Christians, why does your God contradict himself about killing?

He doesn't exist. An omniscient God wouldn't contradict himself.

The passage would better be translated "thou shall not MURDER". There is a difference. God gives governments the right to execute murders. War has other rules than murder, also.

I believe you are mistaken about the Canaanites, they did once know God's rules as they are the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah. Genesis 10:5 & 6. They chose to become heathen [disobey Yahweh/God]. If you will study the Bible and especially this part of history you will find God commanded the Israelites to destroy the heathen, and sometimes even their cattle, to protect the Israelis from the curse on them. If Israel lived among the infidels they would intermarry and become heathens also.

I suggest you click on the below sources.

God is all knowing;we arn't. He has the right to kill to protect the Israelites. The Cananites were more evil than most;beastality, killing infants at the alter. Since we don't know what perfect justice is but God does, he has the right to kill-we don't.

There was a killing when the ark was touched because they profaned it.

Its not contradicting but its that you don't understand the bible.

First, I am not a Christian---but I like to read. That being said---Christians seem to be the ones who contradict their God, not that their God contradicts itself. Christianity is based upon the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament---in which he specifically negated and reinterpreted most of the commandments found in the Old Testament. Jesus's teaching went mostly by the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" thing, and the whole "if someone strikes your cheek, offer him the other". The message Christians are SUPPOSED to be getting is complete empathy and compassion with no violence--(your Canaanite anecdote does not apply to Christianity---this is the sort of stuff that Jesus told his followers to disavow from the old teachings---that's the Old Testament).

So what happened? Catholicism did. Most of what Christians, (including all of the right-wing Protestant and other faiths), now espouse as far as killing and war come from the later writings of Catholic "Saints". St. Augustine was I believe the first to lawyer away at his own religion and find "interpretations" of Jesus's teachings which allowed for "justified" war and conflict. Later "Saints" added to this compendium of finding ways to wheedle what they wanted out of what Jesus said instead of just reading what he actually said. Surprisingly, none of them ever bothered to edit the New Testament itself--where Jesus specifically negated arguments such as "an eye for an eye", and tried to tell people that striking back at others even when they strike at you accomplishes nothing. He asked for love and compassion and respect for all, with an anaethma against violence of any kind.

Sooooo...I'm not defending modern Christians---as they do contradict THEMSELVES---but I wouldn't go blaming their God, even if it might be fictional. Jesus, even just as a mythological character, actually had some pretty cool things to say, and it is a shame that his followers don't actually read his words and teachings instead of adhering to false interpretations of them. His teachings are actually almost exactly that of the Buddha, and why Tibetan Buddhists actually follow their beliefs and Christians don't is another interesting question in that context. Perhaps because Christianity early on got involved in colonialism and expansionist politics through taking Rome's place in Europe--and political/military strategy and peaceful religions don't mix. Who knows?

(It's also funny that most right-wing Christian sects disavow Catholicism, when their interpretations on things like war and conflict especially are not from Jesus Christ at all--but from later Catholic philosophical writings by Augsutine, St. Francis, and other assorted nimrods and pseudo-philosophers).

In the 10 Commandments, the word is more accurately translated "murder". Subsequent laws of the 10 Commandments made killing necessary to enforce the civil penalties of law.

Hey christians why doesnt 2+2 = 4? Dont say because the math adds up or because 4-2 =2. You are a moron. Proverbs 19:29 God Bless

The commandment actually refers to premeditated, unjustified killing - murder. Although God ordered the extermination of entire cities, He did so in righteous judgment on a people whose corruption had led to extreme wickedness

The laws in the Bible apply to humans. God is above us.

god doesn't contradict him self

the commandment is murder thou shalt not murder

the people in the land were evil god told israel to kill them

they worshiped false god's and did evil things

if you don't want to hear the answers then why ask the question?

KJV: Leviticus Chapter 18

[24] Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

[25] And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

[26] Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

[27] (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)

[28] That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

I'm pretty sure the commandments were made for people. God's a few tiers above human, if you missed the part of the Bible where they mentioned that.