WOG I have not been ignoring your post on my board -- The Word Was God

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Date Posted: 10:02:22 08/15/02 Thu
Author: schwabra
Author Host/IP: 63.210.224.231
Subject: WOG I have not been ignoring your post on my board

I have been thinking about it. Why did God command the plunder and killing of so many in taking the land?

I have no simple answer. The answer I feel best describes it, goes to the unknowable nature of God himself. In this, we as humans will never be able to fully comprehend all of God's motives and plans for creation. We have come up with simple and even complex models for creation. They all fall short of reality in many ways.

One example is our concept of evil. There can be no equal power to God, or a power that is against Him in monotheism. So we must find ways to explain "evil" within our ideas of monotheism or we must find ways to explain why God would allow these "evil" things to occur.

The same problem occurs when our modern sensibilities confront the realities of existance in ancient times. We must justify the treatment of women if we wish to see modern change while still using the ancient texts to direct our lives. If women were treated this way in the Bible, maybe they should be treated the same way today, right? Of course not.

The same happens in war and conquest. Some times we read about the total destruction of a people, and others we see their defeat without destruction. Why the difference? Biblically we must attribute it all to God's plan and will. In todays problems, we do not seem as sure of the will of God in the waging of war.

My feelings are limiting war to combatants. Here is the problem how am I to know when an individual crosses the line? In Vietnam there were cases of women and children being used for surprise in attacks. It was never all women, or all children, so how are we to know?

Is ancient warfare any different? I know they did not have grenades of things like that, but there was also no real medical care. This meant that any serious injury was life threatening. A surprise with a dagger could inflict a bad enough cut to lead to infection and death, and a child could be trained to use the dagger. Maybe this explains the different treatment if some people would train women and children to stay behind and attack in surprise.

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Replies:

Jewish perspective -- WOG, 08:48:02 08/16/02 Fri
- We have choices -- schwabra, 21:17:59 08/16/02 Fri
  - Back to the heathen nations and God -- WOG, 13:39:43 08/17/02 Sat
    - I have been trying to avoid the obvious -- schwabra, 14:39:42 08/23/02 Fri