What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Randy Carson]

Let me use a poor analogy.

Right now, some form of avian flu is spreading through the poultry farms of our country, and this disease has the potential to decimate the chicken population that we depend on for a lot of our food.

How do the farmers stop the spread of the disease?

You see where this is going, don't you?

So, if God stopped the spread of a spiritual disease among His people by culling out those infected members of the tribes of Israel, then you can say two things with certainty:

1. The people killed deserved the punishment they received (God is just).
2. The rest of the people were saved from death which may have come if the disobedience had spread (God is merciful).

Tough for those killed. Love for those spared.

Tough. Love.

What a morally upright use of his limitless power......................and it's comforting to know that he's such a competent manager of his human chattel.  I'm appreciative, though, that at least one catholic in this thread has the balls to say that killing a guy for his sperm hitting the ground is morally righteous, is just.  

I wonder, though, if you'd be willing to subject yourself to my standing behind you with a sledgehammer, waiting for you to trip up on -just that thing-......did you know that my name actually means "Hammer of God"?......We could turn that into a job title and gods will would be done through this lowly, non human sinners poor frame.

There were many times that the Israelites took folks out of the camp (or later the villages) and stoned them to death for their offenses against God.

Oh, hey...it happened here, too (his crime was blasphemy):