Thank you for your answer, but something is still unclear to me. Do you agree with the “arbitrary” part? Did God choose to remove His protection from some and not from others? Or how is it that only the firstborn were killed? How do you see it?

according to the bible/sop it was against the gods of egypt.

God had been providing for the egyptians, as well as all nations, all along but that had been attributed to the "works" the heathen/pagans had done for their gods.

God revealed His power by withholding His power. man and demons can steal, kill and destroy, but only God can create and sustain. man and demon can help sustain, but history says we destroy, since land depletion of nutrients is known since the earliest of times.

egyptian history, as well as the bible, tells us the significance of the firstborn.

What you mean is that He ceased sustaining the life of the firstborn?

I think it's clear that God removed His protection from some and not from others. God always removes His protection selectively, because if He didn't, we'd all be wiped out. Does that answer your question?

They are simply questions I posed to Tom. I imagine there are other questions one could ask of Tom.


I think it does. And I have been diligently trying to pursue it with Tom. But he seems unwilling to concede that God has ever taken action Himself. He seems to believe, although I'm sure that he does, that God has commanded or ordered holy angels and godly, as well as ungodly, humans to cause death and destruction.

Tom, what do you make of the following insight:

Those who performed this terrible work of judgment were acting by divine authority, executing the sentence of the King of heaven. Men are to beware how they, in their human blindness, judge and condemn their fellow men; but when God commands them to execute His sentence upon iniquity, He is to be obeyed. Those who performed this painful act, thus manifested their abhorrence of rebellion and idolatry, and consecrated themselves more fully to the service of the true God. The Lord honored their faithfulness by bestowing special distinction upon the tribe of Levi. {PP 324.2}

I think this is the same principle spoken of here: http://sinbearer.com/light_on_the_dark_side_of_god.htm

See Chapter 9.

"God's changelessness, Christ's benevolent character, and the track record of the people themselves suggest the latter may have been, not His ideal, but His best effort to cope with their stubborn, willful waywardness."

"But nowhere do we find God railing against polygamy, although Christians today, with few exceptions, see the wrong of it. The same could be said for slavery."

"Placing this language within our new model, God may be saying here and in numerous other places, in essence: You have chosen to deal with this emergency militarily, in harmony with the methods of the nations around you, instead of exercising the faith required to rely totally upon Me. Therefore, since you have chosen this method and I must either reject you for it or direct you in it, I choose to do the latter. When you go to these nations to war, you must utterly destroy them; otherwise, they will be a snare to you for all future generations. If you're going to do it your way, He seems to say, then do it right."

Tom, I do not understand how you are applying what Campbell wrote about God deciding to direct the COI in their desire to dispossess Canaan militarily and what Ellen White wrote below:

Those who performed this terrible work of judgment were acting by divine authority, executing the sentence of the King of heaven. Men are to beware how they, in their human blindness, judge and condemn their fellow men; but when God commands them to execute His sentence upon iniquity, He is to be obeyed. Those who performed this painful act, thus manifested their abhorrence of rebellion and idolatry, and consecrated themselves more fully to the service of the true God. The Lord honored their faithfulness by bestowing special distinction upon the tribe of Levi. {PP 324.2}

it seems to me that tom does see God as taking action,

just not the way you see God taking action.

but either way you misunderstood the intent of the question and i dont believe i would be able to explain it to you.

do you really believe this? or is it just an unfortunate mistake in phrasing?
i can see it as a possibility.

we know that people in the church are all at different stages, or places, in their lives, their walk.

they more we study and learn, if we are studying the bible/sop, the more we learn and change.