Why does God sin against man?

Answer 1

A:We know that genocide is considered a grave sin, yet the Book of Joshua says that God told Joshua to commit genocide and assisted Joshua to do so, merely because he had chosen the Israelite people (or they had chosen him). We know that even murder is considered a sin, yet Acts chapter 5 says that God killed Ananais and Sapphira, or at least gave Peter the power to commit this terrible deed, for what was at most a trivial offence. And there are many such examples throughout The Bible. It is possible to say that God does indeed sin against man, a reason that many early Christian Gnostics believed there must be two Gods: a cruel and vengeful one and a loving and forgiving one.

Other than the Gnostic explanation, it is only possible to say that modern evidence indicates that neither of these events really occurred. If there is a God, he has been blamed unfairly for sins that never happened.

Christian answer:

Sin is a lack of fellowship with God. Anything which disturbs or distorts this fellowship is sin. Mankind is the created being here on this planet. The question clearly deifies mankind and puts him above God which is an idea foreign to Christianity.

Answer 2

I think a better question would be, "Why do some people have the audacity to judge God?"

1) God does not sin. This is stated explicitly (Deuteronomy 32:4).

2) To judge God, you would have to be comparable to Him, with complete knowledge of the past and future, of His motivations, etc.

3) Most suffering is our own fault, and/or has benevolent purposes.

4) Just to take one example of God "having sinned," let us glance at the command to kill the Canaanites.

God promised Israel (Canaan) to the Israelites(Genesis ch.28, Exodus ch.3), and commanded them to take the land (Deuteronomy ch.1 and many other passages).

1) The Canaanites were exceptionally wicked (Leviticus ch.18, Deuteronomy ch.18).2) Israel (Canaan) originally belonged to the Semites (after the Flood) and was gradually seized from them by the Canaanites (Rashi commentary, Genesis 12:6). This was one of the reasons why God gave the land to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis ch.13), since he was a Semite (Genesis ch.11).
3) The Israelites did not simply slaughter the Canaanites. They fought them in proper battle (Joshua ch.10) with miraculous assistance from God (Exodus ch.23).
4) They warned the Canaanites concerning God's command to take Canaan (Jerusalem Talmud, Shevi'it 6:1), and gave them a chance to leave the land (ibid). The Girgashites took the warning seriously and departed to Africa (ibid.), while the Gibeonites made a treaty with the Israelites (Joshua ch.9). The rest of the Canaanites insisted on fighting, and attacked the Israelites with a massive army (Joshua ch.11).
5) Whenever fighting, the Israelites never completely surrounded any town. They offered conditional peace, and then (if peace was rejected) left one area open for escape so that whoever wanted to flee could do so (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of kings and war ch.6).

Answer 3

We know that genocide is considered a grave sin, yet the Book of Joshua says that God told Joshua to commit genocide and assisted Joshua to do so, merely because he had chosen the Israelite people (or they had chosen him). We know that even murder is considered a sin, yet Acts chapter 5 says that God killed Ananais and Sapphira, or at least gave Peter the power to commit this terrible deed, for what was at most a trivial offence. And there are many such examples throughout the Bible. It is possible to say that God does indeed sin against man, a reason that many early Christian Gnostics believed there must be two Gods: a cruel and vengeful one and a loving and forgiving one.

Other than the Gnostic explanation, it is only possible to say that modern evidence indicates that neither of these events really occurred. If there is a God, he has been blamed unfairly for sins that never happened.