[ATLian]

>To these a fourth reason may be added: God permitted this in
>mercy to the Egyptians, that they might see that the gods in
>whom they trusted were utterly incapable of saving them;

Correction TM – god did not permit any mercy to the Egyptians. The Egyptian people did not have a say in letting the Israelites go, it was all up to the Pharaoh. God, bila mercy, afflicted terrible punishment on hundreds of thousands of innocent Egyptians, including children who did not even know what a slave was. They were tormented by lice, flies, boils, locusts, etc. The poor Egyptians lost all their livestock, their main means of livelihood, because of things beyond their control. Finally god committed mass genocide by killing the first born male of every family in Egypt, which means that every Egytian family lost someone.

Can you imagine god killing the 1st born of every family in Kenya because Moi won't give North Eastern province it's independence. Would you justify that and praise that god as a just god? After all this chaos, did god actually expect that these Egyptians could worship him? There’s no way I’d worship a god who could do all those things to me, my family and my people. No way!



> though the king himself hardened
>his heart against the evidences which God brought before his
>eyes.

Correction again – Pharaoh did not harden his own heart, god hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

Exodus 7: 3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart

Very early on Pharaoh realized that he was dealing with some serious power, and he decided to let the Israelites go. But over and over again god hardened Pharaoh’s heart so he could torment him some more.

This brings up 2 points:

1) Did Pharaoh have free will? No, because god interfered with his free will

2) Was Pharaoh culpable for what happened to the Egyptians? Again no, since it was god who stopped Pharaoh from doing what could have saved the Egyptians



>V24 clearly shows that NOT all water in Egypt had been turned
>bloody BUT the Nile was already turned bloody

That's why it is a contradiction, since verse 19 shows that god changed all the water in Egypt into blood, from rivers, lakes, ponds to even the water the Egyptians had stored in their houses in stone and wooden vessels.

Exodus 7:19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

So thats an obvious contradiction, since for 7 days there should have been no water for the sorcerers to turn into blood.

That's not the only contradiction in the plagues, there are many regarding Egyptian livestock. In the 5th plague, all the livestock the Egyptians owned (cattle, horses, sheep, oxen, donkeys) were killed by god. But over the next many plagues, these dead livestock are now alive and suffering the same plagues as the Egyptians. In the 5th plague both Egyptians and their dead/alive livestock got boils. In the next plague (hail stones) all Egyptian cattle that was out in the fields got killed (again) by the hail. When all first borns died, even the first borns of the Egyptian’s livestock died for the 4th time. Finally, when the Egyptians pursued the Israelites across the Red Sea, they used chariots, which were drawn by horses that are meant to have been dead, so when the sea ungulfed them, these horses died for the 5th time...

Clearly there’s a major contradiction here, if you can't see it, then your faith has really blinded you. And why should god torment an innocent lamb or calf for something the Pharaoh has done? I guess it's all in keeping with god's theory of punishing innocent people for the sins of others.