It sounds rediculous, doesn't it?
Jehovah promised the Jews the land of canaan that was inhabited by many tribes. He had the power to give it to them peacefully but instead got them to commit genocide, rape and pillage and destruction.
What kind of mentality promises something then tells you to scrape for it like rabid hyenas? The Jews made their God as cruel as the Nazis - racist, prejudice, genocidal, intolerant, superiority complex, warped sense of justice and the list goes on.
Why did Jehovah make Jews kill for the Promise Land?!!!!
by Spectrum 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Spectrum
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luna2
Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense does it, Spec. I think the standard religious answer is that they wouldn't have appreciated it as much if they didn't have to "work" for it. I don't buy it.
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blondie
Watchtower weasel words:
*** g97 4/22 p. 3 Killing in the Name of God ***
Some try to justify today’s religious wars by noting that God approved of the killing of Canaanites by ancient Israelites. Yet, that is no justification for professed Christians to wage war today. Why? Because the Israelites were directly instructed by God to act as executioners of his righteous judgments against demon-worshiping peoples, whose worship included gross sexual immorality and child sacrifice.—Deuteronomy 7:1-5; 2 Chronicles 28:3.
So were the Canaanites the only non-Jews worshipping demons, who were grossly immoral sexually and sacrificed children? No, then why only the Canaanites? Why then did Israelite soldiers themselves kill the Canaanite children?
(Deuteronomy 2:34) And we went capturing all his cities at that particular time and devoting every city to destruction, men and women and little children. We left no survivor. . .
An evidence that the wars of ancient Israel were no ordinary conflicts is the miraculous nature of the victories that God gave the nation. For example, the ancient Israelites were once directed to use horns, jars, and torches—hardly instruments of classic warfare! On another occasion singers were positioned at the front of an Israelite army that was facing an overwhelming force of invading armies from several nations.—Judges 7:17-22; 2 Chronicles 20:10-26.
But wasn't that the exception rather than the rule? Israelite soldiers went through and killed every living thing. Does that mean no Israelite soldiers died in God-approved wars? (remember Uriah the Hittte?) If God was on their side why did some Israelite soldiers die? Remember the account of the angel killing 185,000 Assyrian soldiers? No soldier died then, why not a similar miracle in other wars?
Blondie (inquiring minds want to know)
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Spectrum
Luna,
"I think the standard religious answer is that they wouldn't have appreciated it as much if they didn't have to "work" for it."
LOLOLOLOLOL!!!
Amazing what people will believe. I don't buy it either -
Spectrum
Blondie,
the WTS quote you highlighted made me cringe,
"Some try to justify today’s religious wars by noting that God approved of the killing of Canaanites by ancient Israelites. Yet, that is no justification for professed Christians to wage war today. Why? Because the Israelites were directly instructed by God to act as executioners of his righteous judgments against demon-worshiping peoples, whose worship included gross sexual immorality and child sacrifice.—Deuteronomy 7:1-5; 2 Chronicles 28:3."
I can't believe I ever believed these shmacks. -
VM44
Genocide was required so that there could be no decendents from the original dwellers that could make a claim to the land in the future.
Makes everything nice and legal.
--VM44
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TheListener
It's something I never understood and still don't.
The Israelites didn't just kill soldiers but they killed women and children too (as Blondie pointed out). That's genocide (as others pointed out).
Why was there no preaching work? Oh that's right based on the Jericho account when the prostitute said the people had heard of the Israelites and knew Jehovah would give them the land (Joshua 2:8-13). In essence then there was a preaching work. The canaanites had heart of God's greatness and miracles and would either repent, like Rahab, or die like almost everyone else.
Why didn't the Israelites actually finish off the Canaanites? Why did they leave pockets of them? Why didn't the Philistines get finished off?
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Sad emo
The (general) theological answer is that God's holy, seperate/set apart people had to live on holy, set apart land - ritual uncleanliness was 'contagious' - so all the local inhabitants and livestock plus property had to be destroyed or 'devoted to the Lord'. By destroying everything there, the Israelites redeemed the land from all the sinful and unclean practices which had occured there as well as putting in a safeguard for pure worship of Jehovah.
(Kinda like what's going to happen at the big A when everyone and everything not part of Jehovah's true organisation will be destroyed so there's only pure worship left.)
The Israelites disobeyed the command to devote everything, allowing some small tribes to remain and thus were 'punished' later on when the remainders built up strength to fight back and also corrupted the pure worship.
... emo doesn't think it sounds very fair either ...
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Gopher
From an unbiased reading of the Hebrews' own chronicles, it is evident they were no better than the other middle eastern tribes and nations, killing in the name of their God. Because it was done in the name of Jehovah, that evidently makes everything all right.
Supposedly the Canaanites were so evil and depraved, they "deserved" to die a violent death.
*LARGE leap of faith: If the Scriptural accounts are true, one angel can kill 186,000 of God's enemies in one night while they are sleeping.
So why couldn't that same angel wipe out the bad Canaanites overnight, and then make the land safe from wild animals, etc., so that "God's people" could take over the promised land?
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VM44
There is also the possibility that these stories were written hundreds of years after the battles of conquest in order to provide justification for the Jewish ownership of the land. --VM44