U. Jesus said to treat others as you want them to treat you, not as they treat you. That is different from the Greek philosophers and better. So is that the way all Christians act?
B. That’s the way we all should act, unfortunately, we’re just humans too and we don’t always achieve that goal. If we follow that rule, we won’t want to kill anyone since we don’t want to kill ourselves. We do battle, however our battle is to decide whether to choose good or evil. Read how Paul encourages Christians to fight in Ephesians 6:10.
U. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. So the Christian’s fight is not against real people but spiritual forces?
B. That’s right. In Old Testament times, God’s people fought physical battles because they had a physical kingdom. Physical kingdoms always had enemies who wanted to conquer them. Since God wanted that physical kingdom to be there when Jesus came, he preserved it; and to preserve it, required fighting against people who wanted to destroy it.
U. Why didn’t he just make those enemies into good people so they wouldn’t have to kill all those women and children?
B. For his own reasons, God does not make people do anything they don’t want to do. He allows them to make the choice.
U. But then, he fought against them when they fought the Hebrews.
B. That’s right.
U. I’ve also heard he destroyed cities and people on occasion.
B. He did, but God only destroyed people who were evil. He never destroyed righteous people. Today, God’s kingdom is not physical but spiritual; therefore Christians have no fight against people, only the battle within ourselves to make the right choices, so we can be pleasing to God.
U. My friend just went to see the new Noah movie. He said the Creator killed everyone except Noah and Noah didn’t seem all that righteous to him. Was Noah one of Abraham’s descendants?
B. Just the opposite, Abraham was one of Noah’s descendants; Noah lived hundreds of years before Abraham was born. I haven’t seen the movie, but from what I read, about the only similarity with the Bible’s account was the man Noah, the ark, and the flood.
U. But the movie had everyone being killed.
B. The Bible has everyone killed except 8 people, Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives. Let’s turn over to Genesis 6:9 and read about why that happened.
U. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
B. What kind of man was Noah?
U. It says he was righteous, blameless and walked with God.
B. What about the rest of the people?
U. They were corrupt and violent.
B. So who did God save, the righteous or the violent?
U. Well, the righteous, but why did he have to kill all the others? That seems kind of over the top to me.
B. Perhaps it was, because God said he would never destroy the earth by water again. He even set the rainbow as a symbol of that promise. Read Genesis 9:13.
U. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." But we still have floods.
B. Not like the one Noah experienced. Ours are only local. But do you see that God did not destroy the righteous, he saved them.
U. Yes, I see that’s what the Bible story says. But I saw something about Sodom and Gomorrah on the TV and God destroyed the cities and killed the people, women and children included.
B. Genesis 13 tells us what kind of people lived there.
U. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD. It only talks about men, why kill women and children too?
B. This did happen during the lifetime of Abraham. In fact the Lord told Abraham what he was about to do. He said if he could find 50 righteous people there, he would spare the city. Abraham talked him into promising that if he could find 10 righteous ones there he would not destroy it.
U. He couldn’t even find 10?
B. There were only 4, a man named Lot, his wife, and his two daughters. They were not destroyed but everyone else was.
U. Who decides whether they were righteous or not?
B. In the end, that’s God’s judgment. He is the creator. If he says it is wrong, it is wrong.
U. I don’t like that. Do Christians get to decide about me and my friends? I have read that Christians have killed more people than any other religion. They have even killed a lot of other Christians. Weren’t they violent?
To be continued
B. That’s the way we all should act, unfortunately, we’re just humans too and we don’t always achieve that goal. If we follow that rule, we won’t want to kill anyone since we don’t want to kill ourselves. We do battle, however our battle is to decide whether to choose good or evil. Read how Paul encourages Christians to fight in Ephesians 6:10.
U. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. So the Christian’s fight is not against real people but spiritual forces?
B. That’s right. In Old Testament times, God’s people fought physical battles because they had a physical kingdom. Physical kingdoms always had enemies who wanted to conquer them. Since God wanted that physical kingdom to be there when Jesus came, he preserved it; and to preserve it, required fighting against people who wanted to destroy it.
U. Why didn’t he just make those enemies into good people so they wouldn’t have to kill all those women and children?
B. For his own reasons, God does not make people do anything they don’t want to do. He allows them to make the choice.
U. But then, he fought against them when they fought the Hebrews.
B. That’s right.
U. I’ve also heard he destroyed cities and people on occasion.
B. He did, but God only destroyed people who were evil. He never destroyed righteous people. Today, God’s kingdom is not physical but spiritual; therefore Christians have no fight against people, only the battle within ourselves to make the right choices, so we can be pleasing to God.
U. My friend just went to see the new Noah movie. He said the Creator killed everyone except Noah and Noah didn’t seem all that righteous to him. Was Noah one of Abraham’s descendants?
B. Just the opposite, Abraham was one of Noah’s descendants; Noah lived hundreds of years before Abraham was born. I haven’t seen the movie, but from what I read, about the only similarity with the Bible’s account was the man Noah, the ark, and the flood.
U. But the movie had everyone being killed.
B. The Bible has everyone killed except 8 people, Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives. Let’s turn over to Genesis 6:9 and read about why that happened.
U. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
B. What kind of man was Noah?
U. It says he was righteous, blameless and walked with God.
B. What about the rest of the people?
U. They were corrupt and violent.
B. So who did God save, the righteous or the violent?
U. Well, the righteous, but why did he have to kill all the others? That seems kind of over the top to me.
B. Perhaps it was, because God said he would never destroy the earth by water again. He even set the rainbow as a symbol of that promise. Read Genesis 9:13.
U. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." But we still have floods.
B. Not like the one Noah experienced. Ours are only local. But do you see that God did not destroy the righteous, he saved them.
U. Yes, I see that’s what the Bible story says. But I saw something about Sodom and Gomorrah on the TV and God destroyed the cities and killed the people, women and children included.
B. Genesis 13 tells us what kind of people lived there.
U. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD. It only talks about men, why kill women and children too?
B. This did happen during the lifetime of Abraham. In fact the Lord told Abraham what he was about to do. He said if he could find 50 righteous people there, he would spare the city. Abraham talked him into promising that if he could find 10 righteous ones there he would not destroy it.
U. He couldn’t even find 10?
B. There were only 4, a man named Lot, his wife, and his two daughters. They were not destroyed but everyone else was.
U. Who decides whether they were righteous or not?
B. In the end, that’s God’s judgment. He is the creator. If he says it is wrong, it is wrong.
U. I don’t like that. Do Christians get to decide about me and my friends? I have read that Christians have killed more people than any other religion. They have even killed a lot of other Christians. Weren’t they violent?
To be continued