(Pro) The Christian God is malevolent vs benevolent (Con).

According to the structure of the debate, I am only supposed to be providing a rebuttal to my opponent’s arguments in round three. My opponent's statements will be in bold and italics text.I find this passage disturbing. This goes against animal's instincts and Darwin's theory of evolution. Predators have strong instincts to chase prey and prey potent instincts to evade predators. “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9)In response to my citation of Isaiah 11:6-9, which I have produced above, my opponent has said that it is “disturbing.” He has said that it “goes against animal’s instincts…” I agree, it most certainly does go against animal’s instincts. Is that supposed to be a bad thing? Consider an image of a lion eating another animal. This is not a benevolent scene. It depicts a fallen world with fallen creatures. Death has flooded every part of the world. My opponent goes on to say that the passage “goes against […] Darwin’s theory of evolution.” Again, I agree. Darwin’s theory suggests survival of the fittest. Christianity suggests survival of the meekest. This is written in Matthew 5:5, which reads: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Being canonized as loving doesn't make a person loving. This is classic malevolent tactics. Declare yourself as good, and other traits associated with good, like loving. Declare your enemies as evil, thus dehumanizing them. Now the evil force has created tribalism with the evil force being labeled as good, and the innocent labeled as evil. Furthermore, take the most evil nations in history, and you will find at least some redeeming traits. A psychotic killer that donates to charity is still a killer. My opponent rightly makes the observation that just because someone is labeled as loving does not mean that they are. However, we are debating over the identity of the Christian God. The Christian God is derived from the Bible. As a result, we must take what the Bible says and apply it. Therefore, the events that are recorded in the Bible, such as Jesus sacrificing himself and becoming a ransom for God’s elect, must be taken as true for the purpose of this debate. The same must be said in regard to the passage declaring that “God is love.”Sacrificing a God to another God is immoral. Human sacrifice is immoral. Scapegoating is immoral. Primitive tribes have scapegoated goats.I am not sure that this makes a whole lot of sense. The Bible says nothing about sacrificing one god to another. There is only one God: Jehovah. My opponent rightly points out that human sacrifice is immoral, which is why God has spoken against it:“You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.” (Deuteronomy 12:31)Does that mean that Jesus’ ransom sacrifice was immoral as well? No. This is for at least two reasons:1) Jesus was not merely a human. He was the God-man (John 1:14).2) No one sacrificed Jesus. Rather, Jesus sacrificed Himself. Consider John 10:17, 18, which reads:“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”Grace that we are undeserving of? This sounds like belittlement of humans to me. Make humans feel inferior so they are grateful for any little scrap.Let me start by saying that this is an absolutely abysmal attempt to actually address what I said. We, as humans, belittle ourselves. We live sinful lifestyles and disobey God. We lie, we lust, we steal, we use profane language, we hate, we are unjust, etc. Does God belittle humans? Well, let’s consider a few examples from Scripture that may answer that question:“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’ Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.” (Genesis 2:18-20)“You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God.” (James 2:22, 23)What can we pull out of these two examples? In the first example, from Genesis, we see that God genuinely cares for His creation, Adam. He feels compassion for him and wishes to please him by providing companions on the earth. God does not stop there. He respects Adam enough to bring every creature to him in order for him to name them. And what about the second example, in James? Reflecting back to the father of the faith, Abraham, James rightly points out that he was called a “friend of God.” Not a servant, but a friend. So, God does not belittle humans, he brings them up! We, as humans, belittle ourselves.Satan is more benevolent than God. If I have to choose between the two, I would choose to follow Satan. This is because God killed millions where Satan only killed ten or so humans. Note, Jesus will kill billions at the battle of Armageddon. Satan is more benevolent than God? This cannot be the case. As is revealed in the book of Revelation, the serpent in the Garden was Satan. What did Satan do in the Garden?“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:1-6)Does this sound like a benevolent character? Satan lied and deceived Eve. He told her that God was being untruthful and that she could trust him, the serpent. We all know the result of this. Eve did not become “like God.” She brought humanity down further from God and we still feel the impact of her decision to this day. Surely this is not a benevolent character.In regard to the numbers claims, my opponent provides no citations or supporting evidence. The only thing that is mentioned is Armageddon. I would suggest that my opponent read Revelation 16-18 and tell me that this does not sound like a benevolent God!Conclusion:I now request that you, the reader, vote for Con. I believe that I have shown with great clarity that the Christian God is benevolent and not malevolent. I leave you with the following passage:"By this we know love, that he [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." (1 John 3:16)