Mind of a Christian

God Isn't a Genocidal Maniac

Edit: I made a correction to the babies paragraph. Sin is inherent, so I have accounted for that. Yet, I still think that the reasoning behind the deaths of the babies that perished in the Flood still gives justice to God.

Oh, what's that about dying babies? Don't worry, it'll all make sense, and I promise I'm not promoting baby killing!

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Satan only killed 10 people. God killed millions of people and destroyed cities. God is a genocidal maniac!

Except, He isn't.

People will point to the earth-wide flood and fire that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, or to the plagues sent to the Egyptians in Exodus to accuse God of being genocidal. If God is genocidal, then He is evil, and aha! Christianity is a hoax.

However, they left out contextual points within these biblical stories, whether intentionally or not. Such contextual points would make God's actions justifiable and righteous.

These won't necessarily be in chronological order:

Sodom and Gomorrah

Abraham drew near and said, "Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ...Please let not my Lord be angry, so I may speak once more. Perhaps ten will be found there?" And He said, "I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten."

(Genesis 18: 25, 32-33 TLV)

In this segment, verse 20-33, God expresses that Sodom and Gomorrah have sinned greatly, and will judge whether the cities will be destroyed or not. Abraham then proceeds to ask if God would destroy the cities if 50 righteous people were inside, or if 45 people were inside,  or 40, or 30, or 20,  or 10 people.

God says that he "will not destroy it for the sake of the ten".

This story in fact shows God's great restraint and mercy.

I'd like to recall a memory I had from elementary school. During lunch, the cafeteria would get pretty loud, and it's understandable that the lunch aides enforced some noise policy. However, I remember that the entire cafeteria would be forced silent as some sort of punishment because only a few kids were loud. I was pretty mad at the lunch aides for doing that.

Now look at how God is handling this. He's going about it the exact opposite way. Instead of punishing the whole for a few, he's sparing the whole for a few. It's implied that if just one person in Sodom or Gomorrah was decent, then God would spare both cities.

Turns out, God rained down fire and sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah. None of them were righteous or redeemable.

Jeremiah 5: 1 expresses a similar idea, but I haven't read the book of Jeremiah yet. I won't give my input on it until I read through it (as of now, I'm reading through the book of Joshua, so give me time lol).

The Flood

"Then ADONAI saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil all the time." (Genesis 6: 5 TLV)

The words wicked and evil are not to be taken lightly in the Bible. The verse above also points out that every thought and how people naturally acted was evil all the time. If you go a verse further, God expresses His regret and sorrow in creating humans. To have our God feel that way, you'd probably have to royally mess things up and not have the decency to admit to your faults.

And so, God flooded the Earth to wipe out the wicked.

But Ethan, what about the babies? They've done nothing wrong and they can't tell the difference between right and wrong.

Oh yes, the babies. As a couple of solid believers have corrected me, indeed babies are born with inherent sin. Yet, God does not act unjustly against these babies. He wouldn't send them to hell because they don't have the capacity to know good from evil, and come to the conscious conclusion that they need God to save them. You're expecting too much from babies!

So what's the result? All of the babies and very young kids are all probably in heaven, where they get to spend an eternity in peace and joy at a divine level. What happens if God decided to kill the people in the flood but leave the babies? The babies have no human parents to properly raise them. What happens if God decided to just allow the babies to live and grow under their parents' care? The wicked parents will only pass on their evil nature to the kids.

So yes, God flooded the Earth to wipe out the wicked.

BUT, He didn't kill anyone who deserved it. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? God's not in the business of doing that.

Noah and his family found favor in God's eyes. Noah, although not perfect, had redeeming qualities. He was not completely and utterly wicked like the rest.

So, God gave Noah plans to preserve his life, his family's life, and the lives of so many animals.

The Plagues

Let's not look at the Egyptians right away, but instead at the Americans prior and during the 1800's. Picture a cotton plantation in the deep south, with slaves toiling away under the watch of the masters and their whips. Recall all the negative and inhumane stories you've heard about slavery. What do you think of them?

Now imagine enslave an entire nation. That's what the Egyptians did to the Israelites. That wasn't a nice thing of them to do, right?

God knew that the Egyptians as a country, and the Pharaoh as an individual, was beyond redeemable. Many of the Egyptians refuse to turn from their evil ways (if they did, then the Israelites wouldn't be slaves). And so God brought forth the plagues through Moses and Aaron.

If you have a hard time justifying or sympathizing with His actions, imagine yourself as a parent. Your son in 2nd grade comes home with bruises, and you find out that a bunch of bullies beat him up. Wouldn't you want to get some payback? Wouldn't you want some justice? That's your son who's suffering!

The Israelites were God's children. He chose them to be His people, and He loved them dearly. God saw that his beloved children were being abused and enslaved in a foreign land. His response against the Egyptians is severe, but with reason.

If you support the death penalty in the judicial system, you might have an easier time sympathizing.  

Is God a genocidal maniac?

No. Did people die under His will? Yes, but they were wicked people, rest assured.