Page 25 - Advanced Apologetics and World Views Revised

same destruction on His own people when they sinned in like manner. His command to kill the
inhabitants of the Promised Land was a cleansing of the Land with just cause.

Israel did not obey God’s command to cleanse the land. Instead of completing the conquest of Canaan
and driving its people out as commanded, the Jews capitulated with the inhabitants (Judges 1:28-33).
Blending with their enemy’s godless culture, they quickly were corrupted by it and began practicing the
same evil:

Judges 3:5-7 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites,
and Jebusites, and they intermarried with them. Israelite sons married their daughters, and Israelite
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daughters were given in marriage to their sons. And the Israelites served their gods.

Disobedience always has consequences. The Canaanites debauchery brought them destruction, just as
Israel’s disobedience brought them death and captivity. We see God dealing not with individuals, but
with nations as a whole when grand designs are in play. When a community sins, there are
consequences for every member of the population, even the children. When Israel did evil, God brought
famine into the land and adults and children suffered alike. Every act of corporate judgment sustains
collateral damage.

So, to answer the question, “when God kills is he a murderer?”, the answer is no. Sin against God
brought death into the world. Every person is going to die. Jesus holds the keys of death (Rev. 1:18).
Does that fact that everyone dies make God a murderer? No.

In the big scheme of things, God will save the righteous and God will hold the “unrighteous for the day
of judgment, while continuing their punishment” (2 Peter 2:9). He has promised eternal life to those
who choose to receive Him (John 1:14). There is a way to avoid God’s wrath against sin, supplied by God
Himself in sending His son to die for sinners. Jonah went to the evil society in Nineveh and warned them
of the wrath to come. They repented of their sin and God’s wrath was abated. It was not until years
later that Nineveh returned to their wicked ways that God’s judgment led to their destruction. God is
just in His judgment for sin.

Why did God condone such terrible violence in the Old Testament? xviii

The fact that God commanded the killing of entire nations in the Old Testament has been the subject of
harsh criticism from opponents of Christianity for some time. That there was violence in the Old
Testament is indisputable. The question is whether Old Testament violence is justifiable and condoned
by God. In his bestselling book The God Delusion, atheist Richard Dawkins refers to the God of the Old
Testament as “a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser.” Journalist Christopher Hitchens complains that
the Old Testament contains a warrant for “indiscriminate massacre.” Other critics of Christianity have
leveled similar charges, accusing Yahweh of “crimes against humanity.”

But are these criticisms valid? Is the God of the Old Testament a “moral monster” who arbitrarily
commands genocide against innocent men, women, and children? Was His reaction to the sins of the
Canaanites and the Amalekites a vicious form of “ethnic cleansing”? Or is it possible that God could have
had morally sufficient reasons for ordering the destruction of these nations?

As we have discussed, the basic knowledge of Canaanite culture reveals its inherent moral wickedness.

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