It is all true. God can command genocide if He so desires.
>>>Christ didn’t downplay the texts depicting judgment and for modern Christians doing so actually skews the image of Christ.<<<
Interesting, and very astute.
Also, I thought the Fighter Pilot simile was an excellent use of a rhetorical tool.
Good Post!
Yes, there is the difference between YHWH ordering it or man deciding on it. Saul didn’t slay all the Amalikites, as instructed, and the result was one of there descendants, Haman, instituting the First Holocaust.
Same with vengeance. Simeon and Levi avenged their sister Dina’s rape and that did not go well for Israel.
It is also good to remember that this is YHWH’s world, everything that happens here, while not necessarily caused by Him, is still permitted by Him for His reasons, which are not our reasons.
And he committed genocide and mass destruction regularly. God of the Old Testament was an emotionally insecure tyrant demanding constant worship. What we have today is sort of a God 2.0.
Finally--someone gets it!
Man sitting in judgment on G-d is ridiculous. It's what atheists and liberals do.