did god give the canaanites a chance to repent

23:33; Deut. Further information about Probe's materials and ministry may be obtained by contacting us at: Probe Ministries Could there have been any righteous Canaanites, especially in view of the pervasive, seductive, and corrosive nature of Canaanite sin? 18:7-8 ). In our pluralistic age, its easy to forget what an offense that is to the true God. Would 45 be ok? Abraham continues to bargain down to 10 righteous people. This was Gods judgment carried out on the people of Canaan using the chosen people of Israel. Gods first inclination is to save Canaan rather than destroy it. Bible scholars call thiseremwarfare. No worldly government can exist unless it uses every necessary means to punish law breaking. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). The completely negative connotations of genocide make it hard to look at the biblical events without a jaundiced eye. If God didnt mean to kill everyone in nearby cities, then what distinction was being made? . That we commit similar sins today renders us incapable of appropriate moral outrage against these sins and thus we accuse God of genocide to justify our own sinfulness. The law given in Deuteronomy provided regulations for the people of Israel. He blogs at, How J. K. Rowling Played, then Lost, the Polarization Game, GAFCON IV: Lessons from a Communion in Birth Pains, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Christian Nationalism, What to Do When Your Child Is Addicted to Video Games, Radical Christian Gentleness in an Era of Addictive Outrage, The FAQs: Anglican Group Calls on Church of Englands Leader to Repent, Whats the Earliest Evidence for Christianity? Every forecast of prophecy of doom came with an implied unless attached to it: If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. Their purity laws pointed to the holiness demanded by God. They reason something along these lines: (1) Christians condemn genocide. (972) 941-4565 Dt. 4:26; 7:4 ). . When God told Abraham He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded for them, and God agreed in his mercy that if but only ten righteous people were found, He wouldnt do it. If Ananias and Sapphira were new Christians/immature Christians then we might have asked why they did Not have a chance to repent( i.e., some kind of gracious period of time to repent). God was concerned that, if the Canaanites remained in the land, they would draw the Israelites into their evil practices. When Jesus came, He shifted the battle to the spiritual realm; He fought spiritual powers and authorities. This is an online articlefrom theChristian Research Journal. God promised Canaan to Abraham and his children. Robert has written 111 articles on What Christians Want To Know! Accessed 5 November 2008. Israel received direct word from God that they should do this. In the old testament God tells Joshua to kill all the Canaanites, including women and children. Baal has sex with his mother Asherah,6 his sister Anat, and his daughter Pidray,7 and none of this is presented pejoratively. God did not just decide to command the Israelites to destroy all the inhabitants of Canaan simply because he promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit it; he commanded them to do it because the Canaanites were wicked, evil, sinful people. Robert is happily married and lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This news had terrified the city of Jericho and Rahab had put her faith in God (Joshua 2:10-14). However, if we properly understand the whole picture we will be able to view Gods actions as full of mercy and fairness in His dealings with His children. Yahweh is a God of justice as well as mercy. [Ed. But why should we take seriously the skeptics advocacy for Canaanite children? James B. Pritchard, Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., Incest, Sodomy and Bestiality in the Ancient Near East, in. And as a consequence, God used Israel to bring judgement upon them. And I say contemporary because children werent regarded as highly in the Ancient Near East as they are today. God promised Canaan to Abraham and his children. Paul Rutherford explains the lies he believed and tow which he was in bondage about pornography, until Jesus helped him achieve sexual sobriety. Gods enemies were dealt a crushing blow through Christs victory on the cross, but they will not finally be defeated until Christ returns to establish everlasting justice on earth. 12:4, 30, 31 ). Spoiler alert: God did give Canaan a chance to repent. 11:31; Jas. Canaanite tribes (especially the Hittites) greatly exceeded the boundaries that Israel was told to conquer. . Even so, many who acknowledge Gods existence still have trouble accepting the morality of Scripture. 18 records briefly the moral degradation of the Canaanites. An even more detestable practice was that of child sacrifice. The victims were not only infants; children as old as four were sacrificed.15 Kleitarchos reported that as the flame burning the child surrounded the body, the limbs would shrivel up and the mouth would appear to grin as if laughing, until it was shrunk enough to slip into the cauldron.16, Homosexuality. You cannot have moral laws without a moral Lawgiver. Later when Israel disobeys God and allows the Canaanites to continue to live among them, the corruptive and seductive power of Canaanite sin results in the Canaanization of Israel. The term genocide means a major action committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. {3} Some twentieth-century examples are the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis and the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis by the Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. This wasnt merely punishment, however. There is no justice in the world today, and therefore there must be a day when the wrongs of the present life are made right. 2). 5. Then theres Sodom, God tells Abraham that because of the wickedness of Sodom He will destroy it. 7 passage provides better support for his position. God's character, Third, if one holds that there is an age of accountability for children, and that those younger than that are received into heaven with God at their death, although the means of death were frightful and harsh, the Canaanite childrens experience after death would be better than if theyd continued to live among such a sinful people. No matter what God does, all of His actions are guided by His sovereign will and the fact that He, so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 ESV). It may not be altered or edited in any way. (2) Yahwehs command to kill the Canaanites was an act of divine genocide. Then they would simply abandon worship of the true God. Change). In Jdg. Cf. A common attack today on Christianity has to do with the character of the God of the Old Testament{1}. Can the actions of the Israelites legitimately be called genocide? They had passed the point of redeemability, and were ripe for judgment. However, the city repented, turned to God, and God did not judge them. First, the movement of the Israelites into Canaan was the fruition of Gods promise to Abram that He would give that land to his children (Gen. 12:7). Isnt that a better alternative? God loves each of us as if there were only one of us"- Augustine. Of course not. Minor judges Izban, Elon, and Abdon get brief mentions. Paul Copan, Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?, Philosophia Christi 10, no. Rick Wade provides an expanded discussion of the issues around the Israelites battles against the Canaanites. But there is a major difference. Tagged as: The question has been raised whether God really intended the Israelites to kill all the people. The category scholars use for such events as the battles in the conquest of Canaan is Yahweh war. Why Your Church Needs Vacation Bible School, Gods Amazing Conversions Through Dreams and Visions Part Three, Gods Amazing Conversions Through Dreams and Visions Part Two, Ice Dragon: Legend of the Blue Daisies Movie Review, Phoenix Wilder And The Great Elephant Adventure Movie Review, The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island Movie Review. I have two questions: 1. He blogs at Allkirk Network. However, it is crucial to note that in the same passage, God declares the Israelites no less wicked than the Canaanites, deserving the same fate: For example, God commanded the Israelites, in Deuteronomy 20:10-15, to offer conditions of peace rather than extermination to all others. They were fully aware that God had chosen Israel to be a tool in His hands in bringing judgement to the nations. all, and God plays fair with all peoples at all times, giving them equal chances for repentance and reformation. Dawkins, 338. And if all children are saved, then a Canaanite child would benefit by being alive in a better place. A biblical example of this would be Gods treatment of the city of Nineveh. Since the land wasnt empty, this could only be accomplished by driving the Canaanites out. The third goal of the conquest was the protection of Israel. When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Consequently, we love what He hates, and we hate what He loves. Presumably, the Canaanites could have done the same thing. And since, as we will see, He punished Israel when they committed the same sins, what happened to the Canaanites was not genocide, but capital punishment. God and the Canaanites: A Biblical Perspective, www.epsociety.org/library/articles.asp?pid=45, www.epsociety.org/library/articles.asp?pid=63, Yahweh War and the Conquest of Canaan - A Biblical Worldview Perspective, "How Could a Compassionate God Order the Genocide of the Canaanites? Although Abraham was Gods friend and the Lord wanted to give to him the land of Canaan for an inheritance. For the most part, they chose to rebel against God. There were absolutely no prohibitions against bestiality in the rest of the ANE.21 In fact, in an Egyptian dream book it was a bad omen for a woman to dream about embracing her husband, but good things would happen if she dreamed of intercourse with a baboon, wolf, or he-goat.22 In short, their sexual fantasies involved everything that breathes. But the war is not over. 12:4, 30, 31). The Bible calls Noah a preacher of righteousness thats because before the flood Noah tried to save others by preaching repentance! 23:14). God has delivered Israel and set them apart as His people. Ones background theological beliefs make a big difference in how one sees this. Craig writes, For example, I have no right to take an innocent life. In Deuteronomy 20:18, God gave Israel an explicit reason why it was necessary to wipe out the Canaanites: that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God., It was merciful for God to limit the scope of the. God is a God of . Jesus then warned, What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? And their laws concerningeremwarfare pointed to Gods just judgment against sin. However, if we properly understand the whole picture we will be able to view God 's actions as full of mercy and fairness in His dealings with His children. Israel was warned not to let the Canaanites live in their land, but to completely destroy them (Exod. But we must keep in mind that God is not subject to our contemporary sensibilities. Idolatry perverts our ability to love what Yahweh loves. God was patient with the Canaanites 4. Perhaps what the skeptic is really concerned about is whether the just destruction of the Canaanites is license for Christians to resort to killing the wicked. If they had sex with just about every living thing they could get their hands on, and they did, then all had to die.

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