Ready to play "Good God, what were You thinking"?

Question

First, anyone can post anything, only those answers that follow the rules have a chance at Best Answer.

Second, "God works in mysterious ways" and similar answers are null statements. They are equivalent to saying "I don't know" and thus eliminate themselves from the contest.

Third, contending answers must stipulate the following:
1. The God of the OT is the same God of the NT.
2. That God is a God of love and infinite mercy.
3. That God is a family-values kind of God. He hates the shedding of innocent blood and loves little kids.
4. God hates the sin but loves the sinner, sacrificing His only Son for the sins of the world, etc.

Rules are clear?

All you have to do is explain why God did what he did in a selected verse, and why you approve of His choice.

Let's start with an old favourite of mine: II Kings 2: 23-24.
God sends 2 bears who rip apart 42 "little children" for calling his prophet (Elisha) "Baldy".

Those of you who want to play this game with other verses are free to do so ;-)

Uhm, correlationr, to "stipulate" means simply to agree with the stipulated statements. It isn't necessary to quote chapter and verse to support your agreement. It's enough that you agree.

And for those of you who want to invent a little story about why these kids deserve such punishment, please quote chapter and verse where it says these kids actually did what you are claiming they did. As far as I've seen, these kids are not mentioned anywhere prior to getting their guts ripped out.

I see no best answer here, so I'll put it to a vote.

Answer 1

Regarding 2 Kings 2:23-24
This incident has long been misunderstood because the Hebrew word "naar" was translated "little boys." That these characteristic juvenile delinquents were old enough to be fully accountable is obvious from the use of the word elsewhere. For example, it was used by David of his son Solomon and translated "young and inexperienced," when Solomon was a father (I Chron. 22:5; cf. I Kings 14:21 and II Chron. 9:30 ). It was used of Joseph when he was seventeen (Gen. 37:2). In fact, not less than seventy times in the King James Version this word "naar" is translated "young man" or "young men."

1. The God of the OT is the same God of the NT:
In Matthew 22:29-33, Jesus responds to a question regarding resurrected people in heaven, and said this:

29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

[my note: Jesus makes a reference to God, who is in heaven]

31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

[my note: Jesus refers to this same God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were key OT leaders]

33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

2. That God is a God of love and infinite mercy:
Deuteronomy 7:7-9
7 The Lord did not set His love upon you and choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the fewest of all people.
8 But because the Lord loves you and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Know, recognize, and understand therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, Who keeps covenant and steadfast love and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations,

Ephesians 2:4-5
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

3. That God is a family-values kind of God. He hates the shedding of innocent blood and loves little kids:
Matthew 18:1-6
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
2 He called a little child and had him stand among them.
3 And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.
6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Genesis 9:5-6
5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.

Genesis 4:8-11
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
10 The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Exodus 20:13
Thou shalt not kill.

Jeremiah 7:1 and 7:5-7
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,
6 if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,
7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.

4. God hates the sin but loves the sinner, sacrificing His only Son for the sins of the world, etc:
Romans 5:6-8
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Psalm 7:11
God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

You said I could post anything, so if I didn't follow your rules, at least I had a chance to show you some neat Bible verses that dealt with each of your key points. I didn't take over a half hour (I think it was that long) to search for these verses just for 2 or 10 points. I did it because I care about you, and want you to understand that my God loves you. :o)
Holy mackerel - I just saw that I spent 58 minutes on this! Sheesh, that's a long time!

Answer 2

ooh you've become the yahoo answers gmaes master. very D&D
Well, I dunno what the answer is. But it's clear God did not maul these kids. Elisha, like all of us, has been given authority over this planet. But he didn't specifically call the bears did he....
I've heard of this kind of thing before. In a tiny bamboo villiage in Thailand, a Christian villiage, all sorts of miracles happen there. There are some buddhist people there, and usually, in the buddhist religion, a person who builds a new house is to get it blessed by the local monks. But in that villiage, whoever gets their house blessed by a monk dies a short time later of health reasons. But if a Christian blesses the house, they are fine.This is so widely accepted as fact up there, that when the police build a post up there, they got the christians to bless it: This is the police, government officials in an officially bhuudhist country.
The point is, God is bringing glory to his name. You gotta admit, if people saw God send those bears, they'd be pretty quick to believe in Him.

Answer 3

The mob of youths was from Bethel, the religious center of idolatry in the northern kingdom, and they were persecuting Elisha and warning him not to speak against their immorality as Elijah had done. There were not merely teasing Elisha about his baldness but showing severe disrespect for Elisha's message and God's power. They may also have jeered because of their disbelief in the chariot of fire that had taken Elijah. when Elisha cursed them he did not call out the bears himself. God sent them as judgment for their callous unbelief.

Sounds similar to those Atheists on this forum...

But of course if you had actually read the entire passage and tried a little to understand the context you might have known that...

Remember there are consequences for our actions... God never said that we wouldn't be punished...

Besides.. God is a god and he doesn't need our approval for his actions, nor is he responsible for explaining himself...

It would be like President Bush seeking my approval for fighting terrorism... God knows things that we don't know and acts accordingly... He doesn't need to run it by us first...

Answer 4

http://www.colbertnation.com/cn/notice-dead.php - From the Colbert Nation website listing of "On notice / Dead to me" ...

On Notice :
Grizzly Bears
Barbara Streisand
Michael Adams
The British Empire
James Brady
Black Hole at Center of Galaxy
The Toronto Raptors
Pant Cuffs
"Business Casual"
Israeli Newspapers
Faberge Eggs
Lutherans

See, even today those bears aren't trusted.

Answer 5

Do Leviticus next! God says lots of things to support some really horrible acts in that chapter.

Sell your daughter into slavery anyone?

Answer 6

God either "f*cked up" or,
God is not a person.

These are the only two ways to justify what is being, what existence is. The decision is up to you, people usually sell a belief by now, but you know, NO ONE KNOWS.

Answer 7

What god?

Answer 8

[n]O[t]MG! LOL!