Loving? Not so much.
The number one most often quoted biblical verse is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Yet rarely are the two preceding verses mentioned. Seems few Christians want to talk about how their “loving” God sent poisonous snakes to kill his people (Nu 21:4-9). Some love.
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Actually, what it's saying in the previous two verses is that Jesus is going to be lifted up as an atonement for sins, providing salvation for people instead of condemning them, just like the snake was lifted up in the desert to provide salvation for anyone who had been snake-bitten as a result of their sin.
And the reason it's not so often quoted is likely because when a Christian is evangelizing or such, they don't need to go into a story from Numbers to explain a metaphor in order to tell the person that God loves them!
If you take your rose-colored believer’s glasses off for a moment and just read that passage in Numbers as if you were reading some other holy book, would you not say that it is rather obvious that the people writing this wanted to explain why snakes bit their people? They thought all bad things from drought to disease were because their God was angry with them. All peoples across the world attributed bad things to their angry god and good things to their pleased god because they did not understand how nature worked.
Then look at the immorality of sending poisonous snake to cause suffering and death. That is wicked. Does a loving person send poisonous snakes to kill their children, beloved spouse or parent? Don’t think so. Unless your idea of what “love” is has been twisted beyond recognition. You want to worship a character that does such evil? Then there is the whole “snake on a pole” thing. How ridiculous is that? It is an idol, a magic statue!
"They thought all bad things from drought to disease were because their God was angry with them. "
Did other cultures actually have the bad things stop when they did what their god asked them to?
And your reply has very little to do with what I said - Jesus was still going to be lifted up as an atonement for sins, providing salvation and a "way out", just like a way out was provided for the snakes in the desert.
“Did other cultures actually have the bad things stop when they did what their god asked them to?”
Of course they did. The rains always come again eventually. The diseases always abate at some point. The prayers are always answered...even if the answer is “no.” Right? People have always and many will likely always interpret the natural events (and non-events) as the work of a god (or demon).
Yes, didn’t mean to ignore your point but am focusing on the absurdity and wickedness of sending poisonous snakes to kill people. How crazy is that?! It is like the actions of a really disturbed, angry 5 year old child. You want to defend such behavior, to praise such behavior? You would dismiss it as a silly, ancient, immoral story if it was in the book of some other religion.
You're right.
I would do so because other holy books have no evidence behind their truth.
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