Some folks like to say "God is mean / evil"

If god is so omniscient then why would he create sinners in the first place to be punished later if he knew about it all along. I would not say sinners doesn't deserve to be punished, but according to the bible there is a place in the afterlife we call Hell - come on! that's eternal burning. The book of Matthew tells us that when Jesus returns to earth, he will send his angels to gather people and cast them into a furnace of fire, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. [Matthew 13:41-42] And he will order people to "go from my sight to the eternal fire that is ready for the devil and his angels. [Matthew 25:41] In the beginning there was nothing... and so on and so forth... Then God created man and 'suffering' also began to exist. You get the drift.

..God has the power to resurrect also.. in this garden of his called earth, these nations were heavily steeped in the pratice of human sacrifice.. And since he "can see the end from the beginning" he knew they had to be taken out of the world (as Deebomb also posted:) - however, they weren't completely and caused much havoc abd sufferings..

But if God wiped out the whole nation, including killing children, then wouldn't God be doing the same thing he's condemning the people for?

hi! Actually it says.. 2 Kings 2:23,24 "From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths." ...this just goes to prove you don't have to be perfect to know God.. God didn't do it.. Elisha did.. One time I got mad at my sister in law (who I love so dearly) and I thought "**** ***, Julie" and at that very moment, pretty much, she hit her head on the corner of a cupboard and could've used about three stitches.. I learned a good lesson from my foolishness.. and that is to not curse others.. anybody can do it.. and since God is Life itself and the power of the universe, we can think of it as God doing it.. but He didn't.. :))

..God is Life itself, so results and judgements are said to come from /God.. It was primitive times, where the religion of the region was human sacrifice.. and all manner of unthinkable things.. How do you tell such folks.. results/judgement is coming? And be heard? For instance He could look at the world now and all the pre-born which are killed and he could be very angry and might describe some of the results and consequences that will come "because you spilled the blood of the innocent upon your land, the land will become parched and your tongue will cleave to the dust.." This is what he sees.. if you tell primitive people something like that, they just might listen up, and [1] quit butchering the innocents (always a last straw in those days to God.. and [2] the results/judgements would be avoided, cause they had been warned.. [Even being so outspoken about it though, usually man does not 'listen'.. Now if He was to say to such primitive people, gee, guys, please don't do that.. Especially in those days of fierce war gods, he would have been laughed to scorn.. Besides what gets passed around as criticisms of God, are often just like this one with Elisha.. where, through free-will, Elisha, did it, but it is equated and passed around as, God did it.. blessings!:))

The times were horrific ..actually if one were to read things in context, you'd find it was much better than other lands of the day.. and some of the laws were, "if You, earthly father, insist on giving (selling) your daughter into a fixed marriage, you will [a!] at least find a pleasant and good place for her!" He called it "slavery" because He was being brutally honest.. [Many like to say God supported slavery, cause it's in the Old Testament.. they don't realize the 'slavery' referred to was a debt system, and God said "ok, I insist every seven years, all debts be forgiven!" Gee, I wish I had my debts under that!! And employment too!] And wars are wars.. and God would come with smoke out his nostrils (tongue in cheek:) to defend His people when they were being (unjustly) invaded.. And would give them victory.. God's not yet ruling the world and world forces.. it's 'free-will' that's presently unfolding.. But He has interfered two or three (globally) dire times.. and one of those times was when He wanted the nations heavily steeped in human sacrifice taken out of the arena.. As pure evil is quite virulent.. something mankind still has not learned..

P.S. ..thanks for posting and thinking about this issue.. :))

"And wars are wars" Yes, atrocities happen in all wars, religious or otherwise. I completely agree with you, actually. I didn't say that I really believe the Christian God is evil, only that if you take what the Bible says literally he was. There's so much in the Bible of people basically claiming that "God said to do this", and therefore much of what God's followers did in that time period is attributed to God. It's the same with any religion, actually.

..because God is Life, he lives through, experiences and suffers all sufferings which occur.. but he endowed thinking ability (to angel and man) anyway..

Thank you for your efforts in giving kind feedback to my comments, I appreciate that but, I'm afraid that that doesn't convince me enough to believe that there is a God or about the argument that he is a true loving God indeed. I care not to lengthen this argument as I thins I have said everything I want and it's up to the people what they think is right for them to think. After all the depictions in the bible, all I can say is that it still manages to describe god as 'bloody clean.'