Why does ancient suffering matter so little to Christians?

Question

God ruined two cities, and killed all the people in those towns along with it. God flooded the planet, and killed all human being, small children included.

The standard Christian reaction: "yeah, those people were evil".

Why is that? Does human life matter that little?

And how would the world react if God ruined a town nowadays? Would we also just say "yeah, evil people, no worries" ?

Answer 1

Lets get this straight once and for all some of you people seem to perceive a just GOD and a GOD who we cannot question and your answers to these kinds of questions are always the same, who are we to question god, god could not find 50 just people so he brought the town down , ya da ya, that does not JUSITY the means to his ends for some of us and we perceive him as nothing but EGOTISTICAL in nature.
................I am sorry but it comes down to this for me.........none of us will ever fit into his MOULD of the perfect human...........................so therefore none of us will ever get there....................and sorry to bust your bubble but there is not one person on this earth that isnt evil in some way or who has never had one evil though so............how does that justify any of it, it doesn't.

It makes me angry to think that there are people out there who seem to think that killing the first born son of every Egyptian was justifiable by any means.................it sickens me to even think about it, in the end it is genocide and only that and there is no justification for that even from a GOD. By the way which was done just because the pharoah (one man) would not bow down to him, sounds a bit of an EGO to me?????????????

Answer 2

Because it's out of their power to help or show sympathy towards the people whom have suffered. That's why it probably matters so little to people.

"The standard Christian reaction:'yeah those people were evil.'"
That's probably because they haven't thought about it much and that's they're first whim. Human life is temporary, what's eternal is what matters. If God ruined a town nowadays people most likely wouldn't think it was God, just some random event. And most Christians would probably say, "God's will be done."

Answer 3

Something just occurred to me as I was reading your question. Most atheists deny that the Bible is true or has any historical validity. And yet when they want to ask a loaded question, they dig up every Bible story they can that even remotely seems to show God in a bad light.

Now either a bunch of you are lying through your teeth and you DO believe the Bible, since you are always trying to use it to prove some point or the other. That, or else you're being far more hypocritical than the Christians you're always accusing of that particular crime. You're deliberately misquoting something as if it were fact, when you don't actually believe that it is.

You can't have this both ways. Either the Bible is historically valid and you agree to that fact by quoting a story from it. Or else the Bible is not a valid source of history. . .and in that case, you need to stop using it for your little mind games.

Answer 4

" HERE`S YOUR SIGN ".... Genesis 6 : 5 -7.. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth , and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually .. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth , and it grieved him at his heart ,, And the Lord said , I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth ; both man , and beast , and the creeping thing , and the fowls of the air ; for it repenteth me that I have made them. Genesis 6 : 11 - 12 .. The earth also was corrupt before God , and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth , and , behold , it was corrupt ; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth ..*** Sounds to me like no one heeded Gods` warning about obeying His Law .*** Galatians 6 : 7 - 8 .. Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap..For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting .........*** Man and his free will arrogance are the cause for all the wrath God displays. Man and his ignorance of Scripture continue to try to bring God down to mans` level of reasoning and knowledge . Man and his vanity wants to believe that he and God are on the same level ? This is where man gets lost on the road of life , as he does not use or have access to Gods` map to guild him on the road of life . Suppose you find out you have cancer , do you feel sorry for the cancer cells and let them live , or do you do chemo , and rid your body of the cancer ?? After all it`s your body , you are in it , you have the power to have compassion for the cancer cells and let them live , or you can make them suffer death through chemo !!!!

Answer 5

When Adam disobeyed God, and ate the forbidden fruit. Man brought sin, death and disease upon himself. God warned the people in Noah's day, about the coming flood. They wouldn't listen. They caused themselves and their children to be destroyed. However, when Jesus died, He went to Sheol, the place of the dead to preach to them and tell them about salvation. 1 Peter 3:20.

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were very evil. They wanted to rape two of God's angels. They brought the destruction upon themselves.

We are all born with the sin nature. That is why we need Jesus' sacrifice for God's forgiveness.

Answer 6

So we shouldn't have police? Whose human life do we protect when people seek to do other people harm?

I'm a little testy right now, because a principal of a high school plead guilty to soliciting sex from a 15 year old girl. Thankfully, she turned him down and turned him in. But I am outraged that he's not listed as a child predator, when it's clear he is a child predator. (He's getting a year of probation, btw.)

Does his life matter to me? This may sound horrible of me, but only if he changes. I don't value his life so much that it's okay with me for him to spend the rest of it terrorising children or wrecking their lives by using his power and authority to get them involved in inappropriate sexual behaviour that can affect them for the rest of their lives.

I can't fathom a town of people like him, but I can tell you that I wouldn't want to live in a town that was. And maybe it makes me a horrible human being, but I wouldn't mourn the loss of a town of people who are that unsafe to the rest of humanity.

And, of course, it would be unsafe precisely because _they_ value human life so little.

Answer 7

We are not God and have no idea what is needed to keep His standards. If He chooses to destroy a city, who are we that we can know His will. Job was asked a similar set of questions and realized he could not second-guess God. We were not there when creation took place. What do we know.

Answer 8

Yes, the bible records some horrific details. It is a historical account, warts and all, of God's revelation to mankind. It also reflects the contexts of the periods under question.

That mankind was slipping fast into utter depravity was reason enough for the creator of mankind to act. God was perfectly within His righteousness to deliver the ultimate justice to the unrepentant. Indeed, one person has found the total body count in the bible to be over 2.2 million persons. But let's not forget the total numbers of those that have repented after hearing God's call to righteousness.

Some will say, “But isn't God unjust to judge the whole world by Christian standards?”

God judges justly. “All who sinned without [knowing] the [Mosaic] law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law” (ROM 2:12).

Even pagans know “that what the law requires is written on their hearts” (ROM 2:15) if we honestly consult our hearts, we will find two truths: that we know what we ought to do and be, and that we fail to do and be that.

Although this may seem appalling to consider, it is God's right to bring judgment on whom He desires, when He desires, through whom He desires, in the manner that He desires.

Man simply does not have all of the knowledge required to judge God on this issue. The amazing thing is that God was as long suffering with sinful people as He was. What better way to impress upon God's children the sinfulness of sin than to have them administer a punishment for sin?

It is also true that the nations God commanded Israel to destroy (i.e. Amorite, Canaanites, Midianites) had enticed Israel to sin. God desired to put an end to Idolatry. What better way to eliminate Idolatry than to completely destroy the entire Nation responsible?

Women and children were part of God's judgment in order to completely destroy the influence and Idolatry of the foreign nation.

Although Israel returned to Idolatry time and time again, the Nations judged by God were responsible for their own sin.

It matters not how or when a person dies. It matters what a person's relationship to God is. If children are "innocent" they will be judged by God as such even if they die as part of Gods judgment against the nation in which they live.

In Romans 11:22 we read:
"Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off."

Why God chose to take the actions He did in some situations is not always clear. The bible tells us "The secret things belong to the Lord our God" (Deuteronomy 29:29).

We might not be able to understand God's wise and mysterious ways, even if He told us (cf. Isaiah 55:9).

Answer 9

i remember a mutual friend of ours asking a similar question regarding the victims of hurricane katrina. i also remember quite a few christians saying all those who died must have been evil and deserved what happened to them. it was at that moment i realized just how insane some of these people really are.

Answer 10

when God ruined the two cities, remember that God said that he would spare it if He found 50 righteous people. Abraham begged God and got him down to 10, but He could not find 1! that is why he destroyed. and human life is important to God or else he wouldn't have made us. but it is his right to destroy us when we become wicked. that is why he gave us Jesus Christ so we may seem perfect in God's eyes. when we receive Jesus Christ into our hearts, our sins are forgiven and we don't have to worry about eternal perishment