Old Testament's God Is Not The God of Love - How Do You Prove it?

by will-be-apostate 15 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  will-be-apostate

  I was having a discussion with a brother about the following topic: If Psalms says

  " The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion." (New International Version)

  shouldn't we apply the same principle to the Old Testament, as it's clear that is full with violence, adultery, and all sorts of things we are not supposed to read or watch otherwise.

  I also told him about Richard Dawkins' opinion on the OT God which summerizes up my thoughts on the subject pretty well.

  The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.Basically what I want is answers, proofs that I could present him, because he said we would continue the debate in the near future.

  You all know the jw defense mechanism and how they have got answers for any questions and backdoors. I'll apprciate your help. Here are his main points:

  • The tribes from canaan were wicked beyond measure therefore they deserved to be massacred. Wasn't this a rightfull act?
  • If we grab out specific details from the context surely Dawkins' opinion reflects the truth. Then he called him - based on the same principle - "superficial, arrogant, full with prejudices, lacking logical competence and plagiarizes because he steals other's view on the subject.
  • Why would such a cruel god spare anyone?

  And his final argument:

  • The Bible is written the way it is so that those without deep interest to understand it won't understand its real meanig.

  I think there is a slight possiblity that he'll tell about me to the elders. His words are the poorest arguments I've evere seen; I only mentioned them because I want you to see the whole picture. I know that a lot of you have much more experience in debates like this then I have.

  So, how do you prove that the Old Testament's God is not the god of love?
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  Heaven

  How can anyone who is loving create evil?

  Isaiah 45:7: I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. - KJV
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  The tribes from canaan were wicked beyond measure therefore they deserved to be massacred. Wasn't this a rightfull act?

  .

  "I did not join the resistance movement to kill people, to kill the nation. Look at me now. Am I a savage person? My conscience is clear." -- Pol Pot

  .

  God is in good company. Tyrants throughout history have used the same skewed reasoning to justify genocides and other unthinkable atrocities.

  God is also a hypocrite. In the case of Canaan, He allegedly was so offended by the Canaanite's practice of child sacrifice/murder, the only logical "solution" he could think of was ordering the Israelites to wipe out every living thing in the region- including murdering the children.

  In reality, god isn't so much concerned about children being murdered by their parents---he's just offended when He is not the one doing the murdering.
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  designs

  Heaven- In Judaism God is all things, Christianity had a different concept, one of a personal Devil that had the evil side.
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  designs

  will- What is so 'loving' about the New god Jesus Matthew 25:46.
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  cofty

  Im on my phone when I get home I will post a link to the thread "Soldiers of Jah" where we examined those sort of arguments.
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  will-be-apostate

  Thanks cofty, that would be great.
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  cofty

  Here you go...

  If you browse through the thread you will see a lot of the usual apologetics being dealt with.
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  will-be-apostate

  Uh, that's a lot of pages. I'm on the 5th page now. Thank you for the link. There are some very useful reasonings in that thread.
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  Terry

  Time for a "head's up!"

  The Bible cheats!

  Words are like rubber bands.

  Meanings can be str-e-t-c-h-e-d so far the opposite meaning is embraced.

  OLD TESTAMENT:

  Deuteronomy 4:24

  For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me NEW TESTAMENT

  1 John 4:8

  New International Version (NIV)

  8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

  I Corinthians 14: 4

  4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.