Biblical Contradiction: God is cruel or merciful:

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Biblical Contradiction Explained: God is cruel or merciful:

God is cruel:

You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God will deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

Deuteronomy 7:16

He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.

1 Samuel 6:19

Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

1 Samuel 15:2-3

I will dash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together,” declares the LORD. “I will not show pity nor be sorry nor have compassion so as not to destroy them.”’”

Jeremiah 13:14

God is merciful:

O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

1 Chronicles 16:34

The LORD is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works.

Psalm 145:9

Good and upright is the LORD;
Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.

Psalm 25:8

For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.

Lamentations 3:33

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live.”

Ezekiel 18:32

who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:4

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:16

We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

James 5:11

Explanation:

Before we begin to explain this apparent contradiction, we must first remove 1 Timothy 2:4. In this passage Paul is referring to salvation (i.e. accepting Christ) when he says “who desires all men to be saved.”

The remaining passages only contradict if one assumes wrath is not an element of justice. The passages above demonstrate occurrences of God’s wrath being exacted upon somebody, or a body of people, for the sins they have committed. While God’s wrath may be perceived as cruel to the recipients, it is only the justified punishment for their misdeeds.

Ezekiel 18:32 best represents the dual nature of God as both a God of mercy and a God of wrath:

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live.”

Ezekiel 18:32

Without God’s wrath this passage would mean absolutely nothing. The statement: “repent and live” connotes an alternative: persist and face my wrath.