Issue 284 Father God March 4, 2014

I have wondered why man has been punished in the Bible so many times and then it hit me. God has been a parent to us all this time and we have not even realized it. You are probably wondering how I came to this conclusion, so let's talk about it.

Punishments: If you look at all the punishments in the Bible, man has been punished for ignoring Gods law. Noah's flood was to punish those who forgot God for worldly desires. Sodom and Gomorrah were again to punish sin. Each and every one of these disasters was to punish mans lack of personal responsibility, morality and lack of faith. Basically, corporal punishment for naughty children. All was to steer us in the right direction.

Guidance of an active to an inactive God: We also have instances where God led man by the nose like with Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt and the Ten Commandments. Finally, when God deemed we were old enough, he sent his son Jesus to teach us how to be individuals and govern ourselves. Jesus taught us how to be independent and thus earn our way to heaven as individuals rather than a collective. Basically, we became young adults in Jesus' time and God sent us off to find our own path. All this was a form of parental guidance from infant to adult (our at least naughty teenagers).

Reasoning: Based on the aforementioned examples we can see that God may be like a parent. However, we also have to look at it based on the creation stories in the bible as well. Eden may not have been on earth, but instead a womb. God may not be just a Father, but a mother as well. Depending on which version of the stories you read, Eden with the first humans sounds more like an infant in a mother’s womb rather than an actual paradise. Then following mans expulsion from the womb of God, we experienced harsh discipline and had to follow certain rules as laid out by God through natures law.

Conclusion: Well this is my reasoning. I cannot say it is sound reasoning, but it has a basis for truth. I did not go full into examples because this is an opinion piece that is designed to have people think, not to think for them. I want people to draw their own conclusions based on their own knowledge of their faith. I will not say that God killing all those people to punish them is not bad, but we have to conclude that those killed by natural means differ than those killed by man. Thus, those killed by God may have a second chance at repentance. But that is a topic for another time. I am always open to debate and I hope you enjoyed my small article.