Rick wrote:
...stuff deleted
Gen 9:6 Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed,
for
in the image of God He made man.

God instituted the death penalty originally, in reference to
Creation.
Murder is an affront to God, who created us in His image. If some
one
kills a man, it is as if he is trying to kill God! God says that
man
should die!


No god I'd believe in would do such a thing. Even the "wrathful and
vengeful" god of the old testament
allowed Cain to wander free (but marked). Yet another reason why I
doubt
the "scriptures" were written
by anyone but ordinary men.

...justification for murder deleted

Rick

It is your choice to believe in whatever kind of god you choose to
believe in. Your choice does not determine what kind of God the
scriptures reveal. That it makes you uncomfortable, or even that it is
difficult to explain, does not make it any more encumbent on us, if we
choose to attempt to understand the nature of God, and His activity
throughout history, some of which is recorded in the Scriptures, to
struggle to understand and find the real and true God with which we
have to deal.

The scriptures are clear when they say that God instituted the death
penalty clear back in the beginning of Genesis. He with His
omniscience, He saw the murder of Abel, and all the other murders
throughout history. If we are offended by one murder, consider the
horror He must have seen, and how His Holy Spirit must have been
offended and affronted by even one, to say nothing of the horror of
them all.

How was it that He was able to allow Cain to walk as a marked man even?
In His absolute Holiness, He should have destroyed not only Cain, but
all murders. And according to Jesus, all of us are guilty of murder.
This is not the vengeful God of the Old Testement, but the God of the
New Testement that said we should Love our neighbor, as ourselves. How
could Jesus say we are all murders? He said if we even look on our
brother in wrath, we are guilty of murder. And if this is so, and Jesus
is God, the same Holy God of the Old Testement, and even before the Old
Testement, the time of Cain and Abel, how could He not destroy us all?

It was because in His omniscience He also was able to look down through
the annals of time and see Himself on the Cross, dying the death
penalty for all the murderers, all of us through out history. And so He
set Cain free as a marked man, as we are all marked men.

The death penalty does not diminish His Love for us in the least, but
is the absolute expression of His Love. By establishing the death
penalty way back in Genesis, He set the stage for His own death on the
Cross, the single greatest act of Love ever shown to men by which now
we can be set free! Free to be in communion again with God!

But understand that it was not just an act of Love for us, His
Creation, that He died! But even a greater act of Love towards the
Holiness of the Godhood! The image of God, was redeemed by the Blood
of Jesus which represented His death, the required price for the
defacement of the Godhood, was made by Jesus.

You may not choose this God, that is your choice! But Jesus chose this
God, and I tend to believe His choice is the better choice than yours,
any day, Old Testement, New Testement, testimony written in the stars,
or in the rocks, or sands of time, or pages written by fallible men.
All the Creation testifies to the nature of God, that He is, and that
He is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.

That you say you believe in a god is commendable, or did you? And would
only confirms to me that you were made in the image of God. There is a
primal need in the heart of all men to find and be in communion with
God. If you are content with the rag doll god that you say you would
believe in if you believed in god, is at best, intellectually slothful,
and at worst derranged. Those who say they do not believe in God, and
don't even make a pretense of believing, are slothful, and at least may
appear to be intellectually honest if you allow them the luxury of
shutting their eyes to the Creation. But you say your eyes are open, or
are they closed!

It would be sort of like walking into a mine field, where there are
known to be many life threatening devices. Now a mad man may run into
the field headlong, and assuredly will step on a mine. But what man
would put on a blindfold and start walking ever so slowly. Even he will
trip a mine eventually. Now the intellectual slouch may set on the side
and talk about the mines, and how they know they are out there, and
even study all the different kinds of mines there are. But should he
step into the mine field, he is just as assuredly dead. And we are
surrounded by a minefield that we are trying to get out of!

The wise man climbs on the back of someone who has gone across the mine
field before, and knows the way, and where all the mines are at, and
gets safe passage to the other side, which is where everyone wants to
get to after all.

Now I can't tell whether you believe in God or not, but I would
encourage you to at least be honest with yourself, take off the
blindfold of your preconceived ideas of how God would be, and find out
how He is, and then you will find Him! TnT