Can Any Of The Ab Bible Quoters Help Me?

[Atheist]

I have a vague memory of Biblical quotes wherein Jehovah exhorts his chosen people to smite the Midianites and to destroy them and their cattle and their children and to spare only the women who please them so that they may do with them as they see fit.
I hope my memory is playing me false. Perhaps someone with more Biblical knowledge can put me right?

[Theland]

Gods will was to preserve the purity of His people, so destroying the followers of heathen gods was justified because their religious practices were so immoral.
That's it in s nutshell.

[naomi24]

You have it about right, atheist. Theland is trying to justify God’s crimes against humanity. As long as God is off the hook, in Theland’s world morality is surplus to requirements.

[goodlife]

Answers@ What was Midianites like well they were like some people in today's world.
They stole the Israelites’ animals and destroyed their crops and killed people for sake of killing etc etc.

So make good use of the many ways to find “the very knowledge of God.” Do not forget to read the context when a question centers around a certain scripture. which you don't do. Bible dictionaries may help you. Use Biblical cross-references and a concordance; and, if at all possible, never fail to check the Watch Tower Publications Jw.org

you use these aids, you will seldom have to ask others. And, you will have not only the answer, but also the satisfaction that you know how to find answers to your Bible questions. Then, too, your spiritual maturity will be enhanced.

Also the Midianites and their allies picture Satan’s visible organisation on the earth today.

[Atheist]

Goodlife; can you explain simply who were the Midianites? And what was bad about them? And if they were bad, why should they (and their women and children and animals) be killed? Isn't God loving and forgiving?

[goodlife]

What did I say, Do your own homework.

[nailit]

Its not just the Middianites that God ordered the Hebrews to be slaughtered. It was virtually everyone around them
https://sarata.com/bible/verses/about/slaughter.html
God of love my backside!

[nailit]

//What did I say, Do your own homework//
Mmmm, seems a familiar saying amongst the religious here...

[Atheist]

Goodlife, I have done some 'homework' and I still don't understand you. I'm here to ask for explanations from people who are familar with the Bible, not to be told to go away and do my 'homework'.

[Atheist]

And, Goodlife, I think doing that by asking you, a believer, to advise me, I am doing my 'homework'. What better source could I seek than you?

[nailit]

//not to be told to go away and do my 'homework//
The audacity of believers to tell anyone who questions them to "do their homework" belies their own, unconcsious, questions about their own faith.
Why do they think that unbelievers HAVN'T questioned/researched their beliefs??

[nailit]

As an unquestioning believer, I

[nailit]

Something amiss with my 'puter...

I swallowed hook line and sinker what I was taught without question by my pastors and ministers.
Turned out to be total boolarks.
The turning point came when I

[nailit]

I give up tonight....

[Atheist]

Nailit, give up for tonight, but don't give up full stop. We need your input.

[nailit]

//Also the Midianites and their allies picture Satan’s visible organisation on the earth today//

In what way?
Very little is known of Midianite culture so how can you compare?

[fiveleaves]

The Old Testament needs to read against the background of preparation for the coming of Jesus.
The blood line of the Jewish people had to be preserved at all costs.
Some of the violence seems unnecessarily harsh and not all the verses are easy to explain but if the birth of Jesus had been stopped there would be no hope at all for any of Mankind

[jno]

if some people think that the Bible is the word of God, then I think they really ought to stand by all of it

it's strange that many atheists demand that all Christian should be fundamentalists, the better to criticise them. If some Christians ignore the biblical suggestion that they sell their daughters into slavery, they're accused of "cherry-picking".

But in real life, that's what Christians do: believe what they wish, ignore the rest. (Find some Christians and ask them, if you don't believe me.) You can possibly find the fundamentalists in West Virginia or Lagos if you look; but there aren't a lot of them in Europe.

[Atheist]

jno; my question was about Bible quoters, not Christians. I think that Christians are more interested in the NT rather than the OT. I see good ideas in Christianity; fewer good ideas in the OT. The Bible quoters here often refer to OT stuff.

[Theland]

'' ..... In The lands world morality is surplus to requirements''.

Not so. But why spoil a good rant?

[naomi24]

Theland, I fail to see how 2.5 lines equates to a rant. However, attempting to justify the slaughter of children speaks for itself.