(April 26, 2017 at 12:54 pm)Chad32 Wrote:(April 25, 2017 at 11:57 pm)SteveII Wrote: If there is a God who created everything--and he very much expects his creation to behave, what part of that leads you to believe that he does not have the right to judge someone and take their life? You seem to be saying that God did not have the right to judge them and take their life because the right thing to do was wait for someone to die of some other cause and then judge them? What would make the former less 'right' than the latter? Do you understand how insignificant a human lifetime is to an eternal God? It does not even register.
I don't believe someone has the right to kill someone else, just because person A is person B's creator. That's why we have child protection services. As for judgments, this is the guy who had a man stoned to death for picking up sticks on the wrong day of the week. Killed children for things their parents did. Told people that slavery, mass murder, and rape is ok, within certain boundaries, but two men having consensual sex is worthy of death. The morality of the bible is skewed. What does he do to try to improve society, besides kill people, or put minor restrictions on things that most people in modern society have abolished after the enlightenment?
His judgments and actions don't make sense in a world where the more developed nations no longer have kings and emporers that can do as they please, with no checks and balances. Supposedly he created the world, and our ancestors. It's said he can count the hairs on our heads, yet he doesn't know we can't control our thoughts, and that a healthy sexual relationship is important for our mental and physical wellbeing, instead of just being a way to make more of us. Why should he have the right to kill us, or judge us? What makes him better than us, aside from just being more powerful? If I can kick your ass, does it make me more moral? I bet I can make you say yes if I beat you badly enough, but it won't make me right.
You are making a category mistake. God and his creation are not in the same category and as such does not have the same obligations to each other say two humans have.
While I could quibble about your exact examples of God's laws, it was a different time and a different system--a theocracy--coming out of a civilization where you lived and died each day according to your wits and the whims of those around you. God very much wanted his people to obey a certain set of guidelines.The structure was unlike anything ever implemented--and it had a purpose: to be set apart from the other people groups.
You seem to be implying that we should be bound by the rules of the theocracy that only existed for 400 years (from the Exodus to the fist King)--where even during that time they didn't seem to follow it all that often (the time of the Judges). The Bible does not teach that.
You are right about God's judgments not making sense in our modern times. That's why you have to study the conditions and the reasons of the time of the action to understand it.
He understands our desires but still has rules that he thinks (as only an omniscient person could) are better for society in general (greater good) and for the individual's long-term internal welfare.
While God certainly still has the right to 'kill' us (because the categories remain the same), do you think that Christians believe that he does kill people as judgement today? I certainly don't believe that and don't know anyone who does.
