this is unnecessarily antagonistic.
protestants have an answer. there are many reasons why, one or more may apply to a specific case. generally speaking when God actually strikes a person down, it’s an example. we can say with 100 confidence the person struck down was 100% wrong about something. so much so that God struck them down. often it was to serve as an example to be remembered. these examples for others is an expression of God’s love for people. in that we remember these times and not make the same mistakes ourselves. not’out of fear that it guarantees God will do the exact same to us, but that we respect God when He puts a stop to someone doing bad behavior. it also is a reminder that sins against a holy, perfect God are not minor, that they do have negative consequences and that God, the author of life, can take it back. all our sins deserve temporal and eternal death because they are all against an infinitely perfect God. it shows God loves us because of the fact we don’t get struck down for our sins we commit everyday. He is not a God who cannot wait to strike us down for the smallest misstep. He loved us so much He had a plan to save us from the penalty of our sins. He sent His son to live a perfect life as a man, the God-man, the Messiah, our Kinsmen Redeemer. He paid the price forall. an infinite God required infinite penalty, for billions mof peoples’ sins, and God the Son became fully man and lived a perfect life, and gave that life as a blood sacrifice - without the shedding of blood no sins are forgiven - and paid for our sins with His perfect atoning life/blood. A worthy offering that God accepted and legally cleared our sin debts to Him, if we receive’this gift and accept it.
In the OT they already knew from Genesis 3 God told Eve He would send a kinsmen redeemer to redeem them from the fall. The OT folks’knew of God’s’promise so their belif in that promise - Jesus - just not named at that point - was their faith and trust in God which showed’they were saved because they believed God when He said He would, in the future, save them.
of course protestants have an answer for this. it’s assinine to start a piece like this.
I’m well aware of that answer, but it’s a form of dualism (which I mentioned). It doesn’t address the consistency issue. Where is its parallel today? Surely, such a key principle wouldn’t simply vanish from God’s religion!
Thank you.