Paidion,
You wrote:
No other authorities are needed. Jesus and his apostles are suffiecient authority for me.
Since Jesus and the apostles never denied that God killed people, you clearly cannot have gotten your doctrine about this from them. If Jesus said that God is kind to His enemies, this is manifestly true. The Old Testament also affirms this. It also affirms that He is the judge of the earth, in agreement with Jesus (Matt.24:50-51; 25:31-46) and the apostles (Rom.2:5-10; 1 Cor.5:13; 1 Pet.1:17), and that He has sometimes exercised that office in executing those who deserved to be executed (There are those who are worthy of death, after all—Rom.1:32; Acts 25:11).
You are suggesting that you know God's actions better than did Moses (who spoke daily with God, face to face), than Elijah (whom, you must think, mistook a natural phenomenon for an act of God, simply because it came repeatedly at the prayer of the prophet), than Isaiah, than Jesus (Yes, Jesus, in confirming the flood and the destruction of the cities of the plain was referring to the stories as recorded in Genesis—since no other record of those things was available to Him or to His listeners), than Luke (who wrote one quarter of the New Testament, and clearly believed that the angel of the Lord executed Herod), or than the Book of Revelation (which everywhere ascribes the mortal judgments coming on the earth as being manifestations of the wrath of Jesus, "the Lamb"). You have no statement from Jesus or the apostles denying these things. It is your sentiments, not biblical exegesis that binds you to this unbiblical picture of God.
Since your position makes me curious, may I ask what is your interpretation, or explanation of the causes, of the following (since God, you believe, was not their author):
1) The banishment of Adam and Eve from to tree of life, a judgment causing their death (Gen.3:22-24);
2) The flood (which God told Noah was going to come from Him—Gen.6:13, 17)
3) The fire and brimstone from the sky (which two angels of God affirmed they were sent by God to bring down—Gen.19:13)
4) The opening, and subsequent closing, of the Red Sea (mistakenly taken, by all biblical writers, by all Jews and by all Christians, to have been God's doing);
5) The fire "from the Lord" that consumed Nadab and Abihu (Lev.10:2)
6) The opening of the earth to swallow Korah, et al (Num.16:32)
7) The hail that killed more Canaanites than did the armies of Israel, which the Bible says was cast down by Yahweh (Josh.10:11).
8) The supernatural strength given to Samson to kill three thousand Philistines in the demolition of the temple of Dagon (Judges 16:30)
9) The death of Uzzah, who touched the ark (your question about why God didn't kill the rest is not pertinent to the question of whether it was God who killed Uzzah, as the Bible affirms (2 Sam.6:7)
10) The death of 185,000 Assyrians at the walls of Jerusalem, which the Bible ascribes to the actions of "the angel of the Lord" (2 Kings 19:35)
11) The bizarre deaths of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5)
12) The death of Herod which the scripture attributes to the stroke of "an angel of the Lord" (Acts 12:23)
13) The whole Book of Revelation, in which Jesus threatens to "kill with death" Jezebel and her children (Rev.2:23), and in which every calamity is described as proceeding directly from the counsel of heaven (e.g., 6:1-7; 8:5-6; etc.), including "the wrath of the Lamb" (6:16). Or are you wishing to be numbered with those who "take away from the words of this book" of whom Jesus says, "I will take away his part from the book (or the tree) of life"? (21:19)
These are sincere, not rhetorical, questions. I really think that, having made such audacious accusations against the writers of scripture, that you should provide godly, honest, non-agenda-driven, alternative explanations of all these passages. You should answer, additionally, the following:
A. Do Moses and all the Old Testament writers "take the name of Yahweh in vain" by attributing such actions to Him as you believe go against His nature?
B. Was Peter mistaken when he said that the Old Testament prophets did not speak from themselves, but only as they were "moved by the Holy Spirit"? (2 Pet.1:20-21).
C. Did Paul misdirect when he affirmed that all the Old Testament scriptures are profitable for Christian teaching? (2 Tim.3:16-17)
D. Was Jesus wrong when He said that David wrote Psalm 110 "by the Holy Spirit" (Mark 12:36)? The New Testament writers quoted Psalm 110 more than any other Old Testament passage. It is a short Psalm, but not too short to include the following actions, attributed to God (acting in the presence of Christ):
The Lord is at Your [Messiah's] right hand;
He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.
He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the places with dead bodies,
He shall execute the heads of many countries.
(Psalm 110:5-6)
Since this Psalm attributes a great deal of killing to God, and since none less than Jesus declared that David wrote this Psalm by the Holy Spirit, it seems as if it is just as I said—you are standing against Jesus, as well as the rest of the Bible, by denying what the Law, the Prophets, the writings, and the New Testament all record and affirm. Is there no authority that would be capable of changing your mind?
Jesus said that He would cut certain people in two if He should find them acting in a certain way (Matt.24:50-51). Can you explain how Jesus came to be so mistaken about His own character?
With almost every prophet, apostle and the Messiah getting God's character so wrong, do you suppose it might be time for an improved version of the Bible, written by someone who sees things more accurately, like yourself? I fear my sarcasm may offend, but do you not see that it is the logical conclusion one must take, if your view of God is so much superior to that espoused by every biblical writer (see points 1 through 13, as well as points A through D, above)?
The Gnostics held a view similar to yours. They thought God's judgment actions were unworthy of the true Father of Jesus. They solved the problem differently from you, though. They said that the God of the Old Testament was not the true God, the Father of Jesus, but that it was the demiurge (or the devil), whom the Jews mistook for the true God. Jesus, however, insisted that the one He called His Father was one and the same with the one the Jews called their God (John 8:54). So, either the Gnostics were wrong, or else Jesus was.
P.S. The cutting off of a woman's hand is less severe than the death penalty. The thing about these Mosaic penalties that seems to be overlooked by those who criticize them as too harsh, is that these penalties are only affixed to crimes that are entirely voluntary (and thus 100% avoidable). The Israelite who did not wish to be put to death could simply avoid murdering, committing adultery, striking or cursing his parents, kidnapping, blaspheming Yahweh, worshiping idols, practicing witchcraft or perverted sex acts, or working on the Sabbath.
The obvious truth is that anyone who sincerely determined to do so, could avoid committing any of these acts. If we were in Israel, I am sure that you or I would find it easy enough to avoid these behaviors. A man who has no power to restrain himself in these crimes, even with the penalty of death hanging over his head, would be a man, apparently, that the world would be better off without. Imagine a world which allowed men to be at liberty who simply "couldn't help themselves" and had to murder, commit adultery, beat up their parents, kidnap other people's children, etc. If these men were
unpunished, we would have to conclude the world to be ruled by a perverse ruler.
Likewise any woman, who for some reason cannot restrain herself from groping a man not her husband, has got problems requiring extreme remedies. I can easily avoid such behavior, and I think anyone could, if they wished to. If I could not restrain myself from grabbing other people's genitals, then you might be doing me a real service in removing such a pestilential hand! Even Jesus said that (Matt.5:30)!