God decided to kill the people in Jericho, and many others in the Bible. That’s God bringing pain, suffering, and death.
What crime did the first born in Egypt commit? Why did they deserve to die? Do we kill children to change the mind of their parents?
Yes, it is. God has that ultimate right. And none of us is in a position to question God’s actions, given that God has given us all ample evidence that 1) He is good and 2) He is God. He gave His Son to redeem humanity. If He takes some actions in some places that we don’t understand, we are wise to trust He knows best, just as a child must trust their parents even when their parents do things that upset them, or that they don’t understand. Of course the people on whom God brought judgment were not innocent. Even children are born with a sin nature, but God is always within his rights to ‘unbody’ people (to use CS Lewis’ term from Out of the Silent Planet), no matter their age.
What crime did the first born in Egypt commit? Why did they deserve to die? Do we kill children to change the mind of their parents?
See above. God is fully within his rights as Creator and Ultimate Authority to ‘unbody’ people at any time. I have little patience for scoffers who bicker about God’s actions. The important question is never whether you happen to like God’s actions; the important question is whether he is God, and the answer to that is a resounding yes.
You claim we can’t question God’s actions, and then you judge God’s actions to be good. That’s a massive contradiction. If we can’t judge God’s actions then we can’t say that God is good.
Parents never abuse their children or commit immoral acts against their children? What you are describing is one of the scariest moral positions there is. You have shut off your morality and just blindly accept that whatever God does is moral. That’s absolutely scary stuff.
Is that how our criminal justice system works? Do we punish people even if they haven’t committed a crime?
Just because you can do something doesn’t make it moral.
And He could set up evolution without subsequent tinkering to produce the bounty of life we observe today. Claiming that it requires tinkering, the essence of IDcreationism, diminishes God.
There are two theories of God’s goodness, and I forget their titles, but one holds that whatever God does is always by definition right. And another holds that ‘rightness’ is an aspect of God’s character, and God does what is right because it is right. These two camps fight with one another, but I believe they are both correct. God by definition is the highest authority, and therefore cannot do wrong. However as finite beings we can recognize wrong from right, and we can see that God’s actions are ‘right’, but also ‘loving’. We can see that God is loving in that he sacrificed himself for us. There is no greater love than this! I am going to trust that even if God’s actions are inexplicable to me, that God has his good reasons. This is the humble approach, and God gives grace to the humble.
God is more than just our parent. God is God.
What you are describing is one of the scariest moral positions there is. You have shut off your morality and just blindly accept that whatever God does is moral. That’s absolutely scary stuff.
Let’s say you don’t like God’s actions. Let’s say you find them morally wrong. What are you going to do about it? Nothing. There’s no sense complaining about God’s actions when 1) you can’t possibly claim to know everything God knows, therefore you cannot possibly claim to know whether God had morally sufficient reasons to do what He did and 2) you are not God, and you cannot defeat God. So whether you like Him or not, He is God. You can choose to side with Him, or against Him. But we know what will happen to those who side with Satan.
Is that how our criminal justice system works? Do we punish people even if they haven’t committed a crime?
Being taken out of your body is not necessarily a punishment in all cases.
Just because you can do something doesn’t make it moral.
When you are the Highest Authority in the universe, then it does. Does this describe you?
How would we know if they are both wrong?
That makes zero sense. Why can’t a highest authority do wrong?
You already stated that we humans can’t judge what God does. So which is it?
Can we or can we not determine if God is good?
We must all thank @PDPrice for demonstrating by example that the beliefs of at least some Christians are profoundly evil. I’m wondering where the pushback is from Christians here. Were you previously unaware of such beliefs? Do you not care to think about them?
I already answered this. We have an innate understanding (which God gave us) of the concept of ‘love’ and ‘righteousness’, and we can see that, on the whole, God’s actions clearly line up with these qualities. There are a few examples where God’s actions might not be understandable to us, or might seem unfair from a certain perspective. These are the ones that scoffers like you like to focus on and make much of. We can trust that God had his good reasons, even if we don’t know what they were. We don’t share God’s omniscient perspective.
Yet from a purely legal and philosophical perspective, we can also say that it would be impossible by definition for God to do wrong. Because if God were judged to “do wrong”, then that would imply a standard of goodness to which God must constrain himself. If that were true, then that standard would in fact be greater than God himself. That would be a contradiction. You clearly haven’t thought this through, have you? Where does this “goodness” come from, if you can use it to judge God himself? Good can only come from God.
I disagree. I look at actions God took in the Bible and I judge them to be unrighteous and evil. Killing children to punish parents is evil. Ordering genocide is evil. Having a bear kill children because the children laughed at a prophet is evil.
Then we are back to “Whatever God does is good, and we can’t question it”. That’s is scary to me. It is replacing morality with obedience.
Then God can do evil, as you describe. If God can’t do evil then God is not all powerful.
Then we can only conclude that evil also comes from God.
But it is worse than that. We read “God hardened pharaoh’s heart”. So it was God who caused the king to refuse to let the slaves go.
Lol, Dinsdale!! Happy to see python references around these parts. 
I’ve been talking to Christians and getting these, frankly, very honest and frightening answers for a while now. I do think that most Christians in the pew do not consider their moral views very carefully, and are content with exactly the kind of authoritarian obedience that PD is cheering on. I’m quite certain that many Christians have a more nuanced view, but they rarely seem very vocal in these discussions. I’d love to hear from others on this, but I sometimes wonder if the prospect of tossing out much of the Hebrew Bible as immoral is just too much of a departure from tradition. So even the folks that see the problems and pin their faith and moral views to Jesus might be reluctant to speak up.
Are there any Christians here who believe that morality should be defined in relation to human well-being rather than obedience to God? Like John, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.
We use sarcasm too. We know all the tricks: dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and… satire.
Yes! To me it appears to be a logical contradiction.
Wasn’t Israel explicitly told to harm their neighbors in the Hebrew Bible? If Christians reject those commands and Yahweh’s sort of authoritarianism in favor of “love your neighbor” then I have few complaints. But… many Christians seem to think that when a perceived command of God comes up against harm, the command wins out every time.
Yup. This seems to be a standard response under this view, and it’s always fascinating to me that so many Christians don’t disagree that ultimately we don’t have any ability to judge God’s character or have rational reasons for belief in the goodness of his character. Like I said, and you are agreeing with, humans are not in any position to make independent moral judgments under this view. It reduces to abject obedience to an unjustified authority.
Not all Christians hold this view.
Let’s slow down and try and understand the range of views among Christians.
Would it be OK to me? No - I would wonder why. My own child may die tomorrow and I would wonder why. I would look to Him for comfort.
Are you a Christian or no? I don’t know if I’m discussing God’s goodness who wants nothing to do with it because He actually is evil, or believes in God but is also willing to see Him as evil.
There was no “perceived” command. Any commands of God like this in the Old Testament are clear. For example in regards to Jericho - God spoke to Joshua - Joshua 1. God spoke again to Joshua - Joshua 3:7-8 and parted the Jordan - the Bible records all the people of the land knowing what was to happen - God showed them His glory so they could repent. Joshua 5:13-15 the Commander of the Army of the Lord appears.
In the new covenant, the command is very clear - Love your neighbor. At all times, and in all circumstances.
Romans 12
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient[c] in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given[d] to hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have[e] regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
That would seem possible only if Christians start explaining their views, perhaps in response to @PDPrice, as I have previously suggested.