Also see General Contradictions in the New Testament
Death and Mayhem in the Old Testament?
by Lewis Loflin
What is below has been featured on several anti-Christian websites to attack the Bible. As the radical Humanists (includes various Progressives, socialists, and Marxists) proclaim, God sanctions murder, thus if we end Christianity, we end all our problems. But is that true?
Whether one believes in the Bible or not, let's put this in perspective: this is what all ancient peoples did, period. Also, we must consider the cultural and political arena in which these events occurred. This was often during wars or political upheaval. The problem is some ignorant Christians do see these passages as an excuse to commit murder, something the Ten Commandments in fact prohibits. As an Orthodox Jewish friend pointed out, these were specific commands for specific reasons, and not a license for one to act on their own.
Oddly, I don't see the radical Humanists and their allies say this of Mohammed, who did the very same thing. (Muslims still commit murder and terror under Sharia against non-believers today.) Was his crimes (rape, murder, etc.) sanctioned by God (Allah is Arabic for God), or was it Mohammed's own orders acting on his own? (Same with Moses of coarse.) Same thing when Christianity gained power in the Roman Empire. Their reign of murder and terror against heretics, pagans, and Jews, was this acting in behalf of God, or simply an excuse to cover their own actions? Do we blame every Jew, Christian, and Muslim today for the actions of the past?
Now we come to our "secular" Humanists and their allies. All claim their origins in the Radical French Enlightenment, which played out in the French Revolution. This "atheist" revolution murdered over 100,000 people. Their more modern socialist, fascist, Nazi, and communist brothers murdered over 200 million in the 20th Century and continue to do so today. If we are to blame Christians and Jews for Moses, then the Humanists must be blamed for Marx, Mao, Stalin, etc. These were all atheists, or where they?
They were atheists in the fact they rejected Christianity, God, etc. But the "godless" often have a habit of manufacturing new pseudo-religions, with the above mentioned "isms" being the most popular. (Some even try to use science as a pseudo-religion.) So the question becomes, is the violent nature of man (at least some) caused by a belief in God or is it an innate facet of humanity? Humanist' and atheist' philosophy clearly makes no difference. The question comes back to, is it environment or nature?
Ask the 6 million Ukrainians slaughtered by Stalin;
or the tens of millions of other Soviet citizens killed by Stalin's Soviet Union;
or the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers throughout Europe;
or the 60 million Chinese butchered by Mao;
or the 2 million Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot;
or the millions killed and enslaved in Sudan;
or the Tutsis murdered in Rwanda's genocide;
or the millions starved to death and enslaved in North Korea;
or the million Tibetans killed by the Chinese;
or the million-plus Afghans put to death by Brezhnev's Soviet Union.
All the "leftie" and Humanist types will claim environment, but the 'atheist" environment above must mean these Humanist' philosophies were responsible for genocide, etc. In my view God doesn't order or sanction murder. If the anti-God crowd continue to insist God does or that a belief in God causes one to commit murder, then we must hold them equally accountable for the murders committed by those following their atheistic' philosophies. You can't have it both ways.
- Victims of the Christian Religion
- Left vs Right
- The God of Abraham and the Enemies of "Eurocentrism"
- Rousseau: An Interesting Madman
- Rousseau and the Revolt Against Reason
- Natural Law and a Nihilistic Culture
- Reasonable Science, Reasonable Faith
[ Challenge to Atheists 1 ] [ Challenge to Atheists 2 ] [ Challenge to Atheists 3 ] [ Challenge to Atheists 4 ]
The lord giveth, the lord taketh away...Lo, the lord is a kind and loving being, is he not...
The following is a list of people murdered by God directly or through His command.
- The entire population of the earth except for eight survivors (Genesis 7:23)
- Every inhabitant of Sodom and Gomorrah except for one family (Genesis 19:24)
- Every first born of Egypt (Exodus 12:29)
- All the hosts of the Pharaoh, including the captains of 600 chariots (Exodus 14:27,28)
- Amalek and his people (Exodus 17:11,16)
- 3,000 Israelites (Exodus 32:27)
- 250 Levite princes who had challenged the leadership of Moses (Numbers 16:1-40)
- 14,700 Jews in a plague who had rebelled against Moses following the killing of the princes (Numbers 16:41-49)
- All the subjects of Og (Numbers 21:34, 35)
- 24,000 Israelites who lived with Moabite women (Numbers 25:4, 9)
- All the males, kings, and non-virgin females of the Midianites (Numbers 31:7, 8)
- The Ammonites (Deuteronomy 2:19-21)
- The Horims (Deuteronomy 2:22)
- All the citizens of Jericho, except for a prostitute and her family (Joshua 6)
- 12,000 citizens of Ai. Joshua hung the king on a tree. (Joshua 8:1-30)
- All the people of Makkedah (Joshua 10:28)
- All the people of Libnah (Joshua 10:29, 30)
- All the people of Gezer (Joshua 10:33)
- All the people of Lachish (Joshua 10:32)
- All the people of Eglon (Joshua 10:34, 35)
- All the people of Hebron (Joshua 10:36, 37)
- All the inhabitants of 1 of the country of the hills, and of the south, and the vale, and of the springs and all their kings (Joshua 10:40)
- All 31 kings and inhabitants of their countries, and south country, and the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same from Mt. Halak to Mt. Hermon (Joshua 11:12, 16, 17, 12:24)
- 10,000 Moabites (Judges 3:29)
- 10,000 Perizzites and Canaanites (Judges 1:4)
- 600 Phillistines (Judges 3:31)
- All of Sisera (Judges 4:16)
- 120,000 Midianites (Judges 8:10)
- 25,100 Benjaminites (Judges 20:35)
- 50,070 people of Bethshemesh (I Samuel 6:19)
- All the Amalekites (I Samuel 15:3, 7)
- The armies and five kings of the Amorites (Amos 3:2)
- The Moabites and 22,000 Syrians (II Samuel 8:2, 5, 6, 14)
- 40,000 Syrian horsemen (II Samuel 10:18)
- 100,000 Syrian footmen, followed by 27,000 who are all crushed by a wall (I Kings 20:28, 29, 30)
- 42 children eaten by a bear (II Kings 2:23, 24)
- 185,000 Assyrians killed by an angel (II Kings 19:35)
- 10,000 Edomites, followed by 10,000 more whose killers brought them to the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they were broken in pieces (II Chronicles 28)
- 120,000 Judeans (II Chronicles 28)
- 75,000 Persians (Esther 9:16)
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