God: Is “He” Good or a Monster Like No Other?
His many characteristics that are seldom preached about should decide this question.
This article is basically a book report on Dan Barker’s book entitled, God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction. Dan Barker was a fundamentalist evangelical pastor for nearly 20 years and has authored many books. His book Godless details why he no longer is a Christian.
It is absolutely amazing how many people claim that the God of the Bible is all about love and goodness, despite the hundreds of passages (and yes, there are literally HUNDREDS of them) that describe something entirely different. Most preachers and apologists try to justify them in a nonchalant manner by blaming sin and freewill, just as abused women are often blamed for their own mistreatment. Such justification is really absurd, given the fact that most of the victims are often innocent children, babies, and animals that could not possibly have the ability to distinguish right from wrong.
Below are characteristics and adjectives that depict the God of the Bible. Each one is linked to several additional scriptural passages that validate the charge. In Dan Barker’s book, he goes much deeper as he expounds on each one in greater detail, giving each trait an entire chapter. It is not for the faint-hearted, but sometimes truth necessitates a little pain. The good news is that the God, as described in the Bible, probably does not exist, while much of the Bible seems to be the same words that powerful but ignorant men would write if they sought to control their women and their authority as leaders over members of a group or tribe of people. Employing fear with an occasional carrot is usually the standard procedure.
Cannibalistic: Deuteronomy 28:47–57 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart . . . you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you. This is not an isolated verse about God and cannibalism.
Aborticidal and Infanticidal: Numbers 5:21–22 May the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.
Hosea 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
Question: While good people may have different views on the issue of abortion, is it honest to use the Bible to support a “pro-life” stand?
Racist: Deuteronomy 23:3–6 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. . . . Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days forever.
Bloodthirsty: Deuteronomy 32:39–43 There is no god besides me. I put to death, and I bring to life. . . . I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.
1 Samuel 15:3 Attack the Amalekites . . . put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels, and donkeys.
At this point, apologists and preachers will try to justify and rationalize by telling us that Jesus changed all of this in the New Testament.
What About Jesus?
John 10:30 I and the Father are one.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
John 1:1–3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 14:9 Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
An eternal hell of endless torture was never mentioned in the Bible until Jesus came along.
Malachi 3:6 “For I, the Lord, do not change….”
Thus everything we see and hear about the God of the Old Testament is actually Jesus doing the talking and acting, which has to include the drowning of young children and ripping open of pregnant women.
Unjust: Hosea 2:4–5 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully.
Ethnic cleanser: Deuteronomy 7:21–25 The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you . . . until they are destroyed. He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them.
Deuteronomy 7:1–2 When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it and clears away many nations before you . . . then you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
Question: Could not a loving and all-powerful god, who knew the future with absolute clarity, have caused the many nations to have been located somewhere else? Or why not at least try to win them over with kindness, as surely an all-powerful God and His thousands of angels could have easily provided protection regardless of who lived nearby.
Filicidal: Deuteronomy 21:18–21 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother . . . all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die.
Ezekiel 9:3–10 And the Lord said unto him . . . let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women . . . The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
Misogynistic: Genesis 3:16 Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.
Exodus 21:7 When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
In 2 Samuel 12 we read that God’s punishment to David for committing adultery was to kill his newborn baby and to arrange for his wives to be raped in broad daylight. If you do not believe it, here it is word for word. Samuel 12:11–12 Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.”
Genocidal: Deuteronomy 2:32–34 And the Lord our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain.
Genesis 6:6–8 I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created — people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. He may be sorry, but according to the Bible, they are still burning in an endless hell.
Numbers 31:7–40 They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man, and all the boys and woman who has slept with a man but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
Question: How would they have known who were virgins, and why only save the young girls who were? If you really need a hint, read Deuteronomy 21:10–11 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them away captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and are strongly attracted to her and would take her as a wife for yourself. . . .
What About Jesus?
John 10:30 I and the Father are one.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
John 1:1–3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 14:9 Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
An eternal hell of endless torture was never mentioned in the Bible until Jesus came along.
Malachi 3:6 “For I, the Lord, do not change….”
Thus, everything we see and hear about the God of the Old Testament is actually Jesus doing the talking and acting.
Question: Would a good and loving and all-knowing God, create creatures that He knew would suffer for no reason at all?
Slavemonger: Leviticus 25:44–46 Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves . . . and they will become your property. You can . . . make them slaves for life. You may also pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you, to receive them as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.
Exodus 21:4 If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall leave alone.
Jealous: Deuteronomy 6:15 for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
Psalm 78:58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
Question: Would a good and all powerful god, who could destroy anything or anyone instantaneously, ever have a need to be jealous? Is it even possible? Could an all-star baseball player ever be jealous of a little leaguer, that would make him explode in anger?
Vaccicidal: 1 Samuel 15:3 Attack the Amalekites . . . put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels, and donkeys.
Merciless: Jeremiah 13:14 I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.
Deuteronomy 7:1–2 When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it . . . show no mercy to them.
Lamentations 2:2 The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob.
Deuteronomy 7:1–2 When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it and clears away many nations before you . . . then you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
Homicidal: Ezekiel 9:4–6 And the Lord said unto him . . . Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women.
Hosea 13:4–9 Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open; like a lion I will devour them — a wild animal will tear them apart. You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.
Jeremiah 11:11 Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing evil upon them which they cannot escape; though they cry to me, I will not listen to them.
Vindictive: Ezekiel 25:14–17 And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath; and they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord God. . . . I will execute great vengeance upon them with wrathful chastisements. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them.
Pestilential: Deuteronomy 32:23–24 I will heap calamities on them and spend my arrows against them. I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence, and deadly plague.
Angry: Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire is kindled by my anger and burns to the depths of Sheol.
Isaiah 63:3 I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments.
What About Jesus?
John 10:30 I and the Father are one.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
John 1:1–3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 14:9 Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
An eternal hell of endless torture was never mentioned in the Bible until Jesus came along.
Malachi 3:6 “For I, the Lord, do not change….”
Thus everything we see and hear about the God of the Old Testament is actually Jesus doing the talking and acting. By definition, that would have to include all the genocides, slavery, and baby killing. It would also include the creation of a food chain that required almost all animals and insects to kill and eat each other should they desire to live or feed their babies.
A final question: If a husband goes to work everyday, provides a nice house and standard of living for his wife and children, never smokes, drinks, steals, or cheats, but occasionally in anger beats them and executes other punishments when they disobey him, or does something that does not please him, is he considered a good husband and father?
Other articles:
The Bible is Absolutely Not Pro-Life
Ten Reasons No One Should Believe the Bible
Is the New Testament Really “Nicer” than the Old Testament?
Is Christianity Nonsensical and Painfully Undefinable?
The Bible is full of other passages that Dan Barker expounds on. The hard copy of his book devotes each of the 28 traits to individual chapters with additional detailed narrative. Characteristics not included above are:
