We are not talking about a spanking my friend. We are talking about death. Death at the hands of a vengeful God. The end of earthly existence.
And what many fail to consider, is that we are expected to believe by the expositors of the faith, that we must make a choice IN THIS LIFE, as to whether or not we will recognize and follow God's heavenly invitation.
And so when God chooses to kill in "righteous anger" those who have yet to make such a choice, he removes from them, the opprotunity to later hear and decide. He condemns innocent men women and children to hell, in a fit of murderous rage. Or at least that's what the Bible says.
And so we see a paradox. We are expected on the one hand to beleive that God is the epitome of love, morality, and righteousness... and on the other hand, we are expected to believe that he judges nations, and exacts vengence indiscriminmately against those who happen to be unlucky enough to be in the way.
Both cannot be true.
So true. But I believe that is because the "both" you are referring to are only your interpretations. Therefore, it means that at least one of your interpretaions may be flawed. Remember, your reasoning ability is good, but it is not perfect. I can be the best long jumper in the world, but I'm still not going to attempt to jump the Grand Canyon.
If you continue to plan on using your reasoning ability alone, owk, I recomend wearing a parachute...
Perhaps death means something different to God than it does to us. Mortals may see death as the end of everything, and if that is true, God is indeed cruel in cutting a person's life short. But from God's perspective, perhaps death is merely the gateway to a different form of life, just as birth is the gateway to mortality. Both birth and death involve a certain amount of pain. But in the the eternal scheme of things, that pain is short-lived.
As for the "vengeful" part, I personally believe, that God did not write the Bible. People with limited knowledge and experience wrote the Bible, and they are the ones who describe Him as vengeful.
From a child's point of view, a parent's discipline may seem "mean, unfair" or even "vengeful." When the child gains more knowledge and experience, he/she can begin to see that the parent really had his/her best interest in mind all along.