"Comparative survey of churches and religions. AD 30 to 2200," names 19 major world religions, subdivided into 270 large religious groups, and many smaller ones. 34,000 separate groups have been identified worldwide among Christians alone.
These faith groups teach different belief systems. This naturally raises the question of where religious truth is to be found.
Many people regard their own denomination to possess total religious truth; and see other denominations to exhibit some error; other religions are considered to be in serious error, and some "cults" viewed as opposing the truth.
In the Old Testament God is recorded as punishing ancient Israelite individuals, and members of other tribes, for following the wrong religion, or deviating from "proper" religious practices. In some cases, the victims are viewed as having no right to continue living.
Israelites commit what would be termed genocides and "mass crimes against humanity" today.
God is LOVE. So WHY
2007-11-13 17:09:53 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Even in the NT, Gospel of John, "the Jews" are vilified and called the "sons of Satan"; and set the stage for the Nazi Holocaust of the mid 20th century.
Whats up with that?
My Jewish grandparents were robbed and murdered by German invaders to Poland, causing mom to run for her life!
I'm tired and grumpy at this moment, so I'm not in the mood to "wink" at these things.
1 Samuel contains accounts of genocides perpetrated by David and his men. Yet God calls him "a man after my own heart" in the chapter of heroesof faith in Hebrews?
I am asking a very hard question. Sorry to bring it up brothers, but this too is true!
I have admitted to poor behaviour, so I don't need an invasion of evangelistic unbelievers. Please take this seriously, or do something else!
I'm struggling with this God approved killing. How does this jive with "Thou shalt not kill"?
Is this a sign of God's wrath against the sins or man? is it meant to be a warning that folks do go the H?
2007-11-13 17:21:48 · update #1
Intolerance?...By whose standards?...humans? Do you honestly think that Gods ways of dealing with His own creation are wrong? How would you know what right from wrong is if you cannot understand the Truth of God and His plan for mankind?.......God's ways are different from man's. "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the LORD. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts'" (Isaiah 55:8, 9).
He wants mankind to know that sin produces horrible consequences and that, ever since the Garden of Eden, we have brought much grief on ourselves by rejecting His instructions. Although swayed by the corrupt and evil influence of Satan, human beings must take full responsibility for the consequences of their actions. The world could have been a place of peace, security and happiness if only man had chosen to follow God's ways rather than Satan's.
God is determined that we learn that lesson, painful though it may be. The Bible records that on many occasions He attempted to dissuade people from continuing in their evil ways. But the overwhelming majority have repeatedly rejected His commands, just as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
For example, after God delivered ancient Israel from Egyptian slavery, the Israelites made a covenant with Him to keep His commandments. But they reneged on their agreement.
Then God sent many prophets, whose messages are preserved for us in the Bible, to warn them and urge them to repent. "But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy" (2 Chronicles 36:16).
Instead of listening, they persecuted and often killed God's messengers. Through Isaiah God spoke of how they repeatedly spurned His offer of help. "I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people ..." (Isaiah 65:2).
Because they refused to respond, God sentenced them to national punishment. The Assyrian Empire conquered Israel and removed its people into captivity in the eighth century B.C. (2 Kings 17:5-8). The kingdom of Judah was subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon and removed into exile a little more than a century later (2 Chronicles 36:15-20).
Part of the nation of Judah returned eventually to its homeland and was there when Jesus preached to the descendants of Judah about five centuries after their return. When they heard Jesus' message commanding repentance and obedience, what was their reaction? The majority rejected Him as they had the earlier prophets. Then they killed Him!
On occasion God sent prophets to warn gentile nations. In all history we read of only one example of a non-Israelite people temporarily repenting of its sins en masse after God's warning. The prophet Jonah preached to the ancient city of Nineveh and told its residents, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" (Jonah 3:4). The king and the rest of the people did repent of their sins, and God spared them (verses 5-10). Later, however, they returned to their wickedness. As a result invading armies conquered them in 612 B.C.
The historical record shows that, even when God freely offered His help and guidance to nations, they customarily rejected them—just as Adam and Eve had done.
We're no different today. Mankind still rejects God's instruction. His Word—the Bible—is readily available throughout most of the world. Yet relatively few read it regularly, and even fewer obey it. Not only do they disobey its instruction, but increasingly, particularly among those who presume themselves to be intellectual, people hold the Bible in disdain. Even some religious leaders pay lip service to the Bible but dispute major portions of it. They pick and choose which parts they will obey and which they feel free to ignore.
Solomon aptly summed up the human condition when he wrote: "What is crooked cannot be made straight ..." (Ecclesiastes 1:15). Mankind has historically rejected God's instruction and continues to do so. Having rejected God's revelation, we have cut ourselves off from the only lasting solutions to our problems.
The result is a continuation of pain and sorrow among the nations. As a result, God's practice from the first century until now has been to call only a few individuals here and there out of "this present evil age" (Galatians 1:4) to become His faithful servants.
The rest of humanity gropes in the dark. They search for understanding and meaning in life but remain largely ignorant of the reasons we are plagued with so much suffering. "Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" is how Paul expresses it (2 Timothy 3:7). Duped by the devil and captive to sin, mankind as a whole is cut off from godly understanding and is the unknowing target of Satan's hatred and wrath (Ephesians 2:3).
Humanity consistently blames God for evil and suffering in the world. But it is not God who is to blame. The responsibility rests squarely on us for our decision to reject His guidance and choose a life of sin—and on Satan for his deception of humanity.
The good news is that God has not given up on mankind. Just as He allowed Adam and Eve the freedom to choose, so He lets the nations and the nations' inhabitants go their own way. He allows the world to suffer to teach us we cannot find lasting peace, security and contentment without Him.
We are learning the hard lesson that we cannot rightly govern ourselves apart from God and His laws. The eventual result of our efforts is that, just before Jesus returns to earth, humanity will teeter on the brink of annihilation. "If that time of troubles were not cut short, no living thing could survive" (Matthew 24:22, Revised English Bible).
This was Jesus' warning nearly 2,000 years ago. Only in recent times have we entered an age in which we literally possess the power to destroy the world. Leaders of government, science and religion believe that the only way we can avoid destruction is to establish a system of international cooperation.
Michio Kaku, scientist, author and television host, writes that the "sheer power of ... scientific revolutions will force the nations of the earth to cooperate on a scale never seen before in history." He adds: "In the background always lurks the possibility of a nuclear war, the outbreak of a deadly pandemic, or a collapse of the environment" (Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century, 1998, p. 19).
Christ prophesied that the nations, not surprisingly, will fail in their efforts to peacefully cooperate. He warned that warfare will not cease, but will increase (Matthew 24:6-8).
Suffering will not disappear; it will only intensify (verse 21-22).
God is allowing people to attempt to rule themselves even as they fumble in spiritual darkness. But because they have cast His commandments aside they cannot succeed. God will bring all people to realize they cannot achieve world peace and bring an end to misery and suffering without His intervention.
As the living and just God, our Creator will not allow an evil and unjust world to continue indefinitely. He will not allow us to annihilate ourselves. He will send Jesus to earth, this time to rule as King of Kings (Revelation 19:16). The Messiah will intervene at the hour of man's gravest crisis (Daniel 12:1).
In effect, God must tear everything down and start over. Once the worldwide destruction described in Revelation 6-19 and other biblical prophecies has run its course, Christ will intervene to establish a kingdom of righteousness and begin to rectify the injustice and unfairness in the world.
2007-11-13 17:58:04 · answer #1 · answered by TIAT 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A question to point you in the direction of things you don't seem to want to face - what do you think should happen to those who commit heinous crimes against humanity?
If you say that man kind is evolving into a higher life form and that without religion there will be no more crime nor heinous crimes against humanity, then you have bought the lie that those who are striving toward a new world order have told. The lie is in the fact that when and if a new world order were to become a reality it would come after a genocide that would virtually wipe out 5/6 ths of the world's population and be followed by a totalitarian tyranny that would deprive every individual except for the elite few of all rights and freedoms.
God is love, but he is also holy and just.
If you only see God as being the god of your reasoning, then your god is not the one true and living almighty God.
2007-11-13 17:25:36 · answer #2 · answered by hisgloryisgreat 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You're talking about a minor desert war deity from 6,000 years ago. The whole point of YHWH was to justify killing anyone who wasn't a Jew, and establish a patrilineal system of inheritance that would control whatever they could steal from areas they invaded. The fact that people are still killing in 'his' name should tell you something. I don't know where the idea that 'god is love' but it has nothing to do with the reality of the origins of the Abrahamic religions.
2007-11-13 17:27:42 · answer #3 · answered by Morgaine 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
God created humans to be under his rulership. He is the creator of all humans, starting with Adam and Eve. When Adam & Eve disobeyed God and rejected his Laws, they were cast off and sentenced to Death. Today everyone has the same choice, to obey God and his Laws (and set out in the Bible), or you sentence is Death. When God kills others in the Bible it is because they have disobeyed him. He has never or will ever kill innocent people who do choose to worship him.
2007-11-13 17:51:00 · answer #4 · answered by nvmel775 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God of OT is Law: awful lawful.
God of NT is Grace: grace us.
It does not take much to provoke the law.
Grace neither tempts nor can be tempted.
Law Love(God) can get pretty mean.
Grace Love(God) is the perfect sort.
2007-11-14 04:10:58 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is the result of the primitive superstition that underpins the bible and christian faith.
Most of us have progressed since those stories were written thousands of years ago.
Can you imagine relying on medical knowledge or technology that hadn't progressed for five thousand years
2007-11-13 17:29:24 · answer #6 · answered by brainstorm 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The old testament God isn't love, for one. Two, it is still book written 2k years ago. People evolve, so no reason to think God doesn't.
2007-11-13 17:14:29 · answer #7 · answered by blibityblabity 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Fear is an easier way to convince people to behave then love is. At least in large groups. On an individual level, it is the other way around.
2007-11-13 17:15:17 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 3⤋
you must have skipped the good stuff, the love chapters and how the story ends.
Go back and read again, you are missing out.
2007-11-13 17:14:59 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
They were practicing for the present day
2007-11-13 17:19:14 · answer #10 · answered by J.C. 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
NONE of the Biblical God's actions are 'love', IMO. I could NEVER worship a sadistic, immoral, killer who drowned, plagued, and slaughtered millions (more than Hitler), conspired to have his own kid/self brutally beaten and killed, and repeatedly COMMANDED his followers to kidnap, rape, hurt, and kill others.
2007-11-13 17:13:55 · answer #11 · answered by gelfling 7 · 2⤊ 4⤋