Divine Sabotage in The Bible

Divine Sabotage in The Bible

God tipping the scales on a whim

Throughout my last articles, I’ve had Christians try to make the point that God desired to give man free will. They argue that without the option of sin and damnation to hell man wouldn’t have been able to exert this so-called “free will”, and that God only wants people who truly want to obey him in heaven.

I made my counterpoints to that in my last article, but the next concept that comes to mind is what about when God directly messes with the outcome of those individuals exerting their “free will”?

If he truly wanted us to be here with free will, to be able to evolve and change due to our own choices then why intervene and cause issues along the way? We already have to follow his set of rules and jump through all kinds of hoops to possibly make it to heaven.

33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.-1 Corinthians 14:33 KJV

That’s right, God doesn’t bring on confusion but peace…a nice sentiment…except that in the very same book of the Bible it already had said:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;-1 Corinthians 1:27 KJV

Then there is of course the biggest glaring example of God screwing with mankind and causing confusion.

11

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.-Genesis 11:1–9 KJV

All of mankind, working together in harmony on a giant project, and then God(s?) decides to come down and confuse them. Now obviously I think this story is nonsense, and that languages evolved over time from various parts of the world. But for this storytime, let’s focus on what this is trying to say. It shows that this God or gods wanted man confused, and didn’t want them to be able to work together, even seeming scared of what they may accomplish.

Also, being allegedly omniscient this deity knew of the eventual outcomes this would cause, the wars between people, inability to work together, misunderstood interactions that lead to endless conflicts, and a greater ability to make “others” of those you want exterminated.

That doesn’t seem like anything a loving god would do to his creation, and in fact, the Bible tries to claim that he wouldn’t, but plainly states that he does.

In church the explanations I heard were that man was trying to reach the heavens, which…obviously God is not in the clouds, so that’s bullshit. Or that God had told man to spread out and multiply across the surface of the Earth, but that in itself would’ve been an inevitability with a peaceful single language civilization reproducing.

Maybe I missed the part where God gave them a time limit.