Defence/explanation of this?

Question

However much I love Christians, and accept their beliefs and ways, I must say I strongly disagree with this I found.

"Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim and against the people of Pekod. Yes, march against Babylon, the land of rebels, a land that I will judge! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them, as I have commanded you," says the LORD. "Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction". (Jeremiah 50:21-22 NLT)

Surely this can't be right.
I'm checking right now whether it's a genuine Bible quote, but feel free to answer with your interpretations.

Okay it came out genuine. I still cannot accept this for myself, though I don't hold it against anyone who does. As long as no-one tries to stage a repeat of this utterly disgusting genocide. Sorry Bush, but you'll have to try harder for me to not forgive you.

I'm aware of my being iso-whatyacallit, but to be fair this is how the Bible quoters among Christian users work too.

So glad I don't believe in this. If I did, I'd be absolutely sh***ing myself in fear of 'judgement day'. But that's just me.

I've noticed there's allegedly a difference between the OTT and the NT. I'll have a browse and hope not to dig anything up. But I already fear the worst, and I genuinely have sympathy for those who are born into this way of life.

I know it's generally loving, but I'm seeing a different side that isn't pretty. I hope that you all understand I'm not trying to earn brownie points with the Atheists in this, I'm being indifferent and open-minded.

I actually disagree with a lot of the Atheist answers to this, but like I always say, I'm not one to deny a person their beliefs.

Answer 1

Retro, the Bible is chock FULL of genocide and killing of non-believers. And the NEW testement is full of the THREAT of the very same thing. Read Revelations. ALL non-believers will be killed. SOLEY because they ARE non-believers. Wheter they are GOOD poeple or not is irrelevant, they're non-believers and do NOT accept the "Word of God", therefore they are to be killed. According to the Bible the entire poplulation of the Erath was destroyed except for a tiny handfull of "beievers". Two entire cities were destryoed except for ONE man and his daughters. Yet of those who were saved from these GOD-made disasters not a single ONE EVER lived up to the GOODNESS that was ascribed to them. It wasn't long before Naoh's family began worshipping idols. Lot and his daughters were having sex in NO time at all. For an all wise and all knowing being, God sure was a blind fool for not seeing that those he "chose" were no better than those that he killed. Further reading of that Bible wil reveal that he gave Moses 10 commandments and yet it was GOD, himself, who proceeded to violate almost every single one of those "rules" of morality. He killed, he stole the lands and property of those he killed, he coveted those properties fo those that he killed in order for his "chosen" to take possesion of after he killed them, He covetred the wife of Joseph, impregnated her with his OWN child, the list just goies on and on. For humans it's a sin to be jeaous, yet HE'S a jealous God, It's a sin to be vengeful, yet HE'S a vengeful God, it's a sin to be vain, yet HE's so vain that HE has to be the center of attention, It's a sin to be Prideful, yet HE has to be the one to be glorified all the time. I have a lot of problems with this God, Jehovah of the Bible. I find it amazing to see how so many folks can actually see all of this as something to be admired, loved, and worshipped. If heaven is populated by people who think that sort of behavior is not only acceptable but to be looked upon as a GOOD thing, then I freely choose Hell, at least I know that there will be GOOD people there. Yes a bunch of very bad people too but there are bad people on the Earth NOW so there'd be NO change whatsoever, I'd just hang out with the GOOD folks.

Raji the Green Witch

Answer 2

Retro, I have read both. In the OT I noticed that God could be incredibly vengeful and He like to wage a lot of wars. Of course, if you look at this from a weird perspective, He was working on hooking up His chosen people with their own land. To do that, He had to clean house a bit. One way to look at it. Another would just be that He was a God of war.

In the NT, Jesus was all about the love. The war that was waged in the NT was the hierarchy of the Jewish people against the power Jesus had acquired through His life, and the following that He had. But it did not stop Him, and He continued to love the people. I think that is why I ended up becoming a baptized Christian -- it was always about the love. That really moved me.

Answer 3

The difference between God in the old Testiment and the New is staggering and has led to some very interesting theories that don't need to be explored here.

I don't know this verse, but God destroyed cities, rained plagues upon peoples and personally drowned all but a handful of the world's population. If my memory serves me, he even punished David for letting his wives pray to their old gods.

A little war is nothing by comparison, really.

Answer 4

If that is a true quote from the Billie I cannot say but it correlates perfectly with Christian and their vision of others. All their bible preaches it to slaughter in the name of God.
If we think that in ancient times the followers of that God were relatively small, actually small tribes they had to support conversion or the killing of infidels so they could populate the taken land and extend their power. It makes sense, not that I'm saying it's right.
However it may be, Christian have adopted that view, they fear God and praise violence. I couldn't be happier of having left it all behind me.

Answer 5

God did many things in the old testament that would be frowned upon by many people. But before Jesus' sacrifice God was wrathful, afterward forgiving. I myself do not much care for some of the things that God did, but I am just a human, and ultimately can not understand his plan.

Answer 6

The OT god did sh** like that all the time, and he did it to lots of peaceful civilizations just because they weren't kissing his big white a**, and bc they worshiped Goddesses, what a lot of nerve they had not bending knee to him!

The bible is full of atrocities like that. Christians conveniently ignore them, claiming that everything changed with the New Testament and all the joy and happiness came forth with their savior, another bunch of nonsense.

Answer 7

You're engaging in "Isogesis". That is, isolating one scripture to prove some point, and not balancing it out against the totallity of the Scriptures. This practice has been the cause of many bad things, such as the justification for slavery, racism, not to mention different Christian groups attacking each other.

Answer 8

So God commanded his followers to destroy the unbelievers in the land? Big deal? What do you think will happen when Jesus returns? The unbelievers will be wiped from the face of the earth. I have no problem with this....
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God never said that death was going to be peaceful or pretty
Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience.

Our "civilized" world finds this barbaric, how could God be soooo MEAN?!?!? Face facts, God is a loving God, but He is a jelous God, and we would do well to not provoke His wrath.

Answer 9

That one is MILD in comparison to some others.
Honestly, read the bible with an open mind. You'll find it the most violent, racist and vile piece of literature since Mein Kamph.

Answer 10

God is a killing machine, through the Bible's own words. There's no two ways about it--even if you only count the places where the amount of people he killed (or were killed by direct divine order) is numbered explicitly, God's body count is over two MILLION. Don't believe me? Check out my source.

(every thumbs down is a knee-jerk reaction from someone who clearly hasn't thoroughly read the Bible)