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Why doesn't God smite Old Testament style anymore?

Well?

  • Total voters
    11
sparkchaser

sparkchaser

Administrator and Stuntman
Staff member
I was watching this documentary on locusts and it occurred to me that there haven't been any Old Testament style smotings since, well th Old Testament.

Why is this? Has God gotten mellow in his old age? Or maybe he suddenly have unlimited stores of patience and generosity much like my dad after us kids all moved out of the house? Did God stop taking out his stress on man once Jesus moved out of heaven and moved into a cozy virgin womb?

I know he promised to never destroy everything with a flood again so worldwide floods are out (take that Al Gore).

I haven't read about invasions of frogs lately. Swarms of locusts and flies seems to be status quo in Africa though. Swarms of gnats are practically de rigeur in pretty much all of North America but that was going on since before Erick the Red showed up so I don't know what the Indians (feather) did to piss off God enough to that he still hasn't turned off the gnat faucet.

I haven't seen any cities wiped off the face of the Earth recently. Sure New Orleans was close, but that was bureaucratic bungling and poor city planning that allowed a city on the coast to be built below sea level with no contingency plans.

Any thoughts?
 
Well, according to some, He does. Quite a few American preachers have blamed both 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami on the lack of Christian values in today's society.
 
Historically, didn't God tell someone what he was going to do before he did it? I don't recall hearing of anyone coming forward to say "I dun falled asleep in front of mah TV after my shows and God he appeared to me and said that if we don't change our ways and find the Lord that he'll make a wave destroy India on a cause we don't live there." They're just back fitting to suit their agenda.
 
Wasn't it something to do with a rainbow after Noah's Ark? When God decided that wiping out most of the human race might have been a bit of an overreaction to the behaviour of a species he'd created to behave that way in the first place? or something like that...
 
I don't find any shortage of catastrophes smiting mankind. To get credit for being the Smiter, however, it would be best to warn ahead of time, not just claim credit after the fact.

If you issue enough dire warnings, some of them are bound to happen. The Old Testament God did issue warnings, but sometimes changed his mind, as in the case of Jonah. So when some of the catastrophes don't happen - the caldera in Yellowstone will blow up some day but it failed to occur on May 5 as predicted - you can say that you relented.
 
The reason why God doesn't appear to apostles or anyone else for that matter, is because Christ is supposed to be our "living" representative on earth. At least, that's how more than a few groups view it. I haven't heard an explanation in regards to the whole smiting bit.
 
I am sick and tired of Hollywood and others (Al Gore) scaring people half to death all the time.

2000 was supposed to be the end:rolleyes:

Like sparkchaser said, things are not done well beforehand, and this is what happens.

If the end comes, I really don't want to know about it.

(ranting now to myself: the freaking movies Doomsday, I am Legend , Hollywood is making me sick with this "the world is ending bullshit!, and freaking Al Gore go turn off some of your electricity for goodness sakes.....I am going to go get a drink now....)
 
I think hes just modernized his smiting..Ihe he dropped locusts now or frogs im sure we would just gas them or do something..Now he forces us to watch ridiculous tv, knowing we cant escape those dumb american idol shows, or survivor.and if Tom Cruise isn't some sort of plague on mankind...then hes rather creepy.
 
beer good said:
Well, according to some, He does. Quite a few American preachers have blamed both 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami on the lack of Christian values in today's society.
Click to expand...

Indeed. The Westbro Baptist Church, for instance, declared that Katrina was the result of gay rights. They also prayed for the missing Swedes in the Asian tsunami to be dead, because Sweden has a good record on gay rights.

Westbro is extreme – but it's not alone in seeing God's hand in various catastrophes.

In many ways, they're right, of course.

Because if God exists and is the god of Judeo-Christian tradition, then God created the Earth, together with tsunamis, and hurricanes and volcanoes and earthquakes etc. And the god of Judeo-Christian tradition, being omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, therefore can be said to have created these things in the full and certain knowledge that on X day in X year and on Y day in Y year and on Z day in Z year, such catastrophes would kill people, including completely innocent little babies and children.

Nice geezer, this god bloke.

And if God isn't omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, then one has to ask, what's the point? Even Pascal's Wager would become redundant.
 
SFG75 said:
The reason why God doesn't appear to apostles or anyone else for that matter, is because Christ is supposed to be our "living" representative on earth. At least, that's how more than a few groups view it. I haven't heard an explanation in regards to the whole smiting bit.
Click to expand...

Sure but where's Christ? Not here.
 
Sybarite said:
Indeed. The Westbro Baptist Church, for instance, declared that Katrina was the result of gay rights. They also prayed for the missing Swedes in the Asian tsunami to be dead, because Sweden has a good record on gay rights.

Westbro is extreme – but it's not alone in seeing God's hand in various catastrophes.

In many ways, they're right, of course.

Because if God exists and is the god of Judeo-Christian tradition, then God created the Earth, together with tsunamis, and hurricanes and volcanoes and earthquakes etc. And the god of Judeo-Christian tradition, being omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, therefore can be said to have created these things in the full and certain knowledge that on X day in X year and on Y day in Y year and on Z day in Z year, such catastrophes would kill people, including completely innocent little babies and children.

Nice geezer, this god bloke.

And if God isn't omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, then one has to ask, what's the point? Even Pascal's Wager would become redundant.
Click to expand...

I don't like that christians blame good for things like Katrinia. I think people paint god in their own image complete with their own motives. It's sooooooo wrong.

At least with Katrinia he gets to share the blame with George Bush.
 
beer good said:
Well, according to some, He does. Quite a few American preachers have blamed both 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami on the lack of Christian values in today's society.
Click to expand...
Lack of Christian values? How many Christian denominations are there. How many times is the bible going to be retranslated it seems even the Klingons have their own translation
 
Robert said:
I don't like that christians blame good for things like Katrinia. I think people paint god in their own image complete with their own motives. It's sooooooo wrong.

At least with Katrinia he gets to share the blame with George Bush.
Click to expand...
As a pantheist I believe that everyone is connected to God and everything in the universe is a representation of God. To me God is the combined consciousness of all life I don't believe in calamity just about every major city happens to be on a fault line if Folsom damn breaks I would go to hell according to the Christians but we all know religion is a way to control the masses hell tactics only work on those that believe they are doomed, We create our own calamities by believing in them. So with that said if earth gets sucked in a black hole tomorrow I can sleep happy knowing its not my fault. Happy Yuletide
 
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