Dealing With Difficult Bible Stories

The Bible says that God is abundantly good, merciful and of great kindness. (Exodus 34:6, Jeremiah 31:3) To sum up who God is we are told He is love itself. (1 John 4:8, 16) These statements are beautiful, powerful, and inspire hope in our hearts - that is until we review the difficult and sometimes horrific stories in the Bible. Such stories as Sodom and Gomorrah, the 10 plagues of Egypt and the flood raise objections that are hard for us to simply pass over and difficult to comprehend from a God of love.

How can such a good God kill?

How can a kind God drown an entire world, plague and destroy people, or burn a whole city - especially when He could simply make them all drop dead in an instant?

Why would a God of love that is willing to give His own Son for everyone, choose to destroy those He loves?

If God’s law of love says “Do not kill,” then why does He kill?

If we are to trust the Bible and its claims on God’s good character then there has to be more to these stories than simply “Man was evil. God was angry - so God destroyed and killed.” There is more to the story! We must dig deeper than a surface reading of these stories and of the entire Bible.

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