A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. Even Christians have a hard time stomaching such a thought, and many avoid reading those difficult Old Testament passages that make us squeamish. Instead, we quickly jump to the enemy-loving, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament. And yet, the question doesn't go away. Did God really command genocide? Is the command to "utterly destroy" morally unjustifiable? Is it literal? Are the issues more complex and nuanced than we realize?
In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster? , Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages. Pastors, youth pastors, campus ministers, apologetics readers, and laypeople will find that this book both enlightens and equips them for serious discussion of troubling spiritual questions.

Paul Copan, Matthew Flannagan

Hourglass

Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, 2015

United States, United States of America

2014-11-18

Introduction : The new atheism and the Old Testament.
Part one : Genocide texts and the problem of scriptural authority.
The problem clarified : an atheistic philosophical argument
What does it mean to say the Bible is the Word of God?
The God of the Old Testament versus the God of the New?
Part two : Occasional commands, hyperbolic texts, and genocidal massacres.
Does the Bible command us to kill innocent human beings?
Does the Bible portray the Canaanites as innocent?
Thrusting out, driving out, and dispossessing the Canaanites, not annihilating them
The question of genocide and the hyperbolic interpretation of Joshua
Genocide and an argument for "hagiographic hyperbole"
Objections from the biblical text to the hyperbolic interpretation
Legal and theological objections concerning genocide
Part three : Is it always wrong to kill innocent people?
Divine command theory : preliminary considerations
The divine command theory of obligation : what it is and is not
Arbitrary divine commands? : The euthyphro dilemma
Other euthyphro-related objections
Can one coherently claim that God commanded the killing of innocents?
Can one rationally believe God commands a violation of innocent human beings?
Is it rational to believe God commanded the killing of innocents?
What if someone claimed God commanded killing the innocent today?
The role of miracles and the command to kill Canaanites
Part four : Religion and violence.
Does religion cause violence?
Are Yahweh wars in the Old Testament just like Islamic jihad?
Did Old Testament war texts inspire the Crusades?
Turning the other cheek, pacifism, and just war
Afterword

This book reconciles a violent Old Testament God with a loving Jesus. Would a good, kind, and loving deity ever command the wholesale slaughter of nations? We often avoid reading difficult Old Testament passages that make us squeamish and quickly jump to the enemy-loving, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament. And yet, the question remains. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages. - Publisher.

Leading apologetics author helps readers understand how the violent commands of the Old Testament God can be reconciled with the New Testament's ethic of love as taught by Jesus.

2021-07-15