I have met a few mean and cruel people in my life. Now a mean and cruel God. Sorry I am not going for it. I think Amma said it best when asked if the Bible was true: "Some of it." ~ Amma
Steve, maybe a mean and cruel period in history required a mean and cruel God. No wonder about it.
Sometimes Steve, I do not understand all this complaint about the bible. It appears so obvious to me that so many things are absolutely ridiculos to read in a supposedly religious book. So much so that they've been left there for historical reasons only.
Do you think that some people would be tempted to follow the example of Elijah, who cut the troath to over 300 mean priests and in doing so was praised by angels? And was God really cruel in possessing Elijah's body and cutting all those troaths (this is one possible reasonable explanation)? What if survival of the Whole Jew populace was due to that cut-troath festival? what if those 300 priests were extremely cruel and possessed by Satan? That society was something pretty easy to manipulate by today's standards.
The 'compliant' as u put it is quite legitimate seeing as to the fact that time and time again groups of people have used what has been said in this book to torture and persecute others and in m
our time to harass those who do not believe. This has been done because of 'facts' stated in the Bible which are indeed often untrue and lies. In this sense this book cannot be considered a spiritual guide since it is used by fundamentalists to justify a mean God.
How can there be justification for cruelty?
When u find cruelty acted out by God in this book it is time to replace it or at least recognize it's spiritual poverty and not try to justify it by saying God could b cruel in one period of time an loving at another time. No wonder there is such mental illness and unkindness in our culture today.... when u follow such a teaching.