[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.

[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).

[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.

[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.

[Skooz]

bfl

[Safrguns]

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.

[rightwingcrazy]

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.

[Tzfat]

We don't (and shouldn't) always take it literally.

Nonsense. We don't need to make excuses for the Almighty as some want to apply their 'morality' to the Always Righteous One. He commanded Israel to annihilate the nations in Canaan. All of them, 100%.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

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.

[demshateGod]

“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.

[Mrs. Don-o]

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