The Bible and God's Genocide
By coffeechat
@coffeechat (1961)
New Zealand
March 4, 2007 2:31am CST
Genocide - the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. Better yet, the deliberate killing of a race of people
In the Bible, there are many passages which appear to be in conflict with today's moral consensus. These verses describe what appears to be an unjust instruction or actions by God to commit genocide. These involve the murder of innocent, defenseless individuals, children, infants, newborns and the elderly. In some cases, they are single murders and in other instances, mass murder.
Here are a few examples:
1. The Passover incident in which all of the firstborn of Egypt were slaughtered. Exodus chapters 11 and 12.
2. The conquest of Canaan: God ordered the Hebrews to completely exterminate the Canaanite people (from the elderly to the newborns. This can be read in the book of Joshua.
3. The worldwide flood at the time of Noah as described in Genesis, chapters 6 to 8. From the description, it almost completely wiped out the human race, with the exception of Noah, his wife and sons and their wives.
And, here are some verses which specifically says that God has "commanded" the act of killing.
"When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you may nations...then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy." Deuteronomy 7:1-2
"...do not leave alive anything that breaths. Completely destroy them...as the Lord your God has commanded you..." Deuteronomy 20:16
If one does believe in the Bible, the book of Revelation predicts that another massive genocide will occur sometime in the future - THE WAR OF ARMAGEDDON or the end of the world as we know it.
So is God really a loving, caring and merciful God as many would believe him to be?
2 people like this
4 responses
@coffeechat (1961)
• New Zealand
6 Mar 07
Fair enough!
Does it pass the test of logic or reason or belief?
Would love to hear more about this. Thank you.
@headhunter525 (3548)
• India
4 Mar 07
Is God really a just, holy and righteous God as many would believe him to be?
I think your last line must be squarely put with the question that I asked?
To take one character of God and leave out another would be unfair in our thinking or understanding about God. If we are to be honest we must take both aspects or else we miss out the point.
You talk about the conquest of Canaan and the slaughter there, but in another passage we read God giving them 400 years to repent from their evil practice like child sacrifice. What do you want God to do there? Bring judgement to correct the systmem or let the practice continue. First born slaughter in Egypt! What about the Hebrew male child slaughter by the king? Or the slavery? Armageddon has to be understood in its proper context and there are various interpretations. But even if we take the generally understood version, what's wrong with God fighting the Devil and his army? Devil is by definition evil. By the way, not all were killed when you said 'all'...you can read of qualification if you read the entire books. One one reads the Bible one has to take the whole script to get the plot of the story, not pick and choose. If we do that in our academic pursuit we fail the exam!
1 person likes this
@sandy_oneill (39)
• United States
4 Mar 07
No, the God of the Bible is not loving, caring, or merciful. Look what he did to his own son. Do you really expect him to do any better for the rest of mankind?
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