Hell, this goes so much further back. I could draw a parallel to the Book of Exodus.
Moses is commanded by God to go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites. He does this by terrorizing the Egyptian populace, a populace that are under the total control of an absolute totalitarian ruler. They literally worship their king as a god. Imagine if Exodus had consisted of Moses telling Pharaoh:
“God says let my people go. If you don’t, tomorrow you’ll trip and break your left leg. If you don’t let them go, the next day you’ll break your right leg. The day after that you’ll break both your arms. The day after that you’ll die of a heart attack at high noon. These same conditions will apply to the next Pharaoh until my people are free.”
There. Moses accomplishes his mission, and the only person who has to get hurt is the only person that has any agency in the process. But no, instead God insists on terrorizing the innocent Egyptian populace instead.
Hell, this goes so much further back. I could draw a parallel to the Book of Exodus.
Moses is commanded by God to go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites. He does this by terrorizing the Egyptian populace, a populace that are under the total control of an absolute totalitarian ruler. They literally worship their king as a god. Imagine if Exodus had consisted of Moses telling Pharaoh:
“God says let my people go. If you don’t, tomorrow you’ll trip and break your left leg. If you don’t let them go, the next day you’ll break your right leg. The day after that you’ll break both your arms. The day after that you’ll die of a heart attack at high noon. These same conditions will apply to the next Pharaoh until my people are free.”
There. Moses accomplishes his mission, and the only person who has to get hurt is the only person that has any agency in the process. But no, instead God insists on terrorizing the innocent Egyptian populace instead.