Passages that sound more like the words of man than of God

[caine]

There are several parts of the bible that doesn't seem to fit with the fact that it was written or dictated by God. Can someone explain the following:

Genesis 6:7
So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them."

How can an omnipotent God regret something he has done? If he is truly almighty, shouldnt he be able to predict what outcome any given action will have? An omnipotent God can do everything. Everything includes predicting the future. Right?

Genesis 7:2
Take with you seven [a] of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,

Why do God think that some animals a clean, and some unclean? And why would he create animals he doesn't like?

Leviticus 11:10
But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest.

Again, why are we only allowed to eat certain kinds of animals. If we are to detest some species, because God tells us to, we must assume that he detest them as well. Why even create those animals?

Leviticus 19:19
" 'Keep my decrees.
" 'Do not mate different kinds of animals.
" 'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.
" 'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.

I wont comment on the first one. But number 2 and 3 are strange. Why in the name of God wouldn't that be allowed? It sounds like the words of anything but a God to me.

Numbers 14:11-14:20
11 The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they."
13 Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 'The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.'
17 "Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.' 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now."
20 The LORD replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked.

God decides to kill a bunch of people. Moses makes Him change his mind. An omnipotent God would know that this would happen, and would not have decided to kill the poor guys in the first place. In fact, an omnipotent God would always be able to make the right decision from the very beginning.

Thats it. For now. Any comments?

[caine]

No comments? I expected that...

[August]

All of your arguments are from incredulity, and therefore hold very little merit. If you want to judge the actions of God in this way, then please establish a standard by which to do so, without using Biblical presuppositions, from base principles. In other words, by which standard do you judge God to be wrong? Where does this standard come from?

[caine]

(...) by which standard do you judge God to be wrong?

Logic and paradoxes.

[August]

(...) by which standard do you judge God to be wrong?

Logic and paradoxes.

Where does logic come from?

[bluesman]

Yes I see nobody answers your questions and you know I struggle to with
these parts of the Bible too.

I would say the Bible teaches that God is emotional. He feels love and he feels pain and hurt feelings too. I wonder if God always choses to know the future. Given his power he could decide not to know. Our lord Jesus when on earth was not all powerful and all knowing. So God in the form of the Son
was able to empty himself of powers.

In the case of the flood even though he was sad I believe he still knew already that he would save it all through Noah.

Saying an animal is unclean doesn't mean God hates that animal, but Man is not to eat it.

Leviticus is a difficult chapter in the Bible. I believe some is the word of Moses and pertains a lot to what was right in the point in history.
Like clothing of two different fabrics wouldn't matter much today, but back then it was probable unwise.

Now Moses and this Golden Calf section where the people worship an idol.
God does have anger and he can be jealous, the Bible teaches that.
Those emotions go hand in hand with ability to love. God is not some robot or computer. I believe here God is teaching that through pray (asking God)
that you can change his mind. Otherwise why pray to God ?
He also teach forgiveness. If God can forgive than you can also forgive.

If God knows our future then is our future already determined?
I think not . We have freewill and our action determine our future.
Maybe God in order to give us freewill must hold back on the use of this power? Interesting question !

I hope this helps. I will try a search and see what "the experts" say.

Michael
Thomas

[Fortigurn]

Anthropomorphism. Thank you for playing.

[bluesman]

Anthropomorphism. Thank you for playing.

I was going to do try and search for better answers from "experts"

However, it seems they came to us

Michael

[N4SC]

Genesis 6:7
So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them."

Yes, God is omnipotent, and can see any result to any action anyone could ever make. He knew the fall of man would happen even before He created the earth, and just like the loving God that He is, He constructed a plan of salvation for whoever didn't feel like being wiped out.

Genesis 7:2
Take with you seven [a] of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,

This isn't preference, it's just another provision of God after our sin. Some animals (only a few back then) would make you severely or fatally sick if you ate them in certain ways, so God just says "stay away from them." Eating improperly cooked pork back then could result in triganousis (sorry about my spelling).

Leviticus 11:10
But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest.

See above.

Leviticus 19:19
" 'Keep my decrees.
" 'Do not mate different kinds of animals.
" 'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.
" 'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.

Don't mate different kinds of animals. Kind of self-explanatory, really. God made each animal according to its own kind, so mating different kinds of animals (say, donkey/dog or something crazy like that) is like saying "I know God made them this way, but I think I have a better idea. The seed thing is more of a historic factor. Most people just planted grain back then, and when harvest time came around, you were supposed to give the first of it back to God. Planting with two kinds of seeds is kind of implying something, don't you think? Like, "i'll give part of the first to God and then i'll have more leftover than everyone else." By the way, that was kind of a status/wealth thing. A person with a big field is pretty rich.

Numbers 14:11-20
11 The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they."
13 Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 'The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.'
17 "Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.' 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now."
20 The LORD replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked.

First, it isn't "God decides to kill a bunch of people." It's more like "The very simple-minded and ungrateful complaining people are being increasingly stupid, basically spitting in God's face after He saves them time and time again, and God's had enough."
Second, this is a theological thing. No one can "make" God do anything. God can see this little parade from all angles and has already made His plan to include whatever He wants it to, whether it be beneficial to a certain group of people or not. In this case, it is. He knew full well what Moses would say, and said what He said because He knew it. God's knowledge of something is enough to make a repair on a terrible outcome.
Third, this was more of a test to Moses than anything else. When God told Moses His plans for the Israelites before, he wimped out. Now comes another test of his faith, about how he knows that he can make his thoughts and concerns known to God and actually expect a change, and this time Moses steps up to the plate. God was pleased, and that's it.

That's all for now. This thread's pretty old, but I felt like writing today.

[jlay]

So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them."

How can an omnipotent God regret something he has done? If he is truly almighty, shouldnt he be able to predict what outcome any given action will have? An omnipotent God can do everything. Everything includes predicting the future. Right?

Why would one assume an omnipotent God can not grieve? Why does foreknowledge not jive with grief? For something to be a paradox it has to be in conflict. So, what are the real reasons for this paradox. I am not seeing them.
When I decided to have a child, I knew there would be events in the child's life that would cause me grief. Knowing the future does not change the grief I feel when those events happen.
I still cry when I watch certain movies, even though I have seen the movie multiple times. I'm certainly not surprised, but I still experience the emotions. In regards to God's grief, all we can say is that He was not surprised or caught off gaurd by the actions of man.

But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest.

Again, why are we only allowed to eat certain kinds of animals. If we are to detest some species, because God tells us to, we must assume that he detest them as well. Why even create those animals?

Have you ever had food poisening? Are you aware of the risk of eating certain kinds of creatures. What about mushrooms. Some are harmless, some will kill you. In regards to diet, would it be OK to detest those? I think so.
Why did He create them? Well there are all kinds of things that can kill us if we eat them, but still play a role in the ecosystem. Bottom feeders, which are forbidden to eat, clean up a lot of junk so the other creatures can survive. Imagine a world without buzzards. They are God's garbage men.

Why do God think that some animals a clean, and some unclean? And why would he create animals he doesn't like?

If we look to the original creation, God said "it is good." Period, end of story. In the fall of man, everything changed. Regarding clean and unclean. This has to do with a specific covenant with a specific people. Most of these can be directly attributed to health, not whether God likes or dislikes.