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To: The Green Goblin
I assume that you are referring to the conquest of Canaan. If you study the passages in question, you will note that God was using Israel to destroy nations that had gone completely pagan. In fact, God had specifically said, earler, that Israel would not be allowed to enter the land until the sins of those nations reached their full measure. Meaning, God was going to give them time (for He is patient) to turn from their wickedness. But after many generations they did not turn, so God used Israel to wipe them out.

The extermination accomplished a two-fold purpose:

1. To enable Israel to settle in the land given them by God.

2. To stave off any possibility of Israel being influenced by foreign pagan nations to stray from following the one true God.

Because God is perfect, he knows the end from the beginning. Israel was his chosen nation, the very vessel by which His name would be proclaimed in all the Earth. God went to extraordinary lengths to protect them. Had He not ordered the extermination of all of those people, consider the consequences:

1. Israel would have failed to settle the land God had given them, because those nations would never have left voluntarily.

2. If any member of that pagan nation survived, they would turn Israel, God's chosen people, away from the true faith, and disaster and judgement would ensue.

This sort of order, of course, counted only for the chosen nation of Israel at that time. Obviously this is not the way God works with America, or anyone else.

Remember also that we are owned by God, every one of us. He can take me off this earth, or any memebr of my family, in a moment if He so chooses. All the world belongs to Him. We do not belong to ourselves. God is overwhelmingly patient, though, as he was with those pagan nations.


467 posted on 03/20/2003 9:14:54 AM PST by Zack Nguyen
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To: Zack Nguyen
If--according to your God--it's is sometimes moral to murder children, then he is not the source of moral absolutes. Plain and simple.
468 posted on 03/20/2003 9:21:22 AM PST by The Green Goblin
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To: Zack Nguyen
Had He not ordered the extermination of all of those people, consider the consequences:
1. Israel would have failed to settle the land God had given them, because those nations would never have left voluntarily.

God couldn't make them decide to just up and leave? You must be consulting the definition of the word "omnipotent" found in the Clinton Dictionary.

2. To stave off any possibility of Israel being influenced by foreign pagan nations to stray from following the one true God.

God was less convincing to His chosen people than a bunch of defeated (though not exterminated, if God has been sufficiently moral to instruct His people in the basic concepts of of Just War doctrine) pagans?

This sort of order, of course, counted only for the chosen nation of Israel at that time.

God is a moral relativist?

Remember also that we are owned by God, every one of us. He can take me off this earth, or any memebr of my family, in a moment if He so chooses. All the world belongs to Him.

So much for our nosiness in saying dreadful things about the way (for example) Saddam Hussein treated the people under his rule.

522 posted on 03/21/2003 8:10:33 AM PST by steve-b
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