Christian Political Witness by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830896202
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2014-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

8

Violence

Peter J. Leithart

From beginning to end, the Bible is utterly opposed to violence.1 Scripture never commands or endorses violence, never permits violence, never allows for a minimal level of violence, never treats violence as a good or as a necessary evil. Biblical ethics and politics are nonviolent ethics and politics.

The God revealed in the Bible is utterly opposed to violence. He never commands or endorses violence, never allows a minimal level of violence, never treats violence as a necessary evil. The God of Israel never commits violence himself, and violence (Hebrew חמס) does not describe what God does, or commands, or is, or loves.2 On the contrary: God hates (שׂנא) hands that shed innocent blood, hearts full of wicked schemes, feet that run to do evil, false witnesses and those who spread strife among brothers (Prov 6:16-19). He hates the one who robes himself with violence (Mal 2:16). “The one who loves violence His soul hates” (Ps 11:5 NASB). As far as I have found, lovers of violence are the only thing God hates down to his “soul.”

These claims will come as a surprise to many, not all of them named Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens or Harris.3 Many Christians will be surprised, and the surprise is understandable. After all, the God of Israel regularly gives orders such as: “You shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves” (Ex 34:13).4 And the objects of destruction are not always inanimate. He tells Moses to smite the Midianites (Num 25:17), and sends his people into the land to carry out herem warfare: “You shall smite [the Canaanites], and utterly destroy them. . . . You must destroy the peoples Yahweh your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity” (Deut 7:2, 16). Dutifully fulfilling everything Moses commands, Joshua “totally destroyed all that breathed, just as Yahweh, the God of Israel, had commanded” (Josh 10:40).5 Yahweh rewards Phinehas for impaling a fornicating couple in the camp of Israel (Num 25), and tears the kingdom from Saul for failing to carry out the ban against the Amalekites (1 Sam 15).

The God who gives these instructions appears to be as savage as his people. He strikes (Gen 8:21; Ex 3:20; 12:12-13, 29) and smites. He wages war (Ex 14:14; Deut 1:30), judges (Ezek 7:27), repays (Deut 7:10), punishes (1 Sam 15:2; Jer 9:24; 44:13; Hos 12:2), afflicts (1 Sam 16:14; the NASB has “terrorize”) and avenges (Judg 11:36). He tramples the mighty, crushes young men and treads Jerusalem like grapes in a wine press (Lam 1:15). He dashes to pieces (Ex 15:6) and “swallows” (Ps 21:9) or “eats” (Num 16:35) his enemies in his fiery wrath. He spreads fear (Deut 2:25), confusion and panic (Is 22:5). He destroys (Gen 6:7; 7:4, 23; 18:28; Ex 17:14; Deut 7:10), he kills (1 Sam 2:6).6 Yahweh not only commands herem war. He is the chief herem Warrior. He threatens “utterly to put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. . . .

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