B
Blue155
Guest
If you trace the biblical narrative, you see a consistent picture of God’s judgment in response to human wickedness:
1. Genesis 6:5 – The flood shows humanity’s pervasive evil and God’s righteous judgment on a global scale.
2. Genesis 13:13 – The men of Sodom are “exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord,” demonstrating concentrated societal wickedness.
3. Genesis 15:16 – God promises Abraham the land of Canaan, but delays the Israelites’ inheritance because the Amorites’ sin has not yet reached its full measure. This shows God’s patience and justice, giving nations time to repent.
4. Leviticus 18 & Deuteronomy 18:9–14 – God codifies His moral standards and warns Israel not to imitate the abominable practices of the surrounding nations.
5. Deuteronomy 9:4–5 – God clarifies the moral basis for judgment: Israel is not receiving the land because of their righteousness, but because of the wickedness of the nations being judged. This removes any notion of ethnic favoritism and frames the conquest as divine judgment, not genocide.
6. Deuteronomy 20 – Rules for warfare show that judgment was measured and often gave an opportunity for repentance (offering peace first, etc.).
7. 1 Samuel 15:3 (Amalekites) & Numbers (Midianites) – God’s judgments are specific, righteous, and always in response to persistent sin.
8. Jeremiah 19:9; Hosea 13:16; Isaiah 13:16 – Prophetic literature describes the consequences of wickedness and the certainty of God’s justice.
9. Joshua – The conquest shows the fulfillment of earlier promises and judgments, again framed around God’s patience, warnings, and justice.
10. 2 Thess. 1:8 - Scripture describes ultimate final judgment on the ungodly.
So, Genesis establishes the pattern: human wickedness, God’s warnings, opportunity to repent, judgment if persistent. By the time you get to Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and the historical books, this pattern is fully developed.
This helps counter critics who see these passages as random or cruel. They are part of a consistent, justice-driven narrative.
Psalm 19:9 – The judgments of the Lord are “true and righteous altogether.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 – God’s works are perfect; His ways are just.
Psalm 119:160 – His Word is true; the sum of His Word is truth.
From Genesis 6 with the flood, through Genesis 13–15 through Joshua and Jericho, to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the final judgment at the end of the world, every instance of divine judgment has context: persistent sin, rebellion, or corruption of God’s moral order.
Many critics of God judge His character by isolated passages they do not understand, rather than interpreting those passages in light of His revealed character and nature as a whole—most clearly and definitively displayed in Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:3; Col. 2:9).
If someone takes the parts of the Bible that describe God punishing sin (like warnings, judgments, consequences) and accepts those as true, but at the same time rejects or ignores the parts that explain why sin is bad and what disobedience really costs (like separation from God, death, or moral corruption), then they’re setting themselves up to see God as “unfair” or “cruel.” Instead of engaging with the God of the Bible who judges sin, they are engaging with a god in their mind who judges for no good reason.
1. Genesis 6:5 – The flood shows humanity’s pervasive evil and God’s righteous judgment on a global scale.
2. Genesis 13:13 – The men of Sodom are “exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord,” demonstrating concentrated societal wickedness.
3. Genesis 15:16 – God promises Abraham the land of Canaan, but delays the Israelites’ inheritance because the Amorites’ sin has not yet reached its full measure. This shows God’s patience and justice, giving nations time to repent.
4. Leviticus 18 & Deuteronomy 18:9–14 – God codifies His moral standards and warns Israel not to imitate the abominable practices of the surrounding nations.
5. Deuteronomy 9:4–5 – God clarifies the moral basis for judgment: Israel is not receiving the land because of their righteousness, but because of the wickedness of the nations being judged. This removes any notion of ethnic favoritism and frames the conquest as divine judgment, not genocide.
6. Deuteronomy 20 – Rules for warfare show that judgment was measured and often gave an opportunity for repentance (offering peace first, etc.).
7. 1 Samuel 15:3 (Amalekites) & Numbers (Midianites) – God’s judgments are specific, righteous, and always in response to persistent sin.
8. Jeremiah 19:9; Hosea 13:16; Isaiah 13:16 – Prophetic literature describes the consequences of wickedness and the certainty of God’s justice.
9. Joshua – The conquest shows the fulfillment of earlier promises and judgments, again framed around God’s patience, warnings, and justice.
10. 2 Thess. 1:8 - Scripture describes ultimate final judgment on the ungodly.
So, Genesis establishes the pattern: human wickedness, God’s warnings, opportunity to repent, judgment if persistent. By the time you get to Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and the historical books, this pattern is fully developed.
This helps counter critics who see these passages as random or cruel. They are part of a consistent, justice-driven narrative.
Psalm 19:9 – The judgments of the Lord are “true and righteous altogether.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 – God’s works are perfect; His ways are just.
Psalm 119:160 – His Word is true; the sum of His Word is truth.
From Genesis 6 with the flood, through Genesis 13–15 through Joshua and Jericho, to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the final judgment at the end of the world, every instance of divine judgment has context: persistent sin, rebellion, or corruption of God’s moral order.
Many critics of God judge His character by isolated passages they do not understand, rather than interpreting those passages in light of His revealed character and nature as a whole—most clearly and definitively displayed in Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:3; Col. 2:9).
If someone takes the parts of the Bible that describe God punishing sin (like warnings, judgments, consequences) and accepts those as true, but at the same time rejects or ignores the parts that explain why sin is bad and what disobedience really costs (like separation from God, death, or moral corruption), then they’re setting themselves up to see God as “unfair” or “cruel.” Instead of engaging with the God of the Bible who judges sin, they are engaging with a god in their mind who judges for no good reason.
