Adapted from When God Speaks for Himself: The Words of God You’ll NEVER Hear in Church or Sunday School, by Mark Tier and George Forrai (Inverse Books, 2016). Reprinted with permission from Mark Tier.
From Chapter 6: “In the Name of God”
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
— Blaise Pascal
“Herein we see God’s great mercy…for the slaughter was in all 5,517, but ten of the enemy’s side were slain to one of ours.”
— Nehemiah Wallington
“More people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason.”
— George Carlin
“For good people to do evil things it takes religion.”
— Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize Winner, Physics
Massacres From the Bible:
Massacres Carried Out By God Himself
Genesis 7:23: Flood kills everyone except Noah & family.
Genesis 19:24: Sodom and Gomorrah razed — for their sinfulness.
Numbers 11:1: The fire of the Lord burnt among those who complained.
Numbers 11:31: When the Israelites complained about food, God sent them a great plague.
Numbers 21:6: “And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.”
Exodus 9:25: The Pharaoh would not let Moses’ people go, so the Lord smote the land of Egypt with hail.
Exodus 12:29-30: God kills every Egyptian firstborn child including the Pharaoh’s son — because “the Lord hardened the Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.”
Exodus 32:35: The Lord plagued the people — because of the calf Aaron made.
Leviticus 10:1-3: Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, offered fire before the Lord — “which he commanded them not”. So “fire went out from the Lord” and devoured them.
2 Kings 17:25-26: God sent lions to kill the people in Samaria “who know not the manner of the God of the land.”
Numbers 14:35-37: Despite all God’s miracles (like killing all Egyptian firstborns) many children of Israel still “murmur against Him” — so he sends a plague to kill them.
Numbers 1 6:27-32: The earth opened its mouth and swallowed people and the earth closed (the children of Israel still aren’t convinced!).
Deuteronomy 2:14-16: God kills the entire Israelite army “for indeed the hand of the Lord was against them.”
Joshua 10:11: God helped the Israelites flee to Bethhoron by casting down great stones from heaven to kill the Israelites’ enemies.
2 Samuel 21:1: 3 years of famine — because Saul’s “bloody house slew the Gibeonites.”
2 Chronicles 14:9-14: Asa, Abijah’s son, sought God’s help to overthrow the Ethiopians — so the Lord smote them.
No Numbers Specified
Massacres By Men — at God’s Order
Exodus 17:13: God helps Joshua kill Amalekites.
Joshua 10:32-37: Joshua and the Israelites kill “all the souls” in Lachish, Eglon and Hebron — as the Lord God of Israel commanded.
Joshua 11:8: The Lord delivers the Amorites unto Joshua — who kills them all.
1 Kings 18:22-40: Elijah slays the prophets of Baal.
Numbers 21:34-35: God delivers the Amorites unto Moses who kills them “until there was none left alive.” “Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites.”
Judges 11:30-32: The Lord delivers the children of Ammon to Jephthah — who “smote them with a very great slaughter.”
2 Kings 10:30: Jehu kills the worshippers of Baal — blasphemers all.
2 Chronicles 36:16-17: The Israelites incite the Lord’s wrath by polluting the house of the Lord and mocking God’s messengers — so God causes the Chaldees to slay them all.
How Many Did Satan Kill?
Just ten are enumerated! — Job’s seven sons and three daughters (Job 1:18-19). Add to that most of Job’s slaves and servants and Satan’s total reaches a mere 50 to 100 (Job 1).
Satan killed these people with God’s permission — if not at his order. So they should rightly be attributed to God, not Satan. Ten is nothing compared to the 1,030,030 God killed — and that’s not counting the God’s unnumbered massacres: thirty million in the flood just for starters.
Excerpted from When God Speaks for Himself by Mark Tier and George Forrai. Copyright © Mark Tier and Pronto Express, 2010. All rights reserved.
Mark Tier, an Australian based in Hong Kong, started writing when he was 14 – and hasn’t stopped since. His first work, Understanding Inflation, was a bestseller in his native Australia in 1974. That was followed by The Nature of Market Cycles, How To Get A Second Passport, and The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros, which has been published in 3 English (New York, London, & Hong Kong) and 11 other-language editions. Once labelled “the Eclectic Investor” for his wide range of interests, he co-edited two science fiction anthologies which won a Prometheus Award in 2005, an analysis of Christianity, When God Speaks for Himself, and a political thriller, Trust Your Enemies. His website is marktier.com."When God Speaks for Himself: The Words of God You'll NEVER Hear in Church or Sunday School" by Mark Tier and George Forrai. https://t.co/0qWm1eRIVY pic.twitter.com/ISteg9GCoG
— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) January 23, 2018
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