Resources The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version(ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Slaughter of the Canaanites | Reasonable Faith Driving them out wasnt simply a way of making room for Israel. 11:31; Jas. 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. Copyright 2010-2023 Telling Ministries LLC. He gets no pleasure in the death of anyone. 12:4, 30, 31). Here we encounter the issue of authority. God promised Canaan to Abraham and his children. This article is a slightly adapted version of the program that aired on the Probe radio program. Christians today are engaged in warfare on this level. God gave us life, and He has the right to take it away. Idolatry perverts our ability to love what Yahweh loves. God and the Canaanites: A Biblical Perspective - Probe Ministries Then He says something very Interesting your descendants will come back in the fourth generation, because the sins of the Amorites hasnt been fulfilled. The Amorites in this case are the Canaanites. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, in his " ", posits that one of the reasons that Sodom was not given the chance to repent was that even their children were wicked. Before joining Probe Ministries, Rick worked in the ship repair industry in Norfolk, VA. There were absolutely no prohibitions against bestiality in the rest of the ANE.21 In fact, in an Egyptian dream book it was a bad omen for a woman to dream about embracing her husband, but good things would happen if she dreamed of intercourse with a baboon, wolf, or he-goat.22 In short, their sexual fantasies involved everything that breathes. . See the Papyrus Chester Beatty III recto (BM10683) from about 1175 BC as referenced in Lise Manniche, For an example of how embarrassing and dangerous this could be, see Robert M. Yerkes, The Mind of the Gorilla: Part III. 6:23), and ultimately every unrepentant sinner will have to face Gods judgment. 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. Bible Verses, Quotes, Christian Answers, Songs and More. Kerby Anderson explains how cohabitation (living together outside of marriage) not only violates biblical commands about premarital sex, but it also puts the couple and their future marriage at risk. Atheists use this fact to condemn the character of God. 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). Ironically, the unbelievers moral criticisms presuppose a transcendent source of morality. In phase one, God fought the flesh-and-blood enemies of Israel. A common attack today on Christianity has to do with the character of the God of the Old Testament{1}. Lets look at something God told Abraham before all this started. So the Lord said that Israel became like Sodom to me (Jer. When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Consider one basic example of how new atheist rationalizations echo the propensities of Canaanite sin, and indeed, echo the rationalizations of the human heart. The people believed that re-enacting these unions themselves played a part in the fertility of the land.{9}. God sought to reveal His standards of righteousness to a thoroughly corrupted humankind, and He chose Israel out of the nations to exhibit the requirements for relationship with Him (Deut. God had given the Midianites, Amalekites and other Canaanites 400 years to repent of their unbelievably evil practices (sacrificing children on red-hot idols being one of them), and they hadn't (Genesis 15:13-16). 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. 1. All rights reserved. Why did God wipe out the Canaanites? : r/TrueChristian To answer these questions, we must understand the place of the erem laws in the history of redemption. The law given in Deuteronomy provided regulations for the people of Israel. In Genesis 15:16 the LORD made reference to the Canaanites when he said, "the sin of the Amorites (Canaanites) has not yet reached its full measure." God was waiting to fulfill his justice against this people. He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Then, in AD 70, forty years after Jesus was crucified, the Roman emperor Titus destroyed Jerusalem. The non-believer has no objective authority. The Canaanites were the only people God commanded the Israelites to destroy Israel was not allowed to treat other nations as they treated the Canaanite cities. 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? 7:1-2). Third, if one holds that there is an age of accountability for children, and that those younger than that are received into heaven with God at their death, although the means of death were frightful and harsh, the Canaanite childrens experience after death would be better than if theyd continued to live among such a sinful people. 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. Under the sanctuary in the ancient city of Gezer, urns containing the burnt bones of children have been found. Israel was warned not to let the Canaanites live in their land, but to completely destroy them (Exod. The Canaanites were descendants of Noah. 2. God promised Canaan to Abraham and his children. Emphasis added. In a recent debate with William Lane Craig, Hitchens exhorted the Christians in the audience, Emancipate yourself from the idea of a celestial dictatorship and youve taken the first step toward becoming free.32, Although Dawkins nowhere endorses sex with animals, he does endorse Princeton atheist and ethicist Peter Singer as an eloquent advocate for our need to become postspeciesist.33 According to Singer, to claim that one species is better than another is to invoke grave implications because, after all, We are animals.This does not make sex across the species barrier normal, or natural, whatever those much-misused words may mean, but it does imply that it ceases to be an offence to our status and dignity as human beings.34. wars instituted by and fought with the, My eldest daughter and I have been discussing portions of the Bible with which she is struggling. What the Israelites are told to do to the Amalekites is exactly what the Amalekites had been doing to Israel. Used by permission. 14. And as a consequence, God used Israel to bring judgement upon them. 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 . (Deut. Presumably, the Canaanites could have done the same thing. It also happens to be one of the most frequently heard objections to the Christian faith today. 2001 W. Plano Parkway, Suite 2000 God was patient. What Do the Four Soils in the Parable of the Sower Represent? Long after the conquest of the land, when God decided He would have to destroy Moab, according to Isaiah God wept bitterly over her cities (Isa. This was especially true of the Canaanite societies steeped in abominable practices like child sacrifice and cult prostitution. In phase two, God fought against Israel when it broke its side of its covenant with God (cf. 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. Conclusion: What does this tell us about God? The story of Canaanite incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality flow out of the plot line of idolatry. Robert believes that the Bible contains the truth that God wants us to base our lives upon. 34:1516). 22 Christian Quotes and Sayings About God. 12. Concerning sexual desire, Dawkins questions why evangelical Christians are so obsessed with private sexual inclinations.30 The apparently not obsessed Christopher Hitchens considers dangerous sexual repression so serious that he calls it one of the four irreducible objections to religious faith.31 Dawkins and Hitchens are not just encouraging a sort of sexual libertarianism per se. Instead, the Israelites worshiped the Canaanites gods and did evil (Judg. 4:1314; Ezek. God knew it would take the destruction of the nations. Spoiler alert: God did give Canaan a chance to repent. Isnt there an inconsistency here? genocidal . 4:58). Accessed 5 November 2008. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston: Mariner Books, 2008), 51. 13-14), but in nearby cities they were to save nothing alive that breathes (v. 16). 13. As a result, they eventually received the same judgment the Canaanites experienced ( Deut. What God commanded Israel to do to the Canaanites wasnt genocideit was capital punishment. 23:14). If they had sex with just about every living thing they could get their hands on, and they did, then all had to die. What about these people prompted such a harsh judgment? Tagged as: For example, God commanded the Israelites, in Deuteronomy 20:10-15, to offer conditions of peace rather than extermination to all others. This was Gods judgment carried out on the people of Canaan using the chosen people of Israel. Tugis life was full of dignity and worth. 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. Robert has written 111 articles on What Christians Want To Know! 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. If we see humans as being basically good or innocent, then of course we will react with indignation to the Bibleseremlaws. Paul Copan, How Could a Loving God Command Genocide, in Thats Just Your Interpretation (Grand Rapid: Baker, 2001), 165. IGRG: Did God Give The Canaanites a Chance? - lofteideas A special thanks to Joseph Gorra for his many helpful suggestions and to my wife, Jean E. Jones, for her extensive reading of ANE primary and secondary sources and for years ago explaining to me much of the Old Testament. Yahweh wars are battles recorded in Scripture that are prompted by God for His purposes and won by His power.{4}. A biblical example of this would be Gods treatment of the city of Nineveh. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Then theres Sodom, God tells Abraham that because of the wickedness of Sodom He will destroy it. (2) Yahwehs command to kill the Canaanites was an act of divine genocide. When God told Abraham He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded for them, and God agreed in his mercy that if but only ten righteous people were found, He wouldnt do it. But this is precisely the thing that the unbeliever loses in denying the existence of God. Christian Answers, In the old testament God tells Joshua to kill all the Canaanites, including women and children. The third goal of the conquest was the protection of Israel. Baal has sex with his mother Asherah,6 his sister Anat, and his daughter Pidray,7 and none of this is presented pejoratively. Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases on Amazon.com. The ceremony ends with directions: To be repeated five times by the company and the singers of the assembly.12 About this John Gray comments, We may well suppose that this activity of El was sacramentally experienced by the community in the sexual orgies of the fertility cult which the Hebrew prophets so vehemently denounced.13, Child sacrifice. How could the Israelites intermarry with the Canaanites if they killed them all? However, once the biblical doctrines of God and of sin are taken into consideration, the background scenery changes and the picture looks very different. In short, Israel was Canaanized. Thus, the Lord said to Abraham in Genesis 15:16, "the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." In Ezekiel 18:23 we read, Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? (see also Ezek. When a community sins, there are consequences for every member of the population, even children. A God of love and justice, they say, could never command genocide, and therefore he must not exist. Can these be put together? 1 Chronicles 16:11 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! For one thing, the Canaanites worshipped other gods. He teaches theology at Westminster Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. God has done everything in His power to save the sinner through the plan of redemption (John 3:16). The Canaanites: Genocide Or Judgment? | Bible.org Genocide doesn't wait for people to have a change of heart; and certainly not 400 years. Much of what follows is horrific, but if we refuse to look, will we really understand the reasons for Gods judgment? 18:28). For the story of Baal having sex with Asherah, see: El, Ashertu and the Storm-god, trans. As a result, they eventually received the same judgment the Canaanites experienced (Deut. Going by this definition alone, the destruction of the Canaanites would seem to have been genocide. Though rebellion must be put down and rebels must be punished for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), God displays mercy for He is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). The victims were not only infants; children as old as four were sacrificed.15 Kleitarchos reported that as the flame burning the child surrounded the body, the limbs would shrivel up and the mouth would appear to grin as if laughing, until it was shrunk enough to slip into the cauldron.16, Homosexuality. [1] Tremper Longman, The Case for Spiritual Continuity, inShow Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide, ed. The Canaanites were grossly sinful people who were given plenty of time by God to change their ways. This wasnt merely punishment, however. Nevertheless, those that choose to reject Gods love will be lost (2 Peter 3:7). Rahab spoke of having heard about Israels great God and His mighty miracles. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 550. The second premise is false, however. In other words, we now wage war in prayer and in the realm of ideas. 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. When Jesus came, He shifted the battle to the spiritual realm; He fought spiritual powers and authorities. 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). . God spoke these words to the Israelites as they were encamped on the plains of Moab and about to cross the Jordan River into Canaan. The question has been raised whether God really intended the Israelites to kill all the people. What the Bible says about Opportunity to Repent What the Bible says about Why did God Command Israel to Go to War 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. Additionally, some ANE manuscripts talk about party-boys and festival people who changed their masculinity into femininity to make the people of Ishtar revere her.17. Glenn M. Miller, How could a God of Love order the massacre/annihilation of the Canaanites? on the web site A Christian Thinktank, If Jesus had died to redeem humankind prior to humankinds comprehending the depth of their sin, then people would question the need for Jesus death. He is convinced that the hope of the world lies in men and women having a saving relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus then warned, What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 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. The people have rebelled against God and spend 40 years in the desert. If He wanted to strike me dead right now, thats His prerogative (Reasonable Faith . In his article Yahweh Wars which was written after Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?, Copan presents two scenarios, one in which everyone was put to death, and the other in which the targets were military leaders and soldiers. These people were not clueless about their responsibility to God; rather, they openly mocked His lordship and committed horrible acts that even the most hardened of us would deem worthy of judgment. And He said to Abraham, you and your children to the fourth generation must be patient too. Yahweh is a God of justice as well as mercy. Not even the children are considered innocent. So for those of us who confess the authority of both the Old and New Testaments, we are faced with a number of challenging questions: How do we reconcile the erem laws with the rest of Scriptures teachings on justice and compassion? After all, he spoke approvingly of the destruction of Sodom, a pagan city that also included men, women, and children (Luke 17:28-29). Rick's interests focus on apologetics, Christianity and culture, and the changing currents in Western thought. And how are Christians supposed to apply the erem laws today? 22:1011; Amos 2:7), and even Solomon set up an altar to Molech (1 Kings 11:5, 78). Lev. Probe fulfills this mission through our Mind Games conferences for youth and adults, our 3-minute daily radio program, and our extensive Web site at www.probe.org. The full text of this article in PDF format can be obtained by clicking here. Copyright 2023 The Gospel Coalition, INC. All Rights Reserved. God had given the Canaanites more than four hundred years of probation, during which He sent prophets and warnings. In phase four there was a major change. the people of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, the entire populace from every end[of the city]. 7). And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it (Jeremiah 18:7-10 ESV). Old Testament scholars Keil and Delitsch write that there can be no doubt that the idea which lay at the foundation of the ban was that of a compulsory dedication of something which resisted or impeded sanctification; . For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). He was keeping track of the measure of their sins, and, during Abraham's time, it was not yet "full." So the Amorites were warned that judgment was coming. These ideas may provide little consolation. That being said, I do not think God had the Israelites comb the land to find and destroy every person; they were to devote to destruction the people who remained in the cities when they attacked. Furthermore, justice must respond to the moral failure of sin. He sent Moses to Pharaoh, and gave him 9 chances to repent. Did the Canaanites Have a Chance? 20:16-17). God is love (1 John 4:16) and He is also just (Psalm 25:8). William Lane Craig reminds us God is not subject to our judgment of His actions; He has no moral obligations except to Himself. This is an online articlefrom the Christian Research Journal. The Canaanites had not completely sinned away their day of grace. Third, God gave the Canaanites ample time to repent. They are insisting that God and Christianity are in fact poisonous and must diligently be resisted and defeated. Even so, many who acknowledge Gods existence still have trouble accepting the morality of Scripture. Israel received direct word from God that they should do this. About UsContact UsPrayer RequestsPrivacy Policy, Latest AnswersBible LessonsBibleAsk LIVEOnline Bible. Curiously, this simply relates back to the entire dialogue of God with Abraham. . In our pluralistic age, its easy to forget what an offense that is to the true God. But instead of repenting when things went badly, they concluded that their misfortune was because they stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven, Inanna/Ishtar (Jer. ", Jesus Resurrection: Fact or Fiction? In his discussion in Moral Monster, Copan refers specifically to Deut. Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. [emailprotected] {13} How persuasive this thought is will depend on how seriously we take biblical teaching about our future after the grave. 44:18). They are all part of an inherently wicked culture that, if allowed to live, would morally and theologically pollute the people of Israel.[1]. When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. The Bible is explicit concerning the sins of the Canaanites: idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality. 23:33; Deut. The Israelites intermarried with them which eventually drew Gods judgment on them as well. Kyle, Canaan, in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, James Orr, ed. I think God meant it quite literally. Although no Scripture is definitive that all children will be saved, many Christians point out that it is possible (based on verses like Matthew 19:14). God had warned them against that (Deut. 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. Abraham decides to bargain again okay, okay but what about if Im 5 people short? Why would Jesus die for basically good folk? God's Justice in the Land of Canaan - The Gospel Coalition God had decided to judge Nineveh because they were evil (Jonah 1:2). Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman sees five phases of Yahweh war in the Bible. Skeptics say if God is a God of love why did He bring destruction on certain nations of the world? . I have two questions: 1. If they did not destroy them, the land would vomit them out just as it had vomited out the Canaanites (Num. The classic example is Rahab, the prostitute who helped the Israelite spies in Jericho and swore allegiance to the Lord (Jos.
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