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Tough question's

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by TisMe, Jun 20, 2013.

  1. TisMe

    TisMe New Member

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    I enjoy answer question Atheists/Agnostics may have in an understanding way. However, these following scriptures (Though I have my own view and have answered them ) I wanted other views on the matter.

    If an atheist or anyone in general ( Whom you are witnessing to ) asked for some sort of explanation of these biblical atrocities, how would you answer them?

    I know there are a lot of questions here but I did not want to create a individual thread for each one. If you prefer to answer just one of the questions that would be most helpful.



    Question (1) "Go, now, attack Amalek, and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses." (1 Samuel 15:3)


    Question (2) "Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock." (Psalm 137:9)

    Question (3) "When the men would not listen to his host, the husband seized his concubine and thrust her outside to them. They had relations with her and abused her all night until the following dawn, when they let her go. Then at daybreak the woman came and collapsed at the entrance of the house in which her husband was a guest, where she lay until the morning. When her husband rose that day and opened the door of the house to start out again on his journey, there lay the woman, his concubine, at the entrance of the house with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, 'Come, let us go'; but there was no answer. So the man placed her on an ass and started out again for home." (Judges 19:25-28)

    Question (4) "Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. 'If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,' he said, 'whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the Lord. I shall offer him up as a holocaust.' ... When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came forth, playing the tambourines and dancing. She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her. When he saw her, he rent his garments and said, 'Alas, daughter, you have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the Lord and I cannot retract'." (Judges 11:30-1, 34-5)
     
  2. 12strings

    12strings Active Member

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  3. Scarlett O.

    Scarlett O. Moderator
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    Just because the Bible reports something happening doesn’t mean that God, in His silence on the matter, put His stamp of approval on the event. And we, as the reader, cannot judge God to be at fault for negligence merely because He doesn’t intervene the way that we think He should have. His decisions and actions are not subject to our approval just because we don't understand why.

    These two accounts, as 12strings has said, is the Bible reporting two very heinous events committed by two men in a state of depravity.

    Let me ask you a question. Why do these atheists feel that God is obligated to prevent these things – the human consequences of our own bad decisions? Do they feel it discredits Him as God when He doesn’t intervene? As someone else I know has said, "A believer has faith in God’s goodness, even when circumstances make it difficult and reason seems to falter” and “When men are at their most wicked, God is still good, like He has always been, keeping the universe running for everyone's benefit, regardless of the choices we make.”

    In all of the time that I've listened to non-believers bring up the Levite and his concubine/Jephthath, I've never once encountered one who honestly wanted to know the truth or to explore God's Word in context.

    They don't care what the answer is, they just want to watch Christians squirm in the discomfort of the story.
     
  4. Scarlett O.

    Scarlett O. Moderator
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    Again, just because something is recorded as spoken or done by a human being, does not mean that God approves or supports it.

    The whole of the Psalm must be take into account, but I doubt your atheists questioner's will want to look at it.

    "Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept
    as we thought of Jerusalem.
    We put away our harps,
    hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.
    For our captors demanded a song from us.
    Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn:
    “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!”
    But how can we sing the songs of the Lord
    while in a pagan land?
    If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand forget how to play the harp.
    May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
    if I fail to remember you,
    if I don’t make Jerusalem my greatest joy."

    Israel is in bondage and captivity in Babylon as predicted they would be. They are miserable and heartsick. Then they remind themselves of that dreadful day when it all happened and they vow vengeance against their enemies.

    "O Lord, remember what the Edomites did
    on the day the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem.
    “Destroy it!” they yelled.
    “Level it to the ground!”
    O Babylon, you will be destroyed.
    Happy is the one who pays you back
    for what you have done to us.
    Happy is the one who takes your babies
    and smashes them against the rocks!"

    Here's the answer to their question. This is what's called an imprecatory psalm. It is a psalm of "death to the enemy".

    Was this the right attitude of the Israelites to want to take the babies of Babylon and smash their heads in? No. Of course not. Do you think God condoned the attitude of the man who wrote this? No, He did not. Perhaps it's in the Bible to show how far these Israelites had gotten from God.

    Christ taught centuries later that we are love our enemies. This attitude here doesn't mesh with that, does it. These Israelites had sinned greatly, GREATLY in their hearts towards God. That's the reason they were in bondage to Babylon in the first place. It's no wonder that the author of this Psalm wrote such a disturbing and morose song of threats and depression.

    It's what he felt at the time. King David even wrote some imprecatory psalms.

    God was not and is not condoning the killing of babies in the psalms. But He is allowing us to see what sinful shape these people were in.

    That's just my opinion.
     
  5. TisMe

    TisMe New Member

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    Yes, very well written. Okay, there are some great points I never thought about here. I am assuming you are a Women and I have been blessed with a wonderful wife that always seems to help open my eyes to things I would not have seen or thought in the manner she did.

    I appreciate your reply's :)
     
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