According to Richard Dawkins, Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is "jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."1 Absent from any of Dawkins' description of God is His mercy. People tend to think of the God of the Old Testament as cruel and unforgiving, whereas the God of the New Testament is seen as the God of mercy, who sent Jesus to atone for the sins of the world. The Old Testament prophets were always warning the people about the wrath of God should they stray from the path of righteousness. However, what is usually ignored by atheists is God's mercy for those who did repent of doing evil. Yes, God judged many people groups, but not before warning them.
Let's Ponder on this parable in Luke 13:6, A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' "'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' " . The Owner of vineyard is God and We are the Trees ,My question to you My Friend If you are the one who own this vineyard , Are you going to leave this bad Tree for one more Year ??. This Parable shows that Our God is God of mercy as he's the one who own this vineyard and decided to leave the bad Tree for one more year although it gives no Fruit!!
Jonah and God's mercy?
For those of you who only remember the whale part of Jonah's story, here is a brief synopsis to get you a better background about Jonah. God called Jonah to travel to the city of Nineveh to warn them about their impending judgment, because of their wickedness.2 Jonah had different ideas, and attempted to flee from God by paying for passage on a foreign ship.3 However, God was not amused and sent a violent storm.4 The sailors were terrified and eventually figured out that Jonah was the cause of their endangerment, which he eventually admitted to them.5 Jonah was thrown overboard and God directed a great fish (or whale - the Hebrew is not that specific) to swallow Jonah and take him to the shore.6 Once expelled from the whale, Jonah decided to do what God had originally requested and travelled to Nineveh to preach repentance from their evil.7
A number of Christians assume Jonah was reluctant to go to Nineveh because they were known for their cruelty, and he feared for his life. However, the account gives a different reason why Jonah did not want to go. Jonah actually wanted God to judge the city of Nineveh and kill all their inhabitants. He was disappointed that the king and the people repented of their evil and were spared from God's judgment.8 In fact, Jonah was so angry with God that he asked God to kill him.9 After that conversation, Jonah left the city and sat outside of it hoping that God would still destroy the city.10 God caused a plant to grow overnight to give Jonah shade during his watch, but then caused the death of the plant the next day. Jonah was furious about the plant.11 God pointed out that Jonah's priorities were completely messed up, since he was more concerned about a plant that gave him shade than the fate of 120,000 souls in Nineveh:
Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?" (Jonah 4:10-11)
So, it was clear to Jonah that God was merciful and He would reconsider His judgment of evil if the people repented.12 Since Jonah wanted no part in God's mercy, he tried to avoid following God's instructions to warn the people.
Did God warn others?
Atheists would like you to believe that the God of the Old Testament just randomly killed people for no good reason and without warning. It turns out that atheists often don't present the entire stories about God's judgment. Noah preached to the people of the coming judgment during the 100 years he was building the ark. God's own people were often recipients of God's judgment, when they refused to heed His warnings.19 Here is a short list from the writings of the prophets:
| Prophet | Warning to | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Isaiah | Judah | Judgment |
| Jeremiah | Judah | Judgment |
| Lamentations | Jerusalem | Judgment |
| Ezekiel | Jerusalem, Tyre, Egypt | Captivity in Babylon |
| Hosea | Israel | Judgment |
| Joel | Tyre, Sidon, Philistia | Judgment |
| Amos | Israel | Judgment |
| Obadiah | Edom | Judgment |
| Jonah | Nineveh | Repentance |
| Micah | Israel | Judgment |
| Nahum | Nineveh | Judgment |
| Habakkuk | Judah | Judgment |
| Zephaniah | Judah | Judgment |
| Zechariah | Tyre, and other cities | Judgment |
It is a well known principle that God regularly warned people of impending judgment and He personally indicated that He would relent if they changed their ways.12 So, the atheists' idea that God killed people without warning is false.
Does God kill the innocent?
Did God kill any innocent people along with the evil ones? In the two most famous examples of God's judgment discussed above, the text clearly says that all the people God killed were evil.20 When God was about to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asked God if He would destroy the cities if there were 50 righteous people in them.21 God said no. Then Abraham asked the same question if there were 45 righteous people. Every time he dropped the number and got the same answer. The fact is that God would not have destroyed those cities if there were any righteous people in them. The few righteous who were in those cities He warned ahead of time to get out.22 In another example, Abimelech, king of Gerar, took Abraham's wife because he lied saying that she was his sister.23 However, God prevented Abimelech from sleeping with her and warned him in a dream. Abimelech heeded God's warning and was spared from death.23 Eliphaz the Temanite, in his discussions with Job, acknowledged that God did not judge the innocent with the guilty, but that those who act sinfully will incur God's judgment.24 So, God does not destroy the righteous along with the evil.
Conclusion
In numerous instances, atheists cite the Old Testament for examples of where God killed "innocent" people. However, the texts show that the innocent are not judged, but only the guilty. In addition, virtually always, the guilty individuals were warned ahead of time about their sin. Jonah is often known as the reluctant prophet, although the reason for his hesitation was not due to the cruelty of Nineveh, but because he feared its people might repent and God might spare them. Jonah wanted God to kill all the people of Nineveh, but feared His mercy. So, Christians are not the only people who often seem to want to see God judge people for their evil, rather than praying for their reconciliation with God. Jonah reveals that God was known for His mercy even in Old Testament times. Even though God is merciful, His mercy extends only to those who heed His words of warning. There is no toleration for evil in God's kingdom.
God executes His judgment as a last resort to bring sinners to repentance so that He may forgive them. When properly understood, even the punishment and correction that God administers is, in fact, an ACT OF LOVE AND GRACE.
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Many of the Old Testament passages brought up in this are limited to a specific period in Israel's history - one in which Israel was just starting to establish itself as a new nation. And we must remember God had a very specific plan for the nation Israel - it would be the nation that would give the world God's word (ref. Rom. 3:2), and even more importantly, it would be the nation out of which the Messiah would come (Matthew 2:4-6).
Because Israel was to provide the very elements from which all the people of the world would be saved, the survival and protection of the nation was paramount. Therefore, God gave the infant nation a special measure of protection when establishing it in the land of Canaan. This is entirely consistent with God's character.
As a parent myself, I have given my children different rules for the different times of their lives. When they are toddlers, I limit their exposure to things that may be dangerous for them. For example, my four year old isn't allowed to cross the street by himself. However, my twelve year old can play ball in the street. Is this being inconsistent? No, it's merely recognizing that certain protections are necessary and those rules will change when that maturity level of the individual increases.
Similarly, Israel, as an immature nation with a very new religious system needed to be sheltered from the idolatry of the Canaanite nations, who would have corrupted Israel's worship of the true God and garbled its message to the rest of the world. (1)
Different Aspects of God's Character are not Contradictory.
Beyond the protection God provides to Israel, another reason God would command such action is simply to apply His justice to a wicked nation. In Genesis 15:16, Abram first asks about possessing the land, God tells him that the time is not yet right "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." In other words, God was going to give the nations of Canaan additional time to repent ant turn from their wicked ways. When they didn't, God chose to se Israel to bring His judgment upon them. Similarly, God used Assyria and Babylon to judge Israel later in its history.
Although the judgements of God may appear to some as out of character with His mercifulness and love, it is not true that these are contradictory attributes. Justice is necessary to show love to the victims of evil. If God did not judge those who perpetrate evil, we would not only consider Him unrighteous but uncaring as well. When reading some of these isolated instances in the scripture, we are not privy to the extent of their actions and why God feels they should be judged, so we tend to think of the judgment as unfair. But God is God; He is in the position to judge His creation and because of that He doesn't need to justify His actions to us with an explanation why a nation deserves judgment.
Throughout the Bible, God is portrayed as not only loving and long-suffering, but also a righteous judge who will come to punish the unrepentant and the wicked. This is as true in the New Testament as in the Old. The Book of Revelation specifically speaks about God's judgment on the nations and His wholesale destruction of nations. Similarly, the Old Testament highlights instances where god reached out to sinning nations and gave them unusual grace. The Ninevites were extended a chance to repent in the book of Jonah, even though their deeds were wicked. So the character of God remains consistent throughout the Bible.
