From:    Marilyn Burge                            Kill
To:      Chuck Sandnes                            Msg #482, 11-Jul-93 07:33am
Subject: Re: Bible Inconsitencies

I just ran into a doozie in the Bible.  God can and did do evil things,
then he repented.  The Bible says so.

       15.  And God sent an angle into Jerusalem to destroy it:  and as
       he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and HE REPENTED HIM OF THE
       EVIL, and said to the angel that destroyed, "It is enough, stay
       now thine hand."  And the angel of the Lord stood by the
       threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.  I Chronicles 21:15

If I understand the word "repent" correctly, it is only appropriately
used when the use involves abject regret for sin (or evil).  Since God
repented the sending of the angel to effect the destruction, God not
only did evil (we know that from many scriptures -- especially in the
OT), but he regretted the evil he had done (which is, so far as I know,
the only instance where he had the balls to actually admit that he had
been a bit heavey-handed.  Generally speaking, he wiped out whole tribes
without ever giving it a second thought.).