The Biblical Picture Of God Is That Of An Evil God

The Biblical picture of God can hardly be reconciled with Christian teaching that "God is love", eg.

• All forms of life destroyed because of one imperfect species - Genesis 6:5,7, 7:23.

• Human sacrifice commanded by God - Leviticus 27:28,29. God agrees that Jephthah sacrifices his daughter as a thanksgiving - Judges ll:29-40.

• God sends ten plagues on Egypt because Pharaoh won't release the Hebrews, but he deliberately hardens Pharaoh's heart so he refuses to release the Hebrews making these plagues necessary in the first place - God admits this is so he can perform 'his wonders' (Exodus ll:9), ie. wholesale mass slaughter of life in Egypt - Exodus 7:3-4,l3-l4, l0:l,20.

• God sanctions slavery and a man selling his daughter - Exodus 21:2-6,7.

• Death demanded for heresy - Deuteronomy l3:l,2,5,l4,l5.

• God says that if a man strikes 'his slave', male or female, and they do not die immediately, the man shall not be punished because 'the slave is his money (ie. property)' - Exodus 21:20-21.

• God orders people to slaughter their own relatives because they rejected Moses' religion; 3000 killed. Moses tells the killers that God would bless them for doing this by making them ordained for his service - Exodus 32:27-29.

• A person to kill their own family for a difference of religion - Deuteronomy l3:6-l0.

• God demands death for anyone not circumcised - Genesis l7:9-l4. God demands the sick are to be driven out of the community - Numbers 5:l-4.

• God burns people to death for complaining - Numbers ll:l.

• God kills 24,000 people by a plague because one of them brought a Midianite woman to his tent - Numbers 25:6-9.

• The curses of God upon the Hebrews (eg. eating their own children) - Leviticus 26:l4-39, Deuteronomy 28:l5-68.

• God arranges the Midianite slaughter - Judges 7:2,9,22.

• God instructs the mass slaughter of Midianites (Num 31:1- 18), and the Lord "slew every male", alongwith their rulers (31:7), and the Midianite women and children and animals were captured; Moses then demanded all the males, including babies and the women were to be slaughtered, but the young girls could be "kept alive for yourselves" (31:l8). This story records the extermination of the Midianites, but later on, God AGAIN instructs the slaughter of the Midianites (Judges 6:l6).

• It is the same with the Amalekites - they are "ALL destroyed" in l Samuel l5:8, but they are destroyed yet again in l Samuel 27:8-9 and everyone - men and women - are killed; however, they are killed (- for the 3rd time) in l Samuel 30:l,l6-l7 except for 400 young men. At long last, they are are finally killed off in l Chronicles 4:43 when the 'remnant' were destroyed.

• The Spirit of God comes upon Samson and he murders over a thousand people - Judges l4:l9, l5:l4-l5.

• The Psalmist praises God for his 'steadfast love' but then details his slaughtering in the past - Psalm 136:l0-21.

• God deliberately deludes people so they will not be saved - 2 Thess 2:ll-l2.

• A girl not found to be a virgin was to be killed - Deuteronomy 22:l3-21 (Note the same did not apply to men!).

• God kills a baby for its father's wrongdoing - ignoring the father's pleas - 2 Samuel 12:l5-20 (Contradicting the ruling in Deut 24;16, 2 Kings 14:6).

• God kills 70,000 men - 2 Samuel 24:l5

• God has a friendly meeting with his arch enemy Satan - whom he doesn't even recognise - Job l:6-7, and they have a wager (Job l:8-12) over how much suffering it would take before righteous Job will reject God. Job then has his whole family killed and livelihood ruined (l:l3-l9) and then is afflicted by a loathsome plague (2:7-8).

Is it hardly surprising that a deity like this, that Bible-believing Christians behave in the way they do.