temporary.

Amen. The Lord wants all of us especially our hearts Not Just hollow lip service. When we say Jesus is Lord it means his is our master. owner and commander too. scriptures wher a person humbles themselves and calls another person lord are plentiful But Lord refers to the Father or Jesus. lord does not.
"What does it mean that ‘the Lord said to my Lord’?"

Answer: In Psalm 110:1, David says, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool’” (ESV). In Matthew 22:44, Jesus quotes this verse in a discussion with the Pharisees in order to prove that the Messiah is more than David’s son; He is David’s Lord.

The clause the LORD says to my Lord contains two different Hebrew words for “lord” in the original. The first word is Yahweh, the Hebrew covenant name for God. The second is adoni, meaning “lord” or “master.” So, in Psalm 110:1, David writes this: “Yahweh says to my Adoni. . . .”

That is strange that the new age movement would speak against God in the Old Testament when the new age movement is the future for this world based on the occult, and evolution, and want a world where everybody that opposes them is taken away which is much people.

And also the occult is the worse belief system on the planet in the history of mankind for it all about exalting themselves as high as possible through the power of nature, and they have little regard for anybody else.

And also the new age movement knows that in order to have their type of world in which there is peace that they have to go against billions of people that are against their type of system, but they seem to have no problem with that.

So while they cry about the God of the Old Testament as being cruel to put people down they themselves want cruelty to put down all people that oppose them.

And it is also strange they cry about God when nations and kingdoms have been warring, and hurting, and killing people for thousands of years.

Now who is cruel God or man, for if they say God is cruel why do they not point out the cruelty of man which is actually worse then what God did, and He only acted for the benefit of people.

And the truth God only did what is best for people so He went against those that did not comply if their ways were too out of control to the hurt of other people so that His love could shine forth.

They misunderstand the God of the Old Testament all the while man has been way more in to hurting people for their own cause, when God was doing it for the cause of people to stop those that hurt people.

Like when a child cries and the parent thinks it is not justified, and says I will give you something to cry about.

If they want to cry about the God of the Old Testament He will give them something to cry about when the time comes.

King David said God is of tender mercy, and it is people who are cruel.

The new age movement will take away many people when they are the big influence in the world in the future, and will pave the way to their leader the New Age Christ, which the Bible says that by peace he shall destroy many, and shall destroy the mighty and holy people, and that kingdom will be the worse kingdom in the history of mankind of cruelty towards other people.

For the beast kingdom is the kingdom of man in it's entirety where all kingdoms before it were not, so these people will be the cruelest people ever in the history of mankind, and the occult the most arrogant, selfish, and self exalting belief system ever, and they are only going by the flesh, which the Bible says in the flesh dwells no good thing.

And with all that cruelty, and self exalting ways, mingled with being an atheist their cruelty will sky rocket for there is no God to fear, no God to offend, no compassion of God to show, so they will not give a rat's butt about anybody but their own self and their cause, and everybody else can get off their planet, and they will see to it.

Then they will talk about the God of the Old Testament which makes no sense.

God cannot go against people that are hurting people, and disrupting His loving, and merciful ways on earth, which He said feed and clothe your enemies, and give to the poor and needy, and that in the Old Testament.

But the new age movement can condone being very cruel to other people all for their own selfish, and arrogant pleasure, and then nothing is wrong.

Some people have no idea what these new age people with their atheist belief are going to do in the future as they try to establish a kingdom in which they will take away many people, and they know they have to do this for they know everybody will not join them, and since they want peace on earth they will take them away.

But if God wants peace and goes against people that would hinder that on a large scale they want to cry about it.

Which God will stop once the hurting people, and cruelty is settled down, and will not take down everybody associated with it, but the new age movement won't stop but want them all gone.

So God cannot have His agenda and He is cruel, but they can have their agenda but it is alright, when God only did it for the benefit of people, where they do it for the benefit of themselves.

If God ever went against people in the Old Testament it was in the interest of people so they could benefit, for the only ways God wants to shine through is love between people.

But they do it all for their own selfish, arrogant, self exalting ways, but it is alright.

God said that fathers correct their children for their own pleasure, but He does it for our benefit.

Everybody wars for their ways on earth and the beast kingdom in the future will be the worse of all, and then they want to talk about God who only did it for the prosperity of people.

Could of been that’s a interesting take, I was pondering a thought as well these people who got took out could of been teaching their young their same tradition.

In scripture it says in
numbers 11
18‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion,a forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. But He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’

so it may be possible that this statement in numbers 11 was carried out upon the cities that got wiped out.

Critic who says see God supports abortion!

Numbers 5:21-22 New International Version (NIV)
21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”
“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

In CONTEXT the Ancient Nation of Israel had ceremonial laws and civil laws for the nation. Each built on the other as in the cleanliness laws for the Priests would also be added to the people who each tribe had responsibilities to God and the Holy dwelling of God rather it be a fancy tent or a temple.

Numbers 5:21-22 was a example of God's laws that set his people off to be a holier nation than the pagan nations around.

Exodus 20:14 New International Version (NIV)
14 “You shall not commit adultery.

The man if he expected his wife of having sex with another man and she got pregnant. They would then take her to the Priest and basically let God decide. In context the ingredients of this drink the woman was to drink is essentially harmless.

So this puts all the power on God not man to cause a miscarriage. Keep in mind a miscarriage is not the same as abortion. And also this event was only for the ancient nation of Israel and should not be assumed that all miscarriages of today are Gods judgment on mothers sin.

Merrill Unger's Masters thesis on Biblical demonology was about 1,000 pages as I recall. Who's got that much time or interest? All that we deed to know is in the Bible we don't need to know all of the whys and what if's to be saved. Everyting we really need to know is he is God we are not. He is sovereign. Our God is one, Jesus died for our sin's was Resurrected and still lives and he's comming back. If we wrote 1,00 or 1,000,000 more pages It wouldn't change those facts. The Bible is the story of mankinds relationship with God in a very short form. In john 21:25 it says;

"Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."

That just what John knew about... PTL!

That was the adultery test. If she failed it she could have legally stoned to death.

Though that didn’t continue for in Ezekiel 18 this statement is made and Jeremiah 31:29

Ezekiel 18
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge’? 3 As I live, declares the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

Jeremiah31:29
In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

Understanding Generational curses.

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family-qa/understanding-the-generational-curse-of-exodus-347

Yes that is interesting

hahah....at the end of day, what man thinks of God, his character, what he does, has done, will do is irrelevant.....Men die, GOD is eternal and every knee shall crack, bow and confess to the GLORY OF GOD.....then, every lost man will be cast aside into the dlaming pit, like the fool that lip flapped about the God of the O.T.

Check out this thread I started a few weeks back at

https://christianchat.com/christian-family-forum/why-im-not-a-pacifist.187130

Debate begins around post 7. And make your comments on that post dealing with that subject so we do not get off the topic of this thread. Thank you hopefully you will find good answers.

It is strange how Richard Dawkins talks about the "character" of someone he thinks doesn't even exist. Its like a man who hates his father, then insults him, then says "I have no father".

New Atheism began after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and Flight 93.

It radicalized atheists who now believed religion only poisoned the minds of its followers and they began to try to prove this by looking at history and taking verses like I provided above to prove this is why violence happens. So Dawkins is mocking Christians for following a God who committed in his eyes such horrible acts.