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God is not cruel

To the editor:

God is not cruel. Rachel Laurn was right when she expressed that belief in her May 7 letter, criticized (June 21) by a skeptic who ridicules the Bible.

God gives us life and will give us eternal life. Our experiences prepare us for eternity. We are here to learn and to develop character that will last forever.

The skeptic’s letter condemned God’s command that Israelites exterminate neighboring ethnic groups. He didn’t understand why.

The purpose was to eliminate the corrupting influences of the extremely evil paganism of those people.

Why didn’t God spare the children and tell the israelites to adopt them?

The older Children were already corrupted by the paganism of their parents. They would have told the younger ones what the Israelites did. Hatred and vengeance would have been the result.

God didn’t create humans as righteous robots. We are free to choose to be good or evil. We can reject God or worship and obey Him and ask for His help but we also need the truth.

Those who died not knowing about salvation will live again. God has a plan to save Israelites ( Ezekiel 37:11-14 ) and Gentiles ( Matthew 11:20-24).

Paul wrote: “… The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18. Also read verses 19-23).

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