One of the greatest things about a faith with room to grow is that you get to bring up the scary, uncomfortable questions, at least for yourself. You know, the kinds of questions you’ve spent so much time to forget. The ones everybody agrees to leave unasked. The ones you were warned about because they would undermine your faith…
I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
My spiritual journey eventually led me to a point where asking these questions no longer was an option, but a necessity for survival. Sure, I was scared of “losing my salvation” by questioning certain foundations, but just beyond the fear I was also exhilarated at the thought of finding a God much bigger than what I had thought possible. In this blog, I want to tell you about one of the “big ones” I finally dared to tackle: The violence of God in the Old Testament. Of course I will never be able to do justice to such a complex topic in one blog post, and I’m not a theologian. However, I do want to invite and challenge you to study more on this subject for yourself, and to join the discussion of it.
Like most people, I always felt uneasy about many Old Testament stories, even among fellow Christians. When pressed about them by Non-Christians, embarrassed joined the unease. I really wished those stories weren’t there, but since they were written in the Bible, what was I to do?
Brian Zahnd describes this dilemma in his book Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God. He points to the stories of God telling Abraham to kill his son (even though he didn’t have to go through with it in the end), and telling Joshua, King Saul and the Israelites to kill civilians, from women down to infants, as part of the ethnic cleansing of Canaan.
How’s that for a touchy subject?
But it gets even better. One of the cornerstones of Christian theology is that God is immutable. His nature and character do not change. But if God doesn’t change and has in the past sanctioned the killing of children as part of a genocidal conquest, is it possible He would ever require you to kill children?
Were we in the same room now, we would get the most interesting – and most telling – reactions to this question. Hopefully, most of us would say “no way ever!”, even if it left us with a theological problem. Sadly, I have personally been in settings where a version of this question was asked and several people were not determined they would resist such a command if they believed it came from God. It is an example of why religious fervor can be so deadly; people are willing to do in the name of God what they would deeply resist and condemn in any social setting.
But if most of us would vehemently oppose to doing something God allegedly told his own people to do numerous times, we are left, as Zahnd points out, with three options:
- We question the morality of God. Perhaps God is not always good.
- We question the immutability of God. Maybe God changes over time.
- We question how we read Scripture. Could it be that we need to learn to read the Bible in a different way?
The first option creates a far bigger problem still. If God is not always good, He should not be worshipped wholeheartedly, but His evil traits should be resisted. The second option goes in a similar direction. If God changes, then how do I know He won’t suddenly turn into an insane dictator who demands genocide? My worship of Him would be at best full of suspicion and caution.
The third option, however, opens up new possibilities (and also new challenges!). To quote Zahnd:
“If we don’t want a monstrous God who occasionally commands genocide, and if we don’t want a malleable God who is slowly mutating away from a violent past, how do we view the Old Testament? (…) The Old Testament is the inspired telling of the story of Israel coming to know their God. It’s a process. God doesn’t evolve, but Israel’s understanding of God obviously does. (…) Even a casual reader of the Bible notices that between the alleged divine endorsement of genocide in the conquest of Canaan and Jesus’s call for love of enemies in his Sermon on the Mount, something has clearly changed! What has changed is not God but the degree to which humanity has attained an understanding of the true nature of God. The Bible is not the perfect revelation of God; Jesus is. Jesus is the only perfect theology.”
You might agree and ask where the problem is. But many Christians are afraid that if we agree to Israel’s evolving understanding of God, we have to question the relevance and accuracy of the Old Testament. This goes further than what many are ready to go. And yet, it is evident that Old Testament heroes like Joshua and David, although having certain revelations of the grace of God, were also steeped in a culture of violence and retributive, power hungry gods. They were men of their time, in the middle of a story of a people getting to know God better. They interpreted visions, dreams and words from God according to the best of their understanding of Him, yet they didn’t have a full revelation of His nature.
But then came Jesus. And his teachings were so surprisingly different, so void of vengeance, genocide and bloodshed that he constantly upset both Jewish leaders and his own disciples. He would say: “you have heard it said …. But I say to you…” and He would turn their world and religion upside down.
Listening to Jesus, we can no longer just say “The Bible says it, that settles it”; we have to start looking at the heart of God and come to our own, responsible conclusion. We have to ask, “does this action or attitude match Jesus’ command to love my neighbor, to forgive those who hate me and to turn the other cheek? Is it in agreement with his admonition that not the powerful nor the strong, but rather the meek, the merciful and the peacemakers represent him?”
Of course this doesn’t mean mankind has been following God in perfect harmony since the birth of Jesus. Knowing something doesn’t mean you’re necessarily doing it. And needless to say, the understanding of God’s character has kept growing since the time of Jesus, and will continue to grow. And again it is not Jesus who is changing, but the ability of his followers to embrace his message and understand his heart.
Fact is, followers of Jesus are having an awful hard time embracing the Sermon on the Mount. Christians all across their 2000 years of history have misused Scripture as a divine license for violence, hatred and power trips. Of course, the crusades and inquisition come to mind quickly, but in more recent times the Bible was misused just as much by colonialists, missionary groups, white supremacists or proponents of the death penalty. To quote Zahnd one more time:
“If you leave the door open to justify the Canaanite genocide, don’t be surprised if modern crusaders try to push their way through that same door and then cite the Bible in their defense. (…) We should acknowledge that in the late Bronze Age, Israel made certain assumptions about the nature of God, assumptions that now have to be abandoned in the light of Christ.”
In other words: Whenever we use the Bible to exclude, discriminate, withhold mercy from or otherwise violate another human being, we are going directly against what Jesus was teaching.
So, what should we do with these many violent, retributive, sexist and merciless passages in the Old Testament? For too long, I didn’t do anything with them for fear that if I questioned the inerrancy of the Bible, the whole thing would come crumbling down. But slowly, I dared to take my heart into the equation. If I felt God told me to sacrifice my own child, or to hate Muslims or gay people, or to believe that everybody that hasn’t said the right prayer will be tortured for eternity (another topic) – would I do it because it’s in the Bible? (Of course most of this isn’t even in the Bible but only a product of wrong conclusions). Or would I try to pray: “God, somewhere in there we must have misunderstood you. My heart believes in a God more merciful, more beautiful than what comes across here, so I know you’re infinitely more beautiful still, because you created my heart. Help me to see where the misunderstanding lies.”
I might not get a nice, theologically wrapped answer. I might have no answer at all. But it is better to say: “I don’t know why these passages are in the Bible. But I will not follow them, because they don’t represent Jesus,” than to say: “My heart cries out against doing this – but it’s in the Bible, so I will do it anyway.”
The decision at stake here makes all the difference. In the end, our conscience and desire to find the true heart of God will team up with the Holy Spirit – whose fruit is love, peace and joy – to help us to choose the right way. The way Jesus has taught us.
If we dare to embrace the scary questions.
Excerpts from : Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God by Brian Zahnd, Waterbrook, 2017
Hi Judith, it’s me again. After finishing you book I decided to check out your blog. I could relate to part of your book but couldn’t figure out, what Sophie or Thomas were actually believing so here I am looking for the answer and I guess now I know.
While reading this particular blog I couldn’t help but feel that you are somehow mixing to entirely different subjects. One being the stories of the Old Testament and one being the crimes committed in the name of Christianity. Personally I don’t think they have anything to do with each other apart from some people justifying their actions by claiming it was the will of God. But claiming something to be the will of God doesn’t automatically make it so. Christians were never and will never be part of the old covenant so we cannot use it to justify any bloody actions. Whosoever does it anyway is clearly on the wrong path. Because of this there is also no question about whether God will ask us to repeat such actions.
Simone
Hey Simone! I like your questions!😉
I agree with you that just because Christians claim something to be God’s will, it obviously doesn’t make it so. But since God didn’t change His character since the Old Testament, the question remains of what to do with passages where God supposedly commands genocide and other terrible “crimes against humanity”, as we would call them today. When we justify these things because “God said so” or “it’s in the Bible” or “it was for the best in the end”, we accuse God of being a God of retribution, anger, and violence. And this would very well influence the God we as Christians worship today, because He is the same yesterday, today and forever. In this regard I believe these questions are important.
But, as I mentioned in my other comment to you, if you can reconcile these stories with a loving and compassionate God who advocates peace, then this post isn’t for you. It’s for people who struggle to bring together the seemingly violent God of the Old Testament and the Jesus who would rather die than use violence.
Dear Judith
I hope you don’t mind if I reply to your comment because while I completly understand your questions and also firmly believe it to be a good thing to ask them I somehow feel that saying “it was all a big cultural misunderstanding” somehow just eliminates the question rather than answer it. I really don’t want to offend anybody and I find these questions highly fascinating. They need to be answered of course and not dismissed as if they weren’t there.
And to go even further out on a limb I actually believe that there is such a thing as Gods wrath and that it would benefit the world to fear it but I also believe He is love. Why reduce Him to just our favourite emotion when we as humans have got so many?
Hi Simone, you’re absolutely fine replying here.
The question about God’s wrath is of course not an easy one. The dictionary (Merriam-Webster) defines wrath as violent, retributive anger. It’s distinguished from the common human emotion of anger we all feel at times – it’s when your anger gets so out of control you begin to rage, deliberately wanting to hurt someone. This is the exact opposite of the Nature of God who wants to forgive. That’s not to say God isn’t angered at what His children do to each other. But instead of deliberately seeking violent revenge, He chooses to forgive through Jesus.
I agree that people would benefit from fearing God – but I would use “fear” in the sense of respecting, being in awe of, not being scared of.
Hi Judith 🤗
Yes, I agree with you that God doesn’t explode in a sudden uncontrolled rage and that He offers the gift of forgiveness to everyone, no question there. I have come to regard it slightly different about the “fear of the Lord” (since leaving the charismatic movement) but that probably isn’t the big issue and I don’t want to make it one.
Hey, Mrs.Judith,
I really enjoyed reading the article. My mom sent it to me and I thought I would check it out. It was very interesting to read about thing I never knew about even though I come from a religious family. I have been questioning my faith lately and as a teen am faced with many questions. This article was great in helping me understand and answer some of my questions.
Hi Noah,
Thank you for reading my blog. I’m glad you found it helpful. I believe thinking about one’s faith is challenging at any age, but it takes extra courage as a teenager, when so many voices and choices fight for your attention. Continue to question and challenge, and remember God is very interested in helping you find your unique place in this world.
Judith
Hi Judith, I’m glad you are diving into difficult questions. They are difficult for me too. On this one, I’m a little confused by your conclusion. It seems as if you are saying that the God did not tell the people of Israel to practice genocide, but that they only thought He did. As if He did not inspire it that way, but they wrote it that way. That seems to me like a very strange conclusion to make. I may have misunderstood, and, perhaps, I should look for a copy of Brian Zahnd’s book.
I believe that I have come to terms with the difference between Jesus’ teaching and the leading of God in conquest with the Israelites. I came to a different conclusion than Brian Zahnd. Although, it’s simply difficult to grapple with a loving, compassionate God compelling an entire people-group to wipe out another. There is simply way too much missing in our understanding of the times, the people involved. We are missing much of our Savior’s perspective of the time. And I believe the same of Jesus’ teaching and His time as well. We tend to pick and choose the nice things He said, and forget the hard, sometimes rather violent, things He said.
Anyway, regardless of where it takes you, the pursuit of the heart of God is the best human pursuit ever. I encourage you to keep at it, and I believe you will never stop learning more about His love for you and others. I know I keep discovering more and more, and have learned even more from you this morning.
Thank you for your entry!
Hi Matt! Thanks for your thoughts, I enjoyed reading them! The question you’re asking is of course very complex, and I don’t at all feel I have any exhaustive view on the subject. But I do believe that God did not in fact order these genocides. However, this doesn’t mean I think the writers of the Old Testament books were not inspired by God. I believe all of them had an encounter with God, and they communicated this encounter to the best of their ability. But because of the times and culture they lived in, they assumed that God’s promises for them gave them the right, or even the responsibility, of achieving their goal through every means necessary.
This is the same thing Jesus’s disciples assumed. They expected Jesus to become King by driving out the Romans violently, just like any king in history had done before to establish his kingdom. Judas probably even betrayed him with the intent to force him into action, to get him to finally rally his army and strike out against their oppressors. But Jesus told them that His Kingdom works the exact opposite way. And although I agree that there are passages in the NT where Jesus strikes a harsh tone, his message overall is clearly that of forgiveness, love of enemies, and peace. He is definitely not a king of war, but a King of Peace.
One view I’ve heard often is that we just don’t know the whole perspective (which is true), and that seen from an eternal perspective, these genocides led to much blessing because the Israelites eventually became a blessing to other nations. In other words, maybe God did a little evil to create a lot more good.
In my opinion, the assumption that the end justifies the means has lead to the most horrific crimes in the name of Christianity. An example is the massacre of the Pequot tribe by the American colonists under command of John Mason. After slaughtering between 400-700 civilians, mostly women and children, Mason described the day with the following words: “Thus God has crushed his proud enemies and the enemies of His people…burning them up in the fire of His wrath, and dunging the ground with their flesh: it was the LORD’s doings, and it is marvellous in our eyes!”.
In reality it was the murderous doing of a land-hungry colonist who was convinced that if the Israelites were killing “God’s enemies” in His name, so must he be allowed to in his time. I personally don’t see a way to believe God did command such a thing at any time, but today clearly would call it a horrendous crime.
I agree with you, though, that our understanding and perspective on all of these things are extremely limited. This is why, when in doubt, I try to look at Jesus and ask myself what I think he would do… which, of course, will lead me to a very subjective conclusion. But I believe God wants us to think for ourselves, even with the chance that we are getting it wrong. That’s where the body of Christ comes into play, where we try to help each other make sense of this marvelous and confusing thing that is our faith.
Again, thank you for your thoughts. I appreciate them and am looking forward to your reply!
Thank you for that reply, Judith. I believe your approach and conclusion are well within the character of our Savior and King. I find different things, but I hope that my conclusion, that my Creator and Savior brings peace available to all, coincides with yours.
If you read my blog, you will find that I grapple with my Creator’s character revealed in Scripture as if He is revealing Himself, not so much the lens of fractured people. But that is really unsettling. Keep doing what you are doing. I like what I read of your writing, and I love your heart for Jesus. Human creatures need that message of the love of our Creator. Thank you for proclaiming it!
Thank you, Matt. I think however unsettling or difficult it is at times, it is always worth pursuing the heart of God and learn from each other how beautifully and personally He reveals Himself to all of us. All the best on your journey and for your writing as well!