Growing up in the south, it was normal for the church’s evangelism to focus on denominational error. We were taught (appropriately) the flaws in Calvin’s TULIP, answers to premillennialism and the scriptures on baptism – it is immersion, of those old enough to believe and understand, and it was/is for forgiveness of sins.
But American society has shifted, not just outside the south but even in the south. So many people have serious, fundamental doubts about the core beliefs of Christianity. Christianity is established on three main facts: the existence of God, the inspiration of the Bible, and the deity of Jesus Christ. What happens when your friend or a family member does not believe the Bible is from God? What happens when you are dealing with someone who does not believe the “God of the Bible” exists? Where do you start?
People have so many false ideas about Christianity and the Scriptures. For example, as Donald Johnson discusses in his book, How to Talk to a Skeptic, they believe that Adam and Eve were punished simply for breaking one rule. Is that all it is? There is a fundamental misunderstanding about the holiness of God.
Why did God command Israel to exterminate whole races of people? Was that capricious? Isn’t that cruel? In the words of Richard Dawkins, is God “blood-thirsty” and “vindictive?” First, the skeptic ignores the fact that God gave the Canaanites centuries to repent of their sin (Gen. 15:16). Rehab and her family are examples of some Canaanites who did respond to the God of heaven (Joshua 2:8-13). If Rahab could have responded that way, all the Canaanites could have responded that way.
Second, the purpose of that extermination was to give the Israelites a place to live in order for God to bring Jesus into the world. His coming and dying for all mankind is far more important and significant than any life. In the process of that, the Israelites did not need to be surrounded by all that paganism which would have taken (and did, to a large extent) their eyes off God.
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Third, if God commanded the taking of the life of innocent people (including children), He has the right since He is the moral governor of the universe. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away (Job 1:21). If they were innocent in the eyes of God, then they will be in heaven and were saved from the danger of growing up in a pagan environment. The judge of all the earth will always do right (Genesis 18:25).
Fourth, who, on this earth, is in a moral position to judge God of immorality? By what standard, if there is no God, can you define “morality”? The only way to judge the extermination of the Canaanites as moral or immoral is to judge that command in light of God’s nature and His will and commands as they were revealed in the Bible. As we have suggested, if there were higher moral or spiritual issues involved than simply human life, then God cannot be charged with being bloodthirsty or vindictive.
The issue of the extermination of the Canaanites is a challenge, not for Christians, but for the skeptic. On what grounds could such a person declare ISIS and Boko Haram as immoral?
–Paul Holland
