How Could God Do Such Things?

[Knight of the Holy Rosary]

Let me first start by saying I am a devout Catholic, I submit to the authority of Holy Mother Church, and I acknowledge our God to be the 'ultimate good'. I do believe that 'God is Love'.
With that said...I am having a difficult time trying to understand some of the actions of God in the Old Testament…for example, turning people into salt, killing those who touch the tabernacle, and I believe I read somewhere in Kings where he ‘slew priests’.

I would appreciate some help here as I have friends and family who often ask, “How could a good and loving God do such things” and would like to be able to give a decent defense of our God…yet I lack understanding.

Thank you,

Chris

[N/A Gone]

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Ive asked this same issue. Raphel had a great response

Edited March 7, 2007 by Revprodeji

[scardella]

here's Raphael's quote:
[quote name='Raphael' post='1025094' date='Jul 15 2006, 03:36 PM']If God knows that you are just going to get more and more wicked, then it is an act of mercy for Him to stop you. The nations Israel fought were wicked and we must trust that God was trying to stop them before they just got worse.

Consider hell this way (it's an idea of C.S. Lewis, I believe):

The Kingdom of heaven is like a blazing fire, burning with the love of God. Those who choose the good and love God build themselves up, by the grace of God, into plates of steel and when they get closer to the fire, they burn and give off their own light and heat. Those who choose the evil and reject God turn themselves into dry hay. God tries to love them the same and embrace them and bring them to heaven, but they would burn up, and so He throws them far away so that they will not burn up. Therefore, they wanted to reject God, and so in throwing them away, He respects their will. In giving them what they deserve, He practices justice. In giving them what's best for them (not to be destroyed), He practices mercy.

I like this view of hell because God's justice and mercy are one and it is clear that they are in accord. Also, it is very Catholic in that what gets us to heaven and allows us to be with God is how much we are changed and perfected in Christ's image, not just because God somehow shields us from His burning wrath (especially since, in Himself, He is love, not wrath, and we will see Him as He is in heaven, so we will see and feel the love...shielding us from Himself would not be a full gift). It also shows that we don't "buy" heaven and that heaven isn't something we are given as a simple reward for not obeying the rules. Rather, we are all meant to be embraced by God at death, and our eternal happiness depends on whether, with His grace, we have been built up strong enough to withstand the fire of His love. The fire of hell is the fire of God's love...it just burns for those who don't love God, while it radiates for those that do love Him. Hell is hot, but heaven is hotter.

Of course, the view does seem imperfect in a few regards, but who would expect otherwise?[/quote]

The devil's question here:
Premise: God loves them and wants them to go to heaven (assuming the above is true).
Premise: He is all-knowing, all-powerful, etc.
Premise: A person has a conversion, gets baptized, is faithful for many years, but falls away from his faith near the end of his life and goes to hell.
Question: Why doesn't God kill the person before he turns away from his faith so that he can spend eternity in heaven rather than in hell?

[Mitchell_b55]

This is only semi-pertinent, but I feel it is necessary to state it. Remember that God is unchangeable. We speak of Him, now as wrathful, now as merciful, now as just, but the change is in us, not in Him. The force of gravity holds a statue firm on its pedestal; but, if the statue should be pushed forward, the same force of gravity will shatter it to fragments. It is so with the soul. While it obeys the law of God, it is safe; if it violate it, disaster follows, not because of a change in God, but because of a change in the soul.