God's inconsistency?

[Guest Griffin]

Further point, NONE of the sons/daughters of Adam are innocent in the eyes of God, redeamed, but not innocent.  differance redemed means the offense did happen, but the punishment for it is avoided, innocent means it never happened.  We call ALL be called "sinners" and guilty.

[jesusson]

Hello everyone:

Well there are a lot of things that can be applied to this matter. One of them is that we are under grace and our lord Jesus Christ is a God of Love and HE is waiting patiently so that all can repent and come to the knowledge of knowing Him.And if it was like in the old testament believe me a lot of believers would get judged also. Mormons,JW,Cults and all kind of this Satan's  lies are wrong we Christians all know that, but lets not forget that we sin daily  I am not talking about continual sin but daily stupid sins which we all should repent of. But I think if God was not a gracious God he would of probably destroyed most of Christians also because a lot of them to things which are not contrary to our lord. So I think as Christians we should not think as to why is God not destroying this people but we should pray so that God would give them a chance to repent and see the light. Sooner or later those people who don't repent are going to die and go to hell but I think it is our job as Christian's to be a living testimony to them and witness o them so that they will convert. There are daily thousands of people whose eyes are open from the lies of Satan and they turn to Christianity if God had destroyed them believe me our great great grandparents were probably one of them, if God had destroyed them well I got news for you guys we wouldn't of been here. We all should ask God so that he through the Holy Spirit should give us compassion for this people instead of thinking why are they alive. We should pray and go witness to them the truth. Well brothers and sisters we should also remember that our God is a God of love and in due time he will Judge all the unrighteous.

Lord Bless.

A.S

[Apokalupsis]

So I think as Christians we should not think as to why is God not destroying this people but we should pray so that God would give them a chance to repent and see the light. Sooner or later those people who don't repent are going to die and go to hell but I think it is our job as Christian's to be a living testimony to them and witness o them so that they will convert.

While I agree w/ most of your post...it is innapropriate in this particular thread, in that the purpose of this thread, is seeking an answer as to how to address this concern that many critics have.  As an apologist, I would like a feasible response to give when asked.

According to your post, here is what the dialog would be like:

Atheist: Why did God kill the unrightousness and disobedient in such a swift manner in the OT...but does not do this now? Why did he change his mind?  And isn't this contradictory to what the Bible says about His unchanging nature?

Apologist: Despite what it looks like, God is a very merciful and just God. Don't worry about him killing all of those people. Instead, let me pray for you, that will make everything better.

Now...while your intentions may be good, this will NEVER work w/ the skeptic, critic, or attacker of the Bible.  Tough questions demand tough answers.

[Guest okiejack]

Quote from original post; """"""""""""""In many instances in the OT, God wipes out, or has Israel destory other nations, cities, tribes, etc...for idolatry, or pagan practices.

Why does he not do that NOW?

[simplejeff]

On 8/29/2002 at 2:50 PM, Apokalupsis said:

In many instances in the OT, God wipes out, or has Israel destory other nations, cities, tribes, etc...for idolatry, or pagan practices.  Why does he not do that NOW?  Surely there is more of it going on. There are more religions, cults, disbelievers, etc...

So why would God punish people by death back then, but not now?

The penalty for idolatry is still death,  not just in the OT, but now, today,

as Jesus said after some were killed by the tower falling on them:  Unless you all likewise repent,  you will perish.

i.e. each one who wants to serve, follow, and be saved by Jesus,  must repent.  There's no other way, no other option.

[simplejeff]

On 9/16/2002 at 9:51 PM, Guest okiejack said:

Quote from original post; """"""""""""""In many instances in the OT, God wipes out, or has Israel destory other nations, cities, tribes, etc...for idolatry, or pagan practices.

 

Why does he not do that NOW?

Actually he does.    Simply waiting as He says in His Word for the appointed time.

 

The whole world is under a death sentence - soon to be destroyed , by fire next time,  not by water...

and with no mercy , not mixed with mercy this time.  (in the past,  every time was mixed with or followed with mercy)

[OneLight]

12 hours ago, simplejeff said:

The penalty for idolatry is still death,  not just in the OT, but now, today,

as Jesus said after some were killed by the tower falling on them:  Unless you all likewise repent,  you will perish.

i.e. each one who wants to serve, follow, and be saved by Jesus,  must repent.  There's no other way, no other option.

Why are you replying to threads that are 15 years old?  This is the second one today ...

[Hawkins]

The answer is simple. When you try to plant a tree in your backyard, you need first to remove all the weeds before burying the seed. After that you need intensive care to make sure that the newly germinated tree won't go the wrong direction which you don't want them to grow to. If the tree grows towards a wrong direction, then you will use a fixture to pull them back in position. After the tree grows strong enough, you no longer need to do anything.

Israel is the seed of God's salvation. It grows like a tree such that it reaches today's humans. The Canaanites (as weeds) are removed before Israel can settle in Canaan. After that strict measures are taken against the Jews for them to go the correct path. Then they remain loyal to God for His message of salvation (the Scripture) to be carried forward. The end effect is that the Jews are the only ethnic group keeping its religion (loyalty to God) in a 2000 years exile without their own home nation. What a tough tree!

[Kevinb]

In many instances in the OT, God wipes out, or has Israel destory other nations, cities, tribes, etc...for idolatry, or pagan practices.

 

Why does he not do that NOW?  Surely there is more of it going on. There are more religions, cults, disbelievers, etc...

 

Yes it appears it's down to man to sort man. ISIS is nearly done in Iraq and Syria largely by Western intervention. If a religious person was to write about it maybe he'd say with Gods help or authority or something... in thousands of years this version could be added to a religious book and look like God did it. Maybe this was always the case.

[Guest shiloh357]

2 minutes ago, Kevinb said:

In many instances in the OT, God wipes out, or has Israel destory other nations, cities, tribes, etc...for idolatry, or pagan practices.

 

Why does he not do that NOW? 

He is doing what He did back then.  He is giving people time to repent.   God did not rashly or impulsively destroy those ancient peoples.  He allowed them time to repent, several hundred years to repent and in the fullness of time, used Israel as an instrument of His judgment upon them.   He is following the same pattern today and we know from Scripture that they will be destroyed at the 2nd coming of Christ.