Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.
Great War
On April 6th, 1917, after German submarines sank seven U.S. merchant ships and President Woodrow Wilson called for war, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany and the U.S. became involved in the “Great War.” Some details of the U.S. involvement can be read here.
If someone would like to ask Christians a tough question, ask them “How do you (Christians) reconcile the Old Testament God (He’s the same as the New Testament one but seems different) and His attitude toward war?”
When Joshua took the people of Israel into the promised land, they were directed by God to clean up the place, that is, wipe out all the inhabitants including women and children.
What’s up with that? How do Christians answer address this question?
Hard question indeed and I can only venture an opinion here for I am not privy to the mind of God.
1. The whole physical/historical entry of God’s people (Israel) into the Promised Land is a type (foreshadowing example) representing spiritual Israel (the Christian) and his/her/their entry into a spiritual Promised Land (Heaven). There is no room for the ‘old’ in heaven and God wanted this demonstrated in physical/historical Israel’s entrance into their promised land, even if it meant all the women and children had to die.
2. Dying at the hand of God is NOT the worse thing that can happen to a person/people. Death seems like it might be the worse thing that can happen, but it is not. Living and ending a life outside of a relationship that would exclude a person from eternity with God is the worse thing that can happen. Some might say, “Who wants to spend an eternity with a God who kills women and children?” I would simply because I can trust Him even I do not understand.
3. God needs not explain everything to me for me to still trust His better judgement. My little girl doesn’t look for explanations for how I take care of her or for why I do what I do for her. She just trusts me and that makes me quite happy. I suspect God is happy when I trust Him even when it is hard.
4. God asked Abraham to sacrifice up Isaac. At the very moment when God knew that Abraham was going to be faithful in this extreme circumstance, God stopped Abraham. We will never know what might have been, what could have been had the people of Israel under Joshua’s direction acted completely faithfully or just showed that they intended to bee faithful. We know what happened because they did not act faithfully. Look at the mess Israel is in now (an oversimplification perhaps). Maybe God would have had the Israelites pull up short in cleansing the land. We will never know.
I still don’t know why God does what He does or doesn’t do what I think He should. I want to know but I don’t need to know.
I do know this, however. Nobody ever wins a war. Some side/s just lose more than the other. And, if God had His way, we’d all live in peace.
What do you think?
