The Old Testament: Was Israel Commanded to Commit Genocide?

CRI ^ | By: Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The New Testament fulfilled the Old Testament.

Christianity is not about the Old Testament, but the New Testament.

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-christ-fulfilled-and-ended-the-old-testament-regime

[Fai Mao]

Seventh: Cultures can attain a level of sinfulness that requires God to judge them so severely that they are wiped out.

[SeekAndFind]

Seventh, archaeology confirms the biblical record's account of a gradual infiltration rather than a massive military assault against the Canaanites. This was a development that took more than two centuries to accomplish. This being the case, all tangible aspects of the Canaanites' culture -- buildings and homes -- would have remained very much intact (cf. Deut. 6:10-11: "cities which you did not build"). Preserving such structures would have been a very sensible move if Israel was to settle down in the same region. Archaeologists have discovered that by 1000 BC (during the Iron Age), Canaanites were no longer an identifiable entity in Israel. Around this time also, Israelites were worshiping a national God, whose dominant personal name was Yahweh ("the Lord"). An additional significant change from the Late Bronze to Iron Age was that town shrines in Canaan had been abandoned but not relocated elsewhere -- say, to the hill villages. This suggests that a new people with a distinct theological bent had migrated there, had gradually occupied the territory, and eventually became dominant.

Thus, the critic's strategy of emphasizing literal Canaanite annihilation while ignoring literal Canaanite survival is simply inconsistent. —Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan

Paul Copan, Ph.D., is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University and is author of Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Baker 2011).

Matthew Flannagan, Ph.D., has authored various articles and contributed to various books, including Set Forth Your Case (B&H Academic, forthcoming), and he and his wife Madeleine write the blog M and M, www.mandm.org.nz.

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NOTES

1. All Scripture quotations are from the NASB unless otherwise noted.

 

[rawcatslyentist]

Sure. God himself committed global genocide.

He will be forced to do it again. Soon.

[KC_Lion]

By The Rivers Of Babylon.

Joshua Graham (The Malpais Legate) Ping~!

[sparklite2]

It’s a losing argument. The God of the OT habitually wreaked havoc and death on many for the crimes of the few. Sodom, Gomorrah, and the Flood to name the best known. If you want to interpret that as just so much poetry, it’s fair to ask how much of the rest is just poetry.

[Eric Pode of Croydon]

Christianity is not about the Old Testament, but the New Testament.

Try that line of reasoning on a young earth creationist and see how long it works for you.

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

God does not want his children born into the homes of the wicked.

[Bryanw92]

These people that Israel was ordered to destroy were evil in a way that modern man (who has the luxury of living in a world that contains a huge number of people who have the Holy Spirit indwelling).

We think that we cannot coexist with radical islam or Progressives, but these tribes are those two tribes times a thousand! Israel could not move in nearby and expect to survive. Even if they didn’t attack Israel, their evil was so pervasive that it would have poisoned Israel with paganism and human sacrifice based religion.

Remember that at this point in human history, God had selected Israel to be the people who would introduce the one, true, living God to a world full of people that worshiped just about anything. They were not only the heralds, but they were destined to be the success story that would lead others to look at them and say, “Wow. Their God really is great.”

But to do that, they needed to clear the immediate area of these fundamentally evil tribes, and you can’t stress this one fact enough: we have NEVER seen people this evil in our world. Most of us can’t imagine what they were like because we can only imagine a world that has the Holy Spirit at work in people of all nations.

[demshateGod]

This author is a postmodernist. His analysis is garbage.

[El Cid]

"Well, if God is so good, why would He command Israel to engage in ethnic cleansing and genocidal warfare against the Canaanites"?

Because HE IS God and HE can do, and command, whatever HE pleases.
Disregarding the fact that the Canaanites were engaged in bestiality, homosexuality, infant murder (gee...other than the first one, this sounds uncomfortably familiar), and other abominations - to the point that the land was ready to 'spew them out' - God can do with His Creation as HE pleases.

So around 1450 B.C. to around 1430 B.C. it was bad times for the Canaanites. And then around 400 years later Saul got the instructions to put a hit on the Amalakites (the Hyksos people that 'disappeared' from history?).

Call it a 'clean up on Aisle 4'.
Why the interest in limited 'purges' that were commanded and executed over three millennium ago?
There is an even 'messier' (and eternal) Judgment pending for those not In Christ. That should be the concern. Repeated warnings from the Creator should not be ignored.

[Hugin]

I always wondered how a just God could order the Hebrews to kill the children of Jericho (Children of Jericho would be a great name for a metal band though).

[gov_bean_ counter]

we have NEVER seen people this evil in our world

FWIW, Savange was camparing the latest iteration of evil to the Mongols and Huns. Seemed like a fair comparison.

[Bryanw92]

>>FWIW, Savange was camparing the latest iteration of evil to the Mongols and Huns. Seemed like a fair comparison.

Even the Mongols and Huns are pussycats compared to the people that God commanded Israel to destroy. But they are a good comparison to the evil of islam and Progressives.

[Jonty30]

It’s also that Israel didn’t start most battles. They were attacked first, in most cases.

[edwinland]

Thanks for posting. I learned a lot.

[gov_bean_ counter]

...and Progressives.

No kidding.

[PrairieLady2]

If am atheist refuses to ask God who he is, then no human being can teach him either. He doesn’t really want to know.

But there is no way I will change the word of God to satisfy an arogant article author, either.

Finally, if Jezues is God, then he is also the God of the old testament, and was the giver of the law at Sinai...and he hasn’t changed. He followed his own laws. He said w3 should follow him, right? Conundrum.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I always wondered how a just God could order the Hebrews to kill the children of Jericho

A SPECIFIC ( non-repeatable ) example of God using His people as an instrument of judgment.

BTW, God also uses those who are NOT His people to judge His people ( See the Babylonians, Assyrians and Romans ).

Next question — Why Women and Children?

My answer would be — better leave this to God’s infinite wisdom.

Sometimes, it is better for a child to die and be with God than to grow up to be a violent, cruel warrior.