223 Who is the God of Violence and Brutal Warfare? Part 1

While sins causation is a mystery the Bible does identify the being in which it originated. This identification was not clear to the Old Testament writers. They simply attribute everything good and evil to God. It is clear in the Old Testament that evil and violence originated with God. We will look at the Old Testament evidence. But then in part 2 Jesus sets the record straight and unveils the true god of violence and brutal warfare.

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6. Who is the god of Violence and Brutal Warfare? Part 1

The origin of sin or lawlessness or iniquity is inexplicable. How could lawlessness arise in a perfect environment, inhabited by perfect beings, with a perfect creator? The platitude

used as an answer for this situation is that it was because of pride. This does not help

because now we must ask where pride came from. This is why then origin of sin is referred to as a mystery or a secret.

2 Thessalonians 2:7 NIV For the secret power of lawlessness (iniquity KJV) is already

at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out

of the way.

While sins causation is a mystery the Bible does identify the being in which it originated.

This identification was not clear to the Old Testament writers as we shall notice later.

The Ancient Greeks loved paradoxes. Their one about God runs like this: Because of evil in the world, if God is omnipotent then He cannot be good, or if He is good then He cannot be omnipotent. So, God can only be omnipotent if He is also evil and only be good if He is not omnipotent. The two concepts are mutually exclusive. The result was the many different gods of Greece, some good and some bad. Some powerful and some weak. But the Ancient Greeks had their problems with logic. It prevented them discovering what we call calculus and eventually ran their mathematics into a dead-end street.

1. The Old Testament teaches that Evil originated with God

The Hebrews did not have the Greek philosophical problem. They accepted paradoxes

without any stress. Their God certainly was omnipotent. He made everything including evil.

They also equated violence with evil (Genesis 6:11-12).

The following passages in Scripture substantiate the claim that evil or violence originates

with God..

Deuteronomy 32:39-42 NLT

Look now; I myself am he!

There is no other god but me!

I am the one who kills and gives life;

I am the one who wounds and heals;

no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!

40 Now I raise my hand to heaven

and declare, “As surely as I live,

41 when I sharpen my flashing sword

and begin to carry out justice,I will take revenge on my enemies

and repay those who reject me.

42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

and my sword will devour flesh—

the blood of the slaughtered and the captives,

and the heads of the enemy leaders.”’

Judges 9:23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of

Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

1 Samuel 16:14-16 NLT Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a

tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear. 15 Some of Saul’s servants said to him, “A tormenting spirit from God is troubling you. 16 Let us find a good musician to play the harp whenever the tormenting spirit troubles you. He will play soothing music, and you will soon be well again.”

1 Samuel 16:23 NLT And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul,

David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit

would go away.

1 Samuel 18:10 NLT The very next day a tormenting spirit from God overwhelmed

Saul, and he began to rave in his house like a madman. David was playing the harp,

as he did each day. But Saul had a spear in his hand,

1 Samuel 19:9 And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his

house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with [his] hand.

2 Samuel 12:11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of

thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give [them] unto thy

neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For thou didst [it]

secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.

2 Samuel 24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he

moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

1 Kings 22:22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth,

and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt

persuade [him], and prevail also: go forth, and do so. 23 Now therefore, behold, the

LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD

hath spoken evil concerning thee.1 Chronicles 10:14 and did not enquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him (Saul) to death and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse.

2 Chronicles 18:21 And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all

his prophets. And [the LORD] said, thou shalt entice [him], and thou shalt also

prevail go out, and do [even] so. 22 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying

spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against

thee.

Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the

LORD do all these [things].

Jeremiah 8:17 NLT I will send these enemy troops among you

like poisonous snakes you cannot charm. They will bite you, and you will die.

I, the Lord, have spoken.

There are more passages that could be quoted but it is clear that God does cause evil and bring calamities for the Old Testament writers. The yearly rehearsed “Blessings and

Curses” (Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28) are insistent that God brought the curses on

the disobedient. There are passages which demonstrate that God called the Israelites to

unspeakable acts of genocide (1 Samuel 15:1-5 and Joshua 6:17-21).

We even have a passage where God claims that he enjoys destroying people.

Deuteronomy 28:63 NLT “Just as the Lord has found great pleasure in causing you

to prosper and multiply, the Lord will find pleasure in destroying you. You will be

torn from the land you are about to enter and occupy.

Then another where he claims the opposite.

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no

pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and

live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’

The role of the monotheism of the Hebrew mind results in the apparent contradiction of a

good God causing or originating evil. The Hebrews believed there was only one

supernatural being, their personal God, YHWH and so all supernatural events, good or bad, must originate with that one being. For this reason, God in the Hebrew world view, is also blamed for evil, violence and calamities. It is only when Jesus appears and lifts the veil that the existence of the devil becomes apparent.The Old Testament writers never refer to the devil. They do mention Satan, but he is more of a public prosecutor than an evil being. They also prefer to blame the true God for evil rather than allow any other god or any demon get the credit for any power that might supersede the power of their God.

If we conclude that often when the Bible claims “God did this” or “God did that,” it actually

means that God was forced to allowed it rather than send it, how shall we then determine

which interpretation is to be used in any given situation?

We must interpret matters consistently. We cannot have the same God righteous and just

at times and then arbitrary and harsh at other times. We cannot have a God who sends

bears to eat up irreverent children in one incident and then in the next breath have Eli’s

sons behaving in a far more despicable way with God apparently ignoring the matter

completely! We can’t have a God who supposedly kills Annanias and Sapphira for breach

of personal promise and then allows church leaders to live in mansions purchased with

funds donated by the faithful.

Secondly, we must not ignore the plain teaching of the Old Testament that the

consequences of evil are death and disaster.

2 Chronicles 22:4 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had

done, for after his father’s death they became his advisers, to his undoing.

Deuteronomy 31:29 For I know that after my (Moses) death you are sure to become

utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come,

disaster will fall upon you because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord and

provoke him to anger by what your hands have made.”

Psalm 55:15 Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the

grave, for evil finds lodging among them.

Proverbs 11:19 The truly righteous man attains life, but he who pursues evil goes to

his death.

Jeremiah 8:3 Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer

death to life, declares the Lord Almighty.’

Generally, obedience to God’s law brings prosperity while evil, or rebellion against God’s

ways, brings trouble and eventually death. However, it is not this simple according to Jesus.

Apparently evil is not always predictable and not fair in some cases as the story of Job

demonstrates.

2. Jesus, the only eyewitness of God, corrects the Hebrew view of God as being complicit in any way with the origin of evil.

We now examine the life, teaching, torture, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to find

out if there is any hint that evil originated or was facilitated by his father or himself. He is

God (John 1:1-3) and he claimed that his character was identical to his father’s (John 14:9).

God’s love is unconditional and eternal

Matthew 5:43-45 Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour,

and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that

curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use

you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in

heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth

rain on the just and on the unjust.

Suffering is never punishment from God

Luke 13:1-5 NLT About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some

people from Galilee as they were oOering sacrifices at the Temple. 2 “Do you think

those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus

asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you

repent of your sins and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen people who died

when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5

No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

Darkness is equated with evil by Jesus and is opposed to himself as the light of the

world

John 1:5 NLT The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish

it

John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he

that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

John 10:10 NLT The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to

give them a rich and satisfying life.

Jesus is never associated with sin or death

John 11:25 NLT Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who

believes in me will live, even after dying.

Hebrews 2:14 NLT Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and

blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he

die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power

of death.

1 John 3:8 NLT But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the

devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy

the works of the devil.

God, rather than causing evil, protects people from evil

John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou

shouldest keep them from the evil.

Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast oO the

works of darkness (evil) and let us put on the armour of light (goodness).

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God

cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto

you, that God is light (goodness), and in him is no darkness (evil) at all.