18:7-8 ). Nevertheless, those that choose to reject Gods love will be lost (2 Peter 3:7). Because of this, I think the term should be avoided. We're not around right now. 4:1314; Ezek. Presumably, the Canaanites could have done the same thing. They reason something along these lines: (1) Christians condemn genocide. This document may not be repackaged in any form for sale or resale. 18:28). Skeptics have claimed that God was unjust when He ordained Israel to destroy the Canaanites. 6:23), and ultimately every unrepentant sinner will have to face Gods judgment. Genocide doesn't wait for people to have a change of heart; and certainly not 400 years. However, the city repented, turned to God, and God did not judge them. The Canaanites worshiped other gods, which the Old Testament frequently denounced as no more than sticks or pottery made by human hands that could not see or hear or eat or smell (Deut. Thus, they were all without excuse for not worshiping God. God promised Abraham (Genesis 15), that his seed would inherit the land of Canaan. What the Israelites are told to do to the Amalekites is exactly what the Amalekites had been doing to Israel. Women were no less guilty than men, and in many cases they were the principal instigators. The atheism of today wasnt an option. Covenant Theological Seminary) serves as an assistant pastor at Riveroaks Reformed Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Tennessee. See also Leupold (1942, 463). And I say contemporary because children werent regarded as highly in the Ancient Near East as they are today. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Capital Punishment Reason 4 Scholar Glen Miller points out that dispossession words are used by a three-to-one margin over destruction words.{12}. Consider one basic example of how new atheist rationalizations echo the propensities of Canaanite sin, and indeed, echo the rationalizations of the human heart. From the Canaanite epic poem The Baal Cycle we learn: Mightiest Baal hears / He makes love with a heifer in the outback / A cow in the field of Deaths Realm. Dt. If He does not receive a proper response, He promises great tribulation and martyrdomnot necessarily as punishment, but as an inducement to repent. He points out 2023 Probe Ministries | Designed and Managed by Adquest Creative. If He wanted to strike me dead right now, thats His prerogative (Reasonable Faith . The problem with new atheist divine genocide claims is rather simple: God hates sin, but the new atheists do not.35 Consequently, they complain of divine genocide in the face of Canaanite sin! Rahab spoke of having heard about Israels great God and His mighty miracles. Did the Canaanites Have a Chance? When Jesus came, He shifted the battle to the spiritual realm; He fought spiritual powers and authorities. wars instituted by and fought with the, My eldest daughter and I have been discussing portions of the Bible with which she is struggling. He blogs at, How J. K. Rowling Played, then Lost, the Polarization Game, GAFCON IV: Lessons from a Communion in Birth Pains, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Christian Nationalism, What to Do When Your Child Is Addicted to Video Games, Radical Christian Gentleness in an Era of Addictive Outrage, The FAQs: Anglican Group Calls on Church of Englands Leader to Repent, Whats the Earliest Evidence for Christianity? Spoiler alert: God did give Canaan a chance to repent. Incest. These nations were cut off to prevent the corruption of Israel and the rest of the world (Deuteronomy 20:16-18). Even so, many who acknowledge Gods existence still have trouble accepting the morality of Scripture. God has delivered Israel and set them apart as His people. Because of such things, biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins describes God as a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser . Killing of the Canaanites, Robert Driskell received a Bachelor of Arts degree in both Pastoral Ministries and Biblical Studies from Mid-America Christian University in 1995. Such a complaint usually masks an unspoken premise: God shouldnt have killed the children because that wouldnt give them the chance to reject Canaanite sin. And since, as we will see, He punished Israel when they committed the same sins, what happened to the Canaanites was not genocide, but capital punishment. . 13. A God of love and justice, they say, could never command genocide, and therefore he must not exist. Phase five of Yahweh war will be the final battle of history when Jesus returns and will once again be military in nature. Was John the Baptist the only person that understood Christs mission. It makes no sense to say that the erem laws are unjust unless there is an objective standard of justice to which they must conform. They were fully aware that God had chosen Israel to be a tool in His hands in bringing judgement to the nations. Another biblical story that is similar to the story of Ananias and Sapphira is the story of Elisha's servant, Gehazi greedily wanting money for Naaman's healing . We all recognize this when we accuse some authority who presumes to take life as playing GodGod is under no obligation whatsoever to extend my life for another second. 18:17 and 25:28. Idolatry. Had there been repentance, there would have been no need to execute wrath on evildoers. In Genesis 15:16, God told Abraham that his descendants would have to remain slaves in Egypt for 400 years before taking possession of Canaan, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. So God was patient in dealing with the Canaanite nations, waiting until they reached the point of no return. Cf. Every forecast of prophecy of doom came with an implied unless attached to it: If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. Also, this wasnt the entire destruction of a race as God didnt order that every Canaanite be killed but only those who lived within specific geographical boundaries (Josh. Inanna/Ishtar, also known as the Queen of Heaven, became the woman among the gods, patron of eroticism and sensuality, of conjugal love as well as adultery, of brides and prostitutes, transvestites and pederasts.10 As University of Helsinki professor Martti Nissinen writes, Sexual contact with a person whose whole life was devoted to the goddess was tantamount to union with the goddess herself.11, The Canaanites even remake the God of the Bible, El, after their own image and portray Him ceremonially as having sex with two women (or goddesses). Change). Wouldnt even infants, as they grew, begin to ask, What practices did my parents do which resulted in your killing them? As sad as this is, it also points to the horror of sin. In short, Israel was Canaanized. They say they refuse to believe in any being that could be so cruel and heartless. I think God meant it quite literally. In regard to the Canaanites, God commanded, "In the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. This is an online Viewpoint articlefrom theChristian Research Journal. Of course Dawkins complains that Gods monumental rage whenever his chosen people flirted with a rival god resembles nothing so much as sexual jealousy of the worst kind.5 But does anyone think that if Dawkinss wife left him for a gingerbread man of her own baking, and then she began to tell everyone that he liked to play with his excrement, that Dawkins would tolerate the characterization of his feelings as no more than sexual jealously of the worst kind? An even more detestable practice was that of child sacrifice. There are many nations and peoples called wicked or evil and then destroyed in the Bible including Canaan, Hittites, Giggahites, Amorites, Pharaoh and his people, Sodom and Gommorah. (Judges 2:1-3; 1 Kings 11:5; 14:24; 2 Kings 16:3-4). Theeremlaws of the OT were an example of this intrusion. Leviticus 27:29 says very plainly that every person devoted to destruction was to be killed. Moreover, given the evidence of Canaanite sin, it is no stretch to realize that even many young children would have already learned Canaanite ways. The "new atheists" call God's commands to kill the Canaanites "genocide," but a closer look at the horror of the Canaanites' sinfulness, exhibited in rampant idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality, reveals that God's reason for commanding their death was not genocide but capital punishment. Lets look at something God told Abraham before all this started. Conclusion: What does this tell us about God? And so for 400 years more, the Amorites were allowed to live and do as they pleased. The tragedy of this story is that not only is idolatry an offense to Yahweh, but it fails to supply a happy ending for human communities as well. Permission is granted to use in digital or printed form so long as it is circulated without charge, and in its entirety. If you feel an answer is not 100% Bible based, then leave a comment, and we'll be sure to review it. All reproductions of this document must contain the copyright notice (i.e., Copyright 2023 Probe Ministries) and this Copyright/Limitations notice. For further information or to subscribe to the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL go to: http://www.equip.org/christian-research-journal/. There is no justice in the world today, and therefore there must be a day when the wrongs of the present life are made right. He is passionate about understanding the Bible and helping others do the same. Since the land wasnt empty, this could only be accomplished by driving the Canaanites out. However, the verses that follow, namely verses 16-18, disallowed the same offer to be given to Canaan. Here are a few factors to take into consideration: First, the sins of parents, just like their successes, have an impact on their children. But the section ends with Samson. A more detailed version is also available on our Web site with the title Yahweh War and the Conquest of Canaan. Canaanite religion, like that of all of the ANE, was a fertility religion that involved temple sex. 2:34; 3:3, 6). God was patient. Third, God gave the Canaanites ample time to repent. Abraham decides to bargain again okay, okay but what about if Im 5 people short? Real Questions. Tugis life was full of dignity and worth. God gives nations a chance to choose that which is right and to mend their ways but if they refuse godliness and adopt immorality, idolatry, covetousness, sexual impurity, etc., then God has no alternative but to let them reap the consequences of their own wickedness. Tagged as: He holds a B.A. Some Christians have responded by driving a wedge between the Old Testament and the New, claiming that Jesuss ethics improved upon the brutal practices of ancient Israel. Under the sanctuary in the ancient city of Gezer, urns containing the burnt bones of children have been found. 4. Robert believes that the Bible contains the truth that God wants us to base our lives upon. 7:2-3. Yahweh is a God of justice as well as mercy. The Bible is explicit concerning the sins of the Canaanites: idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality. No matter what God does, all of His actions are guided by His sovereign will and the fact that He, so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 ESV). Paul Copan, How Could a Loving God Command Genocide, in Thats Just Your Interpretation (Grand Rapid: Baker, 2001), 165. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 550. They could have repented of their evil, followed God, and been spared judgment. Read them in the archive below. 7). Christian Answers, Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The Canaanites, by contrast, were destroyed at the direction of God and primarily because of their sin. That we commit similar sins today renders us incapable of appropriate moral outrage against these sins and thus we accuse God of genocide to justify our own sinfulness. The evidence says no. Probably the ultimate sexual depravity is intercourse with animals. However, what is good and right or what is bad and wrong changes with societys opinions. In Deuteronomy 20:18, God gave Israel an explicit reason why it was necessary to wipe out the Canaanites: that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God., It was merciful for God to limit the scope of the. 13-14), but in nearby cities they were to save nothing alive that breathes (v. 16). God had warned them against that (Deut. Can the actions of the Israelites legitimately be called genocide? Ironically, the unbelievers moral criticisms presuppose a transcendent source of morality. Although prophets warned the northern kingdom (usually referred to as Israel or Samaria) of impending doom, they didnt repent, and in 722 BC the king of Assyria killed or deported most of them, and filled the land with conquered peoples from other nations. If we see humans as being basically good or innocent, then of course we will react with indignation to the Bibleseremlaws. The judgment that they foreshadowed was demonstrated decisively on the cross of Christ, who received the full measure of Gods wrath for the sins of his people. (LogOut/ . Abraham asked the Lord this exact question in Genesis 18 regarding the coming destruction of two Canaanite citiesSodom and Gomorrah: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? God and the Canaanites: A Biblical Perspective, www.epsociety.org/library/articles.asp?pid=45, www.epsociety.org/library/articles.asp?pid=63, Yahweh War and the Conquest of Canaan - A Biblical Worldview Perspective, "How Could a Compassionate God Order the Genocide of the Canaanites? He can give and take life as He chooses. This clearly shows Gods mercy on sinners, and that He gives them a time of probation that they may repent. Paul Rutherford explains the lies he believed and tow which he was in bondage about pornography, until Jesus helped him achieve sexual sobriety. . God mercifully provides time and opportunity for repentance from idolatry and spiritual fornication with this world ( II Peter 3:9 ). Curiously, this simply relates back to the entire dialogue of God with Abraham. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. He gave them the law so that they may know Him and His ways. Also, God made it clear in His conversation with Abraham regarding the Canaanite cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that He knows who would or would not repent, and in the case of those cities, not one person would heed the warning and even Lots family had to be forcibly pulled away from the coming destruction. 2:25) and even included in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt. As a result, they eventually received the same judgment the Canaanites experienced ( Deut. These twentieth-century examples were basically people killing people simply because they hated them and/or wanted their land. Dawkins objects that it adds injury to insult that the unfortunate beast is to be killed too.23 But Dawkins doesnt seem to grasp that no one would want to have animals around who were used to having sex with humans.24 Moreover, this might also explain why God used a flood to destroy what Dawkins called the presumably blameless animals in the days of Noah.25 If pre-flood humankind frequently had sex with every imaginable animal, then even though it wasnt the animals fault, it would be harmful to allow these animals to be a part of Gods start-over society. I probably will not answer every question in this short article, and even some of the answers I give will not satisfy everyone, but I do hope to present a solid biblical argument for the goodness, holiness, love, and justice of our Creator God. 4:26; 7:4 ). 1:4). Are We Held Accountable for the Sins of Our Forefathers? With Miller, I think they can. That atheists are incapable of judging spiritual matters leads some Christians to wonder why we even need to answer them at all, especially if they lack any objective, moral, or epistemological foundation for their claims. Christians today are engaged in warfare on this level. When angels arrive, however, the men of the city try to rape them and not only does Lot not find anyone who will repent, Lot himself tarries so long that the angels take Lot and his family by the arms and all but drag them out of the city. Used by permission. If you think the Canaanites deserved to die because of their own wickedness, Dawkins will zealously compare you to acting like the Taliban.3 A closer look at several key facts will help explain Gods reason for the destruction of the Canaanites and reveal how our own sinfulness demonstrates our incapacity to judge rightly.