Posted on 11/20/2015 1:24:30 PM PST by SeekAndFind
RE: This author is a postmodernist. His analysis is garbage.
Can you elaborate please? The above post as it stands is not very helpful.
bfl
The Old Testament, if written in a modern language and style would be an action packed thriller that would be banned from most countries for being too violent.
Make no mistake about this...
The bible is clear that God wanted them to kill all of them.
Yes... He commanded genocide... and Israel did not comply.
However... here’s the thing most don’t understand;
Those tribes God commanded to be killed were literally not human.
They were Nephillum.
Well stated El Cid.
God of all creation and Christ his Son whom he put in control of all creation be praised for His infinite and eternal wisdom.
The Amalekites were Nephilim too?
God ( through the Prophet Samuel ) told King Saul to wipe them out.
These could not have been Nephilim. They were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob ( AKA Israel ).
Why would I bother?
Right. God is not a liberal when it comes to good and evil.
He has and does condemn each of us, billions of us, to a worldly death. We call it a “lifetime”, and accept it. If you believe in the Bible, then you believe that these wars were also carried out by His will and command. You should likewise accept it. Resistance to that command was severely punished. If you don’t believe, then you shouldn’t object to what you consider a work of fiction.
>>> The Amalekites were Nephilim too? These could not have been Nephilim. They were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob ( AKA Israel ).
The whole idea behind the existence of nephillum was Satan’s plan to corrupt the human genome. Some, even many of the Amalekites could have appeared very human and yet they carried the nephillum gene. It would not matter who they were decendedants of.
If God said to wipe them out, then that is why.
Well, God said leave none of them alive and don’t take any of their stuff. He didn’t want the Jews falling in love with them and intermarrying. Of course, they didn’t obey and intermarried and pretty soon were building pagan idols.
RE: We don’t (and shouldn’t) always take it literally.
I think the author has the right idea. Not everything in the Bible should be taken literally. Some have to be taken figuratively ( and I don’t think the author is referring to the slaughter of the Canaanites as figurative).
Many of Jesus’ sayings are clearly figurative (e.g., He is the door, He is the vine, we are the branches, etc. ).
Always remember this is never a question of God’s justice only one of mercy. Eventually God says enough is enough. As we are all sinner God’s orders were just. It also should be born in mind that part of the reason for the wandering in the wilderness is that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. God gave them a whole generation (40 years) to repent. Eventually God says enough is enough and its his universe not ours. The moral of the story is if you run across the people who have been wandering in the desert for 40 years fed and watered miraculously, who defeated the Egyptian army miraculously; who are led by a pillar of cloud or fire. It might be time find a good real estate agent. These events didn’t happen in a vacuum.
Anyone who speaks English should not confuses figures of speech with metaphors. The Bible is not merely a book of metaphors. It is literal literature that uses figures of speech.
The author is on dangerous ground and does not know it.
No the Amalekites were not Nephalim. But the book of Ester is the resolution of the descendants of Agag and the descendants of Saul.
The issue is not about taking the bible literally, it’s about taking it seriously. The Author does not appear to take the Bible seriously.
“in highly figurative, hyperbolic accounts—quite common in the ancient Near East.”
The Holy Spirit doesn’t know the difference between hyperbole and bravado and an accurate account of what happened? The author of this piece doesn’t accept that possibility. Instead they deconstruct the author’s text, assuming he was just a product of his time and place.
The first chapter of Judges 2 makes no sense if God didn’t intend absolute annihilation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.