Mass destruction : Is God guilty of genocide ? By Melvin Tinker EP Books, 2017 £6.99
113 pages ISBN 9 781 783 855
Anyone doing a Bible study on the book of Deuteronomy will come across the divine instruction to Moses to ‘take possession of [the land]…and when the Lord gives them [seven nations greater and mightier than [Israel]] over to you… you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.’ (Deuteronomy 7 1-2)
This instruction given to Moses by God and passed on by Moses to the people of Israel was followed up by Joshua after the death of Moses as he, Joshua, led the people of Israel into the Promised Land – Canaan.
The instruction presents a golden opportunity for those strongly opposed to the Christian faith to paint a picture of a God who is ‘petty, unjust, unforgiving, a control-freak; vindictive, bloodthirsty,
ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal,genocidal, filicidal, pestilential,
megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully’ (Richard Dawkins – The God Delusion p 31). This from someone who does not believe that there is a God !
Is there any other hostile epithet left to add ?
But it isn’t just those hostile to the faith who are troubled by the many accounts of warfare sanctioned by God in the Old Testament. Indeed, one of the often repeated opinions put forward by those within the Christian community is that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God as the God we see in the New Testament, as if this solves the difficulty widely expressed about the character of God presented in the Old Testament. This book refutes this unsatisfactory opinion which, in any case, if accepted, would give rise to another potential difficulty
There have been many attempts to explain (or even explain away) the Old Testament accounts of God encouraging his people, the Israelites, to wage war. Some will say that those who recorded such actions simply got it wrong – God never said anything of the kind. Others aver that the Israelites just misunderstood God’s instructions.
Neither of these explanations are acceptable to the author of this book.
The carefully thoughtful position taken by Melvin Tinker, who wants to maintain the reliability of the Word of God as given, is that these accounts of conflict sanctioned by the Almighty have to be seen in the context of the entire narrative of the Bible. In addition, he wishes to remain faithful to the character of God as revealed in both testaments.
Of the many attempts to offer an honest Christian explanation (or even justification) for accounts of divinely ordained warfare in the Old Testament that have come my way, this is by far the most detailed, thorough, persuasive and balanced. The references alone show the breadth of reading and study of the author.
At the end of the day, you might not agree with everything in the book – either specific points or the main conclusions – but you will have given the matter a fair and thorough hearing.
This is a thought-provoking book and definitely worth a read.