Why old testament so violent

Above all, we must remember that God led His people to the Promised Land, driving out the people before them, so that He could establish His people through whom the Messiah would be born to bring salvation to all nations.

As you interact with others on this often concerning issue, point them to a holy, loving God who desires all mankind to be a part of His redemptive plan. Cedarville University's Master of Divinity degree and online Master of Ministry degree are equipping men and women who desire to serve God in vocational ministry.

In the Flood story which takes place in direct response to human violence Genesis God stops holding the waters back and allows them once more to cover the earth. Have it your own way.

Although the language of judgment is one that many are uncomfortable with these days, it is a common biblical theme, and one that is worth further consideration before being dismissed. This is because they are subject to arbitrary violence, theft or enslavement without effective recourse to judicial redress. In response to this issue, Haugen founded the International Justice Mission IJM which works with governments around the world to help them deliver meaningful justice to the poorest and weakest.

Few of us would wish to dispense with institutions that make and enforce laws even if we point out their shortcomings , and in the same way, a hope for divine judgment is an essential part of the promised world where all tears will be wiped away Revelation The Bible is very clear about judgment, but it is equally clear that provision has been made for those who cannot withstand it — which is all of us.

The final, and hardest, category of biblical violence is in the situations where God appears to command Israel to go into battle and slay people, sometimes even including non-combatants. These passages are very troubling for many of us, and many people are working hard on trying to understand how we are to interpret them. We certainly do see a development of theology and ideas between the Old and New Testaments— this is touched upon here.

However, many people are uncomfortable with the idea that the Bible could be in error on such an important matter as what God did and did not command. They would say that the actions against the Canaanites were justified punishment for their sins. There are those who would argue that the conquest was rather more gradual than is generally believed, and that there was a slow displacement of one people group by another rather than a swingeing conquest.

There is some archaeological evidence to support this. It is worth pointing out that — contrary to popular belief — the book of Joshua is quite ambiguous about the extent to which the conquest was a massacre.

When armies conquer cities they generally only find soldiers there. Such objects were sometimes destroyed but sometimes brought undamaged into the sanctuary. Sometimes our Bible translators have inadvertently done us a disservice by automatically implying that the word always means death. And finally, as discussed here , the book itself is ambiguous about the extent of the casualties, frequently giving accounts of what happened to the survivors of cities that were apparently completely annihilated.

Fr Martin Newell cp has been arrested for climate protests. From the book What Kind of God? Terence E. Cite this. You currently have no access to view or download this content. Please log in with your institutional or personal account if you should have access to this content through either of these.

Showing a limited preview of this publication:. Chapter What Kind of God? Chan, Brent A. Strawn, Terence E. Fretheim Well, certainly not all of them; but even if some of our confusion around the graphic gore of the OT is legitimized be we Christian, skeptic, or scorner , we must acknowledge that we are questioning or accusing the Creator from the absolute framework and moral concept of goodness that only He could have established.

But even therein lies an issue for some. Well, you may chuckle, but the answer to that is yea…kind of. He is infinite, after all, and we finite. He is self-centered, and rightfully so, while we are self-centered but sinfully so. He is not primarily an example to follow but a Judge and to His children a Father to be obeyed. So that answers two pressing issues: we must be extremely careful when leveling interrogation against God because He is 1 God with all the convoluted glory that entails and He is 2 the beginning and end of all absolute goodness and purity which we may attempt to use as an indictment against Him.

So, with those realities established, and while bearing them in mind, we can endeavor to answer this enormous inquiry: Why the violence in the Old Testament?

This reality is stated bluntly in Judges 3.