Why Would God...?

Question

First off, I am a Christian and believe in God and Jesus. My question is why he would want and/or allow all the violence in the old testament?

Answer 1

Because he is a big fat hypocrite.

Answer 2

first of all, God did not WANT any of the consequences of the Old Testament. It says in the bible many times that God cries for the pain of his people and the mistakes they make. it pains him so see his children suffering. But when he created the world, he granted the human race with the gift of free will. Because of this, we are able to make our own decisions based on our own opinions and wants. However, because we have free will, we also must recieve the consequences for our actions. The "violence" in the Old Testament is simply the many consequences that were deserved by those who made wrong decisions. That's the way it has to happen, otherwise we would never learn and the science and logic of our universe would be thrown off because results would never be valid.
to put it simply, our God is just and rational. By "allowing" these consequences to occur, he ensured that his people got what was coming to them for thier own good. but not without fair warning. remember all the warnings he gives the israelites, all the promises he makes to them, assuring all will be fine if they trust him? Well, often times they didn't. and when they didn't, they got the consequences god warned them about.
when you think about it, the same thing happens today. that's why we study things like history. we study our consequences so we can learn from past mistakes.

i hope that helps you. God bless.

Answer 3

This is answered in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Every answer to every question you have about God is in the Bible. You have to read it in order to understand it. The only one who can tell you about God is God. There is no Man alive today that can tell you how God feels, or why God does the things He does. Only God can tell you what you need to know. He has given you a book which holds all the answers. Read the Bible.

Answer 4

From what I understand, which isn't really much at all... God is a perfect and Holy God and therefore can not be in relationship with someone that is not Holy. (Fallen man) So, when people of the old testament sinned and did not repent they were killed. Now we have Jesus intervening for us but, there are still people who have free will and make bad choices including the choice to harm others and/or not believe in God's atoning sacrifice of His son Jesus for our sins.

Answer 5

That's a good question. I'd add to it by asking how God allows the same kind of violence to continue in the present. It didn't just end with the Old Testament you know. God is still apparently standing idly by while people suffer, or at least He is not doing anything obvious to stop it.

Answer 6

God has always made provision for man without violence and evil. However, God has NEVER treated man as a robot and gives him free will to make is own choices. It is amazing what mankind "blames" God for when it is something they initiated themselves. If you go back and reread the happenings of the Israelites in the old testament you will see that even after man messed up, God always made a way out for him.

Answer 7

Thats a very tough thing to reconcile. Dispensationalists handle it by saying "God had to work under different rules during the Old Testement times."

I think the main problem with that is one of absolutes. Christianity also claims that there are moral absolutes in the world. When God himself kills or orders killing of say infants and babies in the womb, why would it be moral THEN and not now? Where do moral absolutes go in that case? Is "murder" defined as "a matter of timing"?

It's very problematic.

Answer 8

I wish I knew the answer to this - I consider myself a devout Christian. I trust God utterly, but His behaviour in the old testament is in complete (it seems) oppostion to His revealed truth through the life of Jesus.. I hope someone can explain this!

Answer 9

Some of it was caused by Israel's enemies, some of it was caused by God.

I have to say that when God caused it He had given them warning for over 100 years before He brought the judgment upon them.

Noah was 500 when God told him to build the ark, and he was 600 when the waters began to come down.
There was approximately 100 years for Noah's neighbors to listen to Noah, who is refered to as a preacher, and they just laughed at him while he built his oversized boat.

Then there was the diaspora, and prophets like Isaiah warned the people what would happen to them if they continued to sin against God, and it was over 100 years later when God send the Assyrians into northern Israel, and the Babylonians into southern Israel to take their people into captivity.

Do you remember the incident with Nineveh? God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to them what will surely happen if they did not repent. Jonah rebelled and try to go the other way, and God had a big fish devour him and then upchuck him on the outskirts of Nineveh. When Jonah preached to the king of Nineveh, the people saw their wicked ways, repented of them and God did not bring judgment upon them.

IMHO, God gave them a long time to repent, and when they didn't He brought judgment down upon them.

Let's put it in todays language. If God warned us through His preachers that He would destroy the earth in 100 years if everyone did not repent, what would happen? We would see the judgment of God because many will not repent.

So, what are we to do? God says in 1Chronicles 7:14,
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Now who is supposed to turn from their wicked ways in order for God to heal this land? It is those who call themselves by His name, not the pagan on the street that never accepted God, but those who claim to know Him and follow Him.

Regarding Kosherpig's comments about Christians being required to kill anyone who does not believe in Jesus, that is absolutely false, and does not exist anywhere in the New Testament.

In the Old Testament the Israelites were told to kill anyone who was living in the land that God had promised to them. He did that because He did not want His people to be exposed to the heathen, but they disobeyed on that also and even allowed their sons to marry the daughters of the heathen.

grace2u

Answer 10

God speaks through the people using the best methods of communication of the time. At the time violence was so abundant, it was the best way to get them to understand his message. The message is the same, his methods of communication change. \

Answer 11

Based on what I gathered, He's a total jerk. I'm pretty sure all those thousands (and possibly millions due to Noah's Ark) of people He killed was not justice, but crude and violence. If He teaches people not to kill, why does He do it so often himself?