Six times God killed people in the Bible

God killed way more people than Satan ever did.  According to John Piper, God is still pretty hands-on at killing people today.

But virtually all Christian denominations claim that God is morally perfect and without sin.  Therefore, any action performed by God are by definition moral, and are not a sin.  Meaning, it was theoretically moral for God to perform the following acts (and this list is not exhaustive):

1. God murders everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah, then turns a lady to salt (Genesis 18-19)

Apparently everyone in the cities were evil, even the children and animals.  After God destroyed the cities, he turned Lot's wife to salt for the sin of...curiosity? 

2. God kills all Egyptian firstborn sons during Passover (Exodus 11-12)

The final plague against the Pharaoh is the elimination of the firstborn son of every living thing--including cattle.  Presumably these firstborns didn't even have anything to do with the conflict between Pharaoh and Moses.  The crazy part of this story is that God purposely hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't let the Israelites go--thus necessitating the final plague.  This mass murder was part of God's divine plan.  

3. God drowns the world in a flood (Genesis 6)

I hardly need to expound on this one.  Even though God foresaw (cuz he's omniscient) how evil humanity would be before creation, he still went through with it.  He created all these people, knowing he would be killing them all, including the babies. And he was cool with that. 

4. God commands the destruction of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:3)

"Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."

This one is especially cruel. God murdered children and babies because of sins of the parents and because he wanted their land for Israel.  And why did the animals deserve to die, let alone the children and infants? 

5. God commands the killing of the Canaanites (Deut 20:17, Numbers 21:2-3, Joshua 6:17, 21)

Again, God is killing because of the Canaanites' religious practices (they didn't worship Yahweh), and to save the Israelites from being led astray. Oh, and their land.  Instead of slaughtering them, wouldn't it have been more moral for God to reveal himself to the Canaanites, soften their hearts, and show them grace and mercy, so that they could live in harmony with the Israelites?  That must be my flawed human morality talking...what right do I have to judge God's perfect objective morality?

 

6. The Holy Spirit kills two liars (Acts 5:1-11)

Ananias and Sapphira were untruthful about how much they sold their property for, and after Peter calls them out on it, they basically fell over and died.