Board Thread:Bible Questions/@comment-37118093-20181021214526/@comment-5175866-20181022012442

To preface I will answer your question, however it seems you do not wish to conduct a productive discussion on God's character. If my answer is not satisfactory and you can only make more accusations or not try to make a reasonable, respectful discussion this thread will end.

All of the circumstances you mentioned are instances of people committing grave evil. You can't ignore the fact that what people have done is very evil. Sodom was destroyed, because it was insanely evil (a homosexual gang mob tried to rape visitors to the city). See my blogpost on this.

The people mocking Elisha were not mere children, rather were youths. Think of a crowd of men in their twenties mocking, cursing and probably threatening Elisha. Elisha was being severely disrespected and probably was getting death threats. He asked God to help him and to justify the evil that had been done to him (and by extension God).

I am not going to address every single instance in detail. My point is these are common passages quoted that people either have a misunderstanding of the nature of the evil or the culture of the time. Some of the punishments are based on the culture of the time (what made sense in that time) and are not things that occur today. Others are because when you take an authentic look, the deeds truly are evil.

The whole idea is that if God is truly the creator and has power over all of his creation, he can and must judge. A Father does not hate his children when he punishes them, but he does this to (hopefully) lead them to right conduct, or protect himself or ones he loves. God is loving and gives many chances to change behavior. However, God would not be truly wise if he chose to allow evil to go unpunished. So he extends earthly punishment and eternal punishment in Hell. Only those who wilfully choose to enter into a relationship with God are saved from judgement. The judgements here are not "orders" of hatred, rather it is God protecting those who love or doing what is right, but punishing evil.

In Christ, Superdadsuper, Sr. Content and Community Manager (Bible Wiki) 01:24, October 22, 2018 (UTC)