How do I best answer this question?

[Still Alive]

18 hours ago, loverofhumanity said:

Do any of you know the Old Testament really well? 

How do you deal with the accusation that God committed genocide against the Amalekites by ordering the extermination Of  every man, woman and infant? 

The author of the Book is stated in commentaries as ‘unknown’ and that it was recorded about 200 or more years after the event. Also, weren’t the Amalekites continually attacking the Israelites over a 500 year period?

The question of course is why women and infants were mentioned or is the recording not divinely revealed revelation and the mistake of a historian as to the details?

Go here: https://www.logosapologia.org/tag/micheal-heiser/

And this: https://answersingenesis.org/bible-characters/giants-in-the-old-testament/

 

 

Remember, it was a different age, with different dispensations, different rules, etc. It is about a lot more than just the Amalekites. 

 

If you haven't read it yet, you need to get this: https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Realm-Recovering-Supernatural-Worldview/dp/1577995562/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1USPSA197SU6W&keywords=unseen+realm+michael+heiser&qid=1559313206&s=gateway&sprefix=unseen+realm+%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-2

 

Edited May 31, 2019 by Still Alive

[Still Alive]

18 hours ago, loverofhumanity said:

The question of course is why women and infants were mentioned or is the recording not divinely revealed revelation and the mistake of a historian as to the details?

It's important to note that Hitler was once an infant.

[loverofhumanity]

Some good replies worth thinking about. I think God had acted to eliminate the threat to the Israelites for good. They just would have reared new generations to attack them. As someone put here Hitler was an infant and he committed complete carnage against the Jews. 

[gordon7777]

23 hours ago, loverofhumanity said:

Some good replies worth thinking about. I think God had acted to eliminate the threat to the Israelites for good. They just would have reared new generations to attack them. As someone put here Hitler was an infant and he committed complete carnage against the Jews. 

No, the person who mentions anyone as an infant worthy to die is just as bad as who he wants to put to death.

What happened to the Jews was predicted, it does not matter who carried out the evil, but evil exists on earth.

Deuteronomy 31:29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

 

 

God did not have to eliminate any threat to the Hebrews, because they were not any better, that is why they could carry out killing even of children. The purpose of the evil in the world, is to show that the Hebrews had no excuse left to do the same evil worshipping of devils that others around them did, as they were shown a way that did not have to have corruption. To be cleared away of devil worshipping peoples around them. They returned to their corruption quickly, and then the example was told and the testimony is known, to some anyway...

 

Deuteronomy 7:16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

 

Deuteronomy 31:20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.

 

Jeremiah 13:10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

 

Also when the disciples of Christ wanted to do the same bad way that was done in the old testament, they were quickly rebuked to know, that this way was never of Christs holiness or the Lords gentleness, it was to sepeaate for us forever, that everybody who lives by the sword dies by it as they do not know what spirit they are of..

 

Luke 9:⁵⁴ And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?⁵⁵ But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.⁵⁶ For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

 

Matthew 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

[JohnD]

On 5/30/2019 at 2:44 PM, loverofhumanity said:

Do any of you know the Old Testament really well? 

How do you deal with the accusation that God committed genocide against the Amalekites by ordering the extermination Of  every man, woman and infant? 

The author of the Book is stated in commentaries as ‘unknown’ and that it was recorded about 200 or more years after the event. Also, weren’t the Amalekites continually attacking the Israelites over a 500 year period?

The question of course is why women and infants were mentioned or is the recording not divinely revealed revelation and the mistake of a historian as to the details?

How do I deal with the accusation?  I inform the accuser that neither of us are God and that his reasoning is rooted in

1. the fact that he is God

2. he knows the hearts and intents of all people

3. humanity is not the innocent race of beings that we tend to prejudge ourselves as

4. since all are evil by nature, that any one of us is saved is miraculous and the demonstration of God's Grace

[JohnD]

If memory serves, the Amalekites attacked Israel from the rear (where women children and elderly folks traveled)

in the Exodus / Wilderness wandering.

Note the Messianic / Calvary prophesy of the passage:

Exodus 17 (AV)
1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12 But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:
16 For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

 

 

[Willa]

Before when Abraham saw the promised land God told him to wait because their sin was not full.  Apparently there is a point that the wickedness of a nation is so bad that God won't tolerate it any longer.  That was also true of Sodom and Gomorrah.  It makes me wonder when our time is coming.  

[loverofhumanity]

Thanks for many of these insightful answers. I hope my question didn’t upset anyone as I wish to be friends and get along with everyone. I hope that you all accept me one day as a friend. But I must earn it first.

[BeauJangles]

8 minutes ago, loverofhumanity said:

Thanks for many of these insightful answers. I hope my question didn’t upset anyone as I wish to be friends and get along with everyone. I hope that you all accept me one day as a friend. But I must earn it first.

You're most welcome, and I can call you friend in my opinion. An honest and open statement to the forum, and I am surmising that you feel as a believer in Christ, but have a bit of struggle with the title of being a Christian. Fair enough, I suppose for now. I do hope you feel comfortable at this point, and will hang with what's going on here. God bless!

Shalom, 

David/BeauJangles

[gordon7777]

10 hours ago, Willa said:

Before when Abraham saw the promised land God told him to wait because their sin was not full.  Apparently there is a point that the wickedness of a nation is so bad that God won't tolerate it any longer.  That was also true of Sodom and Gomorrah.  It makes me wonder when our time is coming.  

The time is when the transgressors are come to a full, and when everybody thinks they have peace and safety, when else would it be. As for other consideration, it is when everybody has pleasure in unrighteousness and lovers of their own selves, and to counteract that, this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come.

Daniel 8:23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

 

Psalm 92:5 O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. 6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. 7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

 

1 Thessalonians 5: 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

 

2 Timothy 3:3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

 

Matthew 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

 

Matthew 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.