Psalm 137:9

[Mister Agenda]

God kept His word about punishing the nation of Israel and the suffering it would cause them

So much for a kind, loving god.

So any parent that punishes their child is not loving or kind by your definition. God warned the Israelites for years and they would not repent, if He had not punished them they would have never believed Him. The same for a child, if a parent tells them they will punish him/her and then does not the child will believe they have the upper hand.

I will go out on a limb and state that any parent that punishes their child by killing them is not loving or kind by any nondelusional definition. And God is limited to analogies of human parenting techniques? Really?

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Having read the thread, I see Christians believe God has all kinds of limits, like not being able to think of a way to accomplish his ends without killing people.

But here's the scoop: The ancient Hebrews had no concept of a God that is forgiving, temperate, loving, or kind. They may have given those ideas lip service in their writings, but it was for the same reasons Celts would call wicked faeries 'the good folk'...it was flattery to avoid provoking supernatural powers. The God the Hebrews really believed in was a potentate with super powers: arbitrary, vengeful, mercurial, unpredictable, devastating, and terrifying. Reconciling Yahweh with the softer, gentler Father of Jesus is half of the source of Christian cognitive dissonance. The smart thing to do would be to chuck the OT altogether. What lessons does it have that are worth learning that aren't in the NT?