why do God wan to destroy so many people in the bible when He is a merciful and compassionate GOd?

Question

for example..the great flood ??

Answer 1

First, you must remember that God made mankind. Therefore He has the right because of His sovereignty to destroy mankind. It's wrong for us because we didn't create life. Second, God is a holy and righteous judge who has to punish sin and rebellion. While it is His nature to be this He still shows mercy. The Bible has instances where God is perceived as this cruel and bloodthirsty deity. In the area of the Flood, mankind was extremely wicked and sinful. Fallen angels were having sexual relations with women and they had children that were even more evil. By the time of Noah, the world was polluted with these children and with evil people. After Noah had orders to build the Ark, people had the 120 years it took him to build it to turn from their evil ways or suffer from the Flood. They didn't listen and perished. There, God showed His mercy in giving them time to change and be saved. Another time is when God tells the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites in Deuteronomy 7. The Canaanites were far from being these innocent people. In fact no one is truly innocent. In the case of the Canaanites, they were violent, aggressive, warlike, vicious, and practised child sacrifice, incest, prostitution, and bestiality. They also tried to commit genocide on the Israelites. Unlike the people before the Flood they had about 400 years to change their ways. They didn't, so God used the Israelites to enact His judgment upon them. These and other instances show that while God is loving, compassionate, and merciful, He is also a sovereign, righteuos, and holy judge.

Answer 2

He is indeed a merciful and compassionate God, but people too often forget that He is also a God of judgment, a God who punishes sin and lawlessness.

If you read the Old Testament, He in a number of cases pleaded with Israel for hundreds of years to repent before He took action against them.

We punish lawbreakers when they break our laws, and some we execute if their crimes are great enough. Should God be any different? Why would people follow laws (God's or Man's) if there was no punishment for breaking them?

And sometimes He destroys people because of their wickedness as examples for others, as He did Sodom and Gomorrah. He destroyed those cities over 5,000 years ago, yet most everyone today has heard of them and knows why they were destroyed. And archaeologists have not only found those cities, they have verified that their destruction happened exactly as the Bible states.

The Flood was another example. The Earth was so corrupt and wicked at that time that God actually repented having made Man on the Earth. Yet in His mercy and compassion He spared Noah and his family when He could have wiped out Mankind completely, and started over.

And like Sodom and Gomorrah, the Flood is another enduring example of His righteous wrath against sin and lawnessness.

Unfortunately, too many people don't heed these examples, causing God to have to set more examples of His wrath.

Foxfire

Answer 3

.He is a merciful and compassionate God. It's interesting to me that when people do wrong they feel that God ,their parents or the State shouldn't do anything about it. And to do wrong and expect God to forgive you automatically without your doing any reparation for the wrong-doing is called Presumption of God's Mercy.And if you really read the Bible you will find that God only lowered the boom when he really had to.Take Sodom and Gomorrah for instants,when God came to Abraham and told him what he was planning on doing to the twin cities ,Abraham asked if the two angels that had been sent to Sodom found fifty just men would God spare the cities? God said He would.Then Abraham asked if twenty just men were found would He spare the cities? Again He would. If only five just men were found would he spare the cities? Again He would.But since only one just man had been found and he alone wasn't enough to save the cities God obliterated them.So you see God was willing to cut them some slack but they were found wanting.Or take Samson ,God blessed Samson with a great strength but Samson then blew it when he blabbed his secret to Delilah.God took away his strength and allowed him to be captured by the Philistines and blinded and after God felt Samson had been sufficently humbled He gave Samson back his strength.Even though, Samson died when he destroyed the Philistines temple ,the temple had to be destroyed by Samson because the Philistines sacrificed babies and small children to their god Baal.So God brought Samson and the temple together and the rest is history.Samson knew he would die and excepted his fate.But I think the best example of God's mercy is when the Hebrews wanted water and God told Moses to strike his staff against a rock and the people would have water , but Moses thinking about how ungrateful and whiny the Hebrews were despite everything God had done for them he struck the rock Twice and not once like God told him to,the water poured forth and the people drank but God punished Moses for what he had been thinking.God knew of course what ingrates the people were but it wasn't Moses's place to wonder why God put up them,God pretty much told Moses "Yours is not reason why yours is just to do as you are told ." And so Moses didn't get see the Promised Land. After all , you wouldn't expect the likes of Hitler,Stalin or Ted Bundy, to name just a few, to be in Heaven, now would you ?

Answer 4

He is a God of love and doesn't like seeing anyone die. However, as in the flood that you mentioned, the Bible says Noah was the only righteous man left on the earth. The rest of the world was filled with wicked men committing acts that were offensive to God. You must remember that God can read hearts, humans can't. So when He passed judgment on these wicked people, their crimes were so severe that it merited death. And it wasn't as if they weren't given a chance to repent. It took Noah 70 years to build the ark and he warned them that whole 70 years. I guess you can compare it today when some commits a "heinous" (wicked) crime, say murder. The punishment may likely be death to prevent this from happening again. To quote the scriptures again Romans 6:23 "The wages sin pays is death."

As a side note, rather than use the flood again to execute his judgment against wicked people who worshiped false gods (who were even sacrificing their children to them), for a while He used His chosen people, the nation or Israel to execute His judgment thru wars, etc.

Answer 5

That's the reason I'm agnostic.

And to those who claim God did it to help US.... you forget that what you're saying is basic HUMAN logic. If God truly was infallible and knew everything then He wouldn't have had to do any of that. He would've known that many of His creations would rebel and murder the faithful.

I don't believe God to be so in control of people as the bible states. I believe God is like a clock-maker, he built us then let us run. Only with an occasional winding.

Answer 6

"Is God compassionate, merciful, and omnipresent?" sure, sure, and specific. I do see what you're saying, nevertheless; you at the instant are not the only one to ask it, and that's a good question. you notice, the actuality of the situation is, is that He won't be able to tolerate the suffering of the souls in Hell. you will possibly be able to ask, then, "Then why are souls despatched to Hell?" first of all, Hell replaced into not created for the human soul. It replaced into created for the banishment of sin, and, as element of it, devil. Origionally, there replaced into no sin, for guy replaced into created in comparable to God. After the Tempting, nevertheless, Adam and Eve dedicated the 1st actual sin. That sin tainted humankind, leaving a mark of unique sin. God, being merciful and compassionate, forgave guy of its sin nevertheless the demise of God's purely Son, Jesus. Jesus died interior the placement of mankind, and took the sin for guy. So, those days, guy is left with a call: Do I take the path of humbleness and righteousness, the place, on the tip of my actual life, i visit be in Heaven with God perpetually? Or do I take the path of me, the place, on the tip of my life, i visit be cursing my very being? (the 2d element to comprehend is that Hell isn't fireplace and brimstone, neither is devil there--yet. Hell is the placement of eternal seperation from God, wherein there'll be a 'weeping and gnashing of enamel'.) So, on an identical time as Hell is real, and human beings are despatched to it, that's of the guy's very own decision. Did they settle for forgiveness? Or did they toss it aside?

Answer 7

God is a mystery. Mankind will never understand the nature of God. Mercy and compassion are only two of His characteristics, as they probably are with you. You love and you hate because you made in His image.

Answer 8

I do believe God didn't quite realize what He'd created, when He created us, you know. Then with Satan being ruler of the air, Satan really messed with things for God, being that he did get Eve to eat the apple, and the serpent to listen to satan, so I feel that when God flooded the earth, He simply did this to see how many people would listen to Noah!! But, unfortunately not many did, I think Noah & his family were pretty much on there own, wasn't it just them? Well, see the way I see it, just like with Sadam & Gahmorahh, (or however you spell it) God basically saw that alot of people were already full of the devil, and so there wasn't much he could do, that's why God sent the rainbow to promise not to ever flood the earth again. Because I feel the flood hurt God to see all of these people dieing that way. Because really God is a loving God, and doesn't want to hurt us, so this is why He finally sent His son, as a sin sacrafice, so that we could be forgiven to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And so he wouldn't have to do anymore devastating things to mankind again!! Because God didn't like the flood or blowing up Sadam & Gahmorah!! He's not this way, but satan through God for a loop, I really honestly believe that, when God created the heavens and the earth, then Adam & Eve, He wasn't expecting for satan to get in His way of all of His creation's, I honestly feel He was caught off guard, on that one!! So, God's punishment was all about the flood, and blowing up a city, until He realized I have to have something they'll be able to have a second chance with, something they can come to and repent from their sins with. What a better thing to do this with than my own SON!!! Doesn't this make better sense, a little bit? I always wondered about that myself, how could God be so harsh in the old testament!!! But, then I realized he gave satan His own little bit of power, of the same kind in which satan took it and could do anything he pleased with it, but see God didn't see how satan would want in on His own creation's, and toy with all that He'd created!! I honestly think God got toyed with a bit there, with his own powers he'd given to satan!! Because satan's mad at God for having him cast out of heaven!!! And God can't take back the power now, that satan's no longer reigning in Heaven!! Satan's ruler of the air, now, remember? So, this is just my own thoughts, I didn't get any of this from any written book somewhere or anything like that, just from wondering myself.. Smile!!! Great Question,hun!!! Smile!!!

Answer 9

Why do surgeons remove tumors?
Why do we euthanize diseased animals?
Why do we destroy bacteria with medicine?
Why did we kill Nazis in WWII?
Why do we clean out viruses in computers?
Why do we pull weeds from our vegetable gardens?
And why do we kill the insects that invade it before harvest?
Why do we set rat traps?

There is all sorts of destruction for various reasons. Just because you do not know the reason, doesn't make it unjust or necessary. Since God gave life in the first place, it is His prerogative to take it out if it threatens the health and safety of others.

Answer 10

God is infinitely holy, and perfectly just, and "we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things" (Rom 2:2). The question would be better be, "why does God continue to give grace to sinful man who habitually misuses the good things and disobeys the good laws He gave us for our good?" And which largely spurns the great salvation He offers man on God's own expense? But be assured there will be a day of reckoning, though presently the Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Pet 3:9)."

In the Bible, such destructive judgment as you refer to was preceded by much long suffering by God of nations who continued in immorality, and were essentially destroying themselves as well as evil-affecting others. Thus it was an act or mercy to remove them form the earth, which was a judgment only a just God could make. And usually they were warned of a long time to repent, and if they did, then they would not suffer the necessary punishment. For "As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek 33:11). Replace Israel here with America. Anyone who supposes America can continue to cast off true obedient faith in the Lord Jesus and to controvert the laws of God without incurring just judgment is sadly deluded.

"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." ( Psa 9:17).

But before final judgment comes there is corrective chastisement, first and especially upon those that know Him as they are more accountable and precious: "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Heb. 12:6); but also upon those that do not yet know Him "He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct?" (Ps. 94:10).

And the history of the Bible, in short, is that of man turning from the living and true God, and misusing the good things and disobeying the good laws he have us for own god, and thus hurting ourselves and others, and God calling man back to Him.

And yet forgiveness and salvation are neither cheap nor easy, but God provided it on His own blood-expense and righteousness. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation [final and perfect payment] for our sins." (1 John 4:10).

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened [resurrected alive] by the Spirit:" (1 Pet 3:18).

"To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43).

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36)

"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation" (Heb. 2:3).

(Acts 3:19) "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;"

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12)

Praise the Lord.