#5: Back to the Bible Series

Modern society loudly proclaims its determination to end hate and eradicate violence and no wonder, we have nuclear weapons today that could destroy the developed world in a matter of hours. So when we lift up, what to many of us is the precious Word of God as God’s love letter to humanity, we will quickly be challenged regarding the record of violence by God, especially in the Old Testament.  We have passages where the death penalty was prescribed for a laundry list of sins and even passages where it appears that God directed his people to commit genocide.  Esther O’reilly, a young writer for Patheos insists the apparent genocide passages are mistranslations, I am not so sure, but I hope so.

The New Atheist seize on the passages where violence against human beings appears to be within God’s will to discredit the scriptures.  First of all, they claim that religion is a source of violence and secondly, they say the disparity between the angry God of the Old Testament and the loving God of the New Testament makes the Christian religion unreliable.  Entire books by top theologians are dedicated to trying to explain why a benevolent God who commands us to love one another can also have a category for righteous bloodshed. We can’t sugar coat it all, even if the genocide passages aren’t what they appear.  

However, when it comes to answering the question, “is the Bible reliable?,” What matters most is whether God exists, not whether we understand or agree with him.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists.” God’s actions don’t validate or invalidate his existence.

When Moses encountered God at the burning bush and he asked God, “Suppose I go to the People of Israel and I tell them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you’; and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What do I tell them?”   God said to Moses, “I-AM-WHO-I-AM. Tell the People of Israel, ‘I-AM sent me to you.” Exodus 3:13-14 (MSG)  Moses and God had no conversation about whether God was nice, fair or generous. God’s encounter with the future savior of Israel wasn’t a job interview, it was an introduction to the “I am;” it was a pronouncement of divine reality and sovereignty.

• It makes no sense to reject the idea of God’s existence over a mystery.

Romans 9:20 in the Message paraphrase says, “Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?”  

To proclaim that God doesn’t exist because I find out something about him that is confusing or contradictory is like thinking, “well since I am in disagreement with several things my government does,” I think government is a figment of the imagination, therefore I will no longer pay taxes or use the services of a government that disagrees with the way I would do things.  We take advantage of a beautiful interstate system, public utilities, welfare, and education from an entity that we are often in disagreement with.  We are told to “love the Lord God with all our soul, mind, and strength,” but anyone who’s been married more than a week knows there’s a difference between liking someone and loving them.  I’m sorry if the idea of not liking God messes with your mind but if I am brutally honest with you, I am sure there are times I don’t.

• If you are rejecting a belief because of violence you cannot in good conscious be an atheist.

Consider Genesis 6:11-13  Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.   God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.   So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

Just in the twentieth century alone, more people were slaughtered at the hand of atheistic communist governments than all religious violence throughout the rest of history… the numbers aren’t even close.  I would estimate that between Stalin, Mao and Poi Pot alone at least one hundred and twenty five million non criminals and non combatants were slaughtered.  In the twenty first century we have murdered over forty five million unborn babies and not one of those statistics can be laid at the feet of religion. Recently, those who disregard the word of God have extended definition of abortion to include the just born, in some cases. To choose atheism and godless humanism as the path to non-violence is simply delusional.

• Without question faith in God and his word is the path to maximum human flourishing.

Regardless of those cringe worthy passages of God directed violence when Jesus arrived he declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)  By starting his statement with the word “way,” and concluding with the word “life,” Christ makes it clear that he is all about human flourishing. Our Lord is ultimately about love and life and opposed to brutality and death.  Lest you think the Son of God and the Father God aren’t on the same page, Christ says in the next verse. “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:7)

I suspect that when my understanding on the violence of God gets clearer I will discover that not only did death always break his heart but the resolution to the mystery of the violence of God is resolved at Calvary, where the Lamb of God was slain.  I’ve spent my whole life trying to get my heart around the justice that was accomplished on the cross but one thing I know is that never again will we be told to accomplish Divine justice with violence, never. Judgment allowed against God’s son forever ended the call for violence in the name of righteousness. John 18:11   But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”

Try as you may, you will not find a more just covenant than the Bible, nor a clearer path to human flourishing than the word of God.

Philippians 2:15-16  Become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe  as you hold out the word of life--in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.   The End