Dr Paul Allen

T he book of Joshua presents most readers with a troubling question: how can a God of love command his followers to destroy an entire nation of people? The Canaanites had lived in their land for centuries before Joshua and his people came to claim it for themselves. While some in Canaan fought against God’s people and were destroyed as a result (cf. the battle of Ai , 8:14ff), others did not attempt armed aggression against Israel . The people of Jericho, for instance, retreated inside their city walls and mounted no attack against the Jews. Nonetheless, following divine orders, the Israeli soldiers “destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys” (6:21). The God of Joshua also required a similar kind of wrathful judgment against his own people when they sinned. Following the battle of Jericho , a soldier named Achan took in plunder “a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold

Dome of the Rock (Skalní dóm) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Will a third temple be built? This is a possibility, although at present it is impossible to imagine how this could happen, given the political and religious situation in Jerusalem in particular and in the world at large. Orthodox Jews who want to build a third temple would be able to do so only if they could get the Israeli government to occupy the temple mount and either tear down the Dome of the Rock and build the third temple at the spot some believe was the location of Solomon’s temple , or build the temple between the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque (as others suggest for the location of Solomon’s temple). This scenario is not feasible politically, as the violent reaction of the Muslim world can only be imagined,18 and as none of the (mostly secular) Israeli governments have any motivation to build a Jewish temple and renew the sacrificial cult. Given the significance of Jesus as described in the New Testa

When God first created the world, only two descriptors applied to all that he made — “good” and “very good.” But in his mysterious providence, he made the man and woman capable of rejecting his benevolence and disobeying his command. Our forefather Adam ate the forbidden fruit, and the world hasn’t been the same since. Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and that death has spread to all people (Romans 5:12). The biblical teaching that Adam’s sin has been passed down to all people like a terminal spiritual disease is called “total depravity” (Romans 3:10–2, 23). Extensive, Not Intensive The depth of mankind’s sin nature is commonly misunderstood. Human beings are not as bad as they possibly could be. To be absolutely sinful means that a person's every thought, word, and deed is malicious. But this isn’t our experience. People demonstrate benevolence all the time. They donate money and clothes to help the poor. They become teachers to inspire young p