Steven Carr

Psalm 5:5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence;
you hate all who do wrong.

'All who do wrong'? According to Paul, we are all sinners, and all have fallen short.

So God hates everybody.....

drosophila

The KJV translation I have uses "workers of iniquity" as opposed to "all who do wrong".

Iniquity seems to be more "Evil" or "Wicked" than "wrong" in the sense that it can be seen as wrong to break a speed restriction in your car, but not really wicked or evil.

Whilst this doesnt get away from the fact of God Hating certain people, it does reduce the size of the set to the wicked rather than just the sinners.

Dros.

Sensei Meela

Isn't this a distinction without a difference, though? All sinners are "workers of iniquity," are they not?

sharon45

Well, from biblical history, god is not exactly too keen with all people.

John A. Broussard

Somewhere in another thread a fundamentalist was cited as quoting this passage to explain the recent Indian Ocean tsunami. Most of those killed were non-christian and were being punished for their false beliefs. I suppose that could be used to explain all of the recent deaths from earthquakes, wars, famines, floods, etc., since most of those occur in non-christian areas.

Joan of Bark

Or in San Francisco ... and we know why THAT would be, don't we.

Seriously, though, at least the fundamentalists are somewhat consistent in this regard. I'm sick of listening to liberal Christians tell me how God loves everyone and would never harm a fly, blah, blah, blah, while babies die all over the world through no fault of their own. Who gave us malaria, smallpox and polio?

John A. Broussard

It's hard to imagine a god that has no human qualities. If he does have some, though, it seems that he'd at least be chagrined about all the misery in the world. Somehow, God's lack of concern never seems to bother Christians, whether liberal or conservative.

Steven Carr

Surprising when you consider that the Parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us not to pass by on the other side - like God does.

Sensei Meela

It's cognitive dissonance, or at least double-think; on the one hand, God loves the world so much that he offered to die for it (and made good on that offer, for the most part), but on the other hand God's kingdom isn't of and is more important than the world. So while there's misery here, it's "outshone" by the promise that we'll one day be free of it through God's "sacrifice," which gets him off the hook for allowing misery here in the first place.