Question: Is God Really Perfect?

I'm sure you've noticed that I've written several of these "Questions" posts recently. It's not that I've been saving them up, it has more to do with my progress through the Book of Exodus. I keep running into passages that cause me to say, "What? You must be kidding!" or "How does this make any kind of sense?"

What is most astonishing to me is that I've read the Bible from cover to cover before. When I did it the first time, I was still caught up in the delusion that it actually made sense!! Now that I'm a nonbeliever and I'm looking at the text with a critical eye, things seem to jump out at me left and right.

To wit, Christians are taught that God is perfect; he is without blemish. He is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-seeing. Humans, on the other hand, are fallen and prisoners of sin. When we commit transgressions (wrongs), we are to repent and to sin no more. This is really basic stuff.

However, when one looks closely at portions of Exodus 32, these basic concepts devolve into somersaults!

And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
~ Exodus 32:7-14 ~

The last line of this snippet caused my mouth to drop open. God, the perfect being, thought to do evil, but Moses talked him out of it!!

It should be remembered that, for the Christian, thinking evil thoughts is just as much a sin as committing evil actions. In this passage, we see that God had evil thoughts. Even further, God recognized the thoughts were evil and repented.

What does repentance mean? According to FreeDictionary.com, it means

1. To feel remorse, contrition, or self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do; be contrite.
2. To feel such regret for past conduct as to change one's mind regarding it: repented of intemperate behavior.
3. To make a change for the better as a result of remorse or contrition for one's sins.

So, here's question #1: How does a perfect being sin? I mean, if a being sins, doesn't that make it imperfect?

But there's another troubling issue here as well. God is said to be all-knowing and all-seeing. If this is true, then he already knew BEFORE Moses climbed the mountain that the people would pay homage to the molten calf. In fact, he already knew this information BEFORE he created life. Since anger is an emotion we humans exhibit when things don't go as we expect, how could God be angry with a behavior he both expected and knew would happen?

I'm eager to hear answers to both of these questions.

To see what other questions I've asked about the Christian Bible, go here.