Christians: Why does your god demand the death of so many innocent people?

Question

Look up these verses:

- Exodus 35.2 - God demands that we kill everyone who works on Sabbath day.

- Deuteromy 21:18-21 - God demands that we kill disobedient teenagers.

- Leviticus 20:13 - God demands the death of homosexuals.

- Deuteronomy 22:13-21 - God demands that we kill girls who are not virgins when they marry


Christians, I would appreciate it if you actually answered the question, instead of saying things like "I'll pray for you" or telling me not to question god.

Why would a loving god want us to murder people over such trivial matters?

Does it make sense to you that someone should die for working on the wrong day of the week? Doesn't that strike you as insane?

Answer 1

True, the old testament has a lot of weird stuff. I don't pay any attention to most of it, especially the death stuff. The people who wrote it put words in God's mouth. How dare they.

Answer 2

These are not trivial matters. God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites. He blessed them and gave them a promised land. He has laws that must be followed for a person to enter into the kingdom of god.

Since this is the Abrahamic covenant that you refer to it was prior to the atonement, when man could seek the intercession on Christ. But mostly what these verses convey is the importance of the laws set forth. The children of Israel should allow no evil among them.

It is also a bit symbolic, when you disobey God's commandments then you are literally cutting yourself off from him and that is called spiritual death. So working on the Sabbath creates a spiritual death.

When Christ came and offered the Atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane then the law of Moses was fulfilled and capital punishment was no longer required. Instead the higher law which Christ taught was required. He did not change the !0 commandments, but the consequences became spiritual for each of us.

I hope this helps you understand.

Answer 3

First of all, nobody is innocent. (Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12). All are guilty. If you are asking why God commands His people to kill other people, consider that the people he commanded them to kill were the oppressors and perpetrators of great injustices. Also, the verses you have mentioned are cases of people living a hypocritical lifestyle. These people signed up to follow God's rules, and God is kinda saying that if they won't live up to their word, He'll take away their ability to live at all.
This is not to say that I feel that all of this makes perfect sense. I have struggled greatly as a Christian with the question of how God could be so seemingly violent in the Old Testament, and then have Christ claim that hate is equal to murder and is sinful. It doesn't make perfect sense to me, but I know that I trust God's perception more than I trust my own. My hope is that someday I will be able to ask Him about these things.

Answer 4

You're talking about a people who - left to their own for a dozen days after being saved from the Egyptians - immediately fell into apostacy.

They needed a firm hand.

It was only through threats of death that they were made to act correctly. Even then, they relied heavily on sin offerings to make restitution for their wrong doings. Rather than living a righteous life.

MANY prophets came and told them to live rightly and stop relying on sacrifices. Rather than doing so, they murdered them.

That's why they are called "stiff necked" through out the OT.

Answer 5

in a time where God treated Israel like His child, when He wanted them to be the model nation, when He was trying to instill in the reverence for God and faith in Him.....

of course disobedience wasn't tolerated! it's like an military official. when you're being trained, your superiors expect nothing of you except total obedience. imagine a war where the majority didn't follow plans.... oh right, that's called a slaughter......

those people were killed had leeway. they went to Hell but got out later (when Christ died).

why were those who worked on the Sabbath killed? they were being disrepectful to God by disobeying His instructions; they were to observe the Sabbath in remeberence of God's provision in delivering them from Egypt; God should not be taken for granted.

why were disobedient youth killed? again, discipline. insubordination causes chaos.

why were homosexuals killed? homosexuality is wrong. not necessarily the feelings, but the lifestyle. homosexuality is not just deviance from God's plan, but it promotes other sins. the wages of sin is death.

why kill prostitutes? God holds marriage as sacred. it is supposed to be the God-ordained unifying of a man and a woman so they can become as one flesh, sharing an emotional, physical, and spiritual bond with eachother. defiling what marriage is would be sinful.

Answer 6

You answered your own question Miss. You arent supposed to work on Sabbath day (its a day or rest and worship for your own sake, and because Jesus rose from the dead that day), spare the rod with disobidient children or spoil then rotten, homosexuality is a embombination (explains woman and mans purpose to have children), fornication is sex before marriage (soetimes causes diseases we call AIDS).........

THIS IS WHAT GOD BASICALLY SAID. Take it for what its worth. My opinion, or any of these answers dont matter...because God means what he says. I cant argue with that...you have a choice to believe w/e u want to believe. Thats why we call this country AMERICA.

Answer 7

You obviously lack the perspective in which to see that God is an all holy being and cannot, nor will not tolerate blatant rebellion from His creation. Take a time out in the corner is not an option for Him.

Answer 8

There were many people killed in the old testament through the journey of God's chosen people. But you should also add the verses that talk about God's love and the psalms where david rejoices in God and praises him. The old testament was a violent time in history because wars were common then and things were taken with force instead of with politics like they are now.

Answer 9

(Why would a loving god want us to murder people over such trivial matters?) People use these all the time to try to make God look like the bad one, when all reality, it is man (people) that are the bad ones. Read on.

These are not just 'trivial matters'. These are the things to which God had ordered to do. Exodus 35:2 does say not to work on the seventh day, which is a sabbath of complete rest to honor God on that day, only. Six days you should work, but on the seventh day, is complete rest for God. The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. He created the days for six days and stopped His work of creation on the seventh day. That was said in the begining of the bible if you would study it correctly, not going by what other people say. Yeshua (Jesus) rested and worshipped on the sabbath day.

Deut. 21:18-21 bascially says that if anyone commits a capital crime are to be put to death. This man in verse 18 was rebellious in his own ways by living a wild life and drinking. You must not know what a wild life is do you? These days, many are put in prisons for their crimes. So it seems like you would rather have people out on the streets repeating their same crime without getting punished. You are for crime? Then that means you are for abortion where killing innocent babies who are alive in the womb right? It means you would rather side with sex offenders who commit such sexual crimes among innocent kids and set them free??

Leviticus 20:13 verse 13 says it plainly. "If a man goes to bed with a man as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they must be put to death; their blood is on them." It means if a man sleeps with a man and then sleeps with a woman....that's what it means. Commiting adultery. Plus you must have not read on throughout the whole chapter 20, you only pick and choose. But all this applies. Not only does it say here in Leviticus about sexual immorality, it says this in 1 Corinthians chapters 5, 6, and 7. Keep studying and you will see that God means business. He does have a plan to all the ones who do such immoral acts. So, does it mean that it is okay to have encounters with animals like beastiality??

Deut. 22:13-21 Speaking to the people of Israel. You didn't read this correctly. I will state it here for you if you would read verse 20...."But if the charge is substantiated that evidence for the girl's verginity could not be found; then they are to lead the girl to the door of her father's house, and the men of her town will stone her to death, (because she has committed in Israel the disgraceful act of being a prostitute) while still in her father's house. In this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you." Again, God does mean business and is against such immoral acts.

God was teaching the people of Israel how to live without doing such evil acts and living immoral. So, God ordered for this to happen because He had already set laws of misconduct to the people of Israel, but they rebelled against Him. He was teaching them how to live and to be a Holy people to Him. If you read the whole entire Torah (OT), you will see that He set these Laws to the people of Israel because He was showing them how to live. Not sure if you will even consider reading the whole OT. Because people do tend to just read what they want to read and not read on to what God was actually teaching people.

God is a loving God. He created us in His image. He does have a plan for us all, even for the ones that are not seeking for Him.

So, don't say that God demands death of so many innocent people, because all the verses that you mentioned here, they were not innocent at all. They have committed a crime. I don't know where you get that they were innocent. Don't you think that doctors who kill innocent babies should be behind bars and guilty for their crimes? Don't you think that if a homosexual that has aids and spreads his aids around knowingly that he has it, gets many people sick of this disease, that he should be punished for his crime? Do you think if a woman who gets raped by a crazy man, do you think that this man should be set free or punished?

There are consequences for people who commit such immoral acts, or such crimes. No one has a right to be let free for crimes they commit, ever. Do some studying more, and you will see why God did what he did. Don't stop by just reading one tiny verse!

Answer 10

I know I keep posting this, but it's so relevant


Joshua 6:21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

Answer 11

It's actually quite simple. The wages of sin is death. By rebelling against God and His laws you condemn yourself to the wages of sin. You reap what you sow. These texts are warnings to His children that the results of doing these types of things bring death.