What Does it Mean to Bless Sinners?

 

With the Church of England now offering blessings to same sex couples as of last Sunday and now the Pope approving of the same, we need to ask what is meant by blessing something or someone.  Some will understandably take this to mean an endorsement of the relationship, while others will take it to mean what both Churches want it to mean (for now): a welcoming of the persons but not the relationship.  Neither the Church of England nor the Vatican has changed the definition of marriage as necessarily that between a man and a woman.  The Catholic Church still calls homosexuality a sin.

So, by ‘blessing’ we are supposed to believe that this is not approval.  Obviously, we are in the world of doublespeak.  According to Garner’s Modern English Usage (4th ed.), ‘doublespeak’ is a kind of euphemism that intentionally obscures meaning and aims to misinform.  It ‘is language that pretends to communicate but really doesn't. It is language that makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant appear attractive or at least tolerable.’^[1]  As in, ‘I go around blessing sinners to make them believe that I approve of their sin when I do not.’  One might imagine a homosexual couple standing in queue to receive their inheritance of the Kingdom of God with others and, when they get to the front, being told ‘Didn’t read your Bible?  Those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.’[2]  When they reply, ‘But our Church blessed our relationship,’ the only answer that could be given is, ‘That was just a way of making the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant appear attractive or tolerable.’  The couple might then ask, ‘Well, does being told we do not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven mean something good?’  And the answer will be, ‘Actually, no.  We do not speak doublespeak here.  You have opposed God’s purposes in creation and God’s commandments.  You lived in sin.  Go directly to hell.  Do not pass ‘Go’, do not collect anything.’

For the time being, both Anglicans and Catholics tell confused homosexuals that they can get the Church’s blessing, but this does not mean that they are married, and the Catholics add, ‘And you are living in sin.’[3]  (They are still getting something right.  So, why the smiley pictures at the altars?)  A homosexual couple might be forgiven for asking if the Church now blesses sin.  The official answer is, ‘No’ because the purpose behind the blessing is said to be about putting on a happy face of welcome at the Church.  The welcome is not just of the individuals but also to the individuals in this ‘irregular’ (new word) relationship.  Welcome to Wonderland, Alice.

One of the many questions that arise with this doublespeak is whether the logic can be sustained for other sinful unions.  Both Churches regard pederasty and incest to be sinful, for example.  Yet if the participants are complicit, by the same logic, they ought to offer blessings for these ‘irregular’ relationships.  How about adultery?  Unmarried partners?  Incest?  The Church has always called these ‘irregular’ relationships sinful, but if one is now going to be blessed, why not the rest?  Seriously, why not? 

Would the logic sustain individuals practicing other sins?  ‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.’  ‘Oh, good.  You are entitled to a special blessing.  Tell me the sin, and I will look up the blessing.  No more repentance.  No more penance.’ 

Has the Church a blessing for, say, an emperor massacring a population?  This is not a question out of thin air.  In about AD 390, Roman soldiers massacred civilians in Thessalonica during a riot.  Emperor Theodosius the Great was somehow involved, and so Bishop Ambrose wrote to him to say that he had to repent.  Until he did so, he would not be admitted to the Eucharist.  Recognising a sin as a sin did not call for a more welcoming face of the Church with a blessing back then.  It meant calling for repentance and forbidding Christian fellowship at the Lord’s Table.  Think of all the missed opportunities the Church has had to bless sinners through the centuries.  Indeed, Bishop Ambrose!

The BBC reports that a leading advocate of the conglomeration (can we finally agree that this is not a ‘community’?) LGBTQ in Catholic circles, Rev. (sic) James Martin, ‘celebrated the announcement’.  Why would he?  Does he believe blessing sinners in their sinfulness is a good idea, or does he believe that this little doublespeak is the door through which acceptance of homosexual marriage will eventually enter? 

One is led to suppose that doublespeak is not meant for Martin’s heretical faction but for the rest of us Christians.  The speech-act of Church blessings for sinners is meant to obscure the meaning of sin, of marriage, of ‘blessing’, of righteousness, of ‘Church’, and whatever else.  Under the smog of ecclesiastical confusion, doctrinal change creeps along.  The real agenda is full acceptance of this sinful relationship at some time in the future.  The Martins in the game will play along; you do not turn around a historical Church overnight.

Two Biblical texts come to mind as true Christians witness this charade.  First, God says,

Woe to those who call evil good

                        and good evil,

             who put darkness for light

                        and light for darkness,

             who put bitter for sweet

                        and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5.20, ESV).

Second, Jesus warned His disciples that, in the end times,

many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 24.11-13).

By ‘false prophets’, Jesus meant those claiming to interpret the will of God for people but misguiding them.  Only time will tell if the current crop of false prophets signal the end times.  We have seen such apostasy before.  God abandoned His people to the invading Babylonians for their flagrant rebellion against His commandments. Jeremiah the prophet says,

The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’

                        Those who handle the law did not know me;

             the shepherds transgressed against me;

                        the prophets prophesied by Baal

                        and went after things that do not profit (2,7).

The result of this apostasy was God’s bringing the punishment of the Babylonians on the Israelites and taking many into exile.

Apostasy is a perennial sin of many priests, teachers, shepherds, and prophets.  It just takes different forms in different eras.  Sometimes the Church withstands heresy, sometimes it succumbs to it.  Already in the 1^st c. AD, John the Apostle cut through the speculation about whether apostasy meant that believers were facing the ‘end times’ by saying that many antichrists had already come, and therefore we ‘know that it is the last hour’ (1 John 2.18).  Of course, some day there will be an end of the end times.  We may be at the end of the end, especially with the widespread apostasy in our day and with the new dimension of apostasy in rejecting God’s creational purposes themselves in sex and marriage.

If Christ is coming again for a bride without spot or wrinkle, a pure and holy Church awaiting His return (Ephesians 5.26-27)—and we know that He is—then a lot of the filth that calls itself the Church just because it clings to the faithful must be washed away.  We are unquestionably seeing this today.  It is time the bride took a bath.  Every mainline denomination has declared itself against our Lord in its theology and practices over the past fifty years.  From rejecting Scripture to rejecting the Gospel to rejecting righteousness to rejecting Christ Jesus the Son of God, they have affirmed the doctrinal and ethical heresies of the antichrist.  With such bold blessing of sin, the wolves in sheep’s clothing are boldly disclosing themselves for what they are.  Our first thought might be to bewail the state of ‘the Church’, but we should rather understand that the hideous distortion that has presented itself as the Church in this disguise and doublespeak is only the satanic imitation of God’s people.  We celebrate their declaring themselves as the anti-Church, for by doing so they show themselves not to be the Church.

Of course, if we continue to cling to this false Church, then we have only ourselves to blame for our own distorted witness to the world.  If, however, we let them go out from us, then it will be plain to all that they are not of us (cf. 1 John 2.19).  As long as the righteous bride of Christ keeps walking the streets with those dressed in the abominable teaching and practices of hustlers who mockingly bless one another in their sins, the world can fairly associate us with those selling the world's pleasures as though they were the Church's blessings.  The Church’s role is not to show how much like the world it can be but to show the world how much unlike it is from the Church.  The Church exists to witness, and if it does not witness to the truth, it has no purpose at all.  No matter how small the pure light is, it shines ever brighter in increasing darkness.  Indeed, as Paul urged the Corinthians,

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6.14).

What we note in this week's news is the sad truth that unbelievers are, as in Jeremiah’s day and again in John’s day, masquerading as believers, even in historic Churches like the Roman and Anglican Churches.  They have been overcome by the world.  Yet ‘everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith’ (1 John 5.4).  What does it mean to bless sinners?  It means to be overcome by the world rather than to overcome it with the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

---

[1] Cf. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780190491482.001.0001/acref-9780190491482-e-2469 (accessed 18 December, 2023).

[2] First Corinthians 6.9-11.

[3] For the Catholic Church, see the BBC news article at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67751600 (accessed 18 December, 2023).

The Garden of Grace

 [Foreword: This is a short, fictional story, written in response to a heretic in the Church of England who recently asserted that God's grace is so radical that no repentance is required.  Her implication is that the Church must not even bring up the subject of sin, no one has any need for repentance (though they may if they like!), and everyone should accept everyone else just as they are.  Most heretics in the Church of England deny that homosexuality is a sin, but this heretic wants to go one step farther in dissolving the category of sin because, she falsely claims, grace simply accepts everyone as they are.  Of course, this is an impossible reading of all the Bible, but it also rids the Church of the need for Jesus' death on a cross for our sins.  John ran into this heretic's forebears when he wrote in response to them, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us' (1 John 1.9-10, ESV).]

‘Oh, you startled me!’ said Eve.

‘Terribly sorry—I did not mean to.’  The creature had the tail fin of a small fish emerging from its mouth.  With a quick slurp, the fin disappeared.

‘What are you, if I may ask?  You look vaguely familiar, but I must say you are a different creature from those I’ve met so far.’

‘I am a salamander, dear soul.  You might call me by that name.  I do look rather like the Snake that you met in the Garden, don’t I?’

‘You know about that?’!

‘Eve, I am the Snake of the Garden.’

‘What?  How?’

‘It does seem strange, doesn’t it?  In there, I am the Snake.  Out here, though, I am the Salamander.  In there, I am cursed to slither on the ground.  Out here, I have four legs to lift me above the dust of death.’

Behind her, across the water, the flaming swords of the angels that stood guard at the Garden’s entrance could still be seen in the distance—flashing lights in the grey of late evening.  To look in that direction brought a stab of pain.  She knew, of course, that ‘in there’ meant in that garden—the Garden from which she had been evicted with her husband, never again to enter.  ‘In there’ was also where she held an enlightening conversation with the Snake, who taught her that to follow one’s own definitions of good and evil is to be god to oneself.  The temptation was irresistible, and both Eve and Adam bit into the fruit offered by the Snake but forbidden by God.  This resulted in their expulsion from the Garden of God, but not before God had graciously clothed them from the starkness of their naked disobedience that had opened their eyes to sin lest the shame overwhelm them.

Now, outside the Garden, Eve had been collecting firewood and looking for something in which she might carry water from the lake while Adam was building a bivouac just inside the forest.  He could be heard breaking branches and releasing the occasional yelp as his tender hands took the piercing jab of some wood.  The pain was a new sensation, unpleasant, yet curiously interesting—as was the sight of the blood from his hands on the tree.  The shelter was coming along.  He had positioned a sturdy branch as a main beam between two trees.  As the trees were a little too far apart, he had cleverly tied a mid-pole vertical to the ground to give it support.  The mid-pole rose above the beam, and where they crossed, he had tied them together.  He had been testing the use of a sharp rock as an axe, and he used it to cut tree bark into long strips that he then used to tie his pole to the beam.  Something about the smell of the forest, the urgency of his work in the waning hours of the day, the axe, and his bloodied hands energized him.  He also instinctively felt a duty to protect and care for Eve, and the excitement of an adventure was restrained by this responsibility.

Eve, however, appeared to be getting along well enough without Adam’s efforts on her behalf.  She was now laughing freely and heartily at the Salamander’s wit.  He was every bit as charming as the Snake.

‘And what kind of a joke is that?’ she asked.

‘A pun,’ replied the Salamander.  ‘It works by giving meaning a slight twist that surprises and then delights.’

‘And the other one—the one you told first?’

‘Oh, it doesn’t really have a name yet, but I was thinking of calling it a Boundary Crossing.  The humour is in the shock the hearer has of crossing some boundary, some taboo, or some rule.’

‘Are there other types of jokes?’

‘Many.  There are jokes that work off of false assumptions, jokes that exaggerate, jokes that poke fun at others, and others still.’

‘Oh, tell me another one,’ said Eve, tossing her lovely black hair behind her and widening her deep, brown eyes in an abandonment to the pleasant intercourse that kept her from her duties.

‘Well, how about this one?’ said the Salamander.  ‘Why did God not give elephants wings to fly?’

‘Why?’

‘Could you imagine the poop falling from the sky?’

Eve was in stiches laughing.  She pretended to dodge elephant poop falling from the sky and laughed some more.  What made this so funny to her was not the childlike, crass humour itself but the new horizons the jokes opened up in her mind.  Here was a handling of the order of creation in a humourous way, probing its purpose, imagining alternatives, posing the possibility of some other ordering of existence.

Adam had come over to see what was making Eve laugh so.  He was drawn to her joyful, even life-giving spirit, but he was also a little annoyed that she would be laughing so while he laboured by the sweat of his brow. 

‘Oh, hullo!’ he said.

‘Oh, Adam, I want you to meet Mr. Salamander, a delightful fellow and a new friend.’

Adam looked around quizzically, then spotted the creature on a rock beside Eve.

‘Pleased to make your acquaintance.’

‘And yours.’

‘Have we perhaps met before?’ asked Adam.

The Salamander winked at Eve for their little secret.  ‘You might have mistaken me for the Snake.  All the animals do.’  Eve wondered why the Salamander did not tell Adam directly that he was one and the same, just altered in appearance outside the Garden.  Maybe this was a kind of joke, too—letting some people into the secret and leaving others out.  Maybe in the Garden, where God’s rules ruled, people lived simply with truth and falsity.  Here, outside the Garden, one could withhold information from others and leave them uncertain as to truth or falsity.  One could turn feeling in the tumbler of self-will so that it shone like the truth or polish opinion so fine with the cloth of rhetoric that it gleamed like fact.  The thought of having secrets, turning feelings into truths, and not giving others all the facts enticed Eve.  She and Mr. Salamander would have a wink between them, without Adam.

‘Ah, yes, you do remind me of the Snake in the Garden a little,’ said Adam.  ‘And snakes out here, too!  I’ve run into one while building the bivouac.  So many things out here are similar to things in there, but also a little different.’

‘Yess,’ said the Salamander, holding onto the last letter a little eerily.  ‘And in there is God’s Law, out here is God’s Grace.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Adam.

‘Well, think about it.  You are still alive, aren’t you?  In there, God said you would die if you disobeyed His Law.  What happened, though, was that He sent you packing into His land of Grace. And you are still alive.’

‘I see what you are saying,’ said Adam.

‘And would you rather live under Law or under Grace?’ pressed the Salamander.  ‘In there, you get cursed for disobeying God.  Out here, you disobey God and find grace.  In fact,’ the Salamander delivered his reasoning slowly in order to appear to be discovering a great truth, ‘our sin causes God’s grace to abound.’

‘Something seems a little off in that,’ said Adam.  Eve, however, thought that the Salamander was making another of his jokes and laughed.

Some further reasoning was needed, the Salamander could tell.  He would have to take them both further down this path.

‘Quite right,’ the Salamander said, looking into Adam’s eyes.  ‘How could that be so?  And yet, here we are, in God’s Garden of Grace.’  The thought of still being in a garden—in another of God’s gardens—cheered the exiles.  ‘And, Adam, you are right that things are a little different out here.  In there, there is Commandment, Sin, Punishment.  Out here, we have evolved.  We live not by Law but by Grace.  And where there is no Law, there is no Sin.  And where there is no Sin, there is no Punishment.  There is only Grace.’  Everyone was silent for a moment.  The reasoning seemed right, but not quite right.  Then the Salamander said, ‘I see you both have some work to do while there is still a little light in the sky.  Why don’t we talk more about this another day?  It has been good to meet you.’  And with their goodbyes, each turned to his or her own duties.

Around the campfire that night, Eve felt a little remorse for her secrecy with the Salamander without Adam.  She repented, telling him that the Serpent was the same as the Salamander.  She apologized, and he forgave her with a kiss.  She and Adam discussed their conversation with the Salamander further.  ‘I must admit that I am a little confused,’ said Eve.  ‘Well, I’m a little disturbed,’ said Adam.  ‘But what confuses you?’  ‘Well, it all makes a certain sort of sense, doesn’t it, but the conclusion seems to be wrong.’  ‘I agree,’ said Adam, ‘but the Salamander has a way with words that leave you dazed, as if you are sitting in the smoke of the campfire not seeing properly and without enough oxygen!’

‘It occurs to me,’ said Eve, ‘that in the Garden of Eden the debate was not over whether something was a sin or not but over who was to say what was a sin.  Out here, if the Salamander is right, we are no longer worried about something being a sin because everything is Grace.  But,’ and she paused a little, collecting her thoughts, ‘if it is Grace, then don’t you have to have sin first?  I mean, you can’t give someone grace if they don’t need it, right?  Grace doesn’t mean anything if someone hasn’t done something that needs God’s grace.’

‘I see what you are saying, Eve.  And we actually did receive God’s grace in the Garden of Eden, too.  First, His goodness was the foundation of all that He created.  We received it with thanksgiving, not as though we deserved it.  Then, He gave us the goodness of life together and life with a purpose and life in His presence.  And, when we sinned, He covered our shame.  Even being exiled from the Garden was an act of grace alongside judgement, because if we had remained there, eating the fruit of the Tree of Life, we would have continued forever in our sin.  Judgement for sin is a step in a larger act of Grace.’

‘And if that is so,’ said Eve, ‘then there must be some further act of Grace to come.  So, it is not that God cancels the Commandments.  It is not that there is no Sin.  It is not that there is no Punishment.  It is that, despite all that, there is also Grace.’

The Salamander had been listening in the darkness beyond the firelight.  He saw his slippery reasoning was being undone.  He emerged into the ring of the fire, surprising the couple again.  ‘I could not help overhearing,’ he said.  ‘Small world, isn’t it?’  The couple knew, however, that he had been eavesdropping, and they were not comfortable.  ‘If I may,’ he proceeded, ‘perhaps there is a deeper level of Grace than you are considering.  You may be right that sinning boldly does not shed a good light on our understanding of Grace.  Maybe that is a little twisted.  But what if there is a much deeper level of Grace in which there is pure acceptance?  What if Grace means accepting everyone as they are, no questions asked, no fingers pointed, no judgement, no need for repentance, no guilt in struggle with desire, no punishment for acts?  Would that not be, let’s call it ‘Deeper Grace’?’

The Salamander’s eyes glistened in the firelight.  He seemed to shining.  How very thoughtful, no kind, were his words.  They were welcoming, inclusive, even loving.  He crawled forward and sat by the fire, grateful for its warmth.

At long last, Adam spoke.  ‘If this is so, then God would have led us straight to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden after our sin rather than exiling us from it.  Or you actually need to posit two gods.  There is the God in the Garden of Eden, and a different God in this Garden of Grace.  But we know that that is not so.  So, we have to find a way to put this puzzle together so that we end up with only one God, not two.  And though all this thinking is exhausting after quite the day, I think you might be right and wrong about Grace, Mr. Salamander.’  His hands were sore, and he looked at them in the firelight.  They were bruised and bloodied from where he had pierced himself with the wood when making the cross of the beam and the pole.  ‘I think you are right that there is a deeper Grace, but I think you are wrong about what it is.  The deeper Grace must be the difference between Mercy and Grace.  Mercy is when someone forgives you when you deserve to be punished.  Grace is not a matter of doing away with calling anything a sin and just welcoming everyone whatever they do, though.  The deeper Grace we are trying to understand must be when God goes beyond Mercy to pay the penalty of Sin Himself and change us by His own work to become like Him once again.  Mercy is forgiving grace.  The Deeper Grace is Mercy and Transformation through God’s own bearing of our Sin.’

Adam looked at the Salamander.  He had drawn too close to the fire and burned his feet.  He excused himself quickly.  Unable to walk, he slithered into the grass.

Eve looked up at her husband with a smile.  ‘Adam, this might be a thought experiment of yours, but it is pretty profound.  And even if it is a thought, I have to wonder if you—if we—can think of a greater Grace than whatever is the Grace of God.  I mean, if we can think of this, then God’s Grace can’t be less, can it?’

‘Surely we can’t think of a greater Grace than God’s,’ agreed Adam.  ‘But the price of sin is death.  That is what God told us.  “In the day that you eat of this fruit, you will surely die.”  Somehow the deeper Grace of God must go beyond Mercy to payment for sin and transformation to a righteous life, not continuation in sin. If the wages of sin is death, somehow God’s Grace must bring eternal life.’  He studied his smarting hands, pouring a little water on them and wincing.  ‘A deeper Grace would call for a Righteous Man to die for the unrighteous.  Not a man like me.  A Second Adam in whom there is no sin.’

The couple sat looking into the fire and then at each other.  Finally, Eve said, ‘Adam, remember when I said something about not being able to think of something greater or more profound or better than the reality of God a little earlier?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, what if that Righteous Man dying for our sins not only shows God’s Mercy and Deeper Grace, as you say?  I can also think of something greater than that!’

Adam gasped.  ‘I thought we were already in the outer limits of theological speculation,’ he said.  He looked up at the brilliant sky and wondered if there was any limit to the universe.  Maybe the truths of God were limitless, too.  ‘Well?’ he said, looking at Eve.

‘I wonder,’ she began.  ‘I wonder whether imagining a Righteous Man will get us anywhere, Adam.  I mean, look at us.  We are sinners.  There is no Righteous Man.  But I can imagine a further level of God’s Grace where He—the Giver of Life—bears the penalty of sin, which is death.  Would that not be a Deeper Grace still?  Mr. Salamander’s notion of Deeper Grace is one that disregards sin and ends up being no Grace at all.  No sin, no repentance, no need for Grace.  But if Deeper Grace is God’s dealing with sin itself, it acknowledges sin as sin, it includes repentance and forgiveness, it reconciles us to God, and it transforms us into His righteous image.  And all that happens because He bears the penalty of sin for us.  Now that, Mr. Adam, that is a Deeper Grace than which there is no deeper.  Do you think God would do that for us?’

She looked at him.  She saw he was crying.  It brought forth her own tears.  This Garden of Grace was not the distortions proposed by Mr. Salamander but surely something far more profound.  It was not dismissive of sin.  It was not permissive, either.  Surely the same God of Eden was the God of the Garden of Grace and His Love was so deep that He, the only One who could, would pay the penalty of death for sin and restore righteousness and life to those who did nothing to deserve it.

Adam and Eve were exhausted.  They retired to their shelter.  Eve paused to look at it.  He had done a good job, and she was proud of her husband.  They stood at the wooden cross.  Eve could see bloodstains on it in the flickering firelight.  She took his hands in hers and looked at them.  They looked swollen and blistered.  She took some water and cleansed them.  Some of the water and the blood spilt on her as well.  She smiled at Adam.  ‘And what will wash away our sin, Adam?’ she asked.

Some Brief and Timely Lessons for Christians about Islam and Israel: Lesson 5

Lesson 5: The Religion of Warfare

In this lesson, I will repost two articles of mine from 2015.  The first provides quotations from the Quran, and the second quotations from Islam’s Sahih Bukhari.  From these, readers can see that Islam is only a religion of ‘peace’ if one understands peace as the result of submission—submission to Allah and to Islam.  More honestly, it is a religion of submission that engages in jihad as a matter of course to make others submit to it.  Of course, this applies more to some than to other Muslims.  Yet this fact does explain much of Islamic history and the present day Islamic terrorist groups in various parts of the world.  The purpose of this lesson is to identify some of the important and authoritative texts that undergird the understanding of Islam as a religion of warfare.

What Does the Quran Say about Treatment of Jews and Christians? (3 February, 2015)

The Quran seems to offer different advice on what to do with persons of other faiths.  Those of us accustomed to reading ancient texts know that there are legitimate issues of interpretation that need to be considered.  At times, such issues lead us to a different understanding of texts that, on first reading, appear to be saying something else.  There are, for example, issues of translation (and Muslims insist that the Quran cannot accurately be translated from Arabic), the importance of the original context, a possible trajectory of meaning of some sort (such as when the holy war narratives in the Old Testament give way to the pacifism of the early Church due to the teaching and example of Jesus Christ in the New Testament), matters of rhetoric (is extreme language actually hyperbole and not to be taken literally?), and so forth.  Thus, the following identification of texts is mainly offered to identify which texts need some sort of explanation as one attempts to understand what the Quran says about the treatment of Jews and Christians.

How might someone explain the apparent contrast of views in the Quran?  On the one hand, Surat 2.257 says: 'There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion.'  On the other hand, Surat 9.5 says: 'And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah [a payment showing appreciation for Allah’s blessing], let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.'  Surat 9.12 goes on to say to 'fight them (polytheists) that they may cease.’

The Quran distinguishes between Jews, Christians, and polytheists, but it also sees them as three groups over against Islam: 'Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim [submitting to Allah]. And he was not of the polytheists’ (Surat 3.67).  So, what does the Quran say about Jews and Christians?  Surat 5.51 sees them as allies of one another and opposed to Islam: 'O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you - then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people.'

Similarly, and apparently in reference to the Jews (see Surat 4.46), Surat 4.89 says: 'They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah . But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.'  Surat 9.123 says: 'O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them find in you harshness. And know that Allah is with the righteous.'  Surat 4.47 contains a direct threat of death to Jews and Christians rejecting the Quran: ‘O you who were given the Scripture, believe in what We have sent down [to Muhammad], confirming that which is with you, before We obliterate faces and turn them toward their backs or curse them as We cursed the sabbath-breakers. And ever is the decree of Allah accomplished.’

Conversion from Islam carries an ominous threat of punishment: ‘Or lest you say, "If only the Scripture had been revealed to us, we would have been better guided than they." So there has [now] come to you a clear evidence from your Lord and a guidance and mercy. Then who is more unjust than one who denies the verses of Allah and turns away from them? We will recompense those who turn away from Our verses with the worst of punishment for their having turned away’ (Surat 6.157).

Fighting in the cause of Allah means a great reward: 'So let those fight in the cause of Allah who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter. And he who fights in the cause of Allah and is killed or achieves victory - We will bestow upon him a great reward’ (Surat 4.74).  Much is made about fighting for Allah (especially in Surat 2)--and a higher reward goes to the one engaged in warfare--see Surat 4.95: 'But Allah has preferred the mujahideen [those who strive and fight] over those who remain [behind] with a great reward.'

Jews and Christians are unequivocally said to be headed to hell: ‘Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein. Those are the worst of creatures’ (Surat 98.6).  Yet the matter does not end there, even though the Quran gives evidence of people of different religions living in the same region.  Instead, fighting against Jews and Christians is advocated.  Surat 9.29 says: ‘Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day … who do not adopt the religion of truth [Islam] from those who were given the Scripture [Jews and Christians] - [fight] until they give the jizyah [tax on non-Muslims] willingly while they are humbled.’  Those causing Muslims to turn from their religion are promised a painful punishment: ‘Indeed, those who have disbelieved and avert [people] from the way of Allah and [from] al-Masjid al-Haram [the sacred mosque in Mecca], which We made for the people - equal are the resident therein and one from outside; and [also] whoever intends [a deed] therein of deviation [in religion] or wrongdoing - We will make him taste of a painful punishment’ (Surat 22.25).

Texts such as these from the Quran raise questions about how they are to be understood and applied in the present age.  For those of us who are not Muslims, the matter is primarily about how such texts are interpreted, not how we think they ought to be interpreted.  Yet the beginning of the problem for those outside Islam is that most people are ignorant of such texts in the first place, and they stand confused about how a religion purporting to be peaceful can lead so many to acts of such extreme violence.  To be sure, Christians have at different times behaved horribly too, although many would contend—as would I—that in such cases the practice of the Christian faith was completely at odds with Holy Scripture.  Such an argument is not difficult to make once one has read the New Testament—after all, did Jesus not say,

Matthew 5:44-46  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 

In closing, the question with which we are left is, ‘Is there any room at all for interpreting these texts in the Quran differently from what one might understand as the simple meaning of the text?’  If so, then perhaps certain advocates are correct when they insist that the extreme acts of Islamic terrorists we see today are not characteristic of ‘true’ Islam.  If not, then perhaps ‘radical Islam’ is actually not radical at all but the real thing, not some aberration.  In fact, one hermeneutical principle applied to reading the Quran is that the later texts take precedence over the early ones.  If so, then the more extreme and bellicose texts take precedence over the less extreme texts.

Is it ‘Islam’ or ‘Radical Islam’? (18 November, 2015)

Western liberals wish to avoid the politically incorrect issue of whether terrorists from Middle Eastern and North African countries do what they do because of their Islamic faith or not.  Is this a religious matter, or is it terrorism without any religious motivation?  Even when the terrorists claim that they murder because of their faith, liberal Westerners embarrassingly try to insist that this is not the case.  They try to criticize the terrorists for misunderstanding their own faith, as though they are somehow more able to explain Islam than Muslims.  Some will say that the agents of death are not true Muslims but ‘radicalised Muslims,’ but others will avoid the term ‘Muslim’ altogether.

Why would someone attempt this rather peculiar ‘doublespeak’ (a term coined by George Orwell in his work on politically correct totalitarianism—Nineteen Eighty-Four)?  One reason, apparently, is that liberals in the West have for decades tried to sweep religion under the cultural rug.  They have exiled religious faith to private places—behind church walls or in houses—anywhere but in the public square.  They have legislated against holding Christian convictions if they translate in any way to public life.  So, if any Muslims do commit violence because of their faith, they must, the denial mill purports, have been provoked—as in the now infamous story knowingly invented and shamefully told about an offensive video in Bengazi, Libya as the cause of an attack on the American embassy in 2012.

A second reason appears to be that President Barack Obama began his presidency by attempting to mend relationships with Islamic countries.  He has, however, repeatedly found himself in the embarrassing position of trying to address unrest in the Middle East when denial of the issues becomes impossible.  He would prefer to think of this unrest in terms of attempts to establish democracy or in terms of the previous administration's bungling into foreign wars or in terms of oppression and ethnicity (especially when Israel is part of the equation).  In other words, President Obama lacks the will or ability—or both—to analyze a deeply religious part of the world in terms of religion.  He is not alone.  Believing that reality is constructed, not a matter of facts, Western liberals seem to believe that their version of others’ beliefs is just as viable, if not moreso, than what people say.

As a result, public discussion in the West cannot rise to the real issue of whether terrorism is normative Islam or radical Islam.  Is the heart of Islam being exposed in the horrific attacks over recent years, or is this some cancerous aberration of some ‘true’ and peaceful Islam?  Divisions in Islam appeared right after the death of Mohammed, of course, and one cannot really speak of a ‘true’ form of Islam—only major traditions.  Also complicating any answer to the question are the facts that sacred texts ought to be read in Arabic rather than translation and that what is written needs to be read in some context with explanations.  This is the missing dialogue as the Western media attempts to present events without religious analysis. 

The following quotations might be a start for those who are capable of reading documents before passing judgements and able to listen to uncomfortable views without feeling that their predetermined views are being threatened.  Sadly, this rules out many in the government, on university campuses, and in news agencies in the West.

These quotations are from the Sahih Bukhari, which is one of the books of the Kutub al-Sittah.  The Kutub al-Sittah contains six collections by Muhammed al-Bukhari of sayings of Islam’s founder and form part of the Haddith.  The Kutub al-Sittah, compiled in the 9^th c., is given particular authority by Sunni Muslims (of which ISIS would be a representative).[1]

Quotations from the Sahih Bukhari

From Volume 4, Book 52: Jihaad

Allah's Apostle said, "You (i.e. Muslims) will fight with the Jews till some of them will hide behind stones. The stones will (betray them) saying, 'O 'Abdullah (i.e. slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him' " (4.52.176).

Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him" (4.52.177).

Allah 's Apostle said, " I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah,' and whoever says, 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah,' his life and property will be saved by me except for Islamic law, and his accounts will be with Allah, (either to punish him or to forgive him.)" (4.52.196).

I asked Allah's Apostle, "O Allah's Apostle! What is the best deed?" He replied, "To offer the prayers at their early stated fixed times." I asked, "What is next in goodness?" He replied, "To be good and dutiful to your parents." I further asked, what is next in goodness?" He replied, "To participate in Jihad in Allah's Cause." I did not ask Allah's Apostle anymore and if I had asked him more, he would have told me more. (4.52.41).

The Prophet passed by me at a place called Al-Abwa or Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, "They (i.e. women and children) are from them (i.e. pagans)." I also heard the Prophet saying, "The institution of Hima is invalid except for Allah and His Apostle."  (4.52.256).

Allah's Apostle sent us in a mission (i.e. an army-unit) and said, "If you find so-and-so and so-and-so, burn both of them with fire." When we intended to depart, Allah's Apostle said, "I have ordered you to burn so-and-so and so-and-so, and it is none but Allah Who punishes with fire, so, if you find them, kill them." (4.52.259).

Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn 'Abbas, who said, "Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, 'Don't punish (anybody) with Allah's Punishment.' No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.' " (4.52.260).

I asked Ali, "Do you have the knowledge of any Divine Inspiration besides what is in Allah's Book?" 'Ali replied, "No, by Him Who splits the grain of corn and creates the soul. I don't think we have such knowledge, but we have the ability of understanding which Allah may endow a person with, so that he may understand the Qur'an, and we have what is written in this paper as well." I asked, "What is written in this paper?" He replied, "(The regulations of) blood-money, the freeing of captives, and the judgment that no Muslim should be killed for killing an infidel." (4.52.283).

From Volume 8, Book 82: Disbelievers

Some people from the tribe of 'Ukl came to the Prophet and embraced Islam. The climate of Medina did not suit them, so the Prophet ordered them to go to the (herd of milch) camels of charity and to drink, their milk and urine (as a medicine). They did so, and after they had recovered from their ailment (became healthy) they turned renegades (reverted from Islam) and killed the shepherd of the camels and took the camels away. The Prophet sent (some people) in their pursuit and so they were (caught and) brought, and the Prophets ordered that their hands and legs should be cut off and that their eyes should be branded with heated pieces of iron, and that their cut hands and legs should not be cauterized, till they die. (8.82.794).

From Volume 9, Book 84: Dealing with Apostates

Behold: There was a fettered man beside Abu Muisa. Mu'adh asked, "Who is this (man)?" Abu Muisa said, "He was a Jew and became a Muslim and then reverted back to Judaism." Then Abu Muisa requested Mu'adh to sit down but Mu'adh said, "I will not sit down till he has been killed. (9.84.58; also in 9.89.271).

Conclusion

Those who do not read primary sources from antiquity need to be aware that texts must be read in their contexts, and moral judgements on them should also take earlier contexts into account.  When reading sacred texts—texts understood to carry authority in themselves—one needs to look for internal criteria that provide a means by which to interpret the texts intertextually.  That is, interpreters should beware of reading a text (and doing so in translation) without care for the historical-cultural, literary context or canonical context.  It is in so reading the Bible that we move from a religious understanding developed around an ethnic group and nation living in a land with borders that need defending to a religious understanding developed around the crucified Saviour, Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of the whole world.  Islam, however, lacks any such theological or heremeneutical key to move from a religion of warfare to bring about the submission of all.

---

[1] For a searchable English translation of the Sahih Bukhari, see: http://www.sahih-bukhari.com/.

Previous Lesson Links:

Lesson 1: Land, Religious State, Coexistence of Religions, and Non-Muslim Taxation

Lesson 2: Whose land?  Whose rights?  Theology and Politics of the Land, and the Power of the Cross

Lesson 3: Israel’s Theology of the Land in Deuteronomy 26

Lesson 4: Ethical Considerations on Israel’s Clearing of Canaan from its Inhabitants

Some Brief and Timely Lessons for Christians about Islam and Israel: Lesson 4

Lesson 4: Ethical Considerations on Israel’s Clearing of Canaan from its Inhabitants

Introduction

What shall we do with Old Testament texts dealing with Israel's clearing of Canaan from its inhabitants?  While not the least surprising in the history and culture of the Ancient Near East, the story poses a potential ethical challenge when it appears in Holy Scripture and as an event called for by God.  Putting people to the sword hardly sounds moral.  It sounds like an evil military force like ISIS or Hamas.  We might view it as ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Ancient Near Eastern peoples practiced people displacement and annihilation.  For example, in 1595 BC, Mursilli I (a Hittite) captured Babylon.  He removed the temple treasure and scattered the people.  This was a pattern throughout the region and over many centuries.  The stories of such practices are told on steles erected by rulers and depicted on walls and cliffs throughout the Ancient Near East.  Israel’s conquest of Canaan is the ‘stuff’ of Ancient Near Eastern politics, culture, and history.

In historical-political terms, the story fits the narrative explanation that the land belongs to the Jews.  In theological terms, it fits the narrative that the land belongs to God, and He cleanses the land from any who pollute it, whether Canaanites or Israelites.  As such, it is not a story endorsing ancient warfare or ethnic genocide but one that makes a theological claim about God’s statutes for all people and His right to judge.  Further, it is a story about God’s unfolding plan of salvation, including His grace in giving the land to a people delivered from slavery as their inheritance.  Ethically, Israel’s possession of the land is not a right but a gift and a responsibility (and therefore something that was lost for a period in the late 8^th – late 6^th centuries BC).

Following are eight points to consider regarding Israel’s conquest of Canaan and possession of the land.  The points are made from Scripture and pertain only to the period covered in the Bible.  A Biblical study of the issue involves consideration of the historical and theological progression in Scripture, from the Patriarchal period to the Israelite period to the Christian New Testament.

1. God Called for Himself a Holy People for His Mission to the World.

God’s choosing a people for Himself from the nations is fundamental to salvation history, both Israel’s salvation and that of the nations.  Choosing a people involves promising a place for them to dwell in righteousness before the one, true God, separate from the nations.

God’s Covenant with Abraham involved the promises of a land, a people, and the people’s being a blessing to the nations.  Because humanity was sinful (Genesis 6.5; 8.21), God’s dealing with His people involves judgement and salvation.  Over against stories in Genesis 1-11 of the eviction of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden for their sin, the destruction of sinful humanity in the story of the Flood and salvation of Noah and his family, and the dispersion of people when their unified civilization claimed rivalry with God, the story of Israel begins with God’s promise of blessing and salvation that includes the promise of the land:

Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (All quotes are from the English Standard Version.) 

 The Israelites were rescued from Egypt and brought to God.  He adopted them as His people at Mt. Sinai, when He gave them His Law.  As God’s treasured possession, they were to fulfill their role as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation:

Exodus 19.3-6 The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ⁴ ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; ⁶ and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

Deuteronomy 1:8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them."

 

Deuteronomy 4:32 “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. ³³ Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? ³⁴ Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. ³⁶ Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, ³⁸ driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, ³⁹ know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ⁴⁰ Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”

 

2 Samuel 7:23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods?  [Cf. 1 Chronicles 17.21]

 

2. Occupying the Land was Tied to Living the Righteous Life.

 Occupying the land of Canaan has to do with righteousness.  Being removed from the land has to do with punishment for sins.  This applied to the Canaanite tribes as well as to Israel.

 

Leviticus 18.3, 24-30 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes…. Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, ²⁵ and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), ²⁸ lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. ²⁹ For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. ^30qSo keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”

 

Lev. 20:23 And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.

 Not only Canaanite tribes but also Israel is punished with respect to occupying the land.  They are kept in the Wilderness and not allowed to enter Canaan because of their sins. 

 

Numbers 14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will confront you there, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you." 

Once in the land, the Israelites are eventually removed and sent into exile for not obeying God.  When God restores them from exile among the nations, it was for the sake of His Name.  To restore Israel from captivity meant to cleanse them from their past sins and to make them a righteous people.  Thus, living in the land of promise was tied to righteousness and the witness of the people among the nations.  If the Canaanites were to be removed from the land for their sinfulness, a sinful Israel was not to be tolerated in the land.  Of the many Old Testament passages that capture this theological understanding of the people, the land, the witness to the nations, and God’s plan of salvation, consider this passage about the New Covenant after Israel’s exile:

Ezek. 36:22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from fall your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you ia new heart, and ia new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.1 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And nI will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and play no famine upon you. 30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.

3. God’s judgement comes on an entire people when the righteous among them are too few.  He saves the righteous and destroys the unrighteous.

Three stories demonstrate that God brings judgement when the number of the righteous is too small to expect that the people will turn from their sins: the story of Noah and the Flood, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the story of Rahab and Jericho.

Genesis 6.5-8 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Genesis 18.32 Then he [Abraham] said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there [in Sodom].” He [the LORD] answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”

Genesis 19.29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Joshua 6.17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

4. The timing of cleansing Canaan had to do with the fullness of the Canaanite tribes’ sin reaching a tipping point.

 God dealt with Canaan as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18-19): judgement only came when the land was bereft of righteous people.

 

Genesis 15:14-16 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.  15 As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.  16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." 

 

Deuteronomy 9:4-5 "Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,' whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.  5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

5. Holy War is God’s War.

The Old Testament does not speak of ‘just war’—a theory that originated with the Stoics and came to be applied in Christian Europe after the empire was ‘Christianised’ (after the 4th century).  Holy War is holy because the battle really belongs to God.  Israel is God’s instrument of punishment, as with the battle against Jericho. 

 

Joshua 3:9-10, 13-14 Joshua then said to the Israelites, "Draw near and hear the words of the LORD your God."  10 Joshua said, "By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites…. 13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?"  14 And he said, "No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come." 

 

Joshua 7:10-13 The LORD said to Joshua, "Stand up! Why have you fallen upon your face?  11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have acted deceitfully, and they have put them among their own belongings.  12 Therefore the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs to their enemies, because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.  13 Proceed to sanctify the people, and say, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, "There are devoted things among you, O Israel; you will be unable to stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you." 

6. Ungodly influences are to be removed from God’s people.

The occupants of Canaan are not only punished for their own sins.  They are also to be removed in order not to influence God’s people with their idolatry and sins.

 

Exodus 23:23-24 When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out,  24 you shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces.

 

Exodus 23:28-33 And I will send the pestilence in front of you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.  29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, or the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply against you.  30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.  31 I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates; for I will hand over to you the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out before you.  32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.  33 They shall not live in your land, or they will make you sin against me; for if you worship their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. 

 

Exodus 34:11-17 Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.  12 Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you.  13 You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles  14 (for you shall worship no other god, because the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).  15 You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice.  16 And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.  17 You shall not make cast idols. 

 

Leviticus 18:3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes. 

 

Numbers 33:50-56  50 In the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, the LORD spoke to

Moses, saying:  51 Speak to the Israelites, and say to them: When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,  52 you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high places.  53 You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.  54 You shall apportion the land by lot according to your clans; to a large one you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small one you shall give a small inheritance; the inheritance shall belong to the person on whom the lot falls; according to your ancestral tribes you shall inherit.  55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they shall trouble you in the land where you are settling.  56 And I will do to you as I thought to do to them. 

 

Deuteronomy 7:1-6 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you-- the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you--  2 and when the LORD your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.  3 Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,  4 for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.  5 But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire.  6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

 7. The occupants of Canaan were a ‘failed’ culture, full of sin, not just individuals who were sinful.

The sinfulness of the Canaanites is a major theme in the Old Testament, beginning with the sin of Ham against his father, Noah (Genesis 9).  It continues with the story of God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their many sins, including homosexuality and the rape of foreigners (Genesis 19; cf. Judges 19).  Examples of the sins of the people of Egypt and Canaan are given in Leviticus 18, especially regarding sexual sins.  Note also these extra-Biblical references:

·       Regarding the Egyptians: ‘…and the Egyptians take their sisters in marriage (Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism III.205; AD 200).

·       Regarding the Hittites: 199. ‘If anyone have intercourse with a pig or a dog, he shall die. If a man have intercourse with a horse or a mule, there is no punishment. But he shall not approach the king, and shall not become a priest’ (Code of Nesilim; 1650-1500 BC—Old Hittite).

The Canaanites also sacrificed children to gods.  The Ammonites sacrificed their children to Molech and the Canaanites to Baal (1 Kings 11.7; 2 Kings 3.10; 13.10; cf. Jeremiah 7.31-32; 19.4-15; 32.5; Leviticus 20.1-5).

The Canaanites also sought answers from the dead (Leviticus 20.27).  The nations that the Israelites dispossessed in Canaan practiced divination, listened to fortune-tellers and people who interpreted omens, sought out sorcerers, charmers, mediums, and the dead (Deuteronomy 18.9-14; cf. 12.31; Exodus 22.18; Leviticus 18.21; 19.26, 31; 2 Kings 17.17; cf. 1 Samuel 28.7).  These religious practices were also repulsive to God.

 8. Terms of peace are to be offered certain towns first.  Israel’s war does not mean total annihilation: only particular nations which have done abhorrent things are put to the sword so that they might not teach God's people to do them.  The cleansing of the land was to do with God's judgement and the people's purity. 

 

Deuteronomy 20:10-18 When you draw near to a town to fight against it, offer it terms of peace.  11 If it accepts your terms of peace and surrenders to you, then all the people in it shall serve you at forced labor.  12 If it does not submit to you peacefully, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it;  13 and when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword.  14 You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, livestock, and everything else in the town, all its spoil. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you.  15 Thus you shall treat all the towns that are very far from you, which are not towns of the nations here.  16 But as for the towns of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive.  17 You shall annihilate them-- the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites-- just as the LORD your God has commanded,  18 so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the LORD your God.

 9. The New Testament presents a non-violent ethic for God’s people.

 The Church is not a state.  Unlike Israel, it has no land, no borders, no army, no king.  It is a community, and it is made up of all peoples of the earth.

 a. Leave vengeance to God.

Romans 12:18-21 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.  19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."  20 To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."  21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 b. Pray for your enemies.

Matthew 5:43-44 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you….

 c. Forgive others as God has forgiven you.

Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,  15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

 d. There are no ethnic exclusions among God’s people.  Instead, the Church is inclusive of groups that used to fight.  Inclusion is not a characteristic of ethnic diversity (multiculturalism) but of non-ethnic identity.

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 12.13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Colossians 3.11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

 e. The Church approaches discipline differently from a nation like Israel.  The Church is a community of faith, not a civil government. 

Leviticus 20:11 If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

1 Corinthians 5:4-5 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,  5 you are to deliver this man to Satan [i.e., outside the church) for the destruction of the flesh [i.e., sinful desires], so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

 f. God will ultimately bring judgement to the earth.  Now is the time of God’s grace, the time to evangelise the nations, the day of salvation.  Israel's actions took place as part of God's plan that involved a nation and without an eschatology of final judgement on the earth.  The New Testament sees judgement as belonging to God, which leaves the Church--God's people--without the sword.

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  2 For he says, "In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

 

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, 8-10 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  3 While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape….  8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.  9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

Conclusion

These points are significant when considering the Biblical perspective on Israel’s cleansing and conquest of the land of Israel.  The event, while typical in Ancient Near Eastern history, is unique from a theological perspective.  Holy war relates to the particular narrative, and it is not something that is repeatable or a right of a particular people.  In fact, the New Testament removes God’s people, the Church, from such a narrative or role altogether.  (The Crusades were an illegitimate reclaiming of the Old Testament narrative of Holy War for the Church in response to Islamic claims.)  The legitimacy of Holy War resides only with God, and it is only to be enacted again at the end of history when God establishes righteousness on the earth.  It will be His judgement, and there is no Biblical grounds for associating it with the land of Israel or ethnic or national identities.

Links:

Lesson 1: Land, Religious State, Coexistence of Religions, and Non-Muslim Taxation

Lesson 2: Whose land?  Whose rights?  Theology and Politics of the Land, and the Power of the Cross

Lesson 3: Israel’s Theology of the Land in Deuteronomy 26

Related Discussion from Associates for Biblical Research on Archaeological Evidence for Israel's Conquest of Canaan in the 15th Century BC:

Joshua: The Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries-Digging for Truth Episode 219