Is God good and merciful?

[marco]

Often when we point out the destructive force that Yahweh is in the Old Testament we are told that we concentrate too much on his role as judge and punisher. We are reminded he is love and mercy in boundless quantities.

Is it right to ignore the dark side of Yahweh?

Does the bright side of Yahweh add up to a being who is infinitely merciful and loving?

[marco]

If we assume that as soon as the bears appeared the boys started to flee then it is also easily supposed that if 42 boys were mauled, then the gang was indeed far bigger than that and becoming a mob.

To deny GOD the right to protect HIS followers from the evils of false religion and HIS willingness to judge those who abhor HIM is the crux of the hatred of those who oppose HIM.

I made deductions from the printed story not from imagined extrapolations. Boys were killed for mockery: that is the story we are given. This tale is included to frighten folk into absolute submission. It has a place in primitive society but not in today's civilised world.

[liamconnor]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

It is not right to ignore anything. It is, however, right to be well-studied in a topic before behaving like one is an expert.

[marco]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

It is not right to ignore anything. It is, however, right to be well-studied in a topic before behaving like one is an expert.

To paraphrase Socrates, Liam, wisdom instils the knowledge that we are but fools.

Newton put it well: he was a small boy discovering a bright pebble or two while all unexplored the vast ocean lay before him.

In asking if God is merciful, one is combing the pages of the Bible to see instances of his mercy. There are many instances where he's not nice. That is the point of the OP, not to make unwarranted claims of expertise. If we display our Socratic folly, then no doubt a wiser head will direct us. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. Or as the Romans said: Vivere est discere - to live is to learn. Go well

[1213]

You are considering the wrong question. We are discussing the killing of children for some trivial misdemeanour. If one's religious belief allows one to see this as benevolent, then that religious belief is utterly wrong.

I think it is wrong and baseless assumption that it was just because of some trivial misdemeanor.

…We need no God to tell us this.

Then why people don’t normally seem to live so, unless there is some benefit for them?

[marco]

I think it is wrong and baseless assumption that it was just because of some trivial misdemeanor.

Here is the passage:

23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!� 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. 25 And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.


Boys mock. Elisha curses them. Bears devour the boys.

There are no baseless asumptions.

…We need no God to tell us this.

Then why people don’t normally seem to live so, unless there is some benefit for them?

I cannot explain selfishness. Can you? I think our world would be wonderful if people looked after people. Plane journeys might be less worrying.

[1213]

23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!� 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. 25 And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

Boys mock. Elisha curses them. Bears devour the boys.

Yes, but the actual reason for the death is not really said, only what happened.

[Atlastitsdone]

Often when we point out the destructive force that Yahweh is in the Old Testament we are told that we concentrate too much on his role as judge and punisher. We are reminded he is love and mercy in boundless quantities.

Is it right to ignore the dark side of Yahweh?

Does the bright side of Yahweh add up to a being who is infinitely merciful and loving?

In my opinion God is both. People tend to ignore the dark side of him because it is fear inducing and leave people with bad emotions. One's that do face that and accept it, they will begin to see things differently. There are parables the Son J.C have left and those parables are always interchanging and depend on how they view life infact!

[marco]

Yes, but the actual reason for the death is not really said, only what happened.

If we are not meant to make the obvious deductions, the story is rendered meaningless. If the boys were, unknown to us, disciples of Satan, then the story is misleading. All we can do is read the narrative and make logical conclusions.

The message is that prophets are protected by God and those that mock them will suffer, even children.

[marco]

Often when we point out the destructive force that Yahweh is in the Old Testament we are told that we concentrate too much on his role as judge and punisher. We are reminded he is love and mercy in boundless quantities.

Is it right to ignore the dark side of Yahweh?

Does the bright side of Yahweh add up to a being who is infinitely merciful and loving?

In my opinion God is both. People tend to ignore the dark side of him because it is fear inducing and leave people with bad emotions. One's that do face that and accept it, they will begin to see things differently. There are parables the Son J.C have left and those parables are always interchanging and depend on how they view life infact!

A humanly constructed God will certainly manifest good and bad traits. He will be jealous, angry, brutal and demanding but helpful and kind to those who honour him. But even with his most loyal servants he can demostrate cruelty, as with his denying Moses entry to the promised land for reasons trivial to us.

Christ's parables seem to be millions of miles away from the being portrayed in the OT; he introduces us to a Father, indulgent, patient and keen to bestow blessings. It would seem he's painting a completely different God that better accords with his message. Christ introduced not a new covenant but a new God. In the OT God speaks loudly for himself; in the NT all he says is a phrase or two in praise of Jesus. What a transformation from selfishness to caring dad!

[alexxcJRO]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

It is not right to ignore anything. It is, however, right to be well-studied in a topic before behaving like one is an expert.

There are countless passages where Christians’s beloved god: Yahweh inflicts or orders the Israelites to inflict countless pain, suffering and death to countless children, infants; punishes or orders the Israelites to punish the adults together with the children, infants.

The children, infants die in many horrific ways: drown, killed by sword, killed by plague, burned to death and so one.

You don’t need to be an expert to know Yahweh, the deity presented in the Bible is a malevolent, evil being.

You just have to know a few definitions and have your empathy functioning properly.