Some help understanding this extremely violent quote from the Bible, please?

Question

"Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)

I know I've posted this quote already. I have posted it again in hopes that the expected replies (the kind I got last time) will prove a point to another answerer.

Answer 1

God's mommy never taught him how to share

Answer 2

This passage is the words of man pretending to be God. That's why there are mistakes in the Bible (how did Noah gather 2 Polar Bears for the Arc when he didn't know that they existed?)The Bible was written by ancient people who also believed that the earth was flat. Biblical people had an illiteracy rate of 99%. They didn't have a clue as to what was going on. But have been forced to accept a God Concept from these dummies.

Answer 3

do you lay awake trying to find these things or what. It has been so many years since I studied this I do not remember this particular one and exactly how it all fits so up front the answer is I do not know and because I fully recognize your reason for asking I will not go to all that work. On a better day I might remember it exactly.

for the record once again i do not know the exact answer to this exact question

here is what I do know. I at one time studied these because like you I found them to somewhat disconcerting.. I searched out many but do not know if this was one for sure.

Here is what I found. In nubers 6 it talks about a time when some type of alien DNA was planted in God's creation, says by angels. Also says it caused genetic anomalies like extremely large people and very wicked ones as well. God flooded the earth to get rid of them. Noah took one on board, we know this because her name was Raphael which is from the root word Rapheum, which is one of those that carried the bad genes. You have no idea how much study it takes to figure this out. The bad genes then survived kinda like say the plague, something to be hampered where ever found. For germs we use antibiotics to wipe out a whole species like small pox and TB. Simple life but Life just the same right.

This is one of the factors that is reason to kill off a bunch. How God chose to tell them to recognize this bunch I am not sure how it worked (or why the animals were included) but terry with this thought,,, things like rebellion are now being found to be passed on genetically, as is strong willed nature. Any mother of 5 will tell you there is way more of the personality that is determined by genetics than is by environment. These people were recognized by a personality trait. They were most likely part of the genetic disorder as were any groups with names like anakim, rapheum and 3 others I do not remember. They were all part of some genetic mishap and for the well being of future beings as many as possible were wiped out.

here is what I do know for sure there was a good reason and God chose the Jews to selectively hit the intended victims. The flood idea did not work. He gave us free will and we f things up and we have a long history of doing so.
My guess is the whole white race are heavily imbued with the bad genes. Look at the path of ruthless behavior we have left in our wake.

the other possibility is serj told them to do it and it was just cuz his TV was on the blink and he wanted something thrilling to watch. This whole idea that serj is love is either temporary or hanging in a balnce with judgement on the other side of the scale.

next time I am going to pretend I not see question.

Answer 4

In those days, it was all about following orders. Before God could teach, he had to make sure people were listening. Keep in mind, the two lessons here are not to tolerate the worship of false gods, and not to profit from the loss of others. The bloodshed was incidental. There are several examples in the Bible of what happened to people who decided to kill the people but spare their goods and livestock. (It didn't go well with them.) So there is a rough kind of morality in all this.

Answer 5

Dear Igar,
Thank you for you thought provoking question!
I have learned that the Book of Books, as it is sometimes called, was written by men. Back in the day, when shepherds watched their flocks by night,and babes lay away in mangers,
(because the wealth was not evenly distributed back then either) the Pharisees, High Priests, lawyers and other politicians created and added their own versions, and interpretations to the "Scriptures",during assorted translations and conveying of the books' contents to the "flock", as a means of controlling the masses, and creating the type of mood in the "societal structure" that would guarantee a good percentage of subservience and adherence to their iron rule-and of course- the furthering of their hoarding the wealth crusade.
The general public was not educated, were primarily peasants, and were discouraged from, if not forbidden from thinking for themselves. The Romans were very good at fostering this. Many of the books of the Bible were written as letters to them. This was a successful ploy that still succeeds today. How many times have you heard someone say that they were going to hell anyway-or some such remark indicating their sense of futility in their efforts to think for themselves or to find answers to their questions-in their own hearts? (ie. God's gonna get you for that-Can't eat meat on Friday-no wine during Ramadan-You'll suffer eternal damnation if you eat pork...Churches are the 'house of God-thou must tithe "...on & on ad infinitum)
I beleive many of the words in the book-with a little b- are divinely inspired, but, the Master, who was NOT to be worshipped, but learned from; and said so many times... is quoted as saying that the Truth will be written in your hearts, and will make you free ! I think he meant that everyone's truth was/is valid, and would be slightly different form everyone else's, and that it was OK that that was so, and that people were to GO WITHIN to find Truth-as in The Kingdom of God is within you! I and the Father are One.
As creations made in the image of the INFINITE Creator-it would make sense then that we are infinitely different from one another, and I think somewhere near the beginning of the book it was also quoted as God saw that it was GOOD- (I thought we came up with that expression in Brooklyn, NY, but, "It's ALL Good", had been uttered by some larger assortment of energy than us back in the hood...that's one of the ways I describe god-with a little g)
I hope that wasn't too confusing an answer.
So, please, don't burn the village, we need all those different versions of God, they are part of us.

Love , Light and Peace

Kaye

Answer 6

One of the many reasons I do not subscribe to any organized religion. Any such act in any religion can be justified by saying "God's will be done".
This is immediately followed by "Do Not question the Lord, Thy God".
Almost all religions have used this excuse for Genocide, no matter how loving and forgiving they say their God is.
But what really amazes me is how they will twist and turn all logic and reason to make their vision of God righteous.
Live Well and Shine on.............

See what I mean ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Answer 7

You can not take everything that is written literally. God wanted the Israelites, his chosen people, to live in relative peace and to combat threats to their covenant with God. How they carried out those instructions reflected their war-like nature. For example, "an eye for an eye, etc." was not meant to champion revenge, it was meant to bring down the level of violence they were used to. Prior to that, a lost eye would be retaliated with a lost life. Jesus tells us not even to call someone a fool. He was the true voice of God amongst a hard-headed people.

Answer 8

Let's face it....the Old Testament is violent....God just kills people all the time....they kill each other, etc. I have decided it takes a PhD in theology to understand how the Old Testament ties into the New Testament....in bible study we are studying in the first five books of the bible and it is tough!!!!

Answer 9

People can get so far Away from GOD, through Sin, that they would never Turn Back to HIM.
Just like an animal that gets hurt so bad, you cannot help it, so you put it out of it's Misery. Humane. Mercy.

Sin can do that to Human Beings.
GOD had to Flood the Earth one Time that we know of.

Answer 10

In my bible its Deut. 13:12-18, but that's beside the point. Our God is a jealous God. It ticks Him off when someone is lying to His children and leading them astray. What would you do to someone if they tried to lure your child away from you, telling them lies and leading them to their death? You would probably want to kill them, right? You would be righteously angry and you would want to punish them for trying to hurt your baby. Same with God.