Does the Old Testament Promote Genocide?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: 1 Samuel 15, Leviticus 18, Psalm 51, John 8

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--does-the-old-testament-promote-genocide
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
first of all it's important to take the Bible as a whole uh critics like Dawkins will pick and choose very selectively and take out of context and twist and ignore what the rest of the Bible has to say and of course their alternative atheism has many flaws itself my book anchor points talks about the pros and cons of a lot of these ideas and of course uh reinforces the Bible in in God as against the atheistic critics but in the particular subject of warfare as I said number one most important you have to take the Bible as a whole so when you read through the scripture the New Testament very clearly says and you see this in the book of Galatians and you see this in Hebrews uh and in Colossians that the Old Testament was imperfect not in the sense I mean not that anything is wrong but the whole system the old Covenant was not complete that God was working phase by phase the law was a school master or tutor to lead us to Christ now that we have Christ we have the fullness so if we're going to establish a Doctrine does the the bible teach genocide we have to include the New Testament and when you study the New Testament obviously whatever the meanings of the Old Testament the answer to the question is absolutely no in fact the big debate among Christians and even with our own Fellowship some will say Christians should never participate in killing people even in Warfare although we support our government in just defense of our nation um we as Christians will support our government and support um even our military but we do not believe we should personally take human life other Christians would say well we can do that in a just War but it has to be defined as for righteous purposes limited um means uh trying to protect the life of civilians as much as possible etc etc so even those who say yes Christians can participate in Warfare have a very uh strict theological principle by which they think it's just and fair so it's very clear if you read the New Testament The Sermon on the Mount the teachs of Jesus and then the whole tener of the New Testament is that no genocide would be wrong and that Warfare is really sinful and Christians should not participate or if they're required in a sinful World it should be as limit as possible to achieve righteous cause causes in an unrighteous world U now so why how do we explain some of these Old Testament passages well first of all you the Old Testament shows a gradual development you have to think when Adam and Eve sinned and the whole world was plunged into sin generation after generation lived in sin there was no written Revelation from God there was no clear teaching so people just went deeper and deeper into sin so by the time God gave the law and then the New Testament he was trying to pull people out of paganism and idolatry and grow sin and what we see as maybe strict and harsh was actually a great step up so you're dealing with tribal Warfare where tribes are trying to annihilate each other and they have to even kill the children because if they let children survive they'll grow up and seek Vengeance and get you know try to get revenge against the people that killed their parents so it was a very brutal existence so some of the teachings that you see in the Bible are not necessarily God's perfect will but God trying to deal with situation as they are in the case of amalec they were trying to wipe Israel out of existence so in that kind of a tribal ancient world how do you have peaceful coexistence with people whose whole life is dedicated to annihilating you that's a dilemma and so you have to see this as God trying to lead uh ancient Israel one step at a time for example there's the law uh an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth that scene is very harsh but actually in the context of that ancient culture that was limiting so if someone injured you you could execute them and so God was saying no that's far disproportionate the punishment must fit the crime it's actually a Humane thing you can't just kill people indiscriminately because you want to uh if they've done something wrong you punish them for what they've done wrong and no more the same way with slavery it was a universal custom people would sell themselves into slavery to get out of debt so the law came and say but on the seventh year you have to set them free or if their Kinsmen can come along and pay the debt you have to set them free so it's actually a Humane from our perspective is saying oh you know you're issuing this penalty or you're allowing this condition but from the ancient time it was a great step up from what was previously practiced God was trying to create a sense of ethics and morality and limitation step by step and so you can see that even in Warfare another difference in the Old Testament than new God's plan from the Old Testament he chose Israel as a nation to be a witness to the rest of the world so they were to be a nation dedicated to Yahweh by their lifestyle their farming practices their Sabbath keeping their circumcision their dietary laws they were to be set apart and they were going to be blessed so the whole world would say why is Israel so blessed we want to follow their God sadly Israel never really fulfilled that the way it was intended but even so God gave them the scriptures and God gave the Messiah and through the scriptures and the Messiah and the New Covenant the whole world would be blessed through the nation of Israel but notice for God's plan to be fulfilled he had to preserve that Nation otherwise the Messiah couldn't come and and so forth and New Covenant couldn't be instituted so unlike today God had to preserve a physical nation in order for his plan to come to pass therefore those Nations that try to destroy that Nation or block its progress in fulfilling God's plan they themselves had to be dealt with whereas today God's people are called out of every nation so there is no one physical nation that would be essential to God's plan but the Church of course is people from every nation and every ethnicity um another consideration is in the ancient times where God pronounced judgment as in the case of amch they had grossly violated God's plan things such as idolatry and even human sacrifice child sacrifice you see this for example in Leviticus 18 God said I'm judging the nations of Canaan and I'm I'm destroying them and I'm giving you their land because they have violated uh my law so greatly with blood and with immorality and child sacrifice so from that perspective God has a right to judge individuals and God has a right to judge people for their gross sin in ancient times he used Israel as the means of fulfilling that judgment in a way that he does not use Nations today so we do have to understand some of these commands you can't look at them from a modern context you have to look at them from the context of God rightfully executing judgment on people who've descended into gross sin and immorality and violated all the laws of God and the basic laws of human society um and then I would also point out that what we don't often see when you just cherry-pick is God's mercy so there might be a statement destroy everyone but we see that is from God's point of view they deserve divine judgment for their sins and if they're going to oppose Israel existence they have to be destroyed so my plan can be fulfilled but when it was actually fulfilled time after time you see there mitigating circumstances God allowed Mercy For example Rahab was a Canaanite she should have been destroyed but because she turned to the god of Israel she was preserved and her family was saved and she became a prominent member even an ancestor of King David and Jesus Christ so you would never think that just from reading a verse in isolation kill everybody even the children but if they repent but if they seek to support Israel but you know a whole a whole city gibian was allowed to make a peace treaty of course they were deceptive but the point is they recognized Israel was fulfilling God's Will and they didn't want to be destroyed and they so they were allowed to make a treaty or here's another example the case of Nineveh that very Wicked evil city capital of the Assyrian Empire which is noted for its cruelty and would end up Conquering the northern king of Israel so God sent Jonah with the message yet 40 days then of us shall be destroyed no hope just judgment but when they repented God spared the whole city 120,000 people um of of the Judgment so here's a case where this this Pagan City where judgment was pronounced no hope no promise no if you repent but just simply everybody is going to be destroyed yet ended up nobody was destroyed because of the mercy of God another prominent example of course the Old Testament pronounced the death penalty for adultery but when King David was caught in adultery he repented you can read his his repentance prayer in Psalm 51 and while he had to suffer consequences of his sin he reaped what he sowed yet God did forgive him and restored the relationship so you see even woven In Those Old Testament commands although it's not always stated there is there are Provisions for Mercy or for legitimate compromise people can convert to Israel keep people can become allies with Israel uh people can become part of God's plan and even those children uh and you see this like in the flood that destroyed people just because children were killed doesn't mean their Eternal Destiny is automatically determined we don't always know how God will treat children who die but even people of unbelievers the children you know who knows what God's plan for them may be in eternity so I guess what I'm saying is there's a lot we don't know but we can summarize by saying there were some very special conditions in the Old Testament because of the gross sinfulness including child sacrifice judgment Came Upon certain Nations um God had to preserve the nation of Israel and thus he had to destroy those who are seeking to destroy Israel and even when there was Justice uh there was mercy and the New Testament uh fulfills God's plan brings us forward uh to the point where we understand slavery is wrong um uh certainly murder is wrong uh Warfare is sinful and most should be allowed only under very specified circumstances and we could go on and on drunkenness is a sin you know we see the New Testament giving the Fuller revelation of what was only partially explained or revealed in the Old Testament so anyone that would try to just take one or two places out of context is missing the whole um revelation of God throughout scripture and we Christians today can unequivocally say God would be against genocide or or any unjust um killing of anybody for any reason uh but rather God offers mercy and and I can conclude with John chapter 8 the woman who is caught in the very Act of adultery clearly deserve to die but Jesus said neither do I condemn you go and sin no more so he wasn't condoning her sin the Old Testament demonstrated by the death penalty that this was a horrible sin the New Testament demonstrates by forgiveness that God's plan is always Redemption mercy and Grace