If God is an all loving God, why did he command murder, destruction, and sacrifice in the Old Testament?

Answer 1

Dear Swede: The Old Testament is filled with mostly battle after battle and sacrifice. To KNOW the Nature of the Father/Creator, one would know quickly there is something wrong with those stories.

First, they are from the Oral Traditions of ancient man. How much was he capable of understanding? Surely, we have progressed in our thinking since those days!

I feel certain that with God's Power channeling through His Holy Spirit, the battles need never have been fought. When things are turned over properly to God through the Holy Spirit, the methods used give a better result and are more original in design than just amassing an army and going in to take over a land! God would never recommend killing even one of His Children. The opposition in those battles were as certainly His Children, as the Chosen people who were fighting them. Those were barbaric times.

Later, sacrifices were being far less employed for God instructed the people "they were a stench to His nostrils." Obviously, man was becoming more "modern" in his thinking and was trying to abolish something quite barbaric again.

Ancient man used a method wherein they would decide that God had spoken to one of them and had ordered this or that to be done so that it would be accepted by the people. The Priests were largely in this. But, you need only look at the slaughter house it was for man and beast to understand that God, if you know his Nature, could never have ordered such things.

So, in the New Testament we come to know Him better. Jesus says that he came in remembrance of the Father whose attributes he embodied. He was here to reflect the Nature of his Father. We can best know God through Jesus.

Remember that mankind is continually evolving in his thinking. And so, his picture of God and what He would say or do is according to the thinking of the times.

Answer 2

God never commanded anyone to ever murder anyone! God is a God of love. His nature is love and he created us for love; so that He could love us, we could love Him, and that all humans could love each other. That is what He has commanded us to do both in the Old and New Testaments.

The nature of love is that it has to be a free choice. That is why God gave us the ability to choose to not love Him and/or our brothers and sisters; so that we would also be able to choose love instead of evil. If God had created us so that we "had" to love, Then it wouldn't be love.

Despite God's instructions to love Him and our brothers and sisters, humans keep choosing to murder, steal, commit all kinds of sexual sins that cause untold misery in society, and do all manor of evil things. Some times because of His Great Love He has to do some hard things to us to try to wake us up or just stop us from commiting so much evil to our brothers and sisters.

That is why in the Old Testament He commanded Israel to go to war against other peoples.

About the ritual sacrifices in the Temple of animals, God tells us through the Old Testament prophets that those sacrifices were not what He wanted. That He "allowed" those sacrifices because of the "hardness of our hearts". He said that the sacrifices that He desired, "were to do justice; and to feed and defend the widows and orphans and the strangers at the gate."

It is the result of our fallen natures that we do all manner of evil things and then blame our Loving Father for allowing us to do them.

Answer 3

Very simple - God wants mankind to live good moral lives. In every account where God's wrath reigned down on various people, it was always for the same reason - they were doing wickedness in His eyes. Now the first question is usually - what wickedness did they do? Very simple, its all the things God says not to do.

Taking a look in Torah, while there are many examples of what not to do, a quick list would be chapters 18 and 19 in Leviticus. They are small chapters, could read both in just a few minutes, but those would be some of the wickedness people indulged themselves in and earned God's wrath.

Answer 4

God is a loving God, and like you said that was the Old Testament

Answer 5

because there is no god. science is what created all. the people who have figured this out are the ones who will live on in the future.all that destruction was an act of terror by terrorist. the only reason these reckless tragedy occured was because of false beliefs in an nonexistant being. and will use that as an excuse for there crimes. those who do not believe in gods, are the true humans. we should not have to worship nonexistant beings. we are the gods. humans.

Answer 6

They were to serve as an example. A good and effective Father will start teaching his children at an early age right from wrong, so it will not be as difficult as they grow older.....same concept. The God of the OT was much more authoritative and harsh, setting laws and practices for cleansing of sins. Once He sent Jesus to die for us and become the Final Lamb sacrifice for our sins, He became more loving and forgiving towards us, if we would turn towards Him and accept the Holy Spirit as a guide for our lives. The Spirit would teach us right from wrong now.
God, the Father, still gets angry and the world will see His wrath again. I accept His love, His forgiveness, and His mercy NOW! An effective Father also disciplines his children and keeps htem "in line," rather than just allowing them to run wild in chaos. A Father who does that does not love his children. (satan)

Answer 7

Judgment. Does loving mean that He can't be just too? He wanted people in the Old Testament to burn an animal sacrifice to atone for their sin. I don't think that's too much to ask of them. Have you actually read the whole Bible, or just taken things out of context?

Answer 8

Is God's killing justified? To answer the question whether God breaks His own commandments, we need to determine if God committed murder (i.e., killed people without cause). The Bible is quite clear that God has killed people directly (the most prominent example being the flood) and indirectly (ordered peoples to be killed). If God ordered or participated in the killing of innocent people, then He would be guilty of murder. Let's look at two of the most prominent examples.

The floodAccording to the Bible, God killed every human except Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives in the flood. Were any of these people killed unjustly? The Bible says specifically that all people (except Noah and his family) had become corrupted.11 Not only had all people become corrupted, but they were continually plotting evil!12 Is it possible that an entire culture can become corrupted? You bet! Recent history proves the point rather well. When the Nazis took over Germany before WWII, opposition was crushed and removed. When they began their purging of the undesirables (e.g., the Jews), virtually the entire society went along with the plan. Further examples are given on another page. So, the Bible indicates that no innocent people were killed in the flood.

God orders killingWhat about when God ordered Joshua and his people to kill every man, woman and child in Canaan?13 What crime could be so great that entire populations of cities were designated for destruction? God told Moses that the nations that the Hebrew were replacing were wicked.14 How "wicked" were these people? The text tells us that they were burning their own sons and daughters in sacrifices to their gods.15 So we see that these people were not really innocent. For these reasons (and others16), God ordered the destruction of the peoples whom the Israelites dispossessed.

What about the children and other "innocents"Surely God could have spared the children! People tend to assume that children are innocent, even if their parents are doing bad things. The assumption is unfounded. For example, Palestinian Muslim children are officially taught in grammar school to hate their Jewish neighbors.17 They are so well indoctrinated that some of them give up their lives in suicide bombings as children.18 Corruption literally does breed corruption, which is why God did not want the Hebrews tainted by the other corrupt cultures of the Middle East.

Surely there must have been other innocent adults in those cities who were destroyed with the wicked! There actually is an example of a time when God was asked if He would destroy the innocent along with the wicked. Prior to destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asked God if He would destroy the righteous along with the wicked.19 God replied that He would spare the entire city for 50 righteous people.20 Abraham kept reducing the possible number of righteous people, asking God if He would destroy the entire city along with those number of righteous people.21 God's reply in each case was that He would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked. The lowest number Abraham asked about was ten righteous people, although the answer would likely be the same with as few as one righteous individual. How do we know this? God sent two angels to warn the four righteous people in Sodom to flee before He destroyed the city.22 It is quite convenient that such details are usually left out of atheistic sites complaining about the "evil" perpetrated by God. In fact, God saved certain people from being killed in cities such as Jericho.23

ConclusionThe commandment "Thou shalt not kill" is really not as general as the King James version would indicate. The commandment actually refers to premeditated, unjustified killing - murder. Although God ordered the extermination of entire cities, He did so in righteous judgment on a people whose corruption had led to extreme wickedness, including child sacrifice. Did God destroy the righteous along with the wicked? In an exchange with Abraham, God indicated that He would spare the wicked to save the righteous. He demonstrated this principle by saving righteous people from Sodom and Jericho prior to their destruction. The charge that God indiscriminately murdered people does not hold to to critical evaluation of the biblical texts.

Answer 9

God has used many tools to teach his people and Satan has distorted the view many have had about his actions. Remember that death is not permanant when God has the ability to ressurect the dead. God allowed people to choose life or death even back then. Look at the many chances he gave the Egyptians. Still, they hardened their hearts and treated his people badly, ultimately trying to kill them.

Answer 10

Then God said, 'Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good."

But we all know that tsunamis that wipe out hundreds of thousands of people and a hurricane that destroys New Orleans with hundredss of coastal inhabitants are not "good" waters. What's the problem here? Did in fact God create something which was "bad"?

In discussing the end time Jesus discusses a time when nation will rise against nation, " and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven" (Luke 21:11). He goes on to say in Luke 21:25, "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heaven will be shaken. And then will they see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory."

I don't know if we are in the end times or not. Global warming seems to be baseless with 1934 as the warmest year in the past century (based on temperature data from U.S.Weather Bureau, NASA), the earth cooling from 1940-1970 when carbon monoxide emissions, the supposed cause of global warming, increased (Goddard Space Center, Columbia University), and an area which is 2% of Antartica melting, as it has been for 6,000 years, while most of Antartica is actually getting colder.

Perhaps the huge tides and hurricanes we are seeing, whatever their cause, are the beginning of the "birth pangs," which are the precursors of Christ's Second Coming and the Millenium, a time when global peace will reign as Jesus Christ, the Messiah, will rule with a "rod of iron" with absolute justice (no more wars, corruption, physical catastrophes, terrorism, dictatorships) . The prophesied earthquakes, especially if offshore, can create huge tidal waves and tsunamis. These climatic changes will manifest in association with political changes (see "Nostradamus vs. Bible Prophecy).

So is God evil to permit to allow this destruction? The Old Testament informs us that God created Adam and Eve and gave them free will. He could have created robots but he wanted them to have the right to rebel against even their Creator if they chose. That they did by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden . And because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve the earth was cursed and death was introduced into the Creation. As a matter of fact Adam and Eve did the first killing when they killed animals to clothe themselves.

When the earth was cursed through the lies of the serpent (Satan) it no longer functioned as God meant it to function. Earth is now off kilter. There are earthquakes, fires, famines, floods, tsunamis, crashing meteors, rage and violence in the heart of man etc.

But God has not thrown us into a violent, dangerous world without a lifeline. He incarnated in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, that all those who believe in Him and accept Him will have a personal relationship with Him, spiritual peace, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life. All you have to do is pray: "Jesus, I ask you to come into my life. I accept you as my Lord. Take charge of my life. Wash me with your precious blood shed on the cross for my sins. Prove to me that you are real and protect me, my family, my community, my country from destruction."

Many, including Christians, may drown in a tsunami, a hurricane, or be buried in an earthquake, however by accepting Jesus Christ as your friend and personal savior (just ask him in your own words), as the Apostle Paul says, even if you die you will live eternally in a place called Heaven where there is no death but eternal joy in the presence of God!