Comments on: How do we deal with the violence of our God? http://www.haroldshank.com/listening-to-his-heartbeat/how-do-we-deal-with-the-violence-our-god/ May your visit here be a BLESSING in your life Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:27:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: John Mitchell http://www.haroldshank.com/listening-to-his-heartbeat/how-do-we-deal-with-the-violence-our-god/comment-page-1/#comment-153 John Mitchell Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:23:45 +0000 http://www.haroldshank.com/?p=192#comment-153 If there really is a God, and there really is a choice to not accept his will or love, then unless we can by our own power create a third eternal reality - an option "C" on the “multiple choice final exam of life”, then the violence of the Old Testament is also the current reality we all face if we also reject God’s love. Some want a final question with only one possible answer. The idea that everything that started good, like you and me, will return to God because a loving God could never reject one of his own. The problem of course is that means there really never was any real free will. I never did have a real choice. And since God seems to be fair and just - even Satan himself would join us eternally as he was once good before he fell. This doesn’t sound like an existence I would want for eternity – too much like what I have now. While fear is not a motivator we currently use with much success, the fact that God involved Israel in the prosecution of these actions - against nations that had rejected God and embraced practices that would horrify even the most calloused atheist today tells us something interesting and loving about God. God believes we have a right to know the realities of our existence, the consequence of our actions. God educates Israel. By having the Israelite’s participate in the inevitable destruction of these people he showed the whole nation (and us) the realities of the decision to follow God or to follow others. Unfortunately, many times Israel finds itself suffering the same fate as others who reject God. This should not have been a surprise. We all have the choice to live protected and loved inside God's will, or to suffer the final fate of those who reject God and the realities of a question with only two possible answers. If there really is a God, and there really is a choice to not accept his will or love, then unless we can by our own power create a third eternal reality – an option “C” on the “multiple choice final exam of life”, then the violence of the Old Testament is also the current reality we all face if we also reject God’s love.

Some want a final question with only one possible answer. The idea that everything that started good, like you and me, will return to God because a loving God could never reject one of his own. The problem of course is that means there really never was any real free will. I never did have a real choice. And since God seems to be fair and just – even Satan himself would join us eternally as he was once good before he fell. This doesn’t sound like an existence I would want for eternity – too much like what I have now.

While fear is not a motivator we currently use with much success, the fact that God involved Israel in the prosecution of these actions – against nations that had rejected God and embraced practices that would horrify even the most calloused atheist today tells us something interesting and loving about God.

God believes we have a right to know the realities of our existence, the consequence of our actions. God educates Israel. By having the Israelite’s participate in the inevitable destruction of these people he showed the whole nation (and us) the realities of the decision to follow God or to follow others. Unfortunately, many times Israel finds itself suffering the same fate as others who reject God. This should not have been a surprise. We all have the choice to live protected and loved inside God’s will, or to suffer the final fate of those who reject God and the realities of a question with only two possible answers.

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