Murder by God!

By Jacob Marley

You are reading a book penned by a person who spent most of his life within the confines of conservative Christianity. I must admit I do not believe the stories recorded here. I do record the stories as they are written. I have not exaggerated any stories. In fact, if anything, I have underestimated the amount of slaughter that was condoned by God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664133990

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Copyright © 2020 by Jacob Marley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/05/2020

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CONTENTS

SECTION ONE

Introduction

SECTION TWO

1:   Outline

SECTION THREE

2:   Remember

3:   The Case of the Unrepentant Gays and Others

4:   Genesis 38

5:   As the King Goes, so Goes the Nation

6:   Just the Facts

7:   Korah, Dathan, and Abiram

8:   God Said It, so I Do It!

9:   Even Moses Fails

10:   The Case of the Bronze Snake

11:   Lesson: Don’t Attend the Wrong Church

12:   Save the Virgins

13:   Imagine

14:   Liar, Liar, Saved from Fire

15:   When I Say Nothing, I Mean Nothing

16:   Power to Women

17:   Gideon’s Band or Israel’s Special Forces

18:   God’s Personal Worst (in My Humble Opinion)

19:   Samson Takes a Wife

20:   Huh?

21:   Raiders of the Lost, Found, Lost Ark

22:   Repent, Kill Lamb, Win War

23:   Cold-Blooded Murder

24:   Stacked Like Cordwood

25:   Too Good for Your Own Good

26:   1.3 Million Big Mistakes

27:   Fool Me Once, Shame on Me

28:   Jeroboam, the Wickedest Man Who Ever Lived

29:   Kill the Competition

30:   You’re Going to Die

31:   School Days, School Days, Kill the Little Fools’ Day

32:   Get a Good Man to Help

33:   One God Did Not Kill, Why?

34:   Athaliah, a Very Bad Parent

35:   2 Kings 14

36:   Amaziah Fails

37:   That’s Not Your Job

SECTION FOUR

38:   The New Testament

39:   Kill All Under Two

40:   A Very Big Lie

SECTION FIVE

41:   The Book of Revelation

42:   The Greatest Death of All

43:   Summary

SECTION ONE

Introduction

In 1961, I received my ministerial credentials from a very conservative Christian church. I was a minister in that church until 1985. For over twenty-four years each Sunday or more often, I preached that God ruled everything, including my life and yours. I had to look to Christ for my salvation and keep the doctrines of the church, which I believed were the doctrines of God, to obtain this salvation. If I did not accomplish this, I would be lost, along with the vast majority of the world’s population. I would be destroyed by fire along with all sinners and the devil himself and his fallen angels.

You are reading a book penned by a person who spent most of his life within the confines of conservative Christianity. I must admit I do not believe the stories recorded here. I do record the stories as they are written. I have not exaggerated any stories. In fact, if anything, I have underestimated the amount of slaughter that was condoned by God.

I do not know when I first began to doubt. Doubts were there while I was still a teenager. I hate to admit it, but I first doubted when my sins did not find me out as the scriptures promised. I tried very hard to do what was right, but it was never enough. I always felt sinful. The first time I doubted the Word of God was when I was a teen and asked God to help me when I wanted to meet a girl. I know it seems silly now, but then it was the most important thing in the world to me. People gave me the same answer at that time when my son died. God did answer your prayer. He said no.

Of course, having my four-year-old son die while I was a minister was probably the greatest event to shake my trust in God. It was not as much the death of my son but the death of so many innocent people. I could not see the justice or the equality in what was happening around me. The age-old question was asked again. If God is love and all powerful, why are there so much pain, suffering, and sorrow? How can a loving God let so many millions starve to death? I officiated at over two hundred funerals while I was a minister. Even though I could understand the why of most of them, there were many I could not accept as being the will of God.

The first funeral I conducted was that of a fifteen-year-old boy who was raped and murdered during an afternoon hike. The killer was never found. J. had fifteen bullets in him—one for each year of life. He was a good boy from a nice home in a middle-class neighborhood. His father wept on my young shoulder while he cried, Why? It was several years before when I asked the same question about the death of my own son. I could not answer it for M., nor could I answer it for myself.

I have heard or read almost every argument Christians espoused for the reasons behind the death of the innocent. I have prayed many hours, begging for a satisfying solution. After many years of reason, I could no longer accept the answer We can’t understand the will of God. We just have to trust him. No, I don’t. My god now has a little g.

In reading the Bible many times, I have come to the painful conclusion that the Bible is a collection of folktales, not the Word of God. If it was the Word of God, he cannot be a God that is loving and fair. Learning from the relationship between the God of the Bible and humans, he must be a diabolical despot. It is better to look at the scriptures as a collection of folktales than to accept the evil and injustice recorded in what is reported to be the Word of God.

If you are a Christian who believes in the literal inspiration of the Bible, this book might offend you. Please remember two texts.

1. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord (Isaiah 1:18).

2. The inspiring words of Jesus: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44).

I have no desire to change your mind. I do have a desire for everyone to think.

When I speak with those whom I once worshipped with, they ask me what happened to me. I answer, I have lost faith. In truth, I would love to still believe in a heaven. I, of course, desire to be united with my son again. I desire to live forever without pain or sorrow. I do not believe; therefore, it is my loss. Even with this loss, for some reason, I feel much more at peace than when I believe a literal interpretation of the scriptures.

Note

The book is not about a race, a nation, or people. It is about a system of beliefs that a minority of people believe. This book has nothing to do with the modern nation of Israel unless Israel believes that the God of the Old Testament is leading them in their quest. This book is about any group that believes that God has elevated them to a superior state.

The Islamic, Jewish, and Christian religions are the only major religions in the world that base their belief on sacred writings that condone or even encourage violence. There is only one other writing with a philosophy concerning how to rule a people (or even a world) that advocates extermination of whole races of people. That philosophy is contained in a book titled Mein Kampf, which was written by Adolf Hitler. The belief that the stories of destruction recorded in the Old and New Testaments are real stories conceived and condoned by a powerful God is just plain frightening. For people to believe that a God will save only eight people in the entire world because the rest are sinning opens the proverbial floodgate (pun intended) for modern fundamentalists to decide that God is speaking to them about the murder of perceived sinners.

Gott mit uns or God is on our side was the slogan worn on the belt buckles of Nazi storm troopers, and it is the banner that Christian fundamentalists hoist over their army as they go to war. It is reassuring that most Christians place emphasis on doctrines espoused by Christ. In most cases, these are doctrines that encourage justice and fair play. A small but powerful minority desires that their radical beliefs be imposed on mankind in general. It is vital that we take the time to explore what type of God is behind such destructive beliefs. I agree with the statement Never again.

The God of the Christians and the Jews states that he (sorry, ladies) is

1. loving (John 3:16),

2. kind (Psalm 36:7),

3. just (John 5:30),

4. jealous (Exodus 20:5),

5. all powerful (Matthew 28:18), plus several other positive attributes.

The text that we are going to build this book on is Matthew 7:16–20:

Ye shall know them by their fruits; do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree produces good fruit but a corrupt tree produces evil fruits. A good tree cannot bear evil fruits, nor can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree that brought not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Italics mine)

It is not what one says he or she is but what one does that makes the difference in what we believe him or her to be. We are going to judge the actions of God by the criteria devised by God. We are going to look at the actions of the self-proclaimed most powerful being that has ever existed, the one who declares there is nothing existing that he did not create, an all-powerful God that proclaims that he not only watches over and loves every single person who has ever lived but also watches every sparrow that dies (Matthew 10:29).

Why did I write this book? This question is often asked: If you do not desire to convert people to your belief, why did you write this book? It’s because of statements like this one by Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue quoted in the News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 16, 1993). I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. Yes, hate is good . . . Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty; we are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time. We don’t want pluralism.

And it’s also because of this statement by Pat Robertson in his book The New World Order (pp. 218–19). When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. ‘What do you mean?’ the media challenged me. ‘You’re not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?’ My simple answer is, ‘Yes, they are. If anybody understood what Hindus really believe, there would be no doubt that they have no business administering government policies in a country that favors freedom and equality.’

Here’s another statement by Pat Robertson found in a speech given in Columbia, South Carolina, on November 14, 1993. "They have kept us in submission because they have talked about separation of church and state. There is no such thing in the Constitution. It’s a lie of the left, and we’re not going to take it anymore. The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous