Deuteronomy 7:1-2
When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.
What we see here is that God decreed that it was time for these people to die, and His method of choice to accomplish this was to have them killed by the Israelites.
The Bible tells us that God is ultimately the one who takes life (1 Samuel 2:6; Job 1:21), which is fitting as He is the one who provides it in the first place (John 1:3; Hebrews 1:2).
With respect to the Canaanites, God demonstrated His just nature in His judgment upon them. According to scripture, the Canaanites had been sacrificing their children to gods that didn't exist (Deuteronomy 12:31), practicing homosexuality and bestiality (Leviticus 20:23), sorcery and witchcraft (Deuteronomy 18:14), all things that they ought not to have done, and knew that they ought not to have done (Romans 2:15).
In blatantly disobeying the consciences God gave them, the Canaanites were requesting that their Creator destroy them.
Our God is a just God, but He has also offered us forgiveness for our offenses through His Son, Jesus (John 3:16).
If you have not asked God to forgive you for your crimes against Him through the payment provided by Jesus (Isaiah 53:5), you stand in the same position the Canaanites were in. Expect judgment.
Comments
Please let me know if this is still unclear.
God bless.
Is it possible to do other than what God knows we are going to do?
If anyone created by God ever sins, and certainly many do, then how can we coherently deduce that the sin was not ultimately and intentionally caused by God?
Please let me know where you believe my reasoning breaks down.
God bless us all.
Some questions for your perspective...
If God "intentionally causes humans to sin... we are not even accountable for our actions".
Why would man not be accountable for his actions if they are ultimately caused by God? I don't see the connection.
"If God is doing this then he is not All merciful."
If God did not ultimately cause it, then how did it come about? What ultimately led to you behaving sinfully? Where did the desire to do so come from originally? The factors that led to you deciding to sin originated with what eternal, personal, uncaused first cause that isn't God?
[continued]
Some answers from my perspective...
"...there is no need for this life..."
The purpose of this life is not to test us, but to glorify Him. Like everything else, it is all about Him, not us.
"God... is then trying to make me go to hell. Which goes against common sense, since God is all-good."
If God is all-good, it stands to reason that He will punish sin. If you are a sinner, you can expect punishment.
"If God is doing this then he is not All merciful..."
God is not all-merciful. Rather, He has mercy on whom He has mercy, namely, His elect (Romans 9:15).
[continued]
"if God is intentionally causing me to sin, then why would he send someone, himself supposedly, to die to atone for all my sins?"
He does this to demonstrate His great love and mercy for us, His elect.
"I thought God wanted me to sin, so why is he now changing his mind and having it be erased?"
God's purpose in having us sin was the same as His purpose in having us forgiven, namely, His glorification. He is glorified for His mercy in His forgiveness of the elect, but what is forgiveness without sin? Sin exists in the elect so that forgiveness can, so that God will be glorified (Rom 11:32). No mind-changing involved.
As long as we hold ourselves up as free individuals, we deny God's sovereignty. We rob Him of His kingship. We worship ourselves instead of Him.
God bless.
[continued]
With prayers that God guides you, (because I've never heard a theist put "if" in front of "God is all good", or "God is all merciful")
Frank Gehry