The Worst Stories Preview
Following are some select stories from the Bible that are examples of stories that will be included in this book. There are 3 stories from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
God’s Angel Kills 70,000 Innocent People To Punish David
God was angry with Israel, so he incited David to take a census of his people[a] to know how many fighting men he had. King David told his general, Joab, to go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba and count the people. Joab asked David why he would want to do such a thing, but David insisted that it be done. Joab and the other military officials spent 9 months and 20 days counting all of the people of Israel before coming back to Jerusalem.
Joab reported to David the numbers of the people they had counted, and there were a lot![b] David felt guilty that he had counted the people because in Exodus 30:11-16, God told Moses that when a census is taken of the Israelites, every person counted must give God a ransom in exchange for their lives. So, David asked God to remove his guilt for performing the census that God had told him to take. The next day, God told David’s prophet, Gad, to give David three options to choose from. David could have several years[c] of famine come upon his land, he could have his enemies chase him for three months, or he could have three days of plague in his lands. David said that he would rather be attacked by God than by men because of how merciful God is. So God sent an angel to deliver a plague through Israel and 70,000 people died from it.
When the angel was about to destroy Jerusalem too, God told him to stop killing people and wait. When David saw the angel, he begged God to stop killing innocent people and to instead attack him and his own family since he was the one who had sinned. Gad instructed David to build an altar to God and after the altar was built and burnt offerings were made, God accepted Israel’s prayers and removed the plague. (2 Samuel 24)
God Has Bears Maul 42 Children For Elisha
As Elisha was traveling to Bethel, some children came out of the city and started making fun of him, calling him a baldy. He turned to the children and called a curse upon them in the name of God. Then, two bears came and tore 42 of the children apart and Elisha continued travelling. It is argued that these may have been young men instead of children, and that the Hebrew word describing them as “little” actually meant insignificant or unimportant. So the other version of the story is that Elisha felt his life was in danger by the number of these youths and that’s why God let the bears kill them. (2 Kings 2:23-25)
God Tells Ezekiel An Extremely Sexual Allegory
God tells Ezekiel an allegory in which there were two sisters who were prostitutes in Egypt where their virgin breasts were squeezed and fondled. The older sister’s name was Aholah, and she represented the city of Samaria. The younger sister’s name was Aholibah and she represented the city of Jerusalem. God married both sisters and they gave birth to sons and daughters. Aholah engaged in prostitution while married to God and lusted after the Assyrians. She performed sexual favors for all of them and defiled herself with whomever she desired. Just as in Egypt, men had sex with her, fondled her breasts, and poured their fornication on her. So God handed her over to the Assyrians and they stripped her naked and killed her sons and daughters with swords.
Her sister watched this, but she was even more lustful than Aholah, committing even more acts of prostitution. She lusted after the Assyrians too, and God saw that they were going down the same path, but Oholibah increased her prostitution. She lusted after the Babylonians as well, and when she was defiled by them, she was repulsed by them, but she continued her prostitution. When she continued to expose her nakedness, God was disgusted with her, just as with her sister, but she increased her prostitution, remembering her youth in Egypt. She lusted after penises as big as donkeys’ whose ejaculations were like a horse’s.
So God told her that he would raise up her old lovers against her, the ones she had been disgusted with, and that they would come at her from every side. They would attack her with a huge army and she would be punished according to their laws. They would cut off her nose and ears and kill all her survivors, sons, and daughters by sword and fire. They would treat her with hatred, take away all her belongings, and leave her naked and bare as she had been when prostituting. God told her he would do this to her because she had prostituted to the other nations and polluted herself with idols, following in her sister’s footsteps, and as a result her sister’s judgement would also be upon her.
Then, God said to Ezekiel to pronounce judgement on the sisters and declare them for their abominable deeds because the two cities’ inhabitants had been worshipping other gods and performing their rituals. God said they had even gone to far as to send away for foreign men and put on makeup and jewelry before letting the men have sex with them as prostitutes. God told Ezekiel to bring up an army against them to subject them to horror and plunder, pelt them with stones, slash them with swords, kill their sons and daughters, and burn their houses. God said that he would put an end to the lewdness of prostitution and that all women in the land would learn from it. The cities would be punished for their idol worship and everyone would know the true God. (Ezekiel 23)
Jesus Refuses To Heal A Woman And Refers To Her As A Dog
While in the region of Tyre, Jesus was trying to hide from the people, but a woman whose daughter had become possessed by an evil spirit heard about him and threw herself at his feet. She begged for him to have mercy on her daughter, but Jesus completely ignored her. Eventually, his disciples begged for him to do something about the woman because they were getting annoyed that she kept crying out to them for help. So Jesus told the woman that he was only sent to help Israelites. Since the woman was not an Israelite, Jesus was not obligated to help her. But she bowed before Jesus and begged again for his help. Jesus told her that it wasn’t right to take bread meant for children (the Israelites) and throw it to dogs. The woman replied yes, but even dogs could eat the crumbs fallen from their master’s table. So, seeing her faith in him, Jesus finally decided to give her “the crumbs from the table” and heal the woman’s daughter. He told her that she could now go and that the demon had left her daughter. When the woman got home, her daughter was cured. (Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30)
Jesus Kills A Fig Tree For Not Having Fruit Out Of Season
After he had his followers steal a colt and a donkey in the name of God, Jesus saw a fig tree in the distance. He went up to it to get something to eat, but the tree had no fruit since it was out of season. So Jesus cursed the tree to wither and never bear fruit again. Then, Jesus goes into the temple area and flips all the tables of the men who were in the temple selling things. The next day, Jesus came back to the tree and it was entirely withered up. Jesus used the opportunity to tell his followers that whatever they pray for, if they believe, then it will happen. (Matthew 21:1-22, Mark 11:1-25)
A Couple Is Killed Because They Lied About Not Giving Away All Their Money
After they prayed with Peter and John, a community was filled with the Holy Spirit. Everyone held all their belongings in common and nobody claimed anything as their own. Nobody was needy because everyone who owned land sold it and brought the money to Peter and John to redistribute among the people. A man named Ananias and his wife, Sapphira sold their land, but they kept some of the money for themselves before placing the rest at the apostles’ feet. Peter asked Ananias why Satan had filled his heart, to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep part of the money for himself. Then Peter told Ananias that he had not lied to men, but to God. When Ananias heard this, he collapsed and died, and all the people who heard about it became afraid. A while later Sapphira came to the apostles, but she had not heard what had happened. She lied to Peter about how much money they made from selling their land as well. Peter asked why she lied and told her that those who buried her husband were at the door, and now they were coming for her too. When she heard this, she collapsed and died too, and they buried her next to her husband. A great fear came upon the people and all who had heard what happened. (Acts 4:32-37, Acts 5:1-11)
Scary Scriptures Preview
The scary scriptures section of this book will include a thorough combing of the bible for unsettling and unjust scriptures. When this book reaches funding goals, I also plan to include an index with categories such as murder, abortion, deceit, ect. Here are 3 Old Testament scriptures and 3 New Testament scriptures as preview.
Numbers 5:11-31 “11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, 13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner; 14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: 15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord: 17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: 18 And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: 19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: 20 But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband: 21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; 22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. 23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: 24 And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter. 25 Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar: 26 And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water. 27 And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. 28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. 29 This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled; 30 Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. 31 Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.”
In this passage, it is written law that if a woman is even suspected of cheating or if a man is jealous due to his wife, he may take her to a priest of God with an offering, and she will be made to drink water with dirt from the floor and ink (scraped or blotted from a written curse) in it. If her “thigh rots” (It is argued that the Hebrew word for thigh יָרֵךְ means “side” or literally “thigh” in this verse. It’s pretty obvious by the sexual context here, though, that it’s other translation, “loin” is intended. Other scriptures where יָרֵךְ is used in this context in the Leningrad Codex include Genesis 24:2, 47:29, Exodus 1:5, and Judges 8:30) or her “belly swells” (this can be interpreted a variety of ways as there are various diseases that cause the abdomen to swell. Although the Hebrew word used here בֶּטֶן is most commonly translated as “womb”, which fits this context.) then she is guilty. Regardless of anything at all, the man is innocent in this situation.
This is a bizarre ritual that is likely to make any woman at least sick due to ingesting ink and unsanitary temple floor dirt. A man is allowed to do this to his wife without guilt or consequence any time he is either jealous or suspicious of her being unfaithful to him. Some think that this scripture is to be interpreted that a pregnant woman who a man suspects has been unfaithful must perform this ritual, and the swelling belly and thigh falling/rotting refers to a miscarriage. In that case, here God is offering to abort or cause miscarriage to any woman who has cheated on her husband. If the scripture is to be taken that way, which is very likely the case given the sexual nature of the context, God is actually offering to perform holy abortions.
1 Sam 2:22-25 “22 Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 23 And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. 24 Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord’s people to transgress. 25 If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them.”
Eli hears of his sons doing bad things and attempts to convince his sons to cease their evils. But since God has already decided to kill them, he makes it so that Eli’s son’s do not listen to his father. The scary part here is that the Hebrew word that the KJV translates to “would” in verse 25 is actually “חָפֵץ” which means to desire, to delight, or to take pleasure in. This verse would more aptly be translated “because the Lord wanted to slay them”. God prevents Eli from being able to deliver advice to his sons because God wants to kill them, and it wouldn’t be right for him to do so if they have a change of heart and listen to their father.
2 Samuel 17:14 “14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom.”
In this verse God has willingly put aside something good in order to bring about bad. He distorts the good counsel of Ahithophel to all the men of Israel in order to set up Absalom’s death. While God may have been justified in doing this, it goes to show that God is both willing and able to deceive in order to get his way. If God is willing to deceive in this manner, who else is he willing to deceive and for what reasons? This scripture also shows that God is willing to mislead many innocents in order to punish just one person. How many innocent people is God willing to negatively impact in order to punish someone? Why would he not just punish the person individually?
Romans 9:10-21 “11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”
What is learned from this passage is that God sometimes makes arbitrary decisions without concern for if good or bad have been done. This passage says that before Jacob and Esau had even been born, before they had the chance to choose good or evil, God had already decided who to bless and who to reject. The response to this? Basically, “God can do whatever he wants. Who are we to question him if he seems unfair? We can’t comprehend God’s decisions.” Many faithful people will vehemently agree with these statements, yet when presented with the same situation in a different context they are repulsed. If the dictator of North Korea protects his people, runs the nation, and provides for the citizens he deems worthy, is it wrong for him to arbitrarily choose who to favor and who to shun, simply because he holds the power to provide or take away and we can’t comprehend his choices? What about our choices? If God makes decisions before we take actions, are they really our own choices? If God can choose someone deceitful and greedy like Jacob to favor before he is even born, does it matter if we do bad? Perhaps God already has a plan for us, and regardless of our actions, we may bring about good things through his will and receive his blessing as Jacob did.
1 Corinthians 1:17-21 “17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
Here, Paul is writing the church of Corinth to correct some views of theirs and solve some conflicts within the church. Paul starts by insinuating that wisdom of words have the ability to render the cross of Christ ineffectual. Why would wisdom and the knowledge that comes with it have any effect on perception of Christ? He goes on to say that he will bring nothing to the understanding of the prudent (the greek word used here συνετός translates as “intelligent or wise or prudent”). Why would the intelligent not benefit from Paul’s teachings? Does intelligence somehow hinder that ability to accept his teachings? He claims that worldly knowledge is foolish to God and that those who believe in “the foolishness of preaching” please God. This verse seems to be saying to ignore things like logic, reason, and science (all wisdom of the world) in favor of preaching. Many people use this verse and the surrounding ones to cast aside any attempts at sensible reasoning and simply say that any knowledge gained from man is useless and unreliable, so there is no point in trying to make sense of the Bible with it. By this verse, a person can completely ignore anything other than church and the Bible, and not only is that scary to intellectuals, but it invites the faithful to be taken advantage of by not being wary of the words of their religious leaders. This is a trump card that can be used in any argument or debate to simply say, “Anything you say is the wisdom of man, so it doesn’t apply.”
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 “8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
This scripture shows that it is possible for God to make someone believe a lie, and not only is it possible, but he will do it. Regardless of the reasons that are argued for God making someone believe a lie, just that fact that God will do it at all in light of scriptures like Titus 1:2, Number 23:19, and Hebrews 6:18 is alarming. Which of these scriptures is incorrect? They cannot all be true, and if one scripture is incorrect or untrue or misinterpreted, how many others are also? Where is the line to be drawn for what to fully or literally believe in the bible and what is open to interpretation or ignoring? Is there a difference between lying and knowingly causing someone to believe a lie told by someone else?
[a]The account of this story is in the bible twice. The second time it is in the Bible, the Hebrew word usually used to refer to Satan "שָׂטָן" is used to describe who incites David. However, the NET translation has this to say about it: "tn Heb “and incited David to count Israel.” As v. 5 indicates, David was not interested in a general census, but in determining how much military strength he had.sn The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:1 says, “The Lord’s anger again raged against Israel and he incited David against them, saying: ‘Go, count Israel and Judah!’“ The version of the incident in the Book of 2 Samuel gives an underlying theological perspective, while the Chronicler simply describes what happened from a human perspective. Many interpreters and translations render the Hebrew שָׂטָן as a proper name here, “Satan” (NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). However, the Hebrew term שָׂטָן, which means “adversary,” is used here without the article. Elsewhere when it appears without the article, it refers to a personal or national adversary in the human sphere, the lone exception being Num 22:22, 32, where the angel of the Lord assumes the role of an adversary to Balaam. When referring elsewhere to the spiritual entity known in the NT as Satan, the noun has the article and is used as a title, “the Adversary” (see Job 1:6-9, 12; 2:1-4, 6-7; Zech 3:1-2). In light of usage elsewhere the adversary in 1 Chr 21:1 is likely a human enemy, probably a nearby nation whose hostility against Israel pressured David into numbering the people so he could assess his military strength. For compelling linguistic and literary arguments against taking the noun as a proper name here, see S. Japhet, I & II Chronicles (OTL), 374-75.
[b]The numbers differ in each account.
[c]The Masoretic Text says seven, but the Septuagint says three.