Kevin Stilley

by

Preview of 100 Events We Will Cover In Church & Empires

  1. All history is His story.
  2. We must work to differentiate between civilization and Christianity.
  3. The past is a “foreign country.” – hermeneutics emic vs. etic
  4. Persecution of Christian during the reign of Domitian (81-96 A.D) came to forefront in Asia Minor where the imperial cult was centered.
  5. Persecution resulted in two significant literary productions: apologetics and martyrdom.
  6. Heresy promoted doctrinal systematization.
  7. Irenaeus important for representing orthodox reaction to heresy (Against Heresies).
  8. Tertullian’s writings tell us much about alternative understandings of Christianity.
  9. Origen produced the first systematic theology.
  10. Claims against Christians included obstinacy, disloyalty, atheism, cannibalism, incest.
  11. Philosophers such as Celsus, Galen, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius argued that Christians were “weaklings”, irrational, gullible, and fanatics.
  12. Persecution was sporadic but “always present as a possibility.”
  13. The early church fathers gave us a rich theological inheritance, but were not immune to error.
  14. Irenaeus – Trinitarian, fought Gnosticism, but also apostolic succession, emphasis upon tradition, priority of Roman bishop
  15. Perhaps the most influential second century apologist was Justin Martyr. Others included Tatian, Athenagorus, Thophilus and Minucius Felix.
  16. The Logos was prominent in apologetic literature (a) The Logos as the reason or wisdom of God, (b) the Logos as God’s spoken word, (c) the Logos as immanent in the world, (d) the Logos as the revealed word of God in the prophets, (e) the incarnate Jesus.
  17. Martyrdom literature took three forms, letters, passions, and acts.
  18. “Beginning with Constantine, the church entered imperial history in such a way that one cannot deal with the secular history of the fourth century without discussing the church and cannot deal with the religious history without considering the state.”
  19. Arius believed that, “Thee was when Christ was not” — that Jesus was the first and highest of God’s creations – a god.
  20. Arianism was addressed at the Council of Nicea, called by Constantine in 325.
  21. The council adopted the word homoousious to describe Christ’s relationship with the Father.
  22. The first four ecumenical councils were Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451).
  23. The fourth century dealt with the Trinitarian conflict. The fifth century with the Christological controversy.
  24. Apollonarianism = the belief that the divine Logos replaced the human soul/spirit of Jesus.
  25. Nestorianism = Christ exists as two natures, the man Jesus and the divine Son of God, or Logos, rather than as a unified person.
  26. Eutychianism = Monophysitism – only one nature of Christ, the human nature overcome by the divine nature.
  27. Ebionites – Denied the full deity of Christ (As the Christ, he functioned as God on earth)
  28. Docetism – Appeared to be a man
  29. Eutychianism – Human nature became absorbed into the God nature such that
  30. Monarchianism/Seballianism – Modalism
  31. Adoptionism – man in the beginning but adopted as the Son of God and became deity
  32. Kenoticsm – God became less God to become man, he set aside part of his deity
  33. We must watch out for language games – equivocation
  34. Constantine moves capital in 330
  35. The Eastern Empire becomes seat of power and wealth
  36. Roman bishop left as single most powerful person in the West
  37. By the end of the 4th century barbarians serious problem in the west (Visgoths, Huns, etc)
  38. After the sacking of Rome in 410, Christian views of society and history were put forth, including the most prominent which was Augustine’s City of God.
  39. Compare Augustine’s Two Cities with Genesis 4-5.
  40. Other important works of Augustine which we will discuss include his Confessions, and On the Trinity,
  41. Augustine – bridge between ancient world and Middle Ages
  42. Roman bishop won primacy over other bishops
  43. When imperial throne falls into the hands of the barbarians in 476 people look to the Roman bishop for political leadership as well as spiritual leadership
  44. Western civilization was created in medieval Europe (institutions, mentalities, struggles, books, etc.) No more Roman Lake.
  45. Spontaneous mission work in 4th & 5th centuries
  46. “Medieval history, from one point of view, is the story of the movement of the centre of gravity of civilization from one side of the Alps to the other.”
  47. “The movement of the centres of civilization from south to north and from east to west during the medieval centuries involved a change from the empires of Rome, Byzantium, and the Arabs, empires of vast geographical extent and great military power but which were relatively loosely controlled.”  Creation of new societies.
  48. Christians among the Britons by the end of the second century.
  49. When Roman missionaries came England in 6th century they found three distinct expressions of Christianity (1)Romano-British Christians in the South, (2) Irish Christians, and (3) Celtic Christianity.
  50. Boniface evangelizes Teutonic tribes occupying modern Germany
  51. In the East, political stability achieved through reducing taxes and trimming expenses. (common vision)
  52. Syriac speaking Christians took gospel to Persian where there was interest in medicine, philosophy, advanced education.
  53. Persians make peace treaty with Justinian in 532
  54. Justinian had eyes on Africa and Italy
  55. 539 Khosru declares War on “Rome”
  56. Bubonic plague, Slavs, Goths keep Eastern empire from “glory” – Justinian’s reign relentless, austere quality
  57. Persia becomes stronger than at any time since Darius I
  58. Time of weak leadership makes susceptible to be conquered.
  59. In the sixth century many Arabs had converted to Christianity, but most continued to worship tribal deities.
  60. Mohammad lived 570-632.
  61. Ten years = 65 raids or campaigns
  62. Eventually becomes powerful enough to take Mecca, destroys idols, establishes Islam
  63. Islam means “submission.”
  64. Muslim means “one who submits.”
  65. The century of Muslim expansion is traditionally dated as 632-732.
  66. By 650 his Muslims had overrun the Persian empire, taken Syria, Egypt, and Palestine
  67. Western empire makes gains in the North through evangelism.
  68. Missionary task included making sure converts would be loyal to the pope.
  69. Emperors in Constantinople thought the church should be subordinate to the ruler of the state.
  70. Pope seeks ally
  71. Frankish rulers
  72. Rulers of new empire were Teutons rather than Romans
  73. Franks had accepted the Roman culture
  74. Clovis (466-510) had unified the Franks and conquered most of what would be modern France
  75. Franks accepted Christianity in 496 and became bulwark of papal power in Western Europe
  76. Eastern Empire barely hold its own against Muslims
  77. 718 Eastern empire under Leo the Isaurian stops Muslim advance
  78. Charles Martel stopped the advance of Islam in Spain in 732.
  79. Muslims, influenced by Greek culture, set out to build a splendid Arabic civilization centered in Bagdad
  80. Eastern Influence Diminishes (North African church disappears, Egypt and Holy Land lost to Muslims, Roman bishop has been growing stronger and stronger)
  81. The Franks “snatched western Europe from decline and brought a brief cultural revival” when Charlemagne crowned as true successor to the Roman empire.
  82. Charlemagne had Augustine’s City of God read to him every night and it was his inspiration for a Frankish-Roman empire.
  83. Charlemagne saw “missions” as part of a military strategy.
  84. By the time of the new millennium (1000) almost all of Europe was “officially” Christian.
  85. Charlemagne was crowned by Pope Leo III on Christmas day of 800, but intentionally avoided having the Pope present when control was passed to his son (816).
  86. “The Constitution romana (824) spelled out relations of emperor and pope. The emperor had supreme jurisdiction, while the pope as a local ruler was to exercise ordinary judiciary and administrative power in his territories.  The pope was to be chosen by the Roman people without constraint.  The emperor was to confirm his election, and before his consecration he was to take an oath of loyalty to the emperor.  The pope had the right to crown and anoint the emperor.
  87. Henry III, German emperor, was the last emperor able to dominate the papacy. Deposed three rival popes and installed his own.
  88. Excommunication of Henry IV by Gregory VII in 1076.
  89. Pope Boniface VII: Unam Sanctum (1302)For when the Apostles say: ‘Behold, here are two swords’ [Lk 22:38] that is to say, in the Church, since the Apostles were speaking, the Lord did not reply that there were too many, but sufficient. Certainly the one who denies that the temporal sword is in the power of Peter has not listened well to the word of the Lord commanding: ‘Put up thy sword into thy scabbard’ [Mt 26:52]. Both, therefore, are in the power of the Church, that is to say, the spiritual and the material sword, but the former is to be administered _for_ the Church but the latter by the Church; the former in the hands of the priest; the latter by the hands of kings and soldiers, but at the will and sufferance of the priest.
  90. Erastians –
  91. Calvin –
  92. Luther –
  93. Anabaptists –
  94. What Does the Bible Say? Deut 17:8ff
  95. 1 Samuel 13
  96. 2 Chronicles 26:16-21
  97. Luke 20:22ff
  98. First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
  99. Aristocracy = weakness, meritocracy = strength
  100. Six things that lead to cultural change: war, politics, religion, migration, economics, education.

 

 

by

C.S. Lewis – select quotes

A book which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story. The good ones last. A book which is not worth reading at age 50 is not worth reading at age 10.
~ in “On Three Ways of Writing for Children”

But if the lords were glum, the common people in the streets were huzzaing and throwing caps in the air. It would have puffed me up if I had not looked in their faces. There I could read their mind easily enough. Neither I nor Glome was in their thoughts. Any fight was a free show for them; and a fight of a woman with a man better still because an oddity–as those who can’t tell one tune from another will crowd to hear the harp if a man plays it with his toes.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seem to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity
Thou, who wouldst give no other sign, deliver me
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of my head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take me from all my trumpery lest I die.
~ The Apologists Evening Prayer

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains. Suffering is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart.

He wants a child’s heart, but a grown up’s head.

He who converts his neighbour has performed the most practical Christian-political act of all.
~ in God in the Dock

Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.

I had known Redival’s tears ever since I could remember. They were not wholly feigned, nor much dearer than ditchwater…. It’s likely enough she meant less mischief than she had done (she never knew how much she meant) and was now, in her fashion, sorry; but a new brooch, much more a new lover, would have had her drying her eyes and laughing in no time.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

I want God, not my idea of God.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.

It burned me from within. It quickened; I was with book, as a woman is with child.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

The one sin the gods never forgive us is that of being born women.
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

“We’ve had scores of matches together. The gods never made anyone–man or woman–with a better natural gift for it. Oh, Lady, Lady, it’s a thousand pities they didn’t make you a man.” (He spoke it as kindly and heartily as could be; as if a man dashed a gallon of cold water in your broth and never doubted you’d like it all the better.)
~ Character in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

When I fail as a critic I may yet be useful as a specimen.

Yet it surprised me that he should have said it; for I did not yet know that, if you are ugly enough, all men (unless they hate you deeply) soon give up thinking of you as a woman at all.
~ Character in  Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it.

We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or the guilt of sin.

We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good, if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, and the contempt of this world along with the hope of our eternal country.

__________

Book Cover

__________

RELATED


by

Do’s and Don’ts When Reaching Out To Muslims

The Islam and Christianity pamphlet published by Rose Media offers the following Do’s and Don’ts of Reaching Out to Muslims:

  • Do make it clear you are a follower of Christ, by your loving words and righteous lifestyle.
  • Don’t assume your Muslim friend understands your meaning of “Christian.”
  • Do take time to build a relationship. Practice hospitality.
  • Don’t be surprised if you are rejected at first. It is best to offer Muslim friends store-bought sweets and to avoid anything with pork or alcohol.
  • Do approach your encounters as a learner. Ask questions.
  • Don’t take notes and treat Muslim friends like an academic project.
  • Do correct their misunderstandings of your beliefs.
  • Don’t argue. If they want to debate with a Christian, refer them to the website: www.debate.org.uk/.
  • Do talk about Jesus. Use his title, Isa Al Masih.
  • Don’t insult the prophet Muhammad.
  • Do pray out loud with your Muslim friends. Ask if you can pray for their practical needs, healing, and worries. Look for opportunities and pray in Jesus’ name.
  • Don’t start your prayer with “Our Father…” because Muslims have a misunderstanding about the fatherhood of God (as sexual). Wait until you correct this misunderstanding before using “Father” or “Abba.” At first address your prayer to “Almighty God” or “Lord God.”
  • Do use your right hand in giving and receiving gifts.
  • Don’t use your left hand for eating food (especially when learning to eat with your hands). The left hand is used for toilet cleaning; the right hand for eating.
  • Do treat your Bible with respect. Store it high on a shelf. Some wrap it in a beautiful cloth.
  • Don’t put your Bible on the floor or in the bathroom as reading material. Many Muslims are superstitious about the bathroom.
  • Do be gender-sensitive: interact man to man, woman to woman.
  • Don’t allow any compromising situation, even just to protect from a possible rumor. An Arab proverb says, “A man and woman alone together are three with the devil.”
  • Do observe body language. Take your shoes off when entering a home or place of prayer (especially if you see shoes at the threshold).
  • Don’t sit so that the sole of your foot or shoe is facing someone. Women, don’t look men directly in the eye, or at least quickly avert your glance.
  • Do practice modesty, even among Westernized Muslims. For women this is very important since family honor is tied to their behavior and reputation.
  • Don’t assume Muslims think the same as you, even if they dress the same.

What would you add to their list?

by

Hypocrisy – select quotes

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Which one among you ain’t posing and playacting?
~ Old Grimes, a character in an episode of Perry Mason

If there is a wide gulf between your faith and feelings right now because of the hurt and pain you are feeling, that’s not hypocrisy—that’s honesty.
~ Joey O’Connor, in Heaven’s Not a Crying Place: Teaching Your Child About Funerals, Death, and the Life Beyond

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Hypocrisy desires to seem good rather than to be so; honesty desires to be good rather than seem so.
~ Arthur Warwick

But then I sigh, and with a piece of scripture tell them that God bids us do good for evil. And thus I clothe my naked villainy with odd old ends stol’n forth of holy writ, and seem a saint when most I play the devil.
~ William Shakespeare, in King Richard III

by

For What Would You Die?

Why do we observe Memorial Day? We do not celebrate the death of anyone but remember and honor their sacrifice. Life is sacred, to lay it down for the benefit of others is worthy of remembrance and honor.

So, for what would you die? Family? Friends? Your country? Freedom? Truth?

Once we admit that there are causes for which it would be appropriate to die, we acknowledge that there are things more important than life, and that death is not the greatest evil — that suffering and death can have great meaning and purpose. The question is often asked why a good God would allow suffering, the implication being that God must either be not good or not powerful enough to prevent it. No, that does not follow. That reasoning is specious. Once we acknowledge that there are things to be valued more greatly than life and comfort we can not put an all-knowing God into the dock. He can allow the unpleasant, for reasons that are meaningful and good.

The death of Jesus of Nazareth exhibits this reasoning. The murder of the only righteous man was a great evil, and yet the event is full of meaning and purpose. Jesus is our propitiation – He is our mercy seat.

I encourage you to think upon Romans chapters 1, 2, and 3 as an appropriate follow-up to the observance of our national Memorial Day.

by

Faith and Reason – select quotes

.

Reason is a light that God has kindled in the soul.
~ Aristotle

No one indeed believes anything unless he has first thought that it it to be believed.
~ Augustine of Hippo

God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand you have failed.
~ Augustine of Hippo

Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith; they keep faith alive and moving.
~ Frederick Buechner

A comprehended God is no God.
~ Dio Chrysostom

If reason be a gift of Heaven, and we can say as much of faith, Heaven has certainly made us two gifts not only incompatible, but in direct contradiction to each other. In order to solve the difficulty, we are compelled to say either that faith is a chimera or that reason is useless.
~ Denis Diderot, in A Philosophical Conversation

Reason is our Soules left hand, Faith is her right, …
~ John Donne

Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of awesome mystical power. We know this because hey manage to be invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions; the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can’t see them.
~ Steve Eley

The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, absorbed in vanities, and tepid in emotion, and is therefore incapable of either much doubt or much faith.
~ T.S. Eliot, in his Introduction to Pascal’s Pensees

I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use.
~ Galileo Galilei

Proof is only applicable to very rarefied areas of philosophy and mathematics…. For the most part we are driven to acting on good evidence, without the luxury of proof. There is good evidence of the link between cause and effect. There is good evidence that the sun will rise tomorrow. There is good reason to believe my mother loves me and is not just fattening me up for the moment when she will pop arsenic into my tea. And there is good reason to believe in God. Very good reason. Not conclusive proof, but very good reason just the same…. I believe it is much harder to reject the existence of a supreme being than accept it.
~ Michael Green, in Faith for the Non-religious

Some things have to be believed to be seen.
~ Ralph Hodgson

A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.
~ David Hume, in An Enquiry Concerning Human Concerning Human Understanding

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.
~ Robert Jastrow, in God and the Astronomer

The more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust Him; the greater our progress in theology, the simpler and more childlike will be our faith.
~ J. Gresham Machen

Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration—courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth.
~ H. L. Menken

The faith that does not come from reason is to be doubted, and the reason that does not lead to faith is to be feared,
~ G. Campbell Morgan

Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.
~ Blaise Pascal

Faith is reason at rest in God.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

God cannot be understood by logical reasoning but only by submission.
~ Leo Tolstoy, in Wise Thoughts for Every Day

It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion.
~ George Washington

____________

Books on Faith & Reason

Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover

by

Debating God

.

Recently my colleagues and I attended a debate on the topic “Does God Exist?”.  The primary audience for the debate was private high school and middle school students. In our post-debate debrief one of my friends stated, “If you are going to put on a debate like this for a group of kids, you’d better be sure you win.”  Unfortunately, it was none to apparent that the pro-God side won.  At best it was a draw.

Dinesh D’Souza was the voice of theism in the debate.  I have heard him many times and he is quite competent in such a forum.  However, the voice of atheism, Dan Barker, was also quite effective in planting the seeds of doubt.  And, I am convinced that many a student left the auditorium with the suspicion that Barker was what he claimed to be — the voice of  “reason and kindness”.

The school planned follow-up discussions with the students in their classrooms.  Hopefully, that time was used effectively in exorcising residual suspicions and fears.  Even now I am praying for those who were in attendance.

That is the background, now let me get to the point.  Students need to be confronted with arguments against their own beliefs and worldview.  If they are not exposed to opposing arguments and claims in an environment where those arguments and claims can be effectively debunked then they become prime targets for sophists and philosophical snipers.  Thus, it is a GOOD thing to expose your children to error.  If you are doing so in a controlled environment you are inoculating them against many dangerous viral ideas.

HOWEVER, when attempting to inoculate the young, you must make sure that you exposing them to error in a controlled environment.  Or, as my friend said, you’d better make sure you win.  Truth has nothing to fear in the marketplace of ideas.  But, truth poorly defended when error has a fully loaded arsenal can be as harmful when presented in a Christian environment as it is in the homeland of error.

Careful, careful, . . .

by

Apologetics – select quotes

If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.
~ Thomas Carlyle

I savor Fr. Neuhaus’s formulation. We concede that Jesus-the-Christ — Jesus-the-Savior — isn’t something you submit for validation to the Bureau of Weights and Measures. We therefore think of him, as all Christians must, “proleptically,” i.e., in anticipation of a comprehensive acknowledgment of him, as Him. And this gives additional romance to Christian belief, as is fitting for those who sit waiting, forever and ever, yet confident that the third act will be transporting.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr. in Nearer, My God (NY: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1997), page 113.

In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering.
~ Howard Hendricks

__________

RELATED CONTENT

__________

Book Cover

by

Joshua’s Jihad

Question: I am struggling with my studies of the Old Testament. How do we counter the argument of Joshua’s jihad in the book of Joshua when confronted by Muslims and seekers of the Faith? Heck, not sure I can reconcile it in my own mind. I see little difference in the acts of terrorism recorded in our Holy Scripture and the acts of Alkeda (sic) today.

Kevin’s Response: I think that every thinking Christian struggles a bit with the question you ask. Sure, there are rationally good arguments for explaining the events in the book of Joshua, but nevertheless it goes against the grain of our sensibilities. I think it is good to acknowledge our discomfort even when we are able to answer the question.

There is such a thing as religious terrorism. We have seen it in many places and at many times; the Ku Klux Klan, the Inquisition, and what Al Qaeda is engaging in today. And, some of what was found in those instances may appear similar to what we find in the book of Joshua. However, it is not the similarities that provide an answer to your question – it is the differences. The Scholastics had a saying, “When there is confusion, make a distinction.”

So, what is the distinction? God. If one believes that the Scriptures are God’s Word, then the distinction is that the God who is all-knowing and all-good commanded what we find in the conquest of Canaan.

I can think of only two ways in which one can do away with this “distinction”.

1. You can assert that modern terrorists are also being commanded by God to engage in this behavior. I don’t believe this.

2. You can assert that the Bible is in error and that God did not command the events associated with the conquest of Canaan. I don’t believe this, either.

The dissonance we spoke of earlier leads most skeptics to skip the “distinction” and head straight to the question of God’s goodness. “If there is a God, and if the Bible is His revelation, could a good God command the things that we see in these biblical texts? Is God just?”

I have attached some links at the bottom of this response to articles that address this question.    But let me quickly mention four things that are important to me personally when thinking through this issue.

1. Mankind is God’s creation and we are responsible/accountable to Him, not vice versa.

(Romans 9) What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

2. God is all-knowing. This is important because being all-knowing God would know the possible futures of what we would normally consider non-combatants and thus be able to consider them as combatants.

3. God is all-good. Therefore, I can trust Him even when I don’t understand.

4. God’s ways are far above my ability to comprehend.

(Deuteronomy 29:29) The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

(2 Corinthians 2:16) “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”

Job 38

1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:

2 “Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge?

3 Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.

4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-

7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels [a] shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,

11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?

12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,

13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?

14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.

15 The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.

16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death [b] ?

18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.

19 “What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?

20 Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!

22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,

23 which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?

24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,

26 to water a land where no man lives,
a desert with no one in it,

27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?

28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?

29 From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

30 when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?

31 “Can you bind the beautiful [c] Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion?

32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons [d]
or lead out the Bear [e] with its cubs?

33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s [f] dominion over the earth?

34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?

35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

36 Who endowed the heart [g] with wisdom
or gave understanding to the mind [h] ?

37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

38 when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together?

39 “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions

40 when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket?

41 Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?

And, here are the promised links through to articles in which you can see how others have handled this question.

Connect With Me On Twitter

Follow_me_on_Twitter

Connect With Me On Facebook

Receive My Monthly Newsletter