Is God Evil? (Aug 2018)

I read a Facebook comment once that said something like this: “The God of the Bible is recorded to have killed millions of people, while Satan only killed a handful.” The writer then stated: “If I had to make a choice between the two, Satan seems far less evil to me than the God revealed in the bible. How can anyone in their right mind worship a God like this?”

Wow. That is an amazing comment. Some Christians get very upset when they see a post like that, but I personally find it a great and appropriate question. There are portions of the bible that are very troubling at first glance and I totally understand the compassionate heart this person has to ask a question like this.

For example, the Bible records in the book of Genesis that this God deliberately unleashed a flood upon the earth that killed every Man, Woman and Child aside from Noah and his family. Later, God sends a death angel to kill every first-born son of the Egyptians which will include infants and young children. In certain specific cases, God commands Israel to kill every man, woman and child from among their enemies, and this Old Testament God commanded Israel to stone to death any Israelite caught committing adultery.

To many people, a God that calls for the execution of people for committing adultery seems a bit extreme to us in our current US Culture. A God that would kill everyone in an entire city, including woman and children at first glance seems immoral to us as we look through our human lens. As such, I have seen some on Facebook label the bible as an “Unholy” book. Indeed, it seems a legitimate question, how can anyone worship a God like this?

We all must come to our own conclusions here, but I would like to share some of my thoughts on this God of the Old Testament and how I can absolutely worship this God revealed to us through the Bible. A question this complex can’t be answered in a simple one sentence Facebook comment, but I hope if you read this all the way through, you will find it worth reading, interesting and even encouraging. Feel free to share this if you do find it interesting.

Sodom discussed:

I think if one honestly wants to understand this God revealed in the Old Testament and honestly judge the character of this God, to me the best place to start is in Genesis Chapter 19. I think once we examine the situation that arose in Sodom, all the other passages in the bible involving God’s judgement will begin to make sense.

In Genesis Chapter 19, We read that Lot is living in the city of Sodom with his wife and two daughters. Two messengers from God (Angels) are sent into the city, appearing as ordinary men. Lot greets these two men and invites them to his home to offer them sanctuary. In Genesis 19:4 we read that every single man, old and young, in the entire city of Sodom surround Lots house and they demand that Lot turn over his visitors to the crowd so they can rape them.

The verse includes the phrase “all the people” (KJV), which seems to indicate that women may have been present to root this on. (We see later Lot’s wife turns back to look in longing at the city instead of fleeing, so it seems obvious the women were excepting of this). Lot begs the men not to do this evil thing and then offers up his own daughters to try to appease the mob. The crowd screams at Lot to ask who made Lot their judge? And the men vow to do even worse to Lot now. Then the angels step in, rescue Lot from the violent mob, and later grab Lot and his wife and daughters and urge them to flee the city before God brings destruction on it.

If one reads over this passage quickly without slowing down and thinking about it, I think there are many things we could miss here. For example:

A) I notice that when backed into a corner, Lot offers up his own daughters to try to appease this angry mob. I do not think Lot would have done this if he did not think it might work. This leads me to believe Lot had personal knowledge this crowd had raped women before and it was not uncommon for women also to be mass raped in Sodom at this time. As such, I think it is very reasonable to conclude the city of Sodom had deteriorated morally to such a point that Men, Women and even children were being raped and overall the citizens of Sodom (both the men and the women) just accepted rape as a normal part of life.

B) While it is obviously despicable to us that Lot was willing to throw his daughters under the bus (Something I can’t even comprehend) and valued the promise of shelter / protection he gave to the visitors over protecting his own daughters, the fact that Lots daughters were recorded to have been virgins at this point seems to indicate to me that Lot had at least protected them prior to this incident and maybe Lot panicked somewhat in the face of the mob. Also, Lot himself was acknowledging that rape was evil and was trying to persuade the angry mob to stand down.

C) If you go back to Genesis Chapter 18, Abraham talks with God about God’s plan to destroy Sodom. This discussion is very enlightening in it shows God’s heart is one of mercy and that if God could just find 10 people in the entire city of Sodom that were not completely wicked and violent, God would spare the city from judgement.

D) The fact that every single person in the entire city of Sodom came out to participate in this rape to either directly take part or cheer it on leads me to conclude Sodom did not get to this point overnight. I expect it was a gradual moral decline over a long period of time.

I.E. Maybe at first a married man or women in Sodom had an affair in the pursuit of “happiness”. Maybe initially people in the city did not approve of this behavior, but over time affairs became more normal and were seen as just a normal part of life and not really hurting anyone. Based on other scripture in the bible, we can conclude that God of course did not agree with this, but God, in His love and mercy, did not directly intervene yet.

Maybe eventually strip clubs and Porn moved in, then prostitution. Again, eventually this was just accepted as normal and no big deal. At some point maybe men sleeping with men, women sleeping with women, polygamy, free love, swingers, etc. became normal and no big deal. After all, the people would say, what two consenting adults do on their own time to make themselves happy is no one else’s business. A lot of people in our own culture would say this very thing up to this point. Again, based on other scripture, we can conclude this Old Testament God did not agree with this, but still in His mercy and love for the people of Sodom, He held back judgement from the city.

Of course, then Sodom eventually took the next logical step in the road to the pursuit of “happiness”. A step many in our culture would not agree with, at least yet, though one day we could also head there if we are not careful. We already know from this historical account in Genesis that when Lot confronted the mob for coming to rape his visitors, and Lot said rape was evil, they all replied basically “Who made you our judge?”

Basically, as horrifying as it is, my guess is if we interviewed one of the citizens of Sodom they would say something like this: “We are not hurting anyone so are doing nothing wrong. Sex is pleasurable so if we rape someone, they should just enjoy it. We are simply doing what makes us happy and we all should have the right to pursue what makes us happy. Who are you to impose your morality on us?”

E) Lot is not portrayed in a very favorable light in Genesis. He is shown to be quarrelsome earlier as his Men and Abrahams are in dispute over water, Selfish as he picks the land with the best water, compromising as seen by his willingness to throw his daughters to the crowd in Genesis 19, and a drunkard as seen later in Chapter 19. The fact that God was willing to save someone as pathetic as Lot says much about God’s grace and Mercy and also says much about the condition of the remaining people in Sodom.

Initial Conclusion on Sodom:

As noted, God had patiently sat back year after year and watched the people of Sodom slip further and further away from Him morally. Even after knowing the city had slipped all the way to the point that Rape was viewed as ok, God was still willing to hold back judgement on the city if He could just find 10 people who were not so totally evil yet as to accept rape and violence as ok, even ones as pathetic as Lot.

However, after God had given the people of Sodom chance, after chance, after chance over years and years and years to repent from their sin and turn away from it, still the people refused to repent. They basically told Lot to jump off a cliff and they would do as they dang well pleased.

For those who want to sit in judgement over the God of the bible and label him a murderer, I ask you to decide. How much longer should God have waited to bring judgement on Sodom? How many more children should God have allowed to be born into a life of sexual abuse, how many more times should God have set back and allowed men, woman and children to be gang raped as the people cheered this on?

At some point, does not a Holy and Just God have to intervene?

The Worldwide Flood:

Genesis 6:5 states that the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become and that every thought was on evil all the time. As a result, God planned to send a worldwide flood to kill all living things on the earth and start over. I think seeing the details of Sodom later in Genesis 19 helps us better understand the extent to which human wickedness existed at the time of the flood. Rape, murder, violence were common place. The people on the earth at this time, like those in Sodom later, refused to repent and turn away from their sin.

Once again, God had given them all chance after chance, year after year to repent, but they refused. Even after deciding to flood the earth, it likely took years (Some estimate 40 years) for Noah to build the Ark.

During all this time, the people had opportunities to turn to God to repent and God being a merciful God would have relented (Like He did in the Book of Jonah). However, that never happened as the people refused to repent.

Have you ever watched someone you love get hurt by others, or from their own self-destructive behavior? I contend that for a God who loves us beyond our imagination, so much that our Heavenly Father was willing to send Jesus to suffer and die at human hands in order to save us from our sin and from death, that watching His creation do evil to each other breaks God’s heart.

I will ask the same question to those who stand in Judgement over the God of the Old Testament regarding the flood as I asked of Sodom. How many people have to be murdered, raped and butchered before God is allowed to intervene in judgement?

The fact that God obviously withheld judgement until only Noah and his family remained on the entire earth as humans that had not turned completely wicked and violent shows God’s patience and Mercy towards his enemies in giving them time to repent. It also shows that His Judgement was not spilled out in some out of control display of anger, but rather His judgement was precise, totally under control, and at the last possible moment to still be able to save Noah and his family.

We get very upset when God holds back judgement like in Nazi Germany and allows the Holocaust to take place (to honor the freedom God gives to humans to make choices, even evil ones, and to give them time for repentance from their sin, as some Nazi’s did), but then we get equally upset when God does finally bring judgement such as the flood after giving so many chances over so many years for people to repent. So, which do we really want?

Note: One could actually argue that the God of the bible was too merciful with the people of Sodom and with the people at the time of the flood to let it go on for so long, over so many years, allowing so much rape and murder before God finally acted.

Egypt:

In Genesis we read the historical account of Joseph and how God used Joseph to save Egypt from famine and starvation. Years later, a new King arose in Egypt. Joseph and His God were forgotten and the Jewish people were enslaved by Egypt.

In Exodus we read that when Moses was born, there was an existing decree from the Pharaoh of Egypt to go out and kill every Hebrew boy that was born. The Egyptians followed these orders without concern for the suffering of the Hebrew parents or their children. Moses was smuggled to safety in a basket. He was found by Pharaoh’s daughter and was adopted.

Later, after 400 years of living in Egypt (Many of those years as slaves), God decided it was time to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. He sent Moses (Age 80) to confront the current Pharaoh to let the Hebrew people go. God gave Pharaoh and the people of Egypt 9 additional chances to repent, remember the God of Joseph that had saved them, and free the Hebrews.

Nine different plagues that should have caused a heart change, but instead caused a proud and defiant Pharaoh to dig in his heals and harden his heart. In the end, God even had Moses announce to Pharaoh what the 10th plague would be, that the first-born sons in all of Egypt would die (Equity for the Egyptians taking the lives of the Hebrew sons). He gave warning ahead of time, and still Pharaoh and the people of Egypt would not yield to God.

So again, those who stand in judgement over the God of the Old testament, considering the Egyptians struck first and murdered all new born Hebrew boys, does it not seem God was more than fair and patient in waiting until at least 80 years later (all of which time the people of Egypt could have repented) and then bringing the lesser plagues first to give the people even more additional time to repent and let the Jews go from slavery? At what point would it have been ok for God to intervene here in judgement against a people that refused to repent?

Also, the punishment itself, does it not seem fair that the Egyptian people who had callously murdered the Hebrew sons without regard to the suffering of their parents and who refused to repent from this sin through all the subsequent years, would now finally have to experience that same suffering themselves as they lost their own firstborn sons?

As for the children, I do not know specifically in eternity how God dealt with them all, but given all the mercy and opportunities He had shown the adults before He finally brought judgement, I trust this God to deal fairly with the children in the next life.

God Commands Israel to kill certain people groups:

In Genesis 15:13 to 16 God tells Abraham that His descendants (through Isaac) will end up in Egypt for four hundred years before they return to the Land God had brought Abraham too. In verse 16 God says the reason the people have to wait so long to take over the land is the current residents at the time of Abraham (Amorites) have not reached such a level of sin yet that God will exact Judgement.

In other words, the current land was like Sodom in the earlier years, with sexual immorality, lying, bitterness, slander, etc. but had not fallen to such a point that rape and violence were considered by all in the land acceptable. God thus would not allow Abraham or his descendants to forcibly remove the current residents (Whom God Loved) until they got to the level we saw in Sodom or the flood.

If you look at some of these cultures at the time of Exodus / Joshua when God was establishing the Nation of Israel, these people were worshipping demonic gods, had Human sacrifices of their own children to these false gods, had temple prostitutes so the sex situation was likely getting on towards Sodom, etc. and were violent murderers.

In fact, there were times when Israel itself was becoming evil like this and God ordered Israelites to be killed in Judgement. As I study the specific instances when God gave this type of command, I personally conclude that the command was only for the specific situation (Not a future call to arms), and that God was patient and did not want to bring punishment, but He was just and in the end had to.

So again, for those who want to label the God of the Old Testament a murderer, how many more times do you think God should have sat back and allowed these children to suffer and be murdered before you would be ok with God intervening here in Judgement? This God waited 400 years while the Hebrews languished in slavery. In all that time, the people living in the Promised land could have lived based on the moral laws God has written in all of our hearts. They should not have needed scripture to know killing their children was wrong and thus God in the end judged them.

Again, one could argue here the Old Testament God was too merciful to let these cultures devolve to such a point and to allow so many children to be molested, butchered and killed over so many years before God finally intervened to stop the cycle.

Stoning to death Adulterers:

Deuteronomy 22:13 to 27, In this passage, Moses lays out the penalty that anyone that willingly commits adultery with someone that is even engaged to be married (Not even married yet), then anyone engaging in this sin is to be taken out and stoned to death.

Now, if we read this passage in a vacuum, without any background or context, this is pretty disturbing. It seems pretty harsh for God to draw such a strict line for the nation of Israel. However, once again, if we go back to Sodom or the flood we get perspective on why God in fact needed to be this strict with Israel. God had a plan to one day bring a savior for all nations out of the line of Abraham and Isaac. That savior was Jesus. God loved us all too much to allow that plan to be thwarted.

Had God sat back like He had done with Sodom, or during the time of the flood, and not given swift punishment to Israel for sexual sin, then Israel would have ultimately gone the same path as Sodom and gotten to the point God would have had to intervene and wipe them out.

God did not want it to get that far, so He drew the line much further back to avoid that from occurring. Of course, as we read more of the old testament, we find often Israel did turn its back on God and ignored His laws, and God had to intervene several times in Judgement to keep them from getting so far off track that it could not be recovered from.

In the New Testament (John 8:1-11), Jesus clarifies we are no longer under this law. Since Jesus Birth at this point had been protected, it was no longer required by God to kill those in Israel who commit consensual sexual sin like adultery. Jesus made this clear when he confronts the crowd that brought the adulterous woman to him. Jesus told them, let He who is without sin cast the first stone. Jesus forgives the woman, then tells her to go and sin no more.

(Note: Jesus still acknowledges here that sex between consenting adults outside the bounds of marriage between one man and one women is still sin as far as the God revealed in the bible is concerned and thus God believes this is harmful to us. He tells this woman to go and sin no more not because He hates her, but because He loves her and wants to spare her the pain this sin will bring into her life. Jesus resets the law that this type of sin is no longer to be punishable by death anymore and is rather left between the individuals and God, same as most other sin).

So, for those wanting to throw stones at God over this law for the Israelites in the Old Testament, would you rather God never punish anyone till it all falls apart to the point it did in Sodom? Can you see how important it was to this God revealed in the Bible to protect the line for Jesus to be born and protecting that in Israel was actually a loving thing for God to do as Jesus was meant to bring all of us hope and salvation?

Revelations (In the New Testament):

I am not going to go into detail here, but if you study the portion on the Martyrs, to me at least it seems obvious God will be patiently waiting to give every last person a chance to repent and turn away from evil and turn back to God before He under complete control slowly and with focused purpose pours out His judgement on those left on the earth who refuse to repent.

Overall Conclusion:

We each have to come to our own conclusions, but I contend that the God of the Bible is slow to anger, a deep thinker, is very empathetic, patient and loves us greatly. God is merciful and does not want to punish us and gives us every possible opportunity to repent from our sin and submit to His authority and stands ready and willing to forgive us, but God is also just and at some point has to act justly and bring about Judgement on those who refuse to repent.

In His great Mercy and compassion for us, while we were yet sinners, our Heavenly Father allowed Jesus to suffer at sinful human hands and die to pay the eternal penalty for our sin and purchase eternal life for us. I am not clear what else this God revealed to us in the Bible needs to do for us to demonstrate His great love for us.

Rather, it seems to me we need to stop judging the God of the Bible and start to take a long look in the mirror at ourselves and humbly admit we are all sinners that fall short of God’s glory and we all need God’s forgiveness and His redemptive power at work in our lives to clean us up and make us day by day more like Him.

I can and do worship a God like that who is both merciful and just and I believe this God is indeed worthy of all my praise, and thus I believe the God of the Bible is worthy of your praise as well.

I hope you found this interesting and even encouraging and that ultimately it reflects the Hope I have found in Jesus, a Hope which has carried me through many troubled waters. I pray Blessing for you and your families.

In the calm, and in the Storm, God is good. Always…………..