The God of the Bible is often charged with gross immorality, especially for ordering entire nations to be destroyed in the Old Testament. He commanded Israel to cleanse Canaan of its immoral, idol-worshiping nations after the Exodus, and in 1 Samuel 15 he instructed them to destroy Amalek completely, “man and women, child and infant, oxen and sheep, camel and donkey.”
This post is the first of at least two I will write on the genocide question. I will begin by working out a more careful definition of the question. We know what genocide is, of course: it is the attempt (successful or not) to eliminate an entire race, tribe, or nation of people. It is murder writ very large, involving many co-participants in evil and resulting in the deaths of many.
There is no hiding what God told Israel to do. The question is whether God or the Bible are free of the guilt we normally attach to genocide.
I do not propose to answer that question now. I believe there is an answer, but I will save that for the next post (and possibly beyond). The first task is to reflect on what makes genocide the extreme evil that it is, for definition of that sort is essential to the next steps.
For example, one thing that makes genocide so evil is the sheer numbers of deaths that result. In Rwanda, the dead numbered in the hundreds of thousands; in the Holocaust, they totaled many millions. To bring about that many deaths is unspeakably wrong. A believer in the Bible must be prepared to say how God could be free of blame for ordering thousands to die.
Genocide is also wrong in that it:
- Originates from a heart of hate
- Involves a desire to dominate
- Ignores justice and mercy toward the victims
- Targets its victims indiscriminately, without respect to guilt or innocence, age, status in life, sex, or ability to defend themselves or to be aggressors themselves
- Generally entails taking the law into one’s own hands
- Is oriented against the ultimate establishment of justice and mercy in the land
- Provokes severe terror
- Forces huge hardship (massive displacement, refugee situations, economic hardship that may extend as far as nakedness and famine)
- Tears apart families
- Seeks to systematically destroy not only individuals (in large numbers) but also their cultures or ways of living
- Rends the conscience of the perpetrators
What did I miss? It’s easy to overlook things when one tries to systematize in this way. That is essentially the question for today’s post, and you’re welcome to extend my list by adding comments. Even from this, clearly there is something about genocide that is more wrong, and more obviously wrong, than just about. Yet we who believe in God continue to believe that he is holy, good, and just. How can we do this?
I am setting up the question today, not answering it, but I will preview the manner in which I’ll be answering by offering a partial response to the first point raised here: the sheer number of deaths. My approach will be to treat each of the bulleted points separately first, and then later to integrate those treatments into a combined closing response. Therefore, for now, I’m separating out the matter of the number of deaths from the other listed issues. My first look is not at the way they died, or the terror that accompanied it, or any of the other related aspects, but at just the number of those who died. Can God be free of blame in calling for so many deaths?
Let’s be very realistic: on that matter, if God has a problem, it’s far greater than just these genocides. From the very beginning, from the time of the Fall, God has watched over the deaths not of thousands or millions but billions. Some have lived long lives (by human standards), some have been cut off very early, by disease, malnourishment, neglect, injury, or violence. But every victim of genocide was destined to die, even apart from such violence. We have three options in assessing this. Either:
- God is morally blamable for all the deaths in history, and genocide is just another instance of this (though a special case due to the other factors already named), or
- God is not blamable for all the deaths in history, but genocide is nevertheless a special case for the reasons listed, so he remains culpable in the case of the OT genocides, or
- God is not morally blamable for all the deaths in history, and for reasons to be discussed later, he is also not morally blamable for the OT genocides.
The three options are very different, yet they have something very important in common with each other. You can take your pick of any of the three, and no matter which one you choose, inevitably you see that the issue is not the same for God as it is for humans. There is no way it could be the same: we have not looked on the death of every human that has ever lived. God has. If we consider God’s role in these genocides the same way we do humans’, then we are certain to get it wrong, for God’s role and relation to the events is not the same as ours. We need to think through these differences. The reflexive reaction we all have toward mass killings requires more reflection in God’s case.
That last point bears repeating. This whole matter is laden with emotion, and rightly so, based on our experiences over the last century and more. I respect that depth of emotion, and will continue to do so. But I will also lead us to consider whether those feelings tell the whole story with respect to God’s actions in the Old Testament. The question must be asked that way, because we have seen, the issue for God is not the same as it is for humans. We’ve demonstrated that already. The question is not whether it’s different for God, but how it is different for God, and whether that makes a difference.
It also bears repeating that I have not yet begun to answer the questions raised here. I think it may be premature even for commenters to start in with answers, because it’s so crucial to get the question defined clearly first. I would prefer it if we could all focus our comments on defining the question for now. We’ll start working on answers soon enough.
Tweet This Post
