ChemicalReaction:
How can be a good christian when I don't understand the bible. Too many questions to ask! I know the ten commandments were given in the old testament, I also know it still applies to present day christians, what I don't get is why there is a 'thou shalt not kill' in the commandments and our loving creator still instructed the israelites to kill their enemies. My question is, who created these enemies? Is it not God? Why would he love some children more than others? I'm confused! Over to the pastors in the house.

Questions are good, they are required, I for one believe that lack of questions is the major reason for the growing numbers of half baked christians. Kindly point this verse you are referring to.

OlalekanMultiD:


Sorry ooh, I don't know if you reason the way I always do that is it not possible God forgive without killing or sacrificing a soul? Help pls

if God forgive without killing or sacrificing a soul, how do we appreciate him and respect his wishes for us?

Ok, let me be sincere with you, two powers are fighting to have the control of mankind the power of darkness and the power of light. The power of light (God) created men to follow his wishes and to respect him but the power of darkness want men to follow his wishes and to respect him. The darkness want men to reject light with their actions and bow down to his will. The light want mankind to reject darkness with their actions and bow to him. The men are the subject of the two powers. At the end every human being would be put to the side they belongs to according to the cleaness and darken of their soul.

Human being are not a doll ,God created us in such a way that we can determine what is best for us by thinking.God want us to show love to him and appreciate him as our creator but Satan made us to go agaist him. Satan can not compel us , he can only tempt us to agree with him but if we know the truth(God will) we would reject him.This above explannation is why the book of Ephisians 6:12 says
" we are not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers ,against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirtual wickedness in high places

Now,one of important of scripture is that , it does not put us in darkness. It tell us how the things started and how it would end so that we would not say we dont kown the side that is superior between darkness (Satan or devil) and light (God)

1the scripture made us that many would be deceived and be by the side of the power of darkness than light because people love darkness over light

2Jesus would come again and take up the saints

3.Devil and his followers would be punished.
I want us to know that God did not creat hell for mankind but for the devils.If human being who was created to be holy now take upon themselves the wickedness of power of darkness ,he is no longer human but devil and would be treated as devil in hell

i use to say that ,there is no neutral persons you will either be wise or folish. You either follow the will of God or the deceivers
the Bible says in the book of Hosea 4:5 that

" my people destroy for they lack knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge i wll also reject thee that thou shall be no priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God i will also forget thy children"

God love us that was why he killed the sinners in OT so that they would serve as scape goat to others, they would see it,fear ands turned to him. He love us that was why he sent Jesus to die for our sin for God to fogive us of some sins we commited unintensionally or those sins will sined against God alone like touching unlean animals .for sins are sins but for the sins we intensionally committed expecially against our fellow men God will surely judge us if we did not repent and forsake it

OlalekanMultiD:


Sorry ooh, I don't know if you reason the way I always do that is it not possible God forgive without killing or sacrificing a soul? Help pls

if God forgive without killing or sacrificing a soul, how do we appreciate him and respect his wishes for us?

Ok, let me be sincere with you, two powers are fighting to have the control of mankind the power of darkness and the power of light. The power of light (God) created men to follow his wishes and to respect him but the power of darkness want men to follow his wishes and to respect him. The darkness want men to reject light with their actions and bow down to his will. The light want mankind to reject darkness with their actions and bow to him. The men are the subject of the two powers. At the end every human being would be put to the side they belongs to according to the cleaness and darken of their soul.

Human being are not a doll ,God created us in such a way that we can determine what is best for us by thinking.God want us to show love to him and appreciate him as our creator but Satan made us to go agaist him. Satan can not compel us , he can only tempt us to agree with him but if we know the truth(God will) we would reject him.This above explannation is why the book of Ephisians 6:12 says
" we are not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers ,against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirtual wickedness in high places

Now,one of important of scripture is that , it does not put us in darkness. It tell us how the things started and how it would end so that we would not say we dont kown the side that is superior between darkness (Satan or devil) and light (God)

1the scripture made us that many would be deceived and be by the side of the power of darkness than light because people love darkness over light

2Jesus would come again and take up the saints

3.Devil and his followers would be punished.
I want us to know that God did not creat hell for mankind but for the devils.If human being who was created to be holy now take upon themselves the wickedness of power of darkness ,he is no longer human but devil and would be treated as devil in hell

i use to say that ,there is no neutral persons you will either be wise or folish. You either follow the will of God or the deceivers
the Bible says in the book of Hosea 4:5 that

" my people destroy for they lack knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge i wll also reject thee that thou shall be no priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God i will also forget thy children"

God love us that was why he killed the sinners in OT so that they would serve as scape goat to others, they would see it,fear ands turned to him. He love us that was why he sent Jesus to die for our sin for God to fogive us of some sins we commited unintensionally or those sins will sined against God alone like touching unlean animals .for sins are sins but for the sins we intensionally committed expecially against our fellow men God will surely judge us if we did not repent and forsake our sins

Ayomivic:


if God forgive without killing or sacrificing a soul, how do we appreciate him and respect his wishes for us?

Ok, let me be sincere with you, two powers are fighting to have the control of mankind the power of darkness and the power of light. The power of light (God) created men to follow his wishes and to respect him but the power of darkness want men to follow his wishes and to respect him. The darkness want men to reject light with their actions and bow down to his will. The light want mankind to reject darkness with their actions and bow to him. The men are the subject of the two powers. At the end every human being would be put to the side they belongs to according to the cleaness and darken of their soul.

Human being are not a doll ,God created us in such a way that we can determine what is best for us by thinking.God want us to show love to him and appreciate him as our creator but Satan made us to go agaist him. Satan can not compel us , he can only tempt us to agree with him but if we know the truth(God will) we would reject him.This above explannation is why the book of Ephisians 6:12 says
" we are not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers ,against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirtual wickedness in high places

Now,one of important of scripture is that , it does not put us in darkness. It tell us how the things started and how it would end so that we would not say we dont kown the side that is superior between darkness (Satan or devil) and light (God)

1the scripture made us that many would be deceived and be by the side of the power of darkness than light because people love darkness over light

2Jesus would come again and take up the saints

3.Devil and his followers would be punished.
I want us to know that God did not creat hell for mankind but for the devils.If human being who was created to be holy now take upon themselves the wickedness of power of darkness ,he is no longer human but devil and would be treated as devil in hell

i use to say that ,there is no neutral persons you will either be wise or folish. You either follow the will of God or the deceivers
the Bible says in the book of Hosea 4:5 that

" my people destroy for they lack knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge i wll also reject thee that thou shall be no priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God i will also forget thy children"

God love us that was why he killed the sinners in OT so that they would serve as scape goat to others, they would see it,fear ands turned to him. He love us that was why he sent Jesus to die for our sin for God to fogive us of some sins we commited unintensionally or those sins will sined against God alone like touching unlean animals .for sins are sins but for the sins we intensionally committed expecially against our fellow men God will surely judge us if we did not repent and forsake our sins

Kantankantan

OlalekanMultiD:


Sorry ooh, I don't know if you reason the way I always do that is it not possible God forgive without killing or sacrificing a soul? Help pls

The people of Israel used unblemished clean lambs as a sacrifice to cover their sins for many generations. Until when the prophesied messiah came and paid the ultimate sacrifice by his own blood. He was/is the only one fit for such sacrifice because he was sinless in nature. He is the Word/Son/spirit of God made flesh. After his sacrifice there's no need for offering lambs, as in Judaism.

The punishment for sin is death. God told moses "You shall give life for life, a tooth for tooth...". Since the punishment of sin is death, either the offender is killed or a friend sacrifices his life for him. God replaced their blood with those of spotless lambs. Isreal killed thousands of lambs and bullocks everyday. It was also tedious work but such sacrifices did not suffice. Therefore, God sent his beloved Son to make the ultimate and final sacrifice. If Christ was not killed, so many more souls would have perished in their sins. Which is eternal separation from God.

God never demanded sacrifice of humans. They only unique case was Abraham whom God tested and found faithful. God ordered annihilation because of the disturbing abominations which the heathen nations were commiting. This was not a sacrifice but judgement. For God hates sin with perfect hatred and demands that we hate it also.

Julianyao:

Welcome onboard! Answering your questions, in my opinion, only fixes your attention on what to think. So I suggest you think for yourself first, tell us what you think/feel and then we can can actually tell you what we think.

I don't wanna think that God cares abt some more than others, but that is what i think anyway. And it even dates back to the beginning. What do you think?

Eddlad:



Questions are good, they are required, I for one believe that lack of questions is the major reason for the growing numbers of half baked christians. Kindly point this verse you are referring to.

No verse in particular. It's the story of biblical israelites.

ChemicalReaction:
I don't wanna think that God cares abt some more than others, but that is what i think anyway. And it even dates back to the beginning. What do you think?

There's a story(in the bible) about god preferring some man named Jacob over another named Esau. If that doesn't hit it home for you, then I think nothing probably will. That's a very sad one, the guy hadn't even been born and a choice had already been made.

I am the Lord God Âlmighty says the Lord, no one questions me Romans 9 v 8-21 I pray the eyes of ur heart be enlightened

ChemicalReaction:
I don't wanna think that God cares abt some more than others, but that is what i think anyway. And it even dates back to the beginning. What do you think?

It is hard to digest since we believe that God is loving and loves all. Believe it or not God has always, all through the ages, chosen one person/tribe/group over another.

He chose Abel over Cain
He chose called Abraham out of all the descendants of Noah
He chose Jacob over Esau
He chose David, the youngest son of Jesse
He chose Gideon as a judge , the least in his father's house
He chose Moses to lead Israelite out of Egypt
He chose Israelite over all other tribes of the world to bring the Messiah to save the world

From the few examples above, you can see that in some cases God gave a reason for His choice or we can see clearly why he made a particular choice. However, in some cases, He gave no reason and we cannot figure out why he made the choice. This is simply the sovereignty of God. This is why God is God.

I will suggest you read Romans 9. Paul provided an excellent explanation about the sovereignty of God in this chapter. He gave a good analogy with clay and the potter. We cannot question a creator on whatever he decides to do with his creation, especially when we don't even know why he made the creation in the first place.

Now to your original question about the killing in the old testament. There are two reasons I can point to for this killings:

1.) To fulfill God's promise - God promised Abraham that he would bring his descendants to the promise land. How would they take possession of the land when some people had already taken possession of it? Note that they passed through/bypassed other lands on their way to the promised land and did not kill anyone in those lands.
2.) To avoid corruption - They could have entered the promised land and cohabit with those there. This is dangerous as we later found out in the lands where they did not either chase all the inhabitants out or wipe them out that the inhabitants corrupted them and they followed other gods and were punished.

Another question you asked was who created the enemies? Good question! The enemies that the Israelite fought were mainly the Canaanites. See their origin below:

The Canaanites are mentioned over 150 times in the Bible. They were a wicked, idolatrous people descended from Noah’s grandson Canaan, who was a son of Ham (Genesis 9:18). Canaan was cursed because of his and his father’s sin against Noah (Genesis 9:20–25). In some passages, Canaanites specifically refers to the people of the lowlands and plains of Canaan (Joshua 11:3); in other passages, Canaanites is used more broadly to refer to all the inhabitants of the land, including the Hivites, Girgashites, Jebusites, Amorites, Hittites, and Perizzites (see Judges 1:9–10).

The land of Canaan was the land God promised to give to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12:7). The Canaanites are described in the Bible as a large and fierce people, not easily defeated, so the Israelites would need divine help to come against them, defeat them, and take their land away. God promised Moses and Joshua that help (Joshua 1:3).

http://www.gotquestions.org/Canaanites.html

In a nut shell, all that happened in the old testament were preparation for the Messiah to come. After Adam and Even sinned, God set in motion the move to redeem man. Part of His plan was to separate a group of people to Himself, nurture them and bring forth a messiah through them to save the whole world, including the "enemies." Today, with the new testament, there are no more enemies and special chosen group. Jesus' death has collapsed the wall of separation between the chosen and the outsiders. As many that believe and accept the gift of salvation via Jesus Christ are immediately adopted to the family of God.

To help you understand the flow better, you may want to read bible in chronological order so that you can follow the events as they occurred. YouVersion bible app has an excellent bible reading plan called "EPIC" that presents the story-line of the bible in a nice chronological order.

@Benjibabs, are you a pastor?

@OP if you keep asking these questions, you're on your way to atheism

ChemicalReaction:
@Benjibabs, are you a pastor?

No, just a bro in Christ.

hopefulLandlord:
@OP if you keep asking these questions, you're on your way to atheism

Please don't discourage @OP from asking questions. If you don't ask questions and get the correct answers that is when atheists can easily sway you to their side. Bro, study to show yourself approved and ask questions when needed.

hopefulLandlord:
@OP if you keep asking these questions, you're on your way to atheism

Pls explain. Or don't I have a right to ask questions when I don't understand my bible?

benjibabs:
No, just a bro in Christ.

You seem to know too much. Keep it up!

@ op your answer is simple Jesus died to fulfill the law. The wages of sin is death, from Adam to the last all have sinned and as much condemned by the law. Jesus death is not about God's ability to forgive but a question of justice.
THE LAW OF GOD CANNOT BE BROKEN, GOD DOES NOT TURN BACK ON HIS WORD .

The problem is you don't understand God's nature of which one of it is immutability meaning he does not change.
God bless.

ChemicalReaction:
Pls explain. Or don't I have a right to ask questions when I don't understand my bible?

You have the right to ask questions bro

But the thing about belief is that it wants you to accept all information as truth

If doubts starts setting in, you'll start seeing half truths and lies

Just accept those things you can't explain as mystery

ChemicalReaction:
How can be a good christian when I don't understand the bible. Too many questions to ask! I know the ten commandments were given in the old testament, I also know it still applies to present day christians, what I don't get is why there is a 'thou shalt not kill' in the commandments and our loving creator still instructed the israelites to kill their enemies. My question is, who created these enemies? Is it not God? Why would he love some children more than others? I'm confused! Over to the pastors in the house.

It is Christians that presented that image of a God that loves us so much that he cant harm us. The image they present about God is what they think and not what the bible presented.

God loves and hates too. In the scripture he said "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated" but pastors will tell you he loves only.

In the Bible God said he created good and evil. But pastors will tell you that he created only good while Satan created evil. They forget that it was God that created Satan.
God says that he sees the end from the beginning. This means he saw the end of Lucifer before cresting him and still went ahead to create him showing that satan and evil were meant to be part of this life..
My dear pls follow the bible the way it presented God.
Let this truth be in you that God has every right to create as it pleases him..
Also bear it in mind that God's primary interest of creating all that he created was to please himself FIRST, then us. Not to please us first.
I ve always said this- God is not our colleague, He is our creator. We never had any agreement with him before creation on how he will create the universe so we have no grounds to accuse him of going against our agreement
God runs the universe. Period.

otemanuduno:

You could have been cleared of this thing if you have read the DOCTRINE OF THE UFOS. we are created by different gods, but the father of all gods is DOMINO REVERAD, the God who created the world with a BIG BANG. ever wonder why every religion has resemblance to each other in their practises, etc fasting, festival celebration, eating of body and drinking of blood, sons of gods dying for the whole world? Yes, it's because they all existed at a time before. They co-existed, but the most violent of the gods, which is satan(Jehovah) gained more ground than the rest of them eventually. Follow my signature to see for yourselves. I get my message directly from Eartum, one of the brothers of Jehovah. There were even some verses in the Bible where he was mistakenly pointed out as Satan because the editor forgot to change Satan his real name to God. 2 Sam 24 and 1st Chronicle 21. One passage said God made David to do census while the other passage said Satan did. Same story, but different stance on who made David to do census all in the same book called babble(bible).

I pray God to forgive you. You are creating more confusion for the poor girl.

God has a right to choose his friends just as the op. He chose Abraham based on his own yardstick. Abraham proved Faithfull and God blessed and retained him. God is not a man that he should lie, so his promise to bless Abraham and his offsprings led to his divine direction to vanquish those other nations who do not serve him so that he can give Abrahamic offsprings their inheritance. Note that when even the sons of Israel sin against God, when they go to war, they are defeated.

OlalekanMultiD:


Sorry ooh, I don't know if you reason the way I always do that is it not possible God forgive without killing or sacrificing a soul? Help pls

Thats where islam comes in.

‘And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another.  And if a heavily laden soul calls [another] to [carry some of] its load, nothing of it will be carried, even if he should be a close relative.  You can only warn those who fear their Lord unseen and have established prayer.  And whoever purifies himself only purifies himself for [the benefit of] his soul.  And to God is the [final] destination’ (Surah Fatir 35:18)
And elsewhere, we read:

‘God does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity.  It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned’ (Surah al-Baqarah 2:286)

BIBLE

(Deuteronomy 24:16)--"Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin."
(Ezekiel 18:20)--"The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."



HERE is what jesus preached and he never claimed he will die for anyone's sins

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-20)"

@Aminusanti, are you a xtian?

ChemicalReaction:
@Aminusanti, are you a xtian?

no sir

ChemicalReaction:
I don't wanna think that God cares abt some more than others, but that is what i think anyway. And it even dates back to the beginning. What do you think?

The truth is the biblical God is very biased, how else can you explain why he left the rest of the world in darkness and only chose and enlightened prophets among the Israelites. Why he killed all Egyptian first borns, rather than the pharaoh or his army, why he only saved baby Jesus when king herod was hunting for him and hence killed hundreds of innocent children. Why he commanded the Israelite to kill innocent children during raids, why he supports rape and slavery. The biblical God is very biased and unpredictable.

aminusanti:
no sir

How come you quoted scriptures?

No.

Me too o! I don't understand it too, lots of contradictions

ChemicalReaction:
How can be a good christian when I don't understand the bible. Too many questions to ask! I know the ten commandments were given in the old testament, I also know it still applies to present day christians, what I don't get is why there is a 'thou shalt not kill' in the commandments and our loving creator still instructed the israelites to kill their enemies. My question is, who created these enemies? Is it not God? Why would he love some children more than others? I'm confused! Over to the pastors in the house.

I swear

SirWere:




Mehn, the day I still read my bible expecting to find a divine plan, a grand yet subtle meaning that explains the "masterplan"


The day I went into bliss finding allegories all through the bible. (Abraham and Isaac was an allegory for God and the world; Jesus being the sheep and others........)



Mehn, what a load of time wasted.

The bible was written by men. And God was a figment of their imagination. That is the only way to explain why an all loving God that knows all thinks, slavery and rape is okay, or that committing genocide is cool. If you try to place the attributes of God with that of an all knowing all living father it will be impossible, but once you let yourself believe that it was written by men thousands of years ago in a more primitive time, everything clicks into place. I will urge the OP and itsQuinn to read this blog.

http://godisimaginary.com/i1.htm

Give it a go and then reexamine your beliefs.

ItsQuinn:
I swear

The contradictions are massive.

What makes it worse is the explainations and the rationalizations proffered by "bible scholars".


You hear a LOT of farfetched theories and impossible scenarios.






......And then; at the end, they tell you to "pray for more enlightment"



Grand irony; really

I

SirWere:

The contradictions are massive.
What makes it worse is the explainations and the rationalizations proffered by "bible scholars".
You hear a LOT of farfetched theories and impossible scenarios.
......And then; at the end, they tell you to "pray for more enlightment"
Grand irony; really

I was once confused with all the contradictions in the Bible so slowly I started to lose my faith, for years I didn't know what to think about God or Jesus or anything, I didn't know where I were I stood. Till I stumbled across the blog by accident,

http://godisimaginary.com/i1.htm

It really opened my eyes and I finally felt free, free to question the world without bias or fear.

ChemicalReaction:
How come you quoted scriptures?

Is It forbidden?