That God
killed 25 million people seems to be a guesstimate of some atheists, but those
numbers do not matter.
Justice is God’s
attribute, so HE cannot unjustly kill even one person. Justice, moreover, is an
ontologically necessary attribute for a maximally great and perfect being -
God. Therefore, God cannot be unjust.
Since God
created everything – humans included, and because God is a just God, HE alone has
the sole authority to give and take life. To reiterate then, metaphysically a
just God cannot unjustly kill even one person, for God cannot act contrary to
HIS nature.
All that
matters is if God has revealed morally sufficient and justifiable reasons for
eliminating lives.
Hence 25
million is not a number we are concerned about; instead we are concerned about
God’s justice. So our question is, “Was God just in killing a large number of
people as recorded in the Old Testament?”
Two introductory
remarks are essential.
First, Bible
records God’s killings. If God is evil and unjust, HE need not have allowed HIS
people to record those deaths. So to begin with, the fact that God allowed the
deaths of people to be recorded in HIS revelation to mankind a.k.a the Bible,
suggests that HE is a just God.
Second, this
hue and cry about God being a ruthless killer is predominately posited by
atheists. Their intent is to establish that God does not love (for if HE loved,
HE would not have killed), and hence there is no such loving and a just God.
Atheists do
not believe in objective moral values / law (e.g. killing of people is morally
incorrect). If an atheist believes in objective moral values, then he should
posit an objective moral law giver, who is none other than God. When atheists
appeal to an objective moral law to deny God’s existence, they are merely invoking
God’s presence. So their argument is self-defeating.
Despite their
self-defeating argument, atheists persist in excoriating God. They ridicule God
to render the Christian Bible as unworthy of trust. Thus atheists attack the
inerrancy of God’s Word – The Bible.
Think about
this. Although an atheist ridicules God for killings, he never has a reasonable
answer (than the answer posited by Christians) to explain the evil in our
world.
If an atheist
is questioned about evil and its cause, his most reasonable response would be that
people are merely dancing to the music of their DNA. While discussing the
reason for evil from within the atheistic perspective, an atheist social media
debater remarked, “Oh evil just happens.” This is their best answer.
Do these
answers genuinely satisfy a rational mind? No.
As much as
an atheist loves to excoriate God, much to our chagrin, he consistently fails
to come up with reasonable responses. But on the other hand, he vehemently and
irrationally denies the rational responses posited by the Christians. Such is
their hypocrisy.
Having said
this, a just God has morally sufficient reasons to kill people, so God is
justified and none can fault God. What then is one morally sufficient and
justifiable reason for God to kill people?
God Can Kill Wicked
& Unrepentant People
Deuteronomy
2:34, 3:6, 20:16-18, Exodus 23:23, Deuteronomy 7:1-2, Joshua 3:10, 9:24 and 1
Samuel 15:2-3 record God’s command to exterminate people. Take for instance
the Canaanites, who were they?
They were
wicked. They practiced idolatry, witchcraft, soothsaying, sorcery, incest,
adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality and bestiality.1
But wasn’t
there a chance for these people to repent and be good? Yes. Genesis 15: 13-16
teaches that God refrained from his judgment upon the Canaanites for 400 years
during which time God’s own people languished in slavery.
If
Canaanites did not repent in 400 years, common sense suggests that they would
not have repented even if God had given them another 400 years. But God is omniscient
(God possesses middle knowledge2 as well). Thus God knew precisely
that Canaanites would not repent. Hence God judged them.
What about
children who were killed? Was God unjust in killing children? No!
Death is
either a gateway to heaven or hell. When children die, God in HIS grace takes
them into HIS own presence (Cf. 2 Samuel 12: 23). So the death of children is
in fact their salvation. Children who die will be with God in heaven.
Just as how
the owner of a building possesses all authority to demolish a building, God, the
owner of every life, possesses all authority to create and to eliminate life. Instead
of allowing the children to grow in the Canaanite practice, God in HIS mercy
takes them away, and by doing so, favors the children from an eternal
perspective.
Having said
this, let us engage some objections:
Objection #1: God
Killed Millions But Satan Killed Only 60!
Obviously
this objection accuses God as the greater evil. Since the source of the data
for this objection is the Bible, it’s only reasonable that we posit a response
from the Bible.
The Bible
does not refer to Satan as a good being. Satan opposes God. The Bible terms Satan
as an accuser (Revelation 12:10), tempter (Matthew 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:5),
and a deceiver (Genesis 3; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:3).
If Satan
opposes God, and if God is an evil killer (as proclaimed by the atheists), then
Satan should be intrinsically good. But Satan is not good, instead Satan is
purely evil. Therefore, the inverse condition is more reasonable i.e. since
Satan, the evil being, opposes God, God should be intrinsically good.
Significantly,
those who raise this objection against God display a serious inadequacy of biblical
comprehension. God is sovereign, whereas Satan is not. It is also evident from
the Bible that Satan is not independent of God. Satan cannot kill anyone
without God allowing him to. Therefore, attribute the 60 or whatever number
that one wants to add to Satan’s credit into God’s account.
Every
single death by Satan can be reasonably explained. Consider Job’s family that
was killed by Satan.
God allowed
it for a particular reason. While God commends Job’s righteousness, Satan
accused Job of being godly and righteous for selfish reasons. If the godliness of
a righteous man in whom God delights can be shown to be a terrible sin, then
redemption is unimaginable, for the godliest of godly will be the most ungodly.
More importantly, God’s judgment about Job’s righteousness would have been
proven erroneous.
Therefore,
God allows Job’s travails, and true to God’s commendation, Job emerges as godly
and righteous after that severe trial. Satan was proven to be a false accuser.
Objection #2: God
Cannot Murder
If you and
I cannot murder, then God cannot murder as well.
Because the
universe in its creational intent is temporal, human life is also temporal.
Therefore the creational intent is that death is inevitable for every human
life - that which is born should die. As said before, only the creator God can
eliminate life when HE determines the appropriate time and reason according to
HIS perfect knowledge and justice.
God does
not murder when HE eliminates life
from this temporal world. God judges people
for violating HIS laws. The consequence of God’s judgment is death initiated by
God.
A case in
point is that a just human judge does not murder when he sentences a convict to
death; instead the judge pronounces a judgment upon a law-offender. A judge has
the authority to sentence a criminal to death, if the said criminal is a proven
offender of the law.
Objection #3: If God
Can Kill, So Can A Parent
Life is
created by God. A father and a mother do not create life. They merely provide
the sperm and the egg, which is the creational design of God. Thus father and mother
are a means to creation of life.
Parents are
created beings themselves. Parents are not creators of life. Therefore, parents
are merely stewards of life created by God.
Since
parents are not creators, they are not owners of life, hence parents, as
created beings themselves, do not have the authority to eliminate life. Only
the creator God has the authority to eliminate life. No one else has this
authority.
Objection #4: Why Did
God Not Offer Sodom & Gomorrah 400 years To Repent?
We posit
God’s deferral of judgment upon Canaanites for 400 years as justification for
the Canaanite massacre. But this act of God requires a greater understanding.
God is
omniscient – HE knows everything with respect to the past, present and the
future. God possesses middle knowledge as well.
To begin
with, God would have known that even in 400 years the Canaanites would not
repent. So to infer that God hoped
for the Canaanites to repent and believe in HIM is incorrect.
Why then
did God wait for 400 years to judge Canaanites? On one hand, God waited for 400
years to judge the Canaanites but on the other hand, God punished Sodom &
Gomorrah rather quickly. Why?
Both
Canaanites and the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of sins against
God. Neither of them repented before God’s judgment. So it was morally
sufficient and justifiable for God to judge them both for their sins.
The Bible
teaches us, “Will not the Judge of all
the earth do right?” (Genesis 18: 25c, NIV). God, for reasons that are
just, but best known to HIM, defers judgment upon people, according to HIS will.
But the
Bible does provide a clue about God’s judgment of Canaanites and Sodomites. In
Genesis 15: 13-16, God says that “…the
sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” So God waited
for their sins to reach its full measure to pronounce judgment upon the
Amorites - a Canaanite clan. Similarly it is possible that the sins of Sodom
and Gomorrah had reached its full measure when judgment was pronounced (Cf.
Genesis 19: 13).
Conclusion
We can go
on and on reasonably dealing with every objection that are posited against God.
When a mind compulsively argues against God, then it’s a given that that mind integrally
refuses or does not innately desire to comprehend God. This is a mind that has
rejected God. This mind, as long as it continues to integrally reject God, will
not comprehend God, barring a divine intervention in the likeness of an
intervention on the road to Damascus.
Then there
are honest objections against God. These objections are from a mind that
earnestly desires and seeks to comprehend God and HIS actions in this world. An
infinite being’s actions in this world are not effortlessly comprehensible by
finite minds, such as yours and mine.
Therefore,
our starting point is to earnestly seek God in all humility for all our doubts
and confusions. May we, by the grace of God, endeavor to assimilate the
humility that Christ practiced, and may the peace of God that transcends human
comprehension fill our hearts and minds and guard us in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Endnotes:
1 http://www.equip.org/articles/killing-the-canaanites/#christian-books-2
&
http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=12&article=1630
&
http://www.evidenceunseen.com/what-about-the-canaanite-genocide/
2 Dr. William Lane Craig defines middle knowledge as the
knowledge of what every possible person would freely do in any circumstances in
which God might place him, God knows what sort of evidence will be
non-coercively conducive to belief on the part of each human person.
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/middle-knowledge-and-christian-particularism#ixzz3KWP5ZpSM
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