Why
Does God Allow Man to Kill Other Men
Over the past
many months and years, local, regional, national and world-wide attention has
been increasingly focused on the violence afflicting mankind. This has especially been an issue in which individuals
or varying-sized groups of men have resorted to killing other men. The numbers of persons involved have varied
from the minimum of two, to literally hundreds or thousands or more during a
full-scale war. In a world in which
Christians worship God and Our Lord Jesus Christ, some have asked “Why does a
Supreme God of Love and Peace allow men to kill other men?”
We can never
know what goes through the mind of God. But
we can try to understand what He has told us through the Scripture which was
prompted through the Holy Spirit. (2 Timothy 3: 16-17). In essence, “What does the Bible say?”
The first opportunity to look at this
issue is seen in Genesis Chapter Four, which describes the first
homicide. In an act of jealousy / covetousness, Cain, the elder son of
Adam and Eve, killed his younger brother Abel. That was the first opportunity
for the LORD to intervene in addressing the subject of this post. Most notably He did not respond through a
violent punishment against Cain. In fact, the LORD’s judgement and punishment were
“controlled”, and even expressed His concern for the offender Cain. Note Verses
1-12, in which the LORD spoke with Cain both before and after he slew Abel.
The Scripture then records the following
dialogue in Verses 13-15: “And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold,
thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face
shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it
shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. 15 And
the Lord said unto him, Therefore
whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And
the Lord set a mark
upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” (Emphasis
added) Those words of the LORD reflect
His position that He would not take the life from any man to whom He had given
it.
[As a point of clarification, remember from the previous chapters of Genesis, man was made in the image
of God as an eternal, invisible “soul / spirit”. (Genesis 1: 26-27)
That soul / spirit needed a physical presence
to function on the Earth, so the LORD God placed it in a temporary “earthen
body” (Genesis 2: 7)…. ..where that life existed in man’s blood. (Leviticus 17: 11-14) Therefore, the
life that could “be killed” / die only applied to the act of separating
the eternal soul / spirit from the temporary “earthen” / physical body.
Upon that “death”, the soul / spirit is returned to the God who had
given man his life. (Ecclesiastes 12: 7)] That is the “first death”,
which must be distinguished from the “second death”, which is the permanent
separation of the soul / spirit from the Creator God. (Revelation 20:
11-14) ]
The position taken by the LORD as described above was likely reflective
of His foreknowledge that Cain’s violent action was the result of his having
been the first person influenced by the “sin-nature” he inherited from his parents, Adam and Eve. However, having
that inherited trait did not absolve Cain of guilt in committing the crime of homicide.
Therefore punishment had to be meted out
by the Just and Righteous Supreme God. The LORD would not violently take the life of
Cain in retribution / retaliation for his violent act, nor would He promote
that action by others. (Genesis 4: 15)
[Remember that from the beginning with Adam, God has always given man the
ability to think, and to make choices. (Genesis 2: 7-9, 15-17) Cain made a very bad and costly choice.
But the LORD knew the ultimate source of that act of violence / homicide was the Enemy who had also
successfully pursued and lured Adam into sin. (Genesis Chapter Three)
Later in the Scripture it was revealed that Cain’s act of killing his brother was
initiated by the same emotion of jealousy / covetousness that had
prompted the Enemy Satan (as the Serpent) to sabotage the relationship between the
LORD God and His favored creation man / Adam. He had been unsuccessful in his attempt to de-throne
the True God. [See: Isaiah 14: 12-14 (Enemy called “Lucifer”); Ezekiel
28: 1-10 (possibly describing the Antichrist who had been indwelt by
the Enemy, and called the “prince of Tyrus); and Ezekiel 28: 11-19 (Enemy
called “king of Tyrus”)]
With that background / context, the LORD knew that His Enemy
would continue to use his influences to encourage man to kill other men.
Remember from earlier studies that when Adam sinned against God, he chose to follow Satan / the
Serpent, and thereby lost the dominion over the Earth that God had given him. (Genesis
1: 26-28) The Enemy then became the “god
of this world” (2 Corinthians 4: 3-4), giving him additional
influence to implement his agenda to both destroy man; and to remove the threat
of his own death sentence which had been imposed by the LORD God in the Garden
of Eden. (Genesis 3: 14-15)
The primary “weapons” used by Satan to influence man’s violent nature
were the “three “temptations” that influenced his own behavior, and were successful
in convincing “Eve” / Adam to disobey God’s command in the Garden of Eden. Those temptations were: 1) lust of the
flesh; 2) lust of the eyes; and 3) pride of life (seeking power). (Genesis
3: 1-6) Remember also that Satan’s
effort to use those same tactics against
our Lord Jesus as He began His Earthly Ministry was totally unsuccessful. (Matthew 4: 1-11)
Throughout these events in the Garden of Eden and later involving
Cain and Abel, God did not intervene to stop man from exercising the freedom to
“choose” his actions . Even when man’s violent behavior and homicides continued
for centuries, The LORD did not intervene….until…it was obvious that man’s
self-destructive behavior would result in his own extinction. Then the LORD acted by bringing the Great
Flood that would enable Him to begin anew with mankind through the single
righteous man Noah and his family.(Genesis Chapters Six through 9: 1-19)
After the Great Flood, the
LORD was again giving man his freedom to choose his actions towards living in
peace with his fellow man, or yielding to the temptations of the Enemy as noted
above. However, this time the
LORD provided the following instructions to govern the behavior of mankind: “And
God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth.
2 And the
fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and
upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all
the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every
moving thing that liveth shall be meat (food) for you; even as the green herb
have I given you all things.
4 But flesh with the life
thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
5 And
surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will
I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I
require the life of man.
6 Whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God
made he man. (Genesis
9: 1-6) (Emphasis added).
In this manner, the LORD introduced the concepts of self-government and “capital punishment”
for murder. But even
with these deterrents, man could not overcome the impulses driven by the “three
temptations” and the other influences of the Enemy. Note how the Apostle Paul
wrote of the difficulties faced even by believing Christians who had received and
needed the additional spiritual support of the Holy Spirit. (Romans Chapters Seven
and Eight). (Note the rarely used word : "concupiscence" = covetous desire
Strongs Greek Dictionary #1939, epithumia - a longing (especially for what is
forbidden)
Finally, for those who think that they have somehow evaded the legal
system imposed by man to control man’s killing other men, they are totally
wrong!! Our Lord Jesus will have the final
word in His judgement. (Revelation 20: 11-15)
Even so, the Scripture shows that the Enemy’s hatred for man is
such that he is still working tirelessly to destroy the relationship between
God and man by forcing God’s imposition of the “Second Death”, as noted above. Please
read those verses as found in: Job 1: 6-12, and 1 Peter 5: 8-10. They explain why the
Enemy is called the “Accuser” / prosecutor of mankind. But fortunately for believers in the Gospel
of the Grace of Jesus Christ, the Lord Himself, serves as our “Advocate”
/ Attorney, defending us under the power of His shed Blood. (1 Corinthians
15: 1-4; Romans 10: 9-13; Hebrews Chapter Nine; 1 John 2: 1-2 )
In answering the question raised in the title of this post, consider
the context provided above. But always remember, the choice to kill a man lies
within another man, the perpetrator. No one should blame God.
Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson
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