How do u reconcile an All powerful and loving God with the command to genocide Israel’s neighbours in the old testament.
He knew how those fuckers roll. Looking at how it pans out, I’d say that was a pragmatic approach.
Are you saying he (God) was wrong?
Also, I don’t know about this part.
Lot of room for interpretation about what a loving god is or should be.
Lots of pejorative prayers go unanswered.
I mean, I’m a loving father and husband. Do I put up with a bunch of bullshit and let it all slide?
No. Thats not loving. Thats negligent.
Forgiving God? Yes.
You can pull some bullshit. You will be penalized. You will also be forgiven.
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I don’t
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As someone who has read the bible, but does not have Christian uprising, I would note that OT and NT are two very different books. Old testament is a vast collection of stories from a long period. Some date to times when Judaism was still a polytheistic religion. It’s not very coherent and has some pretty wild and rough parts in it.
So this might be complete heresy, but when I think about Christianity and it’s morals, I primarily thing about new testament, where God seems much more emphatic.
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It doesn’t say that
This isn’t exactly true. Most of Christianity’s teachings about love come from the Old Testament. For example, Jesus’ famous adage about loving one’s neighbors as oneself is actually a quotation from Leviticus 19:18. Our beliefs about loving our enemies are reflected in Proverbs 25:21-22. In fact, most of the ethical teachings of Christianity are lifted directly from the Hebrew Bible. The theology is as well.
Also, I would not say that Judaism was ever a polytheistic religion, but rather that there were polytheistic factions within the ancient Israelite people. The view presented in the Hebrew Bible is that these gods didn’t exist on the one hand, and that they were actually demons on the other. But other Israelites clearly did believe in their existence and worshipped them alongside Yahweh. This conflict of beliefs forms the backbone of the story of the Old Testament from the book of Exodus onwards.
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Think about what happened during the Flood and during Sodom and Gomorha. When God told the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites, He was accomplishing the same goal through human beings instead of doing it Himself. Wiping out entire nations or groups of people is something that God did not infrequently in the Old Testament as a form of judgement. He even did it to the Israelites points in their history, although they were completely exterminated. Many of the Canaanites also survived this mass slaughter.
When it comes to how a loving God could do something like this, God gave the Canaanites 400 years to repent of the terribly evil things they were doing, but they didn’t. See Genesis 15:13-16. That’s where God’s love was manifested. The Bible says that God doesn’t actually want anyone to suffer for their sins.
As a side note, I wonder how often the terrible things that happen to nations are actually God’s judgement on them, but we don’t see it as such. Was Japan getting nuked twice by the United States God’s judgement on them for the horrible crimes they committed in China? Was the extermination of the Native Americans God’s judgement for evils that we don’t particularly know about? I don’t know.
It’s years when I did read the book, so I can not argue against. OT is surely an uneven book. And while there’s parts that are very important to christian theology, there surely are some WTF -moments too.
I can accept this view. Some exegetics refer to polytheistic Judaism, so I used it too. But there’s of course the question when Judaism became Judaism.
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I like to try to suss out whether an event is an act of man (free will) and act of God (supernatural intervention) or a combination of both.
I was injured once very badly. Poisoned with a caustic substance. The chances of me living were like, nil. Massive traumatic damage to airway, upper respiratory system and esophagus. Nothing much the doctors could do either other than keep me in a coma and hope for the best.
So lets break it down.
Guy puts caustic soda (drain cleaner) into a whiskey bottle. Act of man/will.
I take a big swig- also act of man/will. I was out partying before I was supposed to leave for boot camp. Nothing terrible, but nothing good either.
Doctors at a Sisters of Mercy hospital do what they can, but not much. Priests are called, last rites given, and prayer vigil is held at the church I was baptised at. Some medical professionals are very religious/faithful and pray that God guides their hand.
I recover inexplicably well from this. Wake up, raspy but able to talk, strong, and recovery incredibly fast- Many say an act of God. A few MD’s even threw around the word Miraculous.
But life takes a different turn. No boot camp. None of the stuff I had planned. All stricken from possibility. It goes in an entirely unforseen direction, and put me on a completely different path.
And yet people insist “He must have kept me around for a reason”. What is that reason? To this day I still don’t know. 
. Yet I persist.
So thats kinda how I weigh things out.
Poisoning- act of will.
Didn’t die- act of God.
Life path completely changed- act of God.
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I agree with your perspective. Thanks for sharing that story.
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You’re welcome.
You never know. That might be why I’m still around. .
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Who am I to question God’s reasoning for anything…therefore, I don’t even try
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Obviously to support me in my fitness goals. 
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New edge lord persona ?
Oh no. You’re getting really close!
Reset your goal! Reset your goal!
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Yes it does. I’m not an avid bible reader but I was raised in a church where studies were mandatory. I know enough to hold my own
Kinda sliding off the topic but that’s ok,I kinda have the same issue with prayers going unanswered and problems seemingly looming larger and larger and not going away. Do I make sense when I ask you why you pick a hobby that involves a lot of stress and strain. What good does weights do?
I misunderstood you.
Anyway, what’s wrong with that? They were enemies. In the Bible Israel’s neighbors actually even lived among them.
I’ve never seen it answered properly. There was 1 national group that God commanded to whack not only the men,but the woman,children and animals too. Why.
Are you talking about Sodom? Because they were evil obviously. It’s explained there.
whack not only the men,but the woman,children and animals too
It happened multiple times in the Bible