Who kills more, Satan or God?

[Dardedar]

My Bible scholar friend Ralph Nielsen answers:

"Someone asked how many people in the Bible Satan killed as compared
with God.

First of all we must remember that satans (plural, impersonal) and
the personified Satan in the later Hebrew Bible are servants of God
and have no will of their own. They do only what God tells them to do.

In Job it is God again, not Satan, who does the killing. God sent
fire from heaven and burned up Job's sheep and the servants who
watched over them. Then a great wind came out of the desert, blew
down his oldest son's house and killed all of his ten children (Job
ch. 1-2). It is implied that God sent the wind, so Satan cannot be
blamed for their deaths either.

In 1 Chronicles 21, the personified Satan inspires king David to take
a census of the people of Israel. This makes God so mad that he sent
a pestilence on Israel and 70,000 died! He did it by sending an angel
to do his dirty work (1 Chron. 21:12-14). But Satan didn't do it.

In the rest of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament God does the killing by
himself, without reference to satans or Satan. In the New Testament
Satan doesn't kill anyone either.

So we mustn't be too hard on poor old Satan. He's been given a bum rap.

But watch out for God. He has a bad temper. And he's a killer!"

***
DAR
In the Bible, words having to do with killing significantly outnumber words having to do with love. God and his agents do almost all of the slaughtering. See it all detailed here.

[Doug]

In 1 Chronicles 21, the personified Satan inspires king David to take a census of the people of Israel. This makes God so mad that he sent a pestilence on Israel and 70,000 died! He did it by sending an angel to do his dirty work (1 Chron. 21:12-14). But Satan didn't do it.

DOUG
2 Samuel 24:1 gives a parallel account of the same episode, but in this account it is God who tells David to take a census. And when David does so, it is a sin!

(NIV)
1 Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."
...10 David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing."

(This is not the only time in the Bible that God gets angry because people do as he asks.)

And the punishment for what David has done? David throws himself on the mercy of the Lord--and God kills 70,000 Israelites for this "sin."

There is more wacky stuff related to this story, but this should be enough to convince rational people that the Bible should not be used as a moral guide.

[Doug]

A follow-up from the Errancy discussion list, founded by Farrell Till, an ex-minister turned atheist.

===================
09 August 2006

Who has killed more, Satan or God?

In a previous post, I counted the number of people
that were killed by God in the Bible. I came up with
2,270,365, which, of course, greatly underestimates
God's total death toll, since it only includes those
killings for which specific numbers are given. No
attempt was made to include the victims of Noah's
flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the many plagues,
famines, fiery serpents, etc., with which the good
book is filled. Still, 2 million is a respectable
number even for world class killers.

But how does this compare with Satan? How many did he
kill in the Bible?

Well I can only find ten, and even these he shares
with God, since God allowed him to do it as a part of
a bet. I'm talking about the seven sons and three
daughters of Job.

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was
Job ... And there were born unto him seven sons and
three daughters.
...
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered
my servant Job, that there is none like him in the
earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth
God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the LORD
... put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he
hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD
said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy
power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So
Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
...
And there was a day when his sons and his
daughters were eating and drinking wine in their
eldest brother's house...And, behold, there came a
great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four
corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men,
and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell
thee. -- Job 1:1-19

So it seems that both Satan and God share the blame
(or the credit) for these killings. If so, then the
tally would be:

killings
God 2,270,365+
Satan 10

No contest.

Update
I've tried to assign numbers to the un-numbered
killings in the Bible. You can see the detailed list
here.

The results were even more lopsided: 32.9 million
(plus or minus a few million) for God; 0 for Satan.

Here is a more complete table.
numbered killings estimated total killings
God 2,270,365+ 32.9 million
Satan 10 10

Post by Steve Wells at 8/09/2006