Well, Odie67, I think that guy probably did deserve to get his ass bit ! But, if you had the ability, would you have trasnformed your dog into a bear and tear the guy to pieces ? Look, some people really do need killin', I'm not arguing that.But generally speaking, they have to be pretty bad apples for it to get to that point, such people are a genuine threat to others and have no respect for life and that's one reason why the prisons are busting at the seams.And so in line with that some apolgists have tried to say that these weren't little kids at all but were actually a gang of people the same age as Elisha and represented a genuine threat to those in the surrounding region.Well, if that's really the case, why didn't the real writer of the Bible (God) provide such an explanation ? If He really made us then He knows how we think.The questions we have.The contradictions it creates.To say "just accept it on faith" as a good thing, is simply not good enough.To make an informed decision one must have adequate information.
A good parent before disciplining their child will explain what they're doing and why they're doing it.What the child did to deserve it and how it's supposed to help them.Additionally, the discipline must be in balance with the error or offense.
We have to make a decision on this account based on the presented information.No mention is made of Elisha being in any physical danger.We are told that he was mocked.Their mocking may have been profane, it may have been severely condemnatory or blasphemous against God.They may have been telling him that he was cursed by God and that they wanted him to go into the sky and disappear like Elijah.But, was it really necessary for the God who "everything that is my delight, I'll shall do", to tear to pieces 42 of them ? How about making all of them spontaneously crap their pants ? Or making them fall into a temporary coma ? Or any other number of things ?
Additionally, considering the "fact" that God's own Son suffered far, far worse than Elisha, and having not been granted his request from His own Father to "remove the cup from him", and still that One did NOT call for a curse upon the people, but rather forgiveness, even of an "evil doer" in his final moments.Would you not say that something is very, very wrong with this account and the concept of a loving Creator with unlimited ability ?
Does one believe what they believe because they think it's approved by God ? Or because of that which resides within us provides a moral compass between right and wrong ? We often seek to find justification outside ourselves when in fact we already know the answer.We become a product of our environment, including it's flaws and errors.How many evil acts have been committed because someone justified them by means of "higher thinking" or "enlightenment" ? It's quite amazing how much clearer things become when one removes a preconceived "God" from the picture and just looks at things for what they really are.
