by steve2 16 Replies latest jw friends
Have Biblical apologists satisfactorily explained the blood-drenched Biblical passages in which Jehovah orders his people to wipe out every living soul - young, old, men, women, child, infirm - in the territory they're told to invade?
Who needs bin Laden when you've got Jehovah? Or is Jehovah excused because he's truly mightier, like, because he's the creator he can call the shots, no matter how much and who's blood is shed?
I've yet to read any modern day explanation of Biblical genocide.
This is exactly what I'm having a serious problem with right now, no one can explain it except that some Christians might say that "well those people were evil anyways" which is just some evasive answer that basically means they don't know or can't explain it. Jehovah was a god of war, there was a book references in the Old Testament called the Book of the Wars of Jehovah. God had so many wars it filled a book? God told the Israelites to kill every living thing, including women, children, and animals. Hm, sounds more like Jehovah was some hate-filled human leader of those Israelites who had a serious vendetta against certain nations. Just look at the hate-filled and war torn middle eastern lands, that very same thing is still going on in Gods name, but no one Christian really believes it is God doing it... do they? But they sure as shoot believe in the Bible, including the Old Testament. Why should anyone believe in Moses, Abraham or anyone in the OT who spoke and performed atrocities in God's name when they don't believe it today when it happens right in front of their eyes by a contemporary group? Maybe one day all the religious killing and conflict in the middle east will be added to the Old Testament and it too will be God in action.
Yes, I think it is rich of so-called neutral, "pacifist" Christian groups to condemn the bloody-mindedness of "worldly" nations and governments when those nations are probably closer to the war-mongering nature of the Biblical god of armageddon than the pacifist Christians are!
The best justification, if you like, for violence, is sheer might: Whoever's toughest or biggest wins and thus, is able to call the shots. Thus, Jehovah of the Hebrew Scriptures and the book of Revelation (a terrible blood-soaked clarion cry of vengeance more in keeping with the Hebrew than Greek scriptures) is able to justify his use of violence whilst simultaneously sentencing to death every living human who cannot accept this mind-boggling hypocrisy.
But, then, if you take the view, that the Jehovah of the Bible is a human invention, it makes greater sense; namely, the gods we invent reflect our own amibvalence towards violence (i.e., if it can be justified, it's perfectly okay)!
kill em all let god sort it out.
wait a minute he told us to kill em.
Doesn't seem right to me but better do it wanna stay on his good side you know.
Things like that got me to rethinking religion and the Bible. Doesn't it seem like the bible is very people serving? Someone says "Jehovahs says. . . .", the whole nation does what they are told and God gets the credit or the blame. Maybe that guy who spoke for God just didn't want to take the blame? And figured he would get any credit anyway. I dont know. Really makes me wonder if God (as we think of him ) IS just invented by men for their convenience? If so, I wish they would have invented a nicer one. I think the NT shows some serious improvement, but it is SO different that it makes one wonder if God needs a shrink or something!
Genocide of the absolute grossest godless, yes (and only the Lord has the right to decide about who those will be). But don't fret until you get to experience it first-hand. Before it's all over, in not all that many more years into the future, the world will be saturated with a full-fledged openly-occult society once again which includes pedophelia, public orgies, no morals, no ethics whatsoever, anything goes (the handwriting is already on the wall), forced occult/luciferian initiations, etc. Pure sleeze -- and worse -- will prevail. Wait until then and have a first-hand taste of it for three and a half years, and see if you might then appreciate some "divine war-God interference."
Of course if you enjoy sleeze, occultism, sexual madness, and a godless society, then you will have a field day of pure bliss!
Either way, it's coming... and NOT because the Lord WANTS IT that way nor is HE the one bringing it about, but it's the godless people themselves [and those who are manipulating society to this end] who will bring these conditions about.
And by all means, DON'T BELIEVE anything I say, not for a minute. Just carry on as is. And just wait and see.
/abbagail
Of course if you enjoy sleeze, occultism, sexual madness, and a godless society, then you will have a field day of pure bliss!
Either way, it's coming... and NOT because the Lord WANTS IT that way nor is HE the one bringing it about, but it's the godless people themselves [and those who are manipulating society to this end] who will bring these conditions about.
And by all means, DON'T BELIEVE anything I say, not for a minute. Just carry on as is. And just wait and see.
The way I see it, the pendilum swings back and forth. If God gives people free will this is how it is. If God wants robots he can have it any way you want him to have it. Maybe you would be happy living in a Moslem country? What are you going to do? It would have been something if there was a god called Jehovah and armegeddon came in 1975 but it didn't. It would have been nice if the generation of 1914 hadnt passed a way but they did. If like you say, its coming grab your but and hang on. Live till you die. If you believe in the bible then it says God is your refuge. So you shouldnt be upset. God should give you the peace that surpasses all understanding. Maybe people dont embrace God because this is the information age. People see pain, sickness and suffering, and war and God doesnt intervene. So why should people look to God? People are going to look to whatever can solve there problems today.
Biblical passages in which Jehovah orders his people to wipe out every living soul - young, old, men, women, child, infirm - in the territory they're told to invade?
Its a shame that God dealt with people who he didn't approve of like this (if the biblical stories are true). Because i think a lot of religious people today use the Old Testament accounts as an excuse or justification for their Hate filled behaviour.
LFCV
One strange thing is that the main Bible "genocide" (i.e., the conquest of Canaan as prescribed in the Torah and told in Joshua) never actually happened, as archaeology and linguistics show: the Israelites as a whole were not a foreign people to Canaan. It is widely acknowledged as a fiction, most of it was made up by the Judean community in the Persian era when it was actually threatened and harmless.
Even stranger to me is that Christians who are very uneasy with this "account" would rather cringe at its being a fiction than at their God actually ordering it and having it performed.
Of course fictions may kill, centuries or millenia later...
And by all means, DON'T BELIEVE anything I say, not for a minute. Just carry on as is. And just wait and see.
This was one of my JW grandmother's favourite lines when talking to people who didn't accept her interpretation of Scripture. I felt it was her way of getting her point across no matter what anyone else said. It's a little bit like the line parents use with their naughty children: E.g., "I've told you not to run on the footpath. If you slip and fall over and hurt yourself, you'll see what I mean...and don't come running to me then."
How persuasive is that? To fine out, just wait and see!!
