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Originally Posted by OBW
A couple of comments on the litany of acts of God.
First, it is mostly ove-rspeak of the day when it is said that all of anything was killed. Early on they went to utterly destroy (not necessarily the words used) the Canaanites. But decades later there were Canaanites. This is generally observed in all of the cases. Today we would say things like "decimate" to mean what they appear to have meant when they went out to kill "every living person."
Second, we live according to the righteousness and rules of man. We like to think that we have gotten better over time. But the love of God which holds back his wrath upon unrighteousness is not simply overpowering. It is decided upon by God. And he has the prerogative as creator of it all to destroy the parts that he finds standing against his righteousness. When he does or does not is not my call. I do have the right to ask. To question. But no right to condemn. I am ultimately but one of the created beings. Like the plastic army men, or cowboys and Indians that we played with as children. How the battle played out was in our control. Some lived and some died. It was our choice.
But we deny God the same with respect to what he has created.
I'm sure that these are not satisfactory answers for those who want to be rid of the idea of God. And I do not pretend to always think I like the outcomes. But I do recognize God's rights as being absolute and mine as nonexistent. (I know that last one sticks in the craw of us Americans who always demand their rights.)
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If God wanted to destroy humans like "plastic army men" being all-mighty he could do that himself without enlisting the aid of humans. Natural "acts of God" like tsunamis accomplish that often enough. More likely, the writers are doing what numerous peoples have done throughout history i.e. claiming that God is on their side and in conflicts against other "tribes' and the maintenance of social order by executing troublemakers.
Your criticism of those who demand their rights suggests to me that you still may retain the mind-set that made it so easy for us to give up ours when we entered the Witness Lee cult where he exercised absolute authority.