When God ordered killing witches, did he realize it would make Christians do horrific things to women and to children?

Question

We all know about the horrible wich hunts.

Ans a documentary, "Saving Africa's Witch Children", looks at the phenomenon of children who are blamed for catastrophes, death and famine and branded witches in some of the poorest parts of Nigeria.

The documentary features shocking stories of torture inflicted on children, including a 13-year-old who was tied up with chicken wire and starved and beaten for two weeks, and a 14-year-old girl who was burned with acid before her mother attempted to bury her alive.

One 17-year-old was left brain-damaged after having a three-inch nail driven into her skull.

The film features interviews with preachers from the churches that brand children witches or wizards and charge their parents to "exorcise" the spirits.

One preacher, who calls himself "The Bishop", said that he had killed 110 people.

Cameras filmed him as he administered a mixture of pure alcohol, a substance known as "African mercury" and his own blood to one child accused of witchcraft.

documentary's info page:
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/di...

So "thou shall not suffer a witch to live" isn't in the bible? Or it is, but it's not divinely inspired?

Answer 1

You can not blame a creature that does not exist for the barbaric actions of its believers.

Answer 2

No, those Christians did horrible things all on their own - they're murderers.

Answer 3

Did God or Man order this?

Answer 4

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18) is a mistranslation from the King James Version of the Bible. The King did not like witches and wanted the new English Bible to say so. Consequently the line appeared and from that thousands of women (and a few men) have been put to death around the world.

Answer 5

I bet you are a witch.



you clearly do not know what you think you know.

since JESUS, this is not an issue.



your fear is not our reality.

Answer 6

God was strict with His rules in Israel, because His Truth has to be preserved through them - even for the sake of the whole world. Jesus never told His disciples to destroy people, in fact - He said the opposite.



Luke 9:55-56, KJV:

55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.



56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.



Jesus didn't come to condemn us, but to remove us from the path of condemnation that all of us were already on.



For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. - John 3:17, KJV



When people would not receive the message, the disciples were to dust off their feet and move on (Matthew 10:14), and God would note all the opportunities that people had to turn to Him and rejected Him.



The gospel was shared to people who were into witchcraft, and those that turned to God, burned their witchcraft books.



Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. - Acts 19:19, KJV





What the Puritans did with the people of Salem was not good, and plus those who were being accused were probably not even into witchcraft - but may have been completely innocent of the accusations against them. They also burned Michael Servetus alive, and he was a Christian, though he did not agree with their theological viewpoints. Puritans and pilgrims were very different in their doctrinal beliefs. John Calvin was a follower of St.Augustine's teachings, and St.Augustine - the Roman Catholic church father promoted persecutions against people that wouldn't bow to Rome, such people also included Bible-believing Christians and Jews -- who were the main targets.

Answer 7

"When God ordered killing witches"?! When exactly did God order killing witches? I don't remember that actually ever happening. It certainly isn't in the Bible.

Answer 8

God did not order killing anybody or anything.



The stories about god are not true.

The bible is not true and it is not divinely inspired.

God exists only in fantasy.



It was people who made up these stories,

and it was/is people who kill other people - claiming god told them to, and falsely accusing them of being witches.

Answer 9

I Don't Kill Witches and Wizards. I Simply Watch Them Burn in The Fiery Pits of Hell.