Why did God want to hurt people in the Old Testament?

Would it have been more merciful for God to kill Hitler as a child or to allow him to live into adulthood?

 

This goes back to the basic question. If God had total control in Heaven before creation why did He allow Satan to rebel and why did He allow him to continue to exist? Did God create evil?

 

Interestingly enough, so does God:

Exodus 23:31-33 31 "I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. 32 "You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. 33 "They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."

Deuteronomy 7:1 "When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3 "Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4 "For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. 5 "But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.

Numbers 33:55 55 'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. </font>[/QUOTE]Nothing beats the source does it?

 

Israel did not obey God and did not destroy their enemies the way God had commanded. That was a big factor that eventually led to them falling away to worship other gods. So that is why they did not remain pure; they disobeyed God to begin with. An example is in Josh. 9 with the Gibionite deception:

 

Then in Judges, less and less of the pagans are dealt with:

 

This led directly to worship of false gods:

I really suggest you get a good book on the Old Testament, like Gleason Archer's A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. It's not dry or hard to read, and it gives one a lot of insight into the OT&gt;

 

Double post. Sorry.

 

Ed, you're always good for comic relief.

Let's look at it from another angle. How could God take those same men, women and children along with all the other future men, women and children and send them to an eternal torture chamber of fire when the one true God was never revealed to them, not to mention never hearing the name of Jesus.

Perhaps if if we can come up with an answer to one we find the answer for both.

 

Have you not read Romans 1 and 2? God is revealed in the creation and in our having a conscience. God says that man is "without excuse" to deny Him.

So, do you not believe in hell?

Are you a universalist?

 

Marcia,

Great thoughts.

I had the privilege of taking OT Introduction with none other than Gleason Archer himself!

 

I agree with Marcia. The scripture she posted is the same one I was referring to in my reply to the OP.

I also still doubt that these people had never of God. Rahab the harlot, had obviously heard. If a harlot knew about God, even without fully understanding, what is/was there to prevent others from the same knowledge?

If you have something like 4 million people coming at you, aren't you going to find out why they are coming? The why is all about God in this case. I believe they knew and chose to turn away. I also believe God knew how these people were going to respond(in the future) and instructed Isreal on how to proceed(prior to it actually happening) with his knowledge of future happenings.

 

Ben,

Why not deal with my post on page one?

It's a starting point to answer your question, but you seem to have simply blown it off.

What is an all-knowing God required to do in regards to presenting the gospel to those whom he foreknows not to be in Christ?

You can ask, "Why did he create them if he knew they weren't in Christ?" But that's another topic.

He did create them. Now what?

If you knew a girl would reject your proposal for a date, would you be obligated to ask her out?

Enough information has been given to start you on your quest. Will you deal with this information, or are you going to ignore it?

 

Thanks, Paul33!

Wow. That must have been a great experience!

 

If what I said seemed like an attack, I heartily apologize.

It just sounded like you are either doubt hell exists or you can't accept it -- that's why I asked. I did not mean to imply you are a universalist. And I think it's fine to ask the questions (about hell, etc.).

There have been plenty of Baptists posting on the BB who do not accept some Baptist doctrines, so I don't think it is unusual for me to ask someone if they are a universalist even if they id themselves as Baptist. But I did not mean to imply this; I was sincerely wondering.

Please accept my apology for offending you or for implying something that is not true. I was probably jumping the gun.

 

I have several thoughts on this.
First - If you study the groups who were destroyed, you find that they were not just non-believers, they were tremendously dangerous to others, especially to God's people. Look at the story of Lot. The people around him were not just sinning, they were invading homes and demanding the right to rape strangers. Some of the groups destroyed were canabilistic, some participated in child sacrifices. One group made a habit of following the people of God and ambushing them, time and time again. Finally God said, "enough."

Second - I'm confused over why you assume these people had not heard the word of God. The stories are recorded as events that affected the prophets. It is safe to assume, and in some places it is recorded, that these prophets told the people and begged them to repent. When you read the accounts you often find people of other faiths acknowledging the power of Almighty God, but still refusing to obey Him.

Third - Remember that death of a body, in the eyes of God, is not what it is in the eyes of man. If someone continues to harm everyone around him, continues to harm the people of God, continues to ignore God - removing that person may be protecting those around that person from the person.

Also, I wonder why this nation began to feel that justice is cruel.

 

Ben W said:

"If God "knows" that people are not "In Christ", why allow their creation in the first place, knowing what their heinous fate is to be. What type of love for people is that? Specifically creating people to burn for eternity in hell?"

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Yes, it is a problem. An all-knowing God knows beforehand that potential persons that he desires to create will stubbornly reject the sacrifice of his Son on the cross for their sins, remaining under his wrath.

Yet for reasons beyond our understanding, he creates the universe anyway and sends his Son to die.

God has chosen to create a universe where the only way man can be redeemed from sin is by sacrificing his Son. And you don't think God is loving?

God gave man free will and then gave man the solution to the problem that free will caused. And man persists in rebellion of God. How can anyone blame God for man's persistant sin? Except to say, "Well, he shouldn't have created us if he knew we would sin."

But this is off topic.

 

God didn't specifically create people to burn in hell.

He created people in his image to fellowship with him for all eternity.

It is man that sins and dies, and God knowing it beforehand does not make him the direct cause of evil or death.

Man goes to hell because he chooses to.