Why did God kill children?

by brotherdan 185 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  PSacramento

  Thanks Gladiator :)

  It is very hard for me even now, knowing what I know, to reconcile these things and when I was younger it was impossible, I can't tell you how many times I yelled with rage at God for letting innocent children suffer !

  Adults? fine, its our fault and our problem, there is no need for God to protect us and keep us safe and certainly no need for God to fix the mess We make, but kids?

  No, there is something just wrong with God not protecting those that can't protect themselves, there is something wrong with an all powerful God that kills children, that kills "innocent" people, that sends floods and plagues that kill indiscrimenintly, something VERY wrong indeed.

  I mean, if I was God wouldn't I at least protect those that can't protect themselves ???

  These were questions that I asked, that I DEMANDED answers for from God and I demanded with anger and attitude to boot !

  Pride does indeed, goeth before the fall.
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  Which is more heinous or more humane, physically killing children outright or killing them mentally, morally, emotionally, and, yes, sometimes physically over a period of time?

  Do you think any Israelite family would have loved and nurtured the children of their enemies? In my opinion, God, in His infinite wisdom, did those children a favor by sparing them future suffering.

  Syl, it would seem that God, in His infinite wisdom, both 'physically killed children outright' AND killed them "mentally, morally, emotionally", too. This is just one example in which the enemy children were to be taken "as plunder", which was the "future suffering" I think you mention above:

  Deuteronomy 20:10-14 (Today's New International Version)

  10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. 11 If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. 13 When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. 14 As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies.
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  Who are we to sit in judgment of God Almighty when, on a daily basis, we allow children and adults to suffer and die needlessly? If we have the power to put a person on the moon, surely we can care for those who need it most!

  Syl...... one reason I left the WT is because they claimed to be God's channel of communication. For them to claim such a position, I felt they should be held to a higher standard than a typical Joe Schmoe. If they want to hold that title, fine! But I expect them to get their crap right. You did too, yes?

  In the same vein, I would expect God's standards to FAR surpass our own. The whole "god's ways are higher than ours" is a great line to whitewash everything from condoned rape to slavery to the death of children but it would make much more sense if God, being the epitome of love, were more LOVING or MERCIFUL than me since I'm well below the epitome of love. It's not "his ways are higher and lower than ours", they're just supposed to be higher.

  Really what it comes down to for me is removing presuppositions before we start using the "who are we to judge God" line. When I honestly suppressed my childhood presupposition that the bible is from god, I realized that the contortionist feats I'd used to rationalize a god of love doing horrible things.... was simply me living in denial.
• 

  snowbird

  Context, SBC.

  Let's take up with verse 15.

  Deauteronomy 20:15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

  16 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will ... NIV

  The Israelites were given permission to enslave the women and children of distant cities. Every breathing thing in the immediate cities was to be put to death.

  Those ones from distant cities who were enslaved were to be treated compassionately.

  Research it.

  Syl
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  Syl, the context argument does not minimize the issue here. Children were STILL either enslaved or killed.

  • Deuteronomy 20:10-14: children taken "as plunder"
  • Deuteronomy 20:15: children killed ("every breathing thing")

  A god who commands the slaughtering of innocent babies and children is not a god of love.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK7P7uZFf5o
• 

  snowbird

  *sigh*

  From. God's. Standpoint. No. One. Is. Innocent.

  We all became transgressors and died in Adam's loins when he disobeyed the stated command of YHWH.

  Syl
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  I mean, if I was God wouldn't I at least protect those that can't protect themselves ???

  These were questions that I asked, that I DEMANDED answers for from God and I demanded with anger and attitude to boot !

  Pride does indeed, goeth before the fall.

  Psac, have you ever noticed the parallel between the WT Society and the Bible? Both focus on controlling the masses. Both are very good at what they do. Neither should be questioned, lest you fall victim to pride. How that stifles logic and reason, eh?

  I'm sorry you didn't reach the more likely conclusion when you realized how inhumane it would be for a God of love to supposedly kill children. Why demand answers from a supposedly omniscient, benevolent being... before conducting an unbiased study of the contradictions and asking how you know your source of information about God is even accurate?
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  *sigh*

  From. God's. Standpoint. No. One. Is. Innocent.

  We all became transgressors and died in Adam's loins whe he disobeyed the stated command of YHWH.

  *sigh*

  I used to think that too, Syl. Back when I was a JW and kept my critical thinking in a shoe box under the bed.

  I dont' mean to get off the topic but I would like to address your argument with a quote from Thomas Paine:

  If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threatens to
  put me in prison, another person can take the debt upon himself, and
  pay it for me; but if I have committed a crime, every circumstance
  of the case is changed; moral Justice cannot take the innocent for the
  guilty, even if the innocent would offer itself. To suppose Justice to
  do this, is to destroy the principle of its existence, which is the
  thing itself; it is then no longer Justice, it is indiscriminate
  revenge.

  If you remove your presupposition, I think you'd agree that for a couple to sin and their kids to have to pay for it (in a perfect justice system) is ridiculous. Unfortunately, this will return to the circular logic of "we can't presume to judge God's just ways" and so on....

  Again, the parallel's between the WT Society and the Bible are stunning sometimes. And yet it makes sense since the WT is steeped in scripture.
• 

  snowbird

  If you remove your presupposition, I think you'd agree that for a couple to sin and their kids to have to pay for it (in a perfect justic system) is ridiculous.

  The Apostle Paul's argument in Romans chapter 5 settled my doubts.

  Even if I didn't believe in a Creator, his logic is undeniable.

  Syl
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  What doubts did you entertain, Syl? I'm curious.

  Paul's reasoning used to be undeniable to me as well, but only because it was introduced to me before any other logic. It was the first explanation I'd heard so I adopted it. But now that I can think without being bound to my presupposition, it's not so undeniable.