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You are here: Experts > Religion/Spirituality > Christianity - Restorationism > Latter-day Saints > God command of killing
Expert: Hannah - 8/26/2008
Question
QUESTION: An Atheist asked me if your God Jesus is love and love us then why He command Saul to killed every one including women and infant of Amalek ?
1 Samuel Chapter 15
15:2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
ANSWER: We asked this same question to our seminary teacher, and this was his response:
God is love, and that is why he did this. When you ask why he did this, you're forgetting that there's something worse than physical death, and that is spiritual death. When God told Saul to kill the Amalekites, he was preserving their spiritual lives. Had they continued to live, they would have destroyed themselves spiritually, and so they were killed so that their innocence was preserved.
Also, another thing that was brought up in seminary. The Old Testament is under the Law of Moses, which is a law of justice. The higher laws, or laws of mercy, were brought by Christ's atoning sacrifice. Only through Christ is their mercy. Without that sacrifice, right and wrong would require absolute justice. Justice is right, so without justice God would cease to be God, because God is right and perfectly right. He cannot do wrong. So the price was paid through Christ. Before that, we had no mercy. Only justice.
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QUESTION: Thanks for replying.
You answer according to Latter-day saints , but how we can convince Atheists, Humanist , Secularist , Feminist and human Right Activities ?
Why Lord Jesus didn't show any miracles to them so they may convert and come to Lord at least if they not killed infant instead they adopt infant and raise them as Jesus lover.
ANSWER: Miracles don't matter. The Pharisees saw gazillions of miracles and a lot of good it did them.
But just tell them that it's not just about life. It's bigger than that.
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QUESTION: Ok don't need miracles , but Atheist and humanist have strong argument that now-a-days there are majority of Christian who do bad things every day, Adultery , Robbery, Money worshiping , Drunk and fight in bars , Abusing each other. mocking even Lord Jesus , but they love by God so why God command to kill the infant ?
Answer
God loves everybody. You just tell them that God has a big plan. And you can't say that just because God took the life of that child that God did not love that child. That's a ridiculous thought. The problem with many atheists is that they try to get a reason for everything that God does. God thinks in a lot higher of a mindset than any human, so for an atheist to want a reason that they're going to accept as sufficient to everything that God wants is just silly. You can't convince atheists, humanists, secularists, etc. You just have to believe yourself, and if there is a way to explain it, God will let you know in that instance what is the best way to explain it. It's always worked for me to just listen to the spirit in these situations.
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