The strategic location where the Canaanites were settled carries great. They are all part of an inherently wicked culture that, if allowed to live, would morally and theologically pollute the people of Israel.[1]. The Canaanites were descendants of Noah. The fertility of the land was believed to be directly connected to the sexual relations of the gods and goddesses. And He will ultimately save righteous and also punish the unrighteous He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36). Heres why. They had male shrine prostitutes (1 Kings 14:22), committed acts of lewdness, adultery, and incest (Jer. (972) 941-4565 The peoples of the land did not repent, just as the survivors of God's plagues will not repent. In fact, the Hebrew wars with other nations (except Canaan) were designed to be only in self-defense (Toward Old Testament Ethics, Walter Kaiser, Jr., p, 267, Zondervan, 1983). Yahweh derided these handmade gods that cannot speak and must be carried because they cannot walk (Jer. Their task was to prepare the way for the arrival of the Messiah. At first, the Israelites tried to compromise and worship God the way the Canaanites worshiped their gods. Even though the Ruler of the universe displays mercy and gives to men time to repent, there ultimately must be a day of judgement. Notes If I can find 50 good people will you spare Sodom God says sure. Subsequently, God sent prophets to warn Israel of their coming destruction, but they didnt repent and God said that they became like Sodom to me and He visited destruction on Israel for committing the same sins. 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). The phrase the Lords battles or battles of the Lord are found in 1 Sam. In other words, we now wage war in prayer and in the realm of ideas. God waited to redeem humankind until they had the chance to be, as 2 Live Crew once put it, as nasty as they wanna be.. 2). Glenn M. Miller, How could a God of Love order the massacre/annihilation of the Canaanites? on the web site A Christian Thinktank, To understand what God was doing in Canaan, one must see it within the larger context of redemptive history. 7:1-2). He believes the latter is the correct interpretation. [1] Tremper Longman, The Case for Spiritual Continuity, inShow Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide, ed. God knew it would take the destruction of the nations. . 1 Chronicles 16:11 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! 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? 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. ", Jesus Resurrection: Fact or Fiction? About UsContact UsPrayer RequestsPrivacy Policy, Latest AnswersBible LessonsBibleAsk LIVEOnline Bible. Slaughter of the Canaanites | Reasonable Faith THE CANAANITES- God's Justness in Perspective It's clear from history, God gave them ample time to repent, but they refused (Gen. 15:16; Deut. Previous post: 10 Biblical Steps Towards Restoration After Sexual Sin, Next post: Baptism Quotes: 27 Inspirational Christian Sayings. Just as God had demonstrated his knowledge of who would repent in the Canaanite cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, before he destroyed Jerusalem He told Jeremiah that if He could find even one righteous person He would spare the entire city (Jer. The problem with new atheist divine genocide claims is rather simple: God hates sin, but the new atheists do not.35 Consequently, they complain of divine genocide in the face of Canaanite sin! Genesis 15:13-16 God tells Abraham that his descendants will be enslaved for 400 years. 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. 5. The situation with Canaan was different. 1:27-2:5, we read that tribe after tribe of Israelites did not drive out all the inhabitants of the cities they conquered. Did the Canaanites Have a Chance? Tugis life was full of dignity and worth. And how else would God have said it if He did mean that? Killing of the Canaanites: What Does This Say About God? The answer is: absolutely not! 7. James B. Pritchard, Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., Incest, Sodomy and Bestiality in the Ancient Near East, in. As a result, they eventually received the same judgment the Canaanites experienced ( Deut. Baal has sex with his mother Asherah,6 his sister Anat, and his daughter Pidray,7 and none of this is presented pejoratively. For example, God commanded the Israelites, in Deuteronomy 20:10-15, to offer conditions of peace rather than extermination to all others. 13. Wouldnt that be a more merciful thing to do? Shedding light on this question will actually show that God is merciful and good. Thanks to his obedience unto death, our own sins are forgiven, and we can now stand in Gods favor by faith alone. 1:4). 6:23), and ultimately every unrepentant sinner will have to face Gods judgment. Would a governor of a state who refuses to pardon a criminal and instead hands him over to the justice system be considered a heartless cruel man? Peter Singer Heavy Petting: Review of Midas Dekkers, Dearest Pet: On Bestiality (London, 2000), Nerve.com, 2001, http://www.nerve.com/opinions/singer/heavypetting/main.asp. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Or better yet why didnt God give Canaan a chance to repent? 33:56; Lev. Their purity laws pointed to the holiness demanded by God. There is no denying that God, in the Old Testament, commanded the nation of Israel, His chosen people, to exterminate many nations of people. Consequently, we love what He hates, and we hate what He loves. 1 (2009): 73-92; www.epsociety.org/library/articles.asp?pid=63. There are several aspects of Yahweh war. 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. But He said to Abraham that the promise would take a long time to be fulfilled for the iniquity of the Amorites, or the people of Canaan, is not yet full (v. 16). God allowed Israel to become slaves in Egypt (more on this in a moment). Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman sees five phases of Yahweh war in the Bible. The part that concerns us herethe real culmination of Yahweh waris called herem. Ironically, the unbelievers moral criticisms presuppose a transcendent source of morality. There is only one true God, and that God deserves all honor and worship. God mercifully provides time and opportunity for repentance from idolatry and spiritual fornication with this world ( II Peter 3:9 ). Likewise, Gods government cannot successfully continue unless there is a plan that will ultimately, if not immediately, punish evil (Isaiah 61:8; Deut. [a] capriciously malevolent bully.{2}. The evidence says no. God gave us life, and He has the right to take it away. For one thing, the Israelites would intermarry with them, and their spouses would bring their gods into the marriage with all that entailed. Thus, the Israelites could possibly have married people who werent in the cities when they were attacked. Was John the Baptist the only person that understood Christs mission. The new atheists immaculately exemplify what the Bible has proclaimed all along: sin corrupts our authority to judge rightly; what we think is justified prosecution against God Almighty turns out to be, on further illumination, a raucous rant full of the noxious fumes of the sinful heart. Can the actions of the Israelites legitimately be called genocide? It was merciful for God to bring an end to the. I consider Jesus the be the perfect example of how to be good, Jesus would never hurt anyone. God was concerned that, if the Canaanites remained in the land, they would draw the Israelites into their evil practices. Para ms informacin o para http://www.equip.org/christian-research-journal/, Overcoming the Enemy of Education: A Review of Pete Hegseth with David Goodwin, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation., Who Was Adam? ", "How Can a Just God Order the Slaughter of Men, Women and Children? He blogs at Allkirk Network. Rick's interests focus on apologetics, Christianity and culture, and the changing currents in Western thought. Israel had a unique calling as Gods chosen covenant people. In phase one, God fought the flesh-and-blood enemies of Israel. For me to do so would be murder. Could there have been any righteous Canaanites, especially in view of the pervasive, seductive, and corrosive nature of Canaanite sin? Why did some rules from the Old Testament cease to exist? A biblical example of this would be Gods treatment of the city of Nineveh. Kyle, Canaan, in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, James Orr, ed. An even more detestable practice was that of child sacrifice. Leviticus 27:29 says very plainly that every person devoted to destruction was to be killed. Why would Jesus die for basically good folk? Later Lots own daughters get him drunk to have sex with him and so even Dawkins, in a surprising moment of moral clarity, writes, If this dysfunctional family was the best Sodom had to offer by way of morals, some might begin to feel a certain sympathy with God and his judicial brimstone.28. What Do the Four Soils in the Parable of the Sower Represent? He is also a God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Skeptics often complain that children were killed in Sodom and Gomorrahs destruction. These ideas may provide little consolation. If they had sex with just about every living thing they could get their hands on, and they did, then all had to die. Bring biblical wisdom to the confusing issues across the world by making a gift to our international work. 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). Help train Christians to boldly share the good news of Jesus Christ in a way that clearly communicates to this secular age. And how are Christians supposed to apply the erem laws today? Yahweh has made it clear that He is willing to relent in His judgment if a nation repents of its sins and changes its ways ( Jer. The question has been raised whether God really intended the Israelites to kill all the people. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. Based on the Biblical evidence, however, this objection dissolves away for two reasons: 1. The Bible is explicit concerning the sins of the Canaanites: idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality. Looking a four outcomes of the resurrection, Dr. Zukeran shows us that the greatest defense of the deity of Jesus was made by Jesus Himself. Perhaps what the skeptic is really concerned about is whether the just destruction of the Canaanites is license for Christians to resort to killing the wicked. 1 (2008): 7-37; www.epsociety.org/library/articles.asp?pid=45. 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 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. First, the movement of the Israelites into Canaan was the fruition of Gods promise to Abram that He would give that land to his children (Gen. 12:7). Isnt there an inconsistency here? 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. God and the Canaanities | Bible.org God didnt. This wasnt merely punishment, however. I think God meant it quite literally. Seems a bit harsh right? Paul Copan, Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?, Philosophia Christi 10, no. 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. God had decided to judge Nineveh because they were evil (Jonah 1:2). Another observation is that the instruction is frequently to dispossess the Canaanites or move them out rather than to destroy them. In short, Israel was Canaanized. Bible Based.We believe in solo-scriptura. 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. 4:28 NIV). What was to stop it? How could the Canaanites have that much influence over the Israelites? Albrecht Goetze, ed. 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. God, as judge, used Israel to carry out His judgment on these people. The passages that record Gods command to slaughter the Canaanite cities have even caused many Christians some confusion. He gave them the law so that they may know Him and His ways. If Ananias and Sapphira were new Christians/immature Christians then we might have asked why they did Not have a chance to repent( i.e., some kind of gracious period of time to repent). But God has no such prohibition. He is passionate about understanding the Bible and helping others do the same. Then they would simply abandon worship of the true God. Dr. Ray Bohlin reviews a second science critique of Theistic Evolution, asking if universal common descent is real. We dont live in a theocracy anymore and, as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:45, we dont fight with the weapons of the world, but we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (NIV). Josephus records that the Jews in Jerusalem were first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city.So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.26 Titus then renamed the region Palestine and for almost 1,900 years one couldnt find Israel on the map. God had warned them against that (Deut. Sue Bohlin reflects on how God has led her to trust Him through the trial of tongue cancer surgery. Presumably, the Canaanites could have done the same thing. Generation after generation of Canaanites continued in the same evil practices. However, the verses that follow, namely verses 16-18, disallowed the same offer to be given to Canaan. Canaanite tribes (especially the Hittites) greatly exceeded the boundaries that Israel was told to conquer. If you feel an answer is not 100% Bible based, then leave a comment, and we'll be sure to review it. . The judgment that they foreshadowed was demonstrated decisively on the cross of Christ, who received the full measure of Gods wrath for the sins of his people. 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. the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (6:12). Paul Rutherford explains the lies he believed and tow which he was in bondage about pornography, until Jesus helped him achieve sexual sobriety. They are dated to somewhere between 2000 and 1500 BC, between the time of Abraham and the Exodus.{7}. Part of the goal of this essay is to offer evidence to show that God had good reason to command Israel to kill the Canaanites. Skeptics say if God is a God of love why did He bring destruction on certain nations of the world? The apostle Paul described this spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:12: Forwe do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but againstthe rulers, against the authorities, againstthe cosmic powers overthis present darkness, againstthe spiritual forces of evilin the heavenly places. The battle may be fierce, but we remain confident that Gods justice will ultimately prevail. The Deut. Hittite Laws: 199 states, If anyone has intercourse with a pig or a dog, he shall die. Permission is granted to use in digital or printed form so long as it is circulated without charge, and in its entirety. In the old testament God tells Joshua to kill all the Canaanites, including women and children. Then they would simply abandon worship of the true God. Abraham starts bargaining with God. However, if we properly understand the whole picture we will be able to view God 's actions as full of mercy and fairness in His dealings with His children. Emphasis added. 2. What Does It Mean for the Saints to Judge Angels? According to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), when God called forth his people out of slavery in Egypt and back to the land of their forefathers, he directed them to kill all the Canaanite clans who were living in the land (Deut. Then theres Sodom, God tells Abraham that because of the wickedness of Sodom He will destroy it. {8} In addition, the Israelites would be tempted to imitate Canaanite religious rituals because of their close connection to agricultural rhythms. 34:1516). Third, God gave the Canaanites ample time to repent. He points out how Yahweh Wars, i.e. 4:58). 18 records briefly the moral degradation of the Canaanites. The Canaanites: Genocide Or Judgment? | Bible.org What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?Far be it from you to do such a thingto kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. 12:4, 30, 31). Copyright 2023 The Gospel Coalition, INC. All Rights Reserved. What about these people prompted such a harsh judgment? Paul wrote to the Ephesians, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against . Minor judges Izban, Elon, and Abdon get brief mentions. 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. They made a religion of lust. Every forecast of prophecy of doom came with an implied unless attached to it: If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. Concerning the destruction of the Canaanites, atheists especially like to exploit the Christian condemnation of genocide. Dawkins objects that it adds injury to insult that the unfortunate beast is to be killed too.23 But Dawkins doesnt seem to grasp that no one would want to have animals around who were used to having sex with humans.24 Moreover, this might also explain why God used a flood to destroy what Dawkins called the presumably blameless animals in the days of Noah.25 If pre-flood humankind frequently had sex with every imaginable animal, then even though it wasnt the animals fault, it would be harmful to allow these animals to be a part of Gods start-over society. What does it mean that "the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its What are the major signs of the last days? Kyle Dillon (MDiv, Covenant Theological Seminary) serves as an assistant pastor at Riveroaks Reformed Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Tennessee. 20:1618), lest the Israelites learn the Canaanite ways (Exod. And so for 400 years more, the Amorites were allowed to live and do as they pleased. For further information or to subscribe to the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL go to: http://www.equip.org/christian-research-journal/. That we commit similar sins today renders us incapable of appropriate moral outrage against these sins and thus we accuse God of genocide to justify our own sinfulness. However, if we properly understand the whole picture we will be able to view Gods actions as full of mercy and fairness in His dealings with His children. In Genesis 15:16, God told Abraham that his descendants would have to remain slaves in Egypt for 400 years before taking possession of Canaan, "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." God gives nations a chance to choose that which is right and to mend their ways but if they refuse godliness and adopt immorality, idolatry, covetousness, sexual impurity, etc., then God has no alternative but to let them reap the consequences of their own wickedness. Christians believe that all authority belongs to God (Matthew 28:18, Romans 13:1, Colossians 2:10). First, the Lord's command to enact erem was preceded by a long period of divine patience and longsuffering in the face of Canaanite wickedness (gross forms of idolatry, immorality, and injustice, including the sacrifice of children). If He does not receive a proper response, He promises great tribulation and martyrdomnot necessarily as punishment, but as an inducement to repent. Longman writes: The war against the Canaanites was simply an earlier phase of the battle that comes to its climax on the cross and its completion at the final judgment. 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. This is one of the most morally troubling passages in all of Scripture. Why did God command the genocide of the Canaanites? - GotQuestions.org
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