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From: padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: The horrifying Old Testament
Message-ID: <28@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Oct-85 10:45:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.28
Posted: Tue Oct  8 10:45:29 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Oct-85 07:08:34 EDT
References: <627@dicomed.UUCP> <170@circadia.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 29

> > ... As I read the Old
> > Testament I became more and more horrified. The many violent and
> > cruel acts which God demanded of his chosen people seem so
> > inconsistent with the gentle God I had been taught to believe in.
> 
> Perhaps they didn't teach you the whole story.  The way I have been
> taught is that, although God is an all-loving god, He is also a Just
> god; a god that demands justice for failure to uphold His laws.  Many
> of the "cruel acts" in the Old Testament were the result of the Sins
> of the people.
> 
> > ... but is 
> > the good and loving God that I believe in the same one
> > that they talk about in the Old Testament? I don't think I like
> > that God.
> 
> This sounds stronger than I want, but it is late and I can't think
> of any other way to phrase it:  Who are you to judge the actions of
> God?  As limited human beings, we can not know all the facts which
> led up to the "cruel acts" in the Old Testiment.  Saying "I don't
> think I like that God" is comparable to a child saying he hates his
> parent because the parent won't let him do something he wants to do.
> 

This can be turned around: How can you be sure that he is a "just" god
since as a "limited" human being you cannot know all the facts which
led up to the "cruel acts" in the old testiment?

Padraig Houlahan.