When your God says "kill"

Bagwell said:

"**Except that the fate suffered by Sodom and Gomorrah was directly at the hand of God. A more challenging example, I think, is in Joshua, where God commands the Israelites to attack a town and destroy all living things -- men, women and children. The Bible tells us that God spoke directly to Joshua and commanded this. But did others witness the commandment? What are we to do with modern day "Joshua's" who come forward and say, "God told me to kill everyone in the town?" I'll confess -- I am not strong enough in my faith or my knowledge of the Bible to provide an effective answer."

And your example is so much better than mine (I knew you would have one with your burgeoning knowledge of scripture :-)

The thing about belief is that there will always be an answer that the believer can accept. This smacks of something that just doesn't agree with me. This is how Osama sleeps at night.

If your first effort in life is to "Treat others as you wish to treated", when the kill message comes in from your God, you put it aside and do not carry it out. Now that takes courage I believe.