People who have read the bible

Off Topic Religion
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I’m sorry to be so blunt, but this is a tremendously ignorant position to take. The history of Islam and the Middle Ages is a collection of wars undertaken to destroy Christianity and conquer Christian lands. They succeeded in taking over half of the ancient Christian world, including modern-day Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa, and Iraq, and parts of the Balkans. At one point they also conquered Spain and parts of France until the Christians kicked them out.

The goal of Islam has always been to destroy Christianity, alongside other religions. Muhammad’s last message to his followers was Surah 9, where he commanded them to fight the “people of the book”, who are Jews and Christians, until they paid them Jizyah and accepted second-class citizen status within their lands. Read Surah 9:29. When the Muslims conquered Jerusalem, they built a huge mosque declaring that Jesus was not the Son of God and making other polemical remarks against Christianity. That was their focus. Islam is the ancient enemy of Christianity and always will be. I would say that Islam is the enemy of the entire human race, but of Christianity in particular.

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65

He’s not wrong. He’s referring to the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15. When it comes to issues like these, it has to be remembered that God Himself destroyed men, women, children, and animals on multiple occasions. Once again, see the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah. But sometimes He commanded the Israelites to execute His judgement instead.

God’s command to kill women and children used to be something that troubled me greatly, but the realization of this fact changed my opinion on it. The fact is that God sometimes destroyed entire nations, and yes, that includes children. God is in control of all human life and can take it whenever He wants. Children and innocent and automatically go to heaven when they die. But if God decides to take their lives early, He can. And He can do it through a flood, through fire and brimstone, or through the Israelite army. And while we shouldn’t grumble against God’s decisions, we also shouldn’t take them as a green light to do the same things as we see fit. These were special circumstances that should not be repeated.

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I haven’t replied to this thread despite it being of great personal interest, because I don’t have time and energy, so I’ll keep it brief.

This cannot be overstated enough, scripture was written for us, but not to us, therefore the proclamation to drive out and kill the inhabitants of the land is not for us, not for modern day Israel, it’s history, and it’s scripture for us to learn from, not a permanent decree.

In terms of reconciling the facets of God, I largely agree with the rest of Emwar’s comments.

God is God, all life belongs to Him, if you think wiping evil people off the face of the planet for horrendous things is hard to reconcile, wait to you realise the curse that hangs over all creation is actually a curse from God - for eating a piece of fruit!

Slightly facetious, but you get the point, the Bible doesn’t shy away from this God is severe (Romans 11:22) in His judgement and punishment of sin. What we’ve got to realise is that we’re so fallen at can’t see how awful sin, all sin, really is, so when we find ourselves feeling God is being overly strong, we have to re-assess, fall back to the position that God is God and we know he’s good - will not the judge of all the earth do right? (Rhetorical - yes of course he will, if we think he’s wrong, we’re wrong).

I love the last few chapters of Job, where God shows up and answers Job and his “friends” and basically says, who the heck do you think you are too question me (gives absolutely zero answers to their questions, just thoroughly dresses them down). We have to remember:

“I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.

Job 42:2-3 NLT

Also I saw @SepCalla mention the differences between OT and NT and whilst there are linguistic and scholarly differences (it’s a book written over nearly 2000 years by over 40 different authors and 3 different continents with 3 different languages, I think we can forgive it), it’s still got a consistent narrative and view of God - Jesus repeatedly talks of Hell, a place of eternal conscious torment, Ananias and Sapphira are stuck down dead and well let’s just say Revelation isn’t exactly without fire and wrath!

God is severe, but He is also patient and kind, He is love and He loves this fallen creation - For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life.

But the righteous God must punish sin, otherwise he’s no longer a righteous judge.

Alright that wasn’t that brief, if I’m slow to reply apologies.

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67

Did i say jewish?

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Yeah, this has been done to death (pun intended.)

I think this is a much more interesting question. Imagine you’re a Cannanite. You’ve got crops, a family, worshiped Cannanite gods your whole life, the whole nine yards.

The tribes of Israel show up, and you realize that their God is real, they have been promised your land, you’ve probably done some bad stuff so there’s no objective moral high ground, and your whole family is going to die no matter what.

Do you still fight?

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69

Tough for me to answer considering I’m too morally tuned a certain way to participate in orgies and mass murdering children for prosperity and rainfall. I was raised Christian. Some people didn’t know any better,practicing black magic was entrenched in their culture

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I reconcile all of it with Jesus Christ and the new covenant.

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72

This is actually an important point. The main purpose of the Israelite conquest was actually to drive the Canaanites out of the land, not to exterminate them. Here is a great article I read on this subject many years ago, when I was still in high school.

@gerry.b You should read this.

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73

I dodged it because u placed me in the shoes of the most depraved people that ever existed. The answer would be no I knew it was wrong all along and was forced to. I’m joining the winning team.

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Related: 2 Timothy 2:15 , “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

As an example: all of the Levitical Law was written to and for the nation of Israel.

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75

I guess if I’m spotting your bench pb,your the type to claim it despite me deadlifting 80% of it off you. Do your own research bro!

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I did not grow up in a religious household. I started reading the Bible last year, and I have to say that Exodus is one of the greatest stories I’ve ever read.

I’ve just started reading the New Testament.

I really like this documentary about Exodus: https://youtu.be/QXPEIucGXzE?si=TByMi301Z8984ZLe

Overall, I don’t have much faith, if any. However, I would like to believe there is something great after death. I raise my daughters to be Christian because I think it teaches good values.

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77

Are you considering accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

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78

Ever checked out Matthew 7? It’s an interesting read.

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79

Awesome! I hope it grows your faith.

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Been there myself… It’ definitely a struggle but I choose to believe it’s something faaaar beyond our comprehension and faaaar beyond our ability to even begin to imagine how amazing it will be in the next realm of existence

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81

I am reading the old testament right now and I don’t understand how people get such an impression from these things, at least get your stories straight first of all. Was Moses met by Yaweh on mount Horeb or was it mount Sinai? Did God create the water first and then the earth and the plants etc, or was it desert in which a garden was spawned like the story finally tells again later.

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Horeb and Sinai are two names for the same mountain.

The Garden of Eden was created on the sixth day, after God created both water and grass. Genesis 2 tells the story of how God created Adam and Eve more particularly. Genesis 1 simply says that they were made on the sixth day.

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Could be metaphorical