I see your point except for one thing: there is no way to free them from the Egyptians and keep the Egyptians from pursuing them. If the slaves had walked off the plantations in Alabama and said, "Hey guys we're heading north. See ya later. We have no guns or weapons of any kind. We'll be walking really slowly with women and children. Now please let us go and don't pursue us." Would that have worked? Of course not! The Pharaohs considered themselves gods! Why would they not pursue the Isrealites unless the most serious of consequences had altered their behavior!? Here's God's alternative: kill ALL the Egyptian leadership! or kill most of the army! Which is more "just"? I'll leave you to debate that one...
>If the babies died painlessly and their end was already >known (which if there is a God would be true), then >this was in NO way cruel. Of course this entirely negates the biblical premise that we are free to choose OR reject jesus as our lord and saviour. Yeah, yeah, yeah...you'll get all twisted up in the circular logic about him knowing all. Great, he creates me supposedly with the free will to choose but since it is already known then I can't possible choose and if he wants to he can just kill me and it won't be cruel. It is already known...just let him kill me and let's get it over with. What a twisted crock (and minds) JB
The hypocrisy on this just kills me. It's okay for America to go in and help the Iraqis free themselves from the evil regime of Saddam. Yet, God, with minimal loss of life (and minimal pain) frees an entire nation from brutal slavery and you call Him a mass murderer? I'm sensing a little bias here...
God could do NOTHING ELSE??! if what you say is true then OMNIPOTENCE is NOT one of god's attributes.. which leads to lots of wonderful fodder for the logical atheist. heh. i don't think you wanna go there or i will tear you a new butt whole.
What?! Why do you assume that we can't simultaneously have free will and God have foreknowledge? This, by the way, could be a natural outgrowth of String Theory...
>I see your point except for one thing: there is no >way to free them from the Egyptians and keep the >Egyptians from pursuing them. He's freakin' god...he can do anything. Give me a break. He can create a mighty river that is uncrossable just behind them and the Egyptians will be stuck. He can form a perpetually flowing lava channel that can't be bridged. He can open up a crevasse so wide they can't even see across it. No, let's kill the babies and obedient shoe will stick up for me and tell all that I HAD TO DO IT... THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY. JB
Okay, I shouldn't say could do nothing else. But my point is that you're avoiding the quesiton, "What is you great solution, given the general events of the Bible are true, that God could have done?" Again, short of slaying most of the Egyptian army, there are no other solutions except to go for some severe "behavior modification."
Precisely... but IT chose to KILL. here is why: EX 7:1, 14, 9:14-16, 10:1-2, 11:7 The purpose of the devastation that God brings to the Egyptians is as follows: to show that he is Lord; to show that there is none like him in all the earth; to show his great power; to cause his name to be declared throughout the earth; to give the Israelites something to talk about with their children; to show that he makes a distinction between Israel and Egyptians POWER TRIP, nothing more. Read it and weep christians. :-/ :-/
Longshot, I can answer the "Q" in such a way that defends the passage depicting the killing of Egypt's first born children. Of course, I don't pretend that mine are the FINAL answers, nor do I pretend that all must accept them as the BEST answers. If I thought for one minute you were asking in order to actually understand, rather than to gather further ammunition for your puerile and never-ending assault on anything Christian, than I might be bothered explaining myself. Shiney, my advice to you is to IGNORE Longshot's barbs. Can't you tell that he couldn't care less about what answer you give him? That whatever you say simply gives him greater momentum? Why allow him that power?