God’s Death Squad

The next question in our Now That’s a Good Question series is one that has plagued believers and unbelievers alike for some time. The question, How can a good God support the all-out slaughtering of Israel’s enemies in the Old Testament, and we are expected to turn the other cheek and love our enemies in the New Testament? This question is one which perplexes many. Atheists and other skeptical antagonists argue that God cannot be loving and good and still have commanded genocide. In fact, many opponents to Christianity argue that God commanded ethnic cleansing and is essentially immoral; that Christianity in the New Testament is incongruous with the God of the Old Testament. They attempt to put us in a moral conundrum.

Atheist Richard Dawkins, in his book, The God Delusion, criticized God calling him, “a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser.” He went on to say, “The Bible is a blueprint of in-group morality, complete with instructions for genocide, enslavement of out-groups, and world domination.” Dawkins continues to pontificate with righteous indignation when he writes,

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett claim that the God of the Old Testament authorized “indiscriminate massacres” of entire people groups and is guilty of “crimes against humanity”; appealing to morality, science, and reason to demonstrate their case against God.

Evangelical Christians would like to chalk these accusations up to a few fanatical atheists who have an axe to grind, but more honesty is required within our ranks than that. If we are going to answer the question with any modicum of satisfaction, some honest observations are required on our part.

1.       The truth of 2 Timothy 3:16 cannot be ignored. If we truly believe all Scripture is God-breathed, then we cannot turn a blind eye to the parts of the Bible we dislike or are difficult to explain. The tension created by this issue must be embraced and faced head-on. Christians need to admit that this question is not easy, nor will our answers to be acceptable to many. However, we need to admit that such questions do cause contention, even within our ranks, and face them honestly.

2.       The Old Testament is filled with bloody confrontations between God’s people and those who were not God’s people. People died; sometimes in horrific and grotesque ways. It’s acceptable to admit this offends modern man’s sense of morality and to agree that these texts move Christians to wrestle with difficult issues. Note: I am not espousing that God must conform to modern man’s sense of morality. In fact, modern man’s sense of morality is myopic at best. It is merely a statement that modern man’s sense of morality is often offended by what we read in the Old Testament, and that it is acceptable to let it be offended.

3.       The Creator-creature distinction is paramount. God is God and we are not. Since Eden, mankind has attempted to elevate himself to the position and authority of God. Any satisfactory answer to this question must take into account that God, as the Creator of the universe, holds ultimate authority and sovereign discretion over His creation – including mankind. Mankind does not like this truth, but fights at every turn to undermine it and replace it with absolute human autonomy; marginalizing the omnipotent, sovereign God and making Him subservient to human morality and reason. If Christians embrace the understanding that mankind rejects God’s authority as Creator, it helps us. No longer are we pressured to force an answer to such questions, for no answer will be accepted by our opponents apart from faith in the One True God anyway.

The Problem

Christianity’s problem lies in our attempt, most often motivated by the attacks of our opponents, to harmonize the warrior God of Israel with the love of God incarnate in Jesus Christ. We struggle with God’s commands for Old Testament Israel to utterly destroy the Canaanites with Christ’s command to love our enemies in the New Testament.

When we read the Old Testament, we see God engaged in what seems to be mass ethnic cleansing in the flood account (Gen. 6-8), the destruction of the cities of the plain, including Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18-19), and the mass genocide of Egypt’s first-born sons (Ex. 11-12). We then read of God commanding Moses (Num. 21:2-3; Deut. 20:16-17) and Joshua (Josh. 6:17-21) to obliterate the Canaanite peoples; utterly wiping them off the face of the earth. So specific was God, that he commanded Moses not to leave anything that breathes alive (Deut. 20:16).

Does this make God guilty of being the “vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser” Dawkins portrayed Him to be?

Let’s ask, and hopefully answer, some pertinent questions.

Did God Command the Genocide of the Canaanites?

Israel Misunderstood God

Some Christian scholars attempt to justify God’s commands to Moses and Joshua by claiming that He did not really command the genocide of the Canaanite peoples. Their argument suggests that Israel understood God’s instructions to Moses and Joshua in light of their former pagan experience. It was not uncommon for ancient near eastern kings to commit genocide of conquered peoples as offerings to their gods. This argument holds that Israel adopted such a practice and went beyond what God actually commanded because of a limited understanding of who God is. Such scholars advance the idea that Israel committed these atrocities believing that God required the lives of their enemies as some form of sacrifice.  It’s difficult to believe that God would be so nebulous in explaining Himself to Moses and Joshua, or that these leaders were so obtuse as to not understand God’s clear command. Scholars who advance this position purport that God allowed Israel to commit genocide because He loved them so much. In short, God allowed His name to be besmirched for the sake of His relationship with Israel. Their problem is that a simple reading of the texts cited above, not to mention the texts which criticize Israel for not obeying these commands (e.g. Psa. 106:34-42), makes this explanation untenable.

It Never Really Happened

Other scholars attempt to harmonize Scripture with modern morality by claiming that the accounts of Canaanite genocide were interpolated back into the biblical text by later redactors. They claim that editors during the period of the Israelite kings saw the destructive effect worshipping Canaanite false gods was having on Israel, so they inserted the genocidal commands and accounts into the works of Moses and Joshua to scare Israel into fidelity to God. This view does detriment to the Evangelical belief in the inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture and should be utterly rejected.

It Happened as Scripture Records

The most honest and accurate answer to this question is also the simplest. The Canaanite genocide was commanded by God and perpetrated by Israel as recorded in the biblical text. If we believe that the Holy Spirit inspired Scripture to include everything God intended (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21), then we must accept the Canaanite genocide accounts as true and accurate descriptions of Israel’s history and a reflection of God’s character. Evangelicals must take Scripture at face value; including the ugly parts we don’t like to discuss.

Why Did God Command the Genocide of the Canaanites?

The real question is not “Did God command…,” but “Why?” There are two predominant factors that come to bear on our understanding of why God would command the genocide of the Canaanites.

God’s Holiness and Judgment

God did not leave Israel without an explanation of His reasons for commanding the genocide of the Canaanites. Sometimes, the opponents of Scriptural truth leave us with the perception that ancient Israel was a horde of bloodthirsty nomads out to conquer the Fertile Crescent and bent on the destruction of anyone who dared cross their path. This is a horrible misperception. It is not beyond a high view of Scripture to presume some within Israel, at God’s command, may have objected on moral grounds. (Scripture is silent on the point; it’s merely a presumption.)

God gave Moses reasons why He was commanding the genocide of the Canaanites. Deuteronomy 9:4-6 cites the wickedness of the Canaanites as His reason for driving them out of the land and giving it to Israel. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 and Leviticus 18 detail the “detestable practices” for which the Canaanites were being judged: child sacrifice, divination or sorcery, soothsaying or interpretation of omens, witchcraft, spell-casting, spiritism or being a medium who consults with the dead, incest, bestiality, homosexuality, and religious prostitution. These were all common religious and life-practices among the ancient Canaanite peoples. They violate the holiness of God and incur His wrath and judgment as sin. Leviticus 18:24-25 clearly state, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so, I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.” Because God is holy, He must judge sin. God was employing Israel as His agent for the punishment and judgement of the Canaanite people’s sin.

Israel’s Purity and Distinction

It’s important to put Israel in their historic context. Israel, God’s chosen people and descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had just left Egypt after 430 years. They had been corrupted by Egyptian idolatry and did not recognize God for who He is. Everything was changing. Jehovah God had brought them out of slavery and formed them into a nation which was to be a kingdom of priests to Himself and holy – different from their neighboring cultures (Ex. 19:6). They had already exhibited a penchant for the idolatry of Egypt and how impressionistic they were (Ex. 32). They had no sense of themselves and the fear was that they would be assimilated into the Canaanite cultures around them. This is why God repeatedly tells them that they were not to copy the Canaanite practices (Deut. 9:6; 18:9; 20:16-18).

Israel’s purity and distinction from the Canaanite peoples is important. God called His people to be a blessing to all the nations of the world (Gen. 18:18). This would not happen if Israel was influenced by the detestable practices of the Canaanite peoples. Truthfully, by the time of the judges through the era of the kings and into exilic and post-exilic periods, Israel repeatedly failed in their obedience to God’s extermination commands and became unfaithful to God; assimilating the practices of their Canaanite neighbors. One is left to wonder what Israel would have been like had they obeyed God’s commands originally.

Another Look at the Commands

Was genocide really God’s absolute command? Another look at the biblical text reveals the opponents of Scripture to be picking and choosing what to emphasize.

Deuteronomy 20 makes it clear that the annihilation, or genocide to use the oppositional term, was a last case scenario. Rather, Israel’s enemies were to be given the opportunity to make peace and enter forced labor for Israel (vv. 10-12). If they rejected the offer, then their destruction was assured. Even in that case, only the men were to be executed; the women, children, and valuables were to be spared and assimilated into Israelite society as slaves (vv. 13-15). Furthermore, Israel was to save the food-bearing trees and plants from destruction; no “scorched-earth policy” was permitted (vv. 19-20). God was ensuring that Israel’s conquest of the land was focused and targeted, not an uncontrolled genocidal rampage.

Several times God tells Israel to drive out the Canaanites with any mention of extermination, while on other occasions extermination is commanded. It has been rightly pointed out by scholars that Deuteronomy 9:3 coalesces these two prescriptions from God; commanding Israel to drive out and exterminate the Canaanites. How can we resolve the potential tension created by these apparent contradictory commands from God? It is presumable that God gave the Canaanites the opportunity to flee the cities and land in advance of the Israelite arrival. Had they fled there was no command given to pursue and destroy them. However, staying meant slavery or annihilation. It should also be pointed out that God never commands Israel to go through every village or field indiscriminately wiping everyone out. No, Israel’s conquest of the land was secured by conquering 31 prescribed cities throughout the land. It is inaccurate to picture the conquest of the land under Joshua, let alone God’s commands in the doing of it, as ethnic cleansing or genocide of entire people groups.

This truth solidifies the fact that the conquest of the Promised Land by Israel was not so much genocide as it was forced expulsion. God’s holy and just judgment on the Canaanites was the loss of the land for their detestable acts (cf. Lev. 18:24-29 – the land “vomiting out” the Canaanites). Removing these people from the land – either by forced removal or annihilation – also served to preserve Israel’s purity.

What About the Innocents?

Again, the opponents of Scripture will routinely bring up the innocents within the Canaanite cultures; specifically, the children who were too young to reasonably understand the sins of their people and conscientiously participate. Let’s be honest. The killing of children is troubling for any compassionate person. A couple of pertinent truths must be brought out here.

First, no human being is truly innocent. We are all sinners at birth who are already under God’s condemnation; deserving of death (Rom. 3:23; 6:23; John 3:18; Eph. 2:3). We don’t like to think about it, but at birth we are all sinners deserving of God’s wrath. God is not outside of His prevue to execute His justice on deserving sinners; regardless of that sinner’s age.

The above statement seems harsh, but we must balance that with the fact that God is merciful and gracious. We must remember that God is omniscient and knows the intents and hearts of all men (Rom. 11:33). Furthermore, physical death is not the final judgment (Heb. 9:27). While I do not intend to presume upon God, it is not outside His character to do with the seemingly innocent as He deems best. Should He choose to be gracious, eternally speaking, to some or all of those seemingly innocent children, He is within His rights to do so.

Our finite, human sense of right and wrong has a difficult time with these truths, but that doesn’t change the truth. This is definitely a matter of faith over reason and morality for those who believe.

Was God Unjust in Commanding the Genocide of the Canaanites?

Faulty reasoning has lead the opponents of Christianity to believe that God capriciously doled out the fate of the Canaanites for self-serving reasons. They object to the answers given above as simplistic. They believe such answers are insufficient to satiate their curiosity. They taut their claims that God is “a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser;” devoid of the love and grace purported by the New Testament God. They claim that either God is a schizophrenic psychopath who is vindictive in the Old Testament only to be loving and gracious in the New Testament, or that the Bible really presents two Gods.

Yet, when we read Scripture we find that God was gracious and patient with the Canaanite peoples for generations before commanding their destruction. Genesis 15:13-16 witnesses God informing Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign country for 400 years before returning to the Promised Land. Verse 16 says that after four generations, Abraham’s children would return “because the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” There is some evidence that the Amorites, a Canaanite people group, had a knowledge of the One True God in the days of Abraham. They knew about the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain (Gen. 18-19), had interactions with Abraham and seen his faith in God (Gen. 14), and had the presence of king Melchizedek who was a priest of the Most-High God (Gen. 14:18-19). In the period of Joshua, the Amorites had heart of what God had done for Israel in the desert; they had a witness of the true God even then (Josh. 2:8-12). The Amorites, along with the other Canaanites, were given time to repent and turn to the One True God. God was being patient with them. Such long-suffering is a demonstration of His grace and mercy.

It often gets ignored by biblical opponents, but not every Canaanite was killed. One undeniable example of God’s mercy and grace in this period is Rahab. She had heard enough about the God of Israel’s deliverance of His people from Egypt and victories over the Amorites that she asked to be spared and pledged her fidelity to Israel’s God. Such a pledge would have involved her renouncing the gods of her people and accepting the One True God of Israel. When Jericho was destroyed, Joshua reminded his men that the entire city and its inhabitants were under God’s condemnation, except for Rahab and her family (Josh. 6:17, 25). Not only did God spare Rahab, but included her in Messiah’s lineage as a testament to His grace and mercy (Matt. 1:5).

Taking these truths into account, no one can justly claim God to be a vindictive monster bent on genocide and crimes against humanity.

Is the God of the Old Testament the Same as the God of the New Testament?

In short, yes. The God of the Old Testament exhibited long-suffering, patience, mercy, grace, love, justice, wrath, holiness, and truth. The God of the New Testament is no different. Paul said to the Athenians that God “overlooked” mankind’s ignorance (Acts 17:30). After the Flood, God did not wipe out all of humanity for our sin, but has been patient with us. Yes, God did judge localized people groups for their sin. Even demonstrating His justice, wrath, holiness, and truth, God exhibited His patience, mercy, love, and grace.

Right now, humanity has the ultimate opportunity for reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the full debt incurred by humanity’s sin and offers full forgiveness and reconciliation with God by repentant faith. However, the New Testament makes it abundantly clear in multiple texts that there is coming a time when God’s wrath against sinful humanity will be exhibited in force. God is still holy, just, and righteous. He is bound by His character and truth to punish sin. Those who avail themselves of His mercy, love, and grace in Jesus Christ will escape His wrath. Those who persist in their sin, for which they stand condemned already, bring upon themselves His wrath and judgment.

The God of the Old Testament is no different from the God of the New Testament.

Conclusion

Opponents of God and the Bible often use the straw man of the Canaanite genocide to cast aspersions on God’s character and engender doubt in the minds of the questioning. As a believer, it helps to have an answer like the one postulated here. We who believe ought to remember that apart from faith, no unbeliever who attacks us on this ground will accept our answer.

If all of the above is true, what then should Christians think about national retaliations against attacks against their countries? Should American Christians support the war on terror, bombings of our enemies (many of whom are in Muslim countries), and war in general? Those are difficult questions with which the Church has wrestled since its inception. So strong was the belief of the early Church, that most Christians were pacifists and conscientious objectors to war and violence as a whole. It is important to remember that no nation on the planet is truly a Christian nation in the same way Israel was God’s chosen people. America, though clearly founded on biblical principle and Christian values, is not a theocracy; we are not God’s “chosen people”. What we do as a nation is not prescribed in Scripture in the way Israel’s actions against the Canaanites were.

Furthermore, one must remember that the Church and Israel are different in origin, purpose, and destiny. Israel is a theocratic nation with a physical destiny and promises of posterity and land; the Church is not. Israel was to be a kingdom of priests which lived and interacted with the nations around her geo-politically more than spiritually. The Church is a spiritual entity comprised of people from a variety of cultures and nationalities. As a spiritual entity, we are the Body of Christ on earth and the Bride of Christ, Queen of Heaven, that will rule and reign with Jesus in His kingdom. The Church’s mission today is the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We, the Church, have a spiritual mission to all people groups. Israel’s mission and purpose are radically different from the Church’s.

While all Scripture is equally inspired, not all Scripture is equally applicable. Christ fulfilled the Law with all its requirements (Matt. 5:17; 2 Cor. 1:20; Rom. 10:4). Because of what Christ accomplished, the trappings of the Law and Israelite worship are empty for the Church (Heb. 7:23-24; 9:12; John 4:21-23; Mark 7:18-19). Jesus even said His kingdom was not of this world; it was not Israel per se (John 18:36). That does not mean the Old Testament does not have value. Paul said, “For everything that was written in the past (Old Testament) was written to teach us…” (Rom. 15:4a).

Not everything prescribed for Israel is required from the Church. We are two different organisms with different origins, purposes, and destinies. We, the Church, can learn much from the Old Testament, but not everything in it is equally as applicable to us being the Body and Bride of Christ.

Regarding war and fighting, Paul told us that human national governments exist and are ordained by God to protect the image of God in man (Rom. 13:1-5). Governments employ a variety of methods in performing their God-ordained role; not the least of which is the “sword” (Rom. 13:4). Whether a Christian chooses to engage in or approve of military conflict is a matter of conscience. There is no New Testament mandate for war or military action. Much of Church history saw believers opting out of military service and conflict on the grounds of being Christians. However, there are many throughout history who saw no discontinuity between military service and their Christianity. The Christian’s conscience, guided by the Holy Spirit, should be their guide on such matters (Rom. 14:5).

An honest Christian is forced to admit that in fulfilling the Mosaic Law, Christ established a new and higher law; the law of love. Keeping this law, for the Christian, requires us to love, forgive, and turn the other cheek (Matt. 5:38-48; Rom. 13:9-10; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8). Whom is called to the higher standard? Israel in keeping the Law, or the Church fulfilling the Law of Christ?