Cruelty In The Bible?

Did God unjustly condemn the entire human race?

THE CLAIMED CRUELTY: He [God] drowned pregnant women and innocent children and animals at the time of the Flood (Genesis 7:20-23)

What immediately catches my attention is that the humanist makes a point of saying God drowned pregnant women. Scripture does not specif-ically state that, but since everyone drowned except for the eight people on the ark, pregnant woman did drown. Not only is the hu-manist using emotion-packed language to attempt to get you to deny God, the humanists imply this is cruel. Yet humanists support pull-ing the limbs off a baby, one by one, while it is still alive and feeling pain, in the womb (abortion). What total hypocrites they are! Hu-manist beliefs, and for example, what they do to woman and inno-cent children in the womb, that is wicked and cruel. (I talk more about this in chapter 41, in volume 2 of this book.)

Here is what referenced scripture says:

The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark. - Genesis 7:20-23

However, this does not give us the complete story, just the results. The humanist claims of cruelty imply that God had impure motives. So why did God do this? A major problem existed that could not be ignored. Let’s go back to Genesis chapter six:

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. - Genesis 6:5

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. - Genesis 6:11-12

The world was completely wicked,. to the point that people's thoughts were continually wicked. It was a world filled with violence and evil. Evil was so great that the only option was to bring justice on those who were evil and start over. So what did God do? Did He immediately send a flood and wipe everyone out?

No. There was a righteous man, Noah. God told Noah to build the ark, and while he was working on the ark, he was also preaching righteousness. Even though they were thoroughly evil, God loved those people. For over 100 years, Noah warned the people of his world about what God was going to do, and told them what they needed to do to be saved.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ... then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. - 2 Peter 2:4-5 & 9-10

For over 100 years, as he was building the ark, Noah was also preaching, warning the people about the judgment to come. They had many chances to be saved. However, they were wicked and evil, and refused to stop doing evil. They rejected God and Noah's preaching.

Notice that Peter also says that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly. For 100 years, while the ark was under construction, peo-ple could have turned away from their wickedness. They knew what was coming. They knew why judgment was coming. Noah told them. Still they preferred their sin.

God loved all of mankind. His love was so great that He provided a way of escape for anyone who would listen. The ark had plenty of room for additional people. Only Noah and his immediate family responded. Finally, the door closed, the rain began, the fountains of the deep opened, and the floodwaters rose above the highest mountain peaks. Everyone who did not heed God’s warning died.

So justice was done. The food came and took the evil away.

What about the animals?

God saved many more animals than He did people. There were eight people on the ark and thousands of animals. Two of every kind, and seven of some kinds. However, why were the rest of the animals killed in the flood?

Scripture does not directly answer this question. The focus is on humaniyty. However, with the extreme level and pervasiveness of wickedness and evil, it is like-ly that the corruption affected the animals. As we saw previously in Romans 8:20-22, all of the world was corrupted by sin. That would include animals.

And notice that Genesis 6:12 (above) talks about "all flesh" being corrupt, and verse 13 goes on to state that "the earth is filled with violence because of them," referring back to "all flesh." "All flesh" includes animals, meaning they were affected by evil. It could be that deadly and painful diseases were spreading through the animal king-dom, or that animals had become violent and destructive. Scripture does not say.

Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. - Genesis 6:13

Scripture focuses on people, animals are secondary, so we do not know for sure what God's thoughts were. We know the animals were corrupted by the evil in the world. We know only two of each kind were needed for reproduction. We know animals are not creat-ed in the image of God. That is why killing an animal is not murder. There is no reason to think that God was unjust or cruel because animals died in the flood..

Conclusion: All of the world was corrupted by extreme evil and wickedness. This could not be allowed to continue as it harmed the world and all that was in it. The wickedness was in every person, and most importantly it harmed God. Such a wicked world reflected back on God. Just as a potter who produces poor quality clay pots is known as being an unskilled and poor potter, so does a wicked and evil world portray a perfect, pure and holy God as a wicked and evil creator. Yet God still provided over 100 years of warning. Plenty of time for anyone who believed God (through the preaching of Noah) to have been saved. God gave people 100 years of opportunity. If people believed Noah, as the people of Nineveh believed Jonah (see the book of Jonah in Old Testament), the flood could have been prevented and they and the entire world could have been saved. However, they did not believe. Finally, after a long wait, God delivered justice.

Next example: He tormented the Egyptians and their animals with hail and disease because pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt (Exodus 9:8-11,25); and he killed Egyptian babies at the time of the Passover (Exodus 12:29-30)

Click here to learn what God actually did.