If God is so merciful and loving, why did He order Joshua and the Israelites to murder all those children?

Question

I'm sure this question has been asked before. But, if it doesn't immediately pop up in the search function when I'm typing up the question, I don't bother looking for it.

I didn't see the question the first time, but I'll bet the person that asked it then didn't get any satisfactory answers either.

Anyway, enjoy your drink.

I see I got a racist answer. That's pretty nauseating.

Answer 1

I love asking the JDubs this one at the door...it makes for a very interesting moment of silence as I close the door.

Answer 2

Hello Paradox, fundie here :)

Then in the Old Testament the Jews were the only people on earth that were God's People. Everyone else had rejected Him for other Gods.

God was bringing His people to the promised land and He had them with His help, to kill every man, woman and child.

He did not want them to take up with their Gods and their ways.

Modern Christians do paint God as some grandfatherly figure that looks down from above with so much love and compassion with tears of sadness rolling down His wrinkled cheeks. The God of the Bible is not that way at all.

This includes Jesus who is God.

Even then in the Gospels Jesus told His people the Jews not to go to the Gentiles, He was there then only for the children of Israel.

This makes many Christians mad but it is the truth, I hope this answered your question.

Have a nice day.

Answer 3

I notice that the fundies are suddenly nowhere to be found. This means you asked a very good question. The don't want to contemplate the answer, so they scuttle off and hide. The answer is that this atrocity, along with dozens more in the bible just as bad or worse....and all ordered by "god"....shows that "god" was anything but merciful and loving. He had no problem with children and babies being the victims of his vengeance.

Answer 4

I believe it is because the whole city of Canaan represented sin and unbelief (except for Rahab).

My notes say this: This story tells how God commissioned his people, under his servant Joshua, to take Canaan in his name out of the hands of the idolatrous and dissolute Canaanites (whose measure of sin was now full.

Answer 5

Read the OT laws on holy war. They state very clearly that you are to kill every living thing except the virgin girls. If they agree to surrender then you just make them all slaves, except the virgins of course.

Answer 6

Because He did not make the world for mixed breed CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL, and that is why HE ordered their total destruction, WHICH WAS NOT CARRIED OUT IN EVERY instance and it ALWAYS came back to cause bigger problems later. They are term "THORNS" if you care to research it in some of the passages they are warned of.....also these are the "thorn in the flesh" Paul speaks of having,,,, EDOMITE MOGRELS that had not been killed off and they had taken over the religious of pupit government offices in his day.
This is the ONLY answer that matters, AND NOTICE HOW MANY HATE the truth.

Answer 7

Unless I've been drinking a whole lot, I seem to recall answering this exact same question a few hours ago. *hic* but maybe I'm wrong.

Drink

I apologize. I didn't mean to ignore the question. The answer I gave to the last person was that this is yet another reason to be Pagan. Thanks for pointing it out.

Answer 8

You did not specify a verse that says children were killed.
If that is true, the children would have had to have been defiled; meaning they would have grown up with the same corruption as their parents. Because the word of God says that the curses of the wicked on passed down to the third and fourth generations.

Answer 9

shhhh that's the ''old God'', the N.T God is nice. don't upset him.