Steve,
What I disagree with is the premise that members of other faiths can only be saved by conversion to Christianity. Many members of other faiths are never even exposed to Christianity, or see it only through aggressive, hostile, intermediaries, and I can't imagine that God would exclude them for this reason.
<<In every situation of God ordering death, there is a very viable and explainable answer.>>
I cannot imagine any viable and explainable answer, and one of the things that drove me away from Christianity were attempts to explain away what is clearly wrong. If God wants to wreak vengeance, He does not need to use people to do it, and I believe the bible explicitly states that God reserves vengeance unto himself (though I'm hardly an expert).
I do not believe that God has ever ordered one human to kill another, or approved any such action. For this reason I cannot believe that the bible is the 100% perfect, unaduterated word that some believe it to be (though I will defend their right to believe it). On the contrary, I believe that God's sadness at seeing such actions committed in his name, and committed to paper in his name, must be infinite.
Steve |
