Rev. David Holwick ZJ
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 11, 1998
Joshua 6:17-21
HOLY VIOLENCE
=============
I. Do you like war movies?
A. Boys and I watch "Midway" movie on TV.
1) They cheer as Americans plaster Jap aircraft carriers. Cool!
2) Big movie this year is "Saving Private Ryan," which sets
new standard in gruesomeness.
3) For some reason, most women don't like war movies.
B. The Bible can be a lot like a war movie.
1) One woman raised her son in a peaceable atmosphere.
a) No violent TV, games or videos.
2) He comes to our Sunday School, hears about David cutting
off Goliath's head, has nightmares and doesn't want
to come back. They never do.
II. Joshua presents the case baldly.
A. Atrocities are committed against Canaanites.
1) Men. Women. Children. Even animals.
a) Innocent and guilty fall together.
2) (Note Newsweek photo of Kosovo atrocity)
3) God is said to command it.
B. How do you handle this?
1) One scholar says war is good and religion should support it.
Rene Girard's revolutionary theory contends religions
bolster civilization through sanctioned violence
against outsiders and scapegoats.
(War gets rid of the riff-raff.)
2) Most people think otherwise. War shouldn't be holy.
III. Possible solutions.
A. God of Old Testament is different from God of New Testament.
1) Marcion, 2nd century.
a) OT God is harsh, NT God is loving.
b) Cut out entire Old Testament and most of New Testament.
2) Andrew Carnegie, 20th century.
Andrew Carnegie, billionaire in steel industry, thought
children should not be taught the violent portions of
the Old Testament.
He said they contradicted not only the finest human
instincts but the whole spirit of Christ's teaching.
He told one pastor:
"I picked up the Bible just the other day and was reading
the story of the times of Samuel.
All sorts of ghastly incidents are related, and some passages
are simply revolting to a mind accustomed to feel toward
humanity as Christ felt.
And the thing is that God is pictured as directing and
helping it all.
It is God who leads in the slaughter and He even inspires
His children to the most unmerciful acts.
Do not teach these parts to boys and girls as heroic deeds,
to be admired and copied.
And, for heaven's sake, do not tell them that the God
pictured in some parts of these stories is the God
Jesus Christ shows us in the Sermon on the Mount."
#2790
B. Same God in both.
1) OT focuses on this life, NT on life to come (heaven).
2) Theme of harsh judgment present in both, just different
perspectives.
IV. Some sober principles.
A. The Canaanites got what they asked for.
1) Abraham told of their destruction "when the iniquity
of the Amorites is complete." Gen 15:16
2) Their corrupt behavior brought God's judgment.
B. All humans stand under God's judgment.
1) Jesus - repent, or you too will perish.
2) Conquest of Canaan parallels hell.
a) Don't believe in hell?
b) Then much of Bible and Jesus himself are wrong.
V. God is a soldier.
A. He is even-handed, fighting against Israel as much as for it.
B. Jesus is also a Warrior.
1) Warfare with demons.
2) Paradox: the victim is the victor.
a) Jesus heals servant's ear, doesn't rely on sword.
1> His sword comes out of his mouth... Rev 19:15
2> He defeats Satan with one word. 2 Thess 2:8
C. The Second Coming.
1) The ultimate battle - Armageddon. Rev 16:16
2) The blood-stained garment.
a) Old Testament image - blood of enemies. Isaiah 63:2-3
b) New Testament - becomes his own blood. Rev. 19:13
VI. We are also engaged in holy warfare.
A. Military imagery is not popular with mainline churches.
1) Baptists are an exception.
2) New Testament is filled with military themes and metaphors.
B. Put on armor of God. Isa 59:17-18 // Eph 6:10-17
C. Intellectual warfare. 2 Cor 10:3-5
D. More than conquerors. Rom 8:35-37
1) Not warfare of hate, vengeance, but love and mercy.
2) They are powerful weapons.
On Monday, August 9, 1993, a 31-year old woman, Sopehia White,
burst into the hospital nursery at USC Medical Center in
Los Angeles, wielding a .38-caliber handgun.
She had come gunning for Elizabeth Staten, a nurse whom she
accused of stealing her husband.
White fired six shots, hitting Staten in the wrist and stomach.
Staten fled and White chased her into the emergency room,
firing once more.
There, with blood on her clothes and a hot pistol in her hand,
the attacker was met by another nurse, Joan Black.
Black did the unthinkable.
She calmly walked to the gun-toting woman - and hugged her.
She spoke comforting words.
The assailant said she didn't have anything to live for, that
Staten had stolen her family.
"You're in pain," Black said. "I'm sorry, but everybody has
pain in their life....I understand, and we can work it out."
As they talked, the hospital invader kept her finger on the
trigger.
Once she began to lift the gun as though she would shoot
herself.
Nurse Black just pushed her arm down and continued to hold her.
At last Sopehia White gave the gun to the nurse.
She was disarmed by a hug, by understanding, by compassion.
Black later told and AP reporter,
"I saw a sick person and had to take care of her."
Jesus Christ looks upon us in a similar fashion, as persons
sick and broken inside, in need of his care.
And it is his embrace that disarms us.
#3141
E. Christians must not forget this shift.
1) Too many atrocities have been done in God's name.
2) God doesn't need human armies or politicians to win.
VII. Mercy triumphs over warfare.
A. Abraham and bargaining for Sodom.
1) "Won't God do right?"
B. God would rather save us than fight us.
C. Whose side are you on?
===========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#2790, Internet, Http://www.nakedword.org/htmltext/proacarn.html,
"Personal Recollections Of Andrew Carnegie," by Frederick Lynch, D. D.,
October 18, 1920.
#3141, Leadership Journal, "Christ's Love," by Tom Tripp, page 47,
Winter 1994.
#4386, Online Christianity Today (America Online), "When God Declares
War," by Daniel G. Reid and Tremper Longman 3rd, page 14, October 28,
1996. [not quoted in sermon, but gave much inspiration]
===========================================================================
OTHER RELEVANT ILLUSTRATIONS:
These and 4,300 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://users.nac.net/wdh2000/illust.html
The first one is very good, but was received too late to
work into the sermon. The second one comes from an unusual source - I did
not buy the magazine, but received a photocopy of the article from a girl
who got it from her anti-religious father.
Number: 2864
SOURCE: Internet: http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/q0110/q0110.html#page1
TITLE: Can Thoughtful People Believe In This God?
ILLUSTRATION__________________________________________________________________
Today's readers of the Bible might have problems with the religious wars of
the Old Testament. According to international laws of war, civilians and
inactive members of engaged forces have a right to protection. Common
Article 3 of the Geneva Convention of 1949 says, "Persons taking no active
part in the hostilities, including members of the armed forces who have laid
down their arms and those placed (outside of combat) by sickness, wounds,
detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated
humanely."
Yet the God of the Old Testament seems to live below these common standards
of human decency. By ordering the armies of Israel to destroy not only
opposing forces but women, children, and animals, this God appears to be out
of step with some of the most basic rules of war.
Thus says the LORD of hosts: "I will punish Amalek for what he did to
Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and
do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing
child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey" (1 Sam. 15:2-3).
QUESTION #1
If the God of the Old Testament is good, how could He require the destruction
of women, children, and animals?
How does a slaughter of infants and civilians square with a Lord who later
urged His followers to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies, and to
pray for those who had wronged and spitefully used them?
While admitting that such facts are troubling, let's see how the Bible itself
might answer a question that questions the ethics of this God.
TOXIC CULTURE
Archeological discoveries in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria confirm the
Bible's descriptions of ancient Mideast society. The countless gods of the
land reflected the dark side of human nature. Fertility cults
institutionalized male and female prostitution. Child sacrifice was used as
a way of pleasing the gods, the chief of which was the sun-god, generally
known as Baal or "lord."
Such idolatrous conditions had persisted for centuries, even though the God
of Israel had made His existence known through the miracles surrounding the
Exodus from Egypt. Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho, acknowledged that her
people had known the reputation of the God of Israel when she said:
I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you
has fallen on us .... For we have heard how the LORD dried up the
water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you
did to the two kings of the Amorites .... And as soon as we heard
these things, our hearts melted; ... for the LORD your God, He is
God in heaven above and on earth beneath (Josh. 2:9-11).
The Canaanites had rejected an opportunity for mercy. Although they knew
that the God of Israel had revealed Himself and had worked miracles on behalf
of His people, they had not embraced Him as the God of creation.
CONDITIONS OF CONQUEST
Old Testament records show that God did not, from the beginning, command
Israel to kill all the inhabitants of Palestine. Instead, He promised that
if His people trusted Him, He Himself would give the Canaanites reason to
gradually leave the land.
I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the
people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their
backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive
out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I
will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land
become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for
you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until
you have increased, and you inherit the land (Ex. 23:27-30).
As we have already seen in the quote of Rahab, from the very beginning of
Israel's campaign to conquer the land, God gave the Canaanites reason and
opportunity to flee. He made sure they heard about the coming of the
Israelites and filled them with terror. Even though, from God's point of
view, they had polluted the land and forfeited their right to live in that
region, the Lord of the Old Testament gave them an opportunity to retreat.
When they chose to resist the God of the armies of Israel, only then did God
demand the destruction of entire communities.
A NEW SOCIETY
Had Canaanite society remained undisturbed, its idolatrous culture would have
continued to influence and even shape the region. Yet the God of the Old
Testament chose the Canaanite homeland -- the crossroads of the ancient world
-- to promote the values of a new social order. These descendants of
Abraham, to whom God had promised the land 400 years earlier, would by their
example be "light" to the surrounding nations (Ex. 34:10-17; Dt. 7:1-11;
20:16-18). As no other nation in the history of the world, this land, its
people, and its God were to be a source of blessing for all the nations of
the earth.
SHOCK VALUE
The mission of destroying communities who resisted should have instilled in
Israel a shuddering realization of the consequences of idolatry -- especially
when that idolatry resisted the truth about God. Fulfilling the role of
executioner should have formed in them a healthy fear of God and a hatred of
false religion. They themselves would not be exempt from such judgment.
They were not "chosen" because God had a favorite family, but to show the
whole world the wonderful benefits of knowing the God of gods and the
terrible consequences of ignoring Him.
THE PERSPECTIVE OF TIME AND ETERNITY
Because we're 3,000 years removed, we are troubled and even offended at the
thought of Jewish soldiers executing the wives and children of frightened and
helpless landowners. But the inevitable conditions of time and eternity have
their own perspective. If the lifeless idols of Canaanite culture were at
war with the living God, if they were robbing whole communities of the
knowledge of life and goodness, then the death of resisters would have sent a
message. Without that message, Canaanite culture would have been like an
unchecked cancer infecting all who came into contact with this important
landbridge to the three continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Everyone dies. Some pass suddenly with little pain, and some gradually with
much pain. Some die young, and some die in old age. If the Bible's
perspective on eternity is true, we can look upon the death of the children
of Canaan as better than a long life shaped by the idols of Canaanite
culture. Early death kept them from adding one day at a time to the load of
guilt for which they would one day be judged (Rom. 2:5).
Even after seeing why God might have required the death of the Canaanites who
chose to resist, we may not like what He did. That's understandable. God
isn't looking for our fullhearted approval. He knows we can't see the whole
of life as He does.
REASONS TO TRUST
Although God does not demand our approval, He does call for our trust. Any
honest reader of the Bible finds overwhelming evidence of His
trustworthiness. He keeps His promises. He makes Himself real to those who
seek Him. He has given us reason to believe that in the end He will right
the wrongs of the ages and be fair to all -- even with His enemies. His
incomprehensible grace and perfect justice will prevail.
ACCEPTING GOD'S RIGHT TO BE GOD
God also calls on us to accept His authority. As the Creator and Sustainer
of all that exists, He has a right to declare, "I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion"
(Ex. 33:19). If He is Lord of lords, then it was His divine right to say to
the pharaoh who refused to allow the Israelites to leave his country, "For
this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that
My name may be declared in all the earth" (Ex. 9:16).
God could have delivered the Israelites without being so severe. But the
path He chose gave merciful and fair warning to all. In His love, He created
an example that was designed to alert every generation of their ultimate
accountability to Him. We may not fully understand just why He did what He
did, but we have many reasons to acknowledge His right to be God.
A Good Question. But is this also the God of the New Testament? Doesn't
Jesus reveal a God who is gentler and kinder? No, the truth is that Jesus
simply gave us a clearer picture of the love and gentleness that have always
been evident in God's dealings with man.
Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy
and My burden is light" (Mt. 11:28-30). His statement echoed the same
sentiment as the invitation of the God of the Old Testament who issued the
plea, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked
turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should
you die?" (Ezek. 33:11).
Yet when the patience of God has run its course, and when a rebel world shows
its determination to live apart from submission to His love, the very last
book of the Bible reveals once again the judgment of the God of the Old
Testament. In close connection with frightening judgments that kill more
than two-thirds of earth's population is this awesome endtime scene:
Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every
mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the
earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men,
every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in
the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks,
"Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne
and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has
come, and who is able to stand?" (Rev. 6:14-17).
God always was and always will be a God of both incomprehensible love and
fearsome wrath.
#2864
*
CATEGORY: Religion, Hatred, Bigotry, Atrocity, Persecution, Crusades,
Cruelty, Antisemitism, Divisions, Hostility, Witches, Jehu
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEXT: John 16:2, 1 Kg 18:40, 2 Kg 23:20, 2 Chr 28:9, Esth 7:3F, 2 Sam 8:2,
Josh 6:17,21, Josh 7:12, Isa 36:16F, 2 Cor 6:15F
Number: 1732 Hard copy: y
SOURCE: Penthouse (photocopy of article provided by Melanie)
TITLE: "Holy Horrors"
AUTHOR: James Haught
PAGE: DATE: ? Typist: ENTERED: 12/16/91
DATE_USED: 3/21/93
ILLUSTRATION____________________________________________________________
: "Ronald Reagan often called religion the world's mightiest force for good,
'the bedrock of moral order.' George Bush said that it gives people 'the
character they need to get through life.' This view is held by millions.
But the truism isn't true. The record of human experience shows that where
religion is strong, it causes cruelty. Intense beliefs produce intense
hostility. Only when faith loses its force can a society hope to become
humane. The history of religion is a horror story."
The First Crusade was launched in 1095 with the battle cry "Deus Vult" (God
wills it). First Jews in the Rhine valley were persecuted, then all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem were slaughtered. The ecstatic cleric Raymond of
Aguilers wrote: "In the temple of Solomon, one rode in blood up to the knees
and even to the horses' bridles, by the just and marvelous judgment of God."
In the Third Crusade, Richard the Lion-Hearted slaughtered 3,000 captives
from Acre in 1191. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux declared in launching the
Second Crusade: "The Christian glories in the death of a pagan, because
thereby Christ himself is glorified."
In 1209, Pope Innocent III launched an armed crusade against Albigenses
believers in southern France. When the besieged city of Beziers fell,
soldiers reportedly asked their papal adviser how to distinguish the faithful
from the infidel among the captives. He commanded: "Kill them all. God
will know his own." Nearly 20,000 were slaughtered - many first blinded,
mutilated, dragged behind horses, or used for target practice.
(The blood libel against Jews and other acts of anti-semitism are described.)
(The bloody practices of the Mayans and Aztecs are detailed.)
In the 1400s, the Inquisition shifted its focus to witchcraft. Witch
hysteria raged for three centuries in a dozen nations. Estimates of the
number executed vary from 100,000 to two million. In the first half of the
seventeenth century, about 5,000 "Witches" were put to death in the French
province of Alsace, and 900 were burned in the Bavarian city of Bamberg.
Protestant Huguenots grew into an aggressive minority in France in the 1500s
- until repeated Catholic reprisals smashed them. On Saint Bartholomew's Day
in 1572, Catherine de Medicis secretly authorized Catholic dukes to send
their soldiers into Huguenot neighborhoods and slaughter families. This
massacre touched off a six-week bloodbath in which Catholics murdered about
10,000 Huguenots. Other persecutions continued for two centuries, until the
French Revolution. One group of Huguenots escaped to Florida; in 1565 a
Spanish brigade discovered their colony, denounced their heresy, and killed
them all.
Oliver Cromwell was deemed a moderate because he massacred only Catholics and
Anglicans, not other Protestants. This Puritan general commanded Bible-
carrying soldiers, whom he roused to religious fervor. After decimating an
Anglican army, Cromwell said, "God made them as stubble to our swords." He
demanded the beheading of the defeated King Charles I and made himself the
holy dictator of England during the 1650s.
The Thirty Years' War produced the largest religious death toll of all time.
It began in 1618 when Protestant leaders threw two Catholic emissaries out of
a Prague window into a dung heap. Three decades of combat turned central
Europe into a wasteland of misery. One estimate states that Germany's
population dropped from 18 million to four million.
When Puritans settled in Massachusetts in the 1600s, they created a religious
police state where doctrinal deviation could lead to flogging, pillorying,
hanging, cutting off ears, or boring through the tongue with a hot iron.
Preaching Quaker beliefs was a capital offense. Four stubborn Quakers defied
this law and were hanged. In the 1690s fear of witches seized the colony.
Twenty alleged witches were killed and 150 others imprisoned.
(Persecution of the Baha'is.)
In 1984 Shiite fanatics who killed and tortured Americans on a hijacked
Kuwaiti airliner at Tehran Airport said they did it "for the pleasure of
God." "It's fashionable among thinking people to say that religion isn't the
real cause of today's strife in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, India,
and Iran - that sects merely provide labels for combatants. Not so.
Religion keeps the groups in hostile camps. Without it, divisions would blur
with passing generations. Children would adapt to new times, mingle,
intermarry, forget ancient wounds. But religion keeps them alien to one
another. Anything that divides people breeds inhumanity. Religion serves
that ugly purpose."
#1732
*
CATEGORY: Just War Theory, Limits, Morality, Peace, Kuwait/Iraq War
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEXT: Josh 6:10, Josh 11:18-20, Judg 19, Judg 20, Luke 14:31-32, Matt 5:39-44,
Lev 19:18, Matt 19:19
Number: 1415 Hard copy: y
SOURCE: Newsweek
TITLE: Ancient Theory And Modern War
AUTHOR: Kenneth L. Woodward
PAGE: 47 DATE: 2/11/91 Typist: ENTERED: 2/5/91
DATE_USED:
ILLUSTRATION__________________________________________________________________
: "The war in the gulf is not a Christian war, a Jewish war or a Muslim war.
It is a just war." (George Bush to National Religious Broadcasters Convention
in February 1991)
Article looks at just-war theory, which seeks to limit the purpose and conduct
of war.
1. A just war must be declared by a legitimate authority.
2. The cause must be just.
3. It must be fought with the right intentions.
4. It must be fought in a proper manner.
5. It must be started only as a last resort.
The theory is complicated and hard to enforce, such as what is a last resort?
There can always be another delaying conference. Application is made to 1990-
1991 Kuwait-Iraq-U.S. war. [1415]
Letter to Newsweek editor on 3/11/91:
You suggest that just-war doctrine was born when Augustine "sought to
reconcile the Christian commandment to 'love your neighbor as yourself' with
the soldier's duty to kill." Yet "Love your neighbor as yourself" is neither
original to Christianity nor altogether distinctive to it. Jesus was merely
quoting from the Old Testament book of Leviticus (19:18). What is uniquely
Christian is Jesus' commandment to "love your enemies ... Do good to them
that hate you. Resist not evil. If any man will take away your coat, let him
have your cloak too." If Augustine can reconcile war with that, he's not
merely a theologian - he's a magician.
Harry Ruja, La Mesa, Calif.
#1415
First Baptist Church; Ledgewood, New Jersey
This document last modified December 4, 1998