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Two articles appear below:
1 Commentary on the Tenth Plague of Egypt 2 Egypt's Tenth Plague and God Kirk Straughen (Investigator 220, 2025 January) “At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.” (Exodus 12:29 - 30) The above quote describes one of the punishments supposedly inflicted on the Egyptians in order to force pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. To me the act seems both barbaric and unnecessary. Why would an all-powerful, all-wise and loving god resort to the killing of innocent children and animals to accomplish this objective when other non-violent options are available to the creator of the universe, the existence of which in all its vast splendor many believers allege is a sure and true sign of their god’s tremendous capabilities? For example, rather than slaughtering the innocent to accomplish the liberation of the Jews, why not place all the Egyptians into a deep slumber, or perhaps a state of suspended animation? Then the Israelites could have simply walked out of Egypt without the need for innocent children to die and their parents to suffer. Alternatively, a rapture-like event could have been initiated by god - a form of teleportation, perhaps. The Jews could have been instantly transported out of Egypt and into the wilderness where they could have made good their escape. Again, neither innocent children nor animals would have had to be killed. Given the above examples of non-violent methods of accomplishing the freeing the Israelites, miracles that should be easy for a god powerful enough to create a universe, then we are left with the puzzling question of why these or other equally effective bloodless methods were not chosen. I think that the answer to this question is obvious: The authors of scripture were influenced by the culture of the time, when societies were ruled by despotic kings. God was seen as a king-like being and imbued with all the power and tyranny of a monarch. Humanity creates gods in its own image, so it is not surprising that this early concept of divinity behaves no better than the ruthless rulers of that remote age in which the idea of Yahweh was conceived.
EGYPT'S 10th PLAGUE and GOD
Anonymous (Investigator 221, 2025 March)
Straughen (Investigator #220) claims the 10th plague of Egypt to force
pharaoh to let enslaved Israelites depart was barbaric: "Why would an
all-powerful, all-wise and loving god resort to killing of innocent
children and animals…?" He suggests that God could have put Egypt to
sleep until the Israelites had safely departed.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/reading-writing-and-warfare-children-armed-conflictThe answer: Egypt was "judged as it judged" and done to as it did. God, according to the Bible, applies this principal during the entire reign of evil on Earth. After evil is defeated everyone will still be "judged by what they have done" and by everything they said. (Revelation 20:12; Matthew 12:36-37) This rule — judged as they judged — follows rationally and fairly from the reasons why God, although "all-powerful", permits evil to run its course. At University this topic covered 1000 pages. But in Investigator #217 my biblical explanation is one page which I here repeat:
If nine plagues didn't convince Pharoah to let Israel go it's unlikely that more sleep would have. Upon awaking he would still have summoned Egypt's chariots and warriors to finish the genocide that a previous pharaoh started a century earlier. Bad people don't become good by sleeping. Australia's justice system would be astonished to learn that it could be replaced with sleeping pills. The "bug" in the brains of paedophiles, murderers, liars, thieves, fornicators, torturers, drug addicts, etc — which makes them feel right or justified although wrong or deluded — isn't cured by sleep. Straughen apparently wants God-orchestrated miracles to suppress bad conduct all the time. However, in #104 I compared the reign of evil to a psychology experiment which requires the absence of the experimenter because his presence would modify people's responses "and this will give misleading results." For humans to genuinely reveal their ideas of good and evil they must live in a world of "plausible deniability" and discover only later how deceived they were and that God was watching. Straughen also expresses concern over children. In ancient times there was no law against killing children in war, or against infanticide. And where there's no law there's no violation. (Romans 4:15) The Bible, however, around 590 BCE, introduced legislation (Ezekiel 18) and Jews and Christians saved countless children over the centuries. But protection is still often missing because parents, governments or terrorists follow their faulty "knowledge of good and evil" instead of following God. For example:
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