This was a tough podcast to do because it involved my patron saint, Saint Michael. But on this past September 29, the feast day of Saint Michael, when I heard about a “true” and a “miracle” story where he slew seven Chinese Communist soldiers in 1950, it got me wondering about some of the moral issues. What are the “rules” when it comes to Angels or divine beings killing mortals or humans? Has it happened before? Yes. And, according to the Bible, God and Angels have killed hundreds of thousands of humans.
This podcast is available both via audio-only and also a video version on my YouTube channel
You can read the story I saw on September 29, that includes a transcript of the letter describing this “miracle” here, at PJ Media.
And the YouTube version of the story, that includes the audio of someone reading the young Marine's letter, is here.
These are some of the Bible stories to which I refer in the podcast:
2 Kings 19 – Contains the story of an angel of the Lord, striking down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night, outside the gates of Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 24 – The story of how God gave David a choice of two punishments. David chose a pestilence, and an angel of the Lord brings a three-day plague on Israel, killing 70,000 men.
Joshua 6 – “They devoted the city [Jericho] to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys.”
Joshua 8 – This is the story of the conquest of the city of Ai, which God told Joshua to destroy: “When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when everyone of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day – all the people of Ai. … So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening.”
1 Samuel 15: God commands King Saul, through the prophet Samuel, to destroy the Amalekites, including every man, woman, child, and animal. Saul makes a mistake here and spares Agag, the king of the Amalekites, as well as some of the best animals. Saul incurs God's wrath over this and suffers later. Even Samuel gets into the act here when he confronts Saul about Agag (verse 33): “…And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal.”
Numbers 31: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites.'… They [the Israelites] fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man…They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses….. ‘Have you allowed all the women to live?' [Moses] asked them. …'Now, kill all the boys. and kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourself every girl who has never slept with a man.'
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My podcasts target left-brained types like me, whose rigid view of life restricts us from considering things outside the tightly organized spiritual paradigm we either grew up with or built for ourselves.
Follow my podcasts to discuss serious topics like grief, human suffering, prayer, religion, and spiritual practices. I also cover things that I used to consider craziness or “woo-woo” such as: meditation, manifestation, spiritualism, spiritual awakening, reincarnation, past-life regression, the channeling of spirits and aliens (seriously…), soul groups, astrology, and even Chinese fortune cookies!
Mike
Website: https://mikenicholas.com
Email: mike@mikenicholas.com
YouTube Channel: @mikenicholas-unleashed
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