A18 Plain Statements

It is extremely simple to take isolated portions of the Bible and put them together to build a case that destroys the truth that God truly is loving, gentle, and kind. It has often been said to me, “You say that God does not kill people but the Bible plainly tells you that He does.” When you line the texts up they appear to present a compelling case for many people. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. Genesis 6:7 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; Genesis 19:24 We could list several more texts like this. There are many stories in the Old Testament that seem to read very plainly but all of the stories combined are nothing compared to the mass slaughter of humanity described in the New Testament. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, (8) And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. (9) And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (10) And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Revelation 20:7-10 It states that the wicked will be as the sand of the sea? How many grains of sand are there on a sea shore? We might propose a conservative figure of 100 Billion people apparently all shrieking and howling in the worst kind of agony. This makes the Old Testament narratives seem like kindergarten fables in comparison. Many Christians, in some strange form of triumph, read these passages and proclaim that it proves that the God they “worship” inflicts horrendous agony on billions and billions of people for rebelling against Him by roasting them alive for good measure. Admittedly the texts that speak of God seemly commanding the hacking to death of little babies are strategically overlooked or avoided except for the most hardened and callous individuals who somehow manage to defend this murderous behaviour as godly. What they consider as proof triumphant actually proves to be their greatest defeat. Who could rationally conceive of living eternally in the presence and offering worship on bended knee to such a horrendous being, while truly trying to convince yourself that you should never feel desperately afraid that you also might be killed one day? If the correct reading of these stories means that God sends sheets of flames from Himself directly onto the wicked, while all the righteous simply watch the proceedings like a movie from the walls of Zion hearing the shrieking and howling of the damned, then realistically would the righteous really rejoice when all their loved ones who rejected the truth are all burned alive (whether briefly or perpetually) without any mercy? Is there some sort of righteous satisfaction that the God you worship not only kills your wayward family members but tortures them first and slowly destroys them in the most unimaginable horror? I suppose some might say that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and remove the former things from their memory. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4 Is this eternal bliss to be desired of, or is it the destroying of evidence by a character that is unimaginably cruel and vicious? There is something very unsettling about this picture for any rational person that has experienced the joys of love within marriage, or cradled a baby in their arms, or snuggled into the loving embrace of a parent, or even those whom have cared for their precious animals like a horse, dog, or cat. The use of these texts in this manner is often accompanied with the assertion that we must take the Bible as it reads or that we must read it literally and accept these plain statements as proof that God will kill the wicked.