Dr Paul Allen

The Destruction Of Sodom And Gomorrah, a painting by John Martin (painter), died 1854, thus 100 years. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "I have been assigned to provide “your exegesis on Dr. Dawkins' characterization of Deuteronomy 20:13-15” in regards to his refusal to debate William Lane Craig . First, Dawkins characterized Deuteronomy 20:13-15 by this statement, “You would search far to find a modern preacher willing to defend God ’s commandment, in Deuteronomy 20:13-15, to kill all the men in a conquered city and to seize the women, children and livestock as plunder ... You might say that such a call to genocide could never have come from a good and loving God.” It appears that Dawkins characterizes this section as a command of God commit genocide. Genocide is defined as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” (Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, 1969) Secondly, I think that we may be starting in the wrong place. In a

Jacob's Body Carried into Canaan To Be Buried (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Where the Bible makes us uncomfortable is precisely where we need to slow down. It is compelling evidence of a specific weakness. When our thoughts or feelings bristle under God 's Word, He is right and we wrong. That said, it is understandable that so many would recoil from God's command that every living person in Canaan be put to death as His people conquer the land. No mercy for those women and children, no compassion on the aged, God's instructions were as clear as they were brutal. Many outside the faith have planted their flag here, arguing that our God is immoral, monstrous. Many on the fringes of the faith perform sundry exegetical gymnastics to wiggle out from under the account. Many faithful believers are simply puzzled and embarrassed. The God we worship, however, the true and living God, did in fact give this command, and righ

An interpretation of the borders (in red) of the Promised Land, based on God's promise to Abraham. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) If you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time, most likely you will have struggled through how to understand Joshua’s conquest of Canaan . Even if you haven’t, I can almost guarantee that you have spoken with someone who calls God evil and vindictive for his “genocide” of whole people groups. In many ways, I can sympathize with this accusation. The Bible does appear to portray God’s judgment of Canaanites in harsh terms.  Consider Deuteronomy 20:16–18:  16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites , the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abo

Author: Justin Taylor This is a good, hard question. The way we answer it will both reflect and inform our understanding of justice and mercy. In the book of Joshua God commands Israel to slaughter the Canaanites in order to occupy the Promised Land . It was a bloody war of total destruction where God used his people to execute his moral judgment against his wicked enemies. In moving toward an answer it will be helpful to think carefully about the building blocks of a Christian worldview related to God’s justice and mercy. 1. As the maker of all things and the ruler of all people, God has absolute rights of ownership over all people and places. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” ( Gen. 1:1 ) “and the sea and all that is in them” (Act 14:15). This means that “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” ( Ps. 24:1 ). As God says, “All the earth is mine” ( Ex. 19:5 ) and “every beast of the forest is min

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Church http://www.stjohnsashfield.org.au, Ashfield, New South Wales. Illustrates Jesus' description of himself "I am the Good Shepherd" (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). This version of the image shows the detail of his face. The memorial window is also captioned: "To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70 Yrs." (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses ." ( Joshua 11:20 ) One of the most bitter complaints of critics against the Bible is its portrayal of the severity of God , especially in His command to Moses to destroy all the Canaanites . "When the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite the

Achan Is Stoned to Death. Portrait done over Joshua 7:24-26 by Gustave Dore'. Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, with the silver, the mantle, and the bar of gold, together with his sons and daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, and his sheep, his tent, and everything he had... Then all the Israelites stoned him to death; and they raised over him a great cairn of stones which is there to this day. (Joshua 7:24-26) http://catholic-resources.org/Dore/Images/OT-050-med.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Why in the Old Testament does God demand so much violence and war of the Jewish nation? One of the most difficult episodes for us to handle as people who live on this side of the New Testament are the Old Testament records of what is called the herem . This is where God calls Israel to embark in what we could call a holy war against the Canaanites . He tells them to go in there and wipe out everyone—men, women, and children. They were forbidden to take pr