An Attempt To Defend The Nasty Bits In The Bible

This page is written by Diana Holbourn, the site owner.

I can't do an adequate defence of all the gruesome passages in the Bible. I find a lot of them offensive. I especially can't stand passages like the bits in the Book of Joshua that describe how the Hebrews who invaded and settled the land now known as Israel set cities - albeit very small cities by today's standards - on fire, and killed every last one of the people. I can't read many passages like that in one go. I find them sickening. Nevertheless, I will suggest some reasons for the existence of the Bible's gruesome passages.

There are some warlike passages that the Bible doesn't explain the existence of and which are thus difficult to understand. For example, I don't understand how David could, before he became king of ancient Israel, have lived in Philistine territory and led his men on raids against other places, killing every last one of the people there, and then after he became king, have gone to war against other countries - and yet still have been described as a man after God's own heart! However, I don't feel I can really make a judgment, because I don't know all the facts of the circumstances he was in. It may be that the inhabitants of some of those places were warlike people who habitually raided others, which was apparently the way some semi-nomadic people survived in those days. And the Bible does indicate that David was not wholly approved of by God. For instance, it says:

(1 Chronicles chapter 22, TEV)

6 [King David] sent for his son Solomon and commanded him to build a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. 7 David said to him, "Son, I wanted to build a temple to honor the Lord my God. 8 But the Lord told me that I had killed too many people and fought too many wars. And so, because of all the bloodshed I have caused, he would not let me build a temple for him. 9 He did, however, make me a promise. He said, "You will have a son who will rule in peace, because I will give him peace from all his enemies. His name will be Solomon, because during his reign I will give Israel peace and security. 10 He will build a temple for me."

Later in this article I will address the question of whether the Bible really was written under God's authority, as it claims to have been. If it was, it means that commands to drive people out of their land or kill them, which were claimed as originating from God, really must have done. However, for the time being, I will assume that the gruesome scriptures really were written under the authority of God.

Another difficult thing to understand is how God could - as the Bible says he did - command hundreds of years after an Amalekite army launched an unprovoked attack against the ancient Hebrews while they were journeying through the desert under the leadership of Moses, that an Israelite king should pay the Amalekites back, launching an attack against them, killing men, women, children and babies - people who were obviously not the ones responsible for the attack hundreds of years earlier against the Israelites in the desert! However, some illumination can be gained by reading an article on the matter which mentions the Amalekites' record of continued violence against the Israelites, and argues that war was a necessity to eliminate the threat, and that killing everybody including the women and children was in fact the most humane option, bearing in mind that the Amalekites were apparently desert peoples who had little means of subsistence, who used raiding as a means of alleviating the harshness of the conditions they lived in; and without the men to carry it out, the women and children who had fled the battle scene would probably have died of starvation; and they would also have been vulnerable to being taken captive as slaves by marauders. To read further, visit: Shouldn't the butchering of the Amalekite children be considered war crimes?

Jews living today could possibly use the precedent of God's judgment against the Amalekites as a justification for attacking nations that attacked their people in the past. However, apart from the fact that they would have to argue convincingly that that command wasn't just meant for the particular occasion it spoke of in order to be credible to anyone, in another part of the Old Testament, the Bible says that God said:

(Deuteronomy chapter 32, NLT)

35 I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it.

In the New Testament, this verse is quoted and interpreted to mean that people shouldn't take revenge themselves, but they should leave it to God. This means that no one can claim God's authority to do a thing unless God specifically decrees that it should be done. However, this meaning isn't apparent from the actual Old Testament verse. There is another passage, however, which says, in the context of Moses giving the people of Israel commands that he himself had received for them from God:

(Leviticus chapter 19, TEV)

17 "Do not bear a grudge against others, but settle your differences with them, so that you will not commit a sin because of them. 18 Do not take revenge on others or continue to hate them, but love your neighbors as you love yourself. I am the Lord."

There are verses in the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament that advise people not to take revenge against others; but since by definition proverbs are wise sayings rather than being meant as absolute truth, anyone wanting to use God's command to attack the Amalekites as a precedent for attacking other nations wouldn't necessarily take them as instructions and be put off doing so by them.

But Jews who only accept the authority of the Old Testament and are unaware of the verse in Leviticus could still be cautioned about using the Bible as a justification for attacking past enemies. Hundreds of years after the time of Moses, Old Testament prophets proclaimed that God was about to punish other peoples for taking revenge on the Jews, that was motivated by their bitter feelings borne out of previous conflicts. The Jews were certainly not exempt from God's discipline, but suffered themselves at the hands of Babylonian invaders, - a fate described by Old Testament prophets as God's punishment for their evil ways. Since the Jews were not considered exempt from God's discipline, it would be possible that the same type of punishment decreed against other nations for taking revenge on the Jews because of past conflicts could also befall the Jews for doing it to others.

This is why it's important to be familiar with the whole Bible rather than just bits of it. The Bible could be a dangerous book if parts of it were read out of the context of the rest of it. I suppose Hitler could have claimed to be a Christian and tried to justify the atrocities committed at his command by quoting Old Testament passages about how disasters like wars befell the Jews as a punishment from God for their sins. However, in order to justify his own actions, he would have to have claimed that he had God's authority to bring disaster on them - a claim he obviously couldn't have used the Bible to support. The Bible doesn't say that every atrocity committed against the Jews would be because of their sins. his quoting of the Bible to justify himself would have been disingenuous. Furthermore, using the same logic that he would have to have used, if he'd read the many prophecies about the punishment that was to be inflicted by God on the enemies of the Jews because they'd harmed them, he might have realised that he would be well-advised to leave them alone!

The destruction of the Pagan civilisations of South and Central America by the Spanish conquistadors a few hundred years ago could have been easily justified by their leaders as God's command because of some of the things the Old Testament says. In the books of Kings and Chronicles, it gives example after example of how when kings allowed their people to worship Pagan gods, disasters befell their countries as a punishment from God, but when they got rid of the Pagan places of worship, their countries were at peace and prospered; although the Old Testament prophets said the punishments also had a lot to do with other things they were doing, like oppressing and robbing the poor, and being violent, as well as performing the practices that the Pagans of the day performed for their gods, such as child sacrifice.

And in the Law of Moses, it does, horrifyingly to the modern mind, say:

(Deuteronomy chapter 13, TEV)

12 "When you are living in the towns that the Lord your God gives you, you may hear 13 that some worthless people of your nation have misled the people of their town to worship gods that you have never worshiped before. 14 If you hear such a rumor, investigate it thoroughly; and if it is true that this evil thing did happen, 15 then kill all the people in that town and all their livestock too. Destroy that town completely. 16 Bring together all the possessions of the people who live there and pile them up in the town square. Then burn the town and everything in it as an offering to the Lord your God. It must be left in ruins forever and never again be rebuilt."

The command was given specifically to the people of ancient Israel, however, which was intended to be a theocracy, a chosen nation governed by the laws of God.

One thing that can help to explain the severity of this passage is that in turning away from God to worship other gods, the Israelites were also forsaking God's commands. They were turning to sinful practices that hurt their fellow countrymen, such as those the prophets spoke out against like their callous disregard for the needs of the poor and oppressed, in contravention of God's laws. They were warned by Moses that if they behaved in the ways in which the nations that would be driven out of the land to make room for Israel behaved, they too would be driven out. Prophets later predicted this fate for Israel because the people were behaving so sinfully. If the people hadn't forsaken the worship of God and his commands, they would never have caused the suffering of many of their fellow countrymen by the immoral and brutal behaviour they are described as indulging in by the prophets. More strikingly, in worshiping other gods, they would have been performing practices like child sacrifice that the people of their time committed in the worship of their gods. Thus, in ordering that they should be killed, God was basically ordering that the death penalty should be exacted upon them for murder.

The passage in which the command that the people of Israel should kill the inhabitants of any of their own cities who turned to other gods can be found states that killing people for trying to lead others away from God was meant as a deterrent against the people who were supposed to be following God from turning away from him:

(Deuteronomy chapter 13, GWT)

11 All Israel will hear about it and be afraid. Then no one among you will ever do such a wicked thing again.

In any case, if the Spanish conquistadors had known the Bible really well, they wouldn't have been under the impression that they could use its authority to forcefully rid the lands they conquered of Paganism themselves, at least not just because it was Paganism. Apart from the fact that all such Old Testament commands and examples concerned the theocracy of ancient Israel, in the New Testament, it becomes clear that the strategy towards Pagans had been meant for them and was not meant for Christians. To give an example of a Bible passage that indicates this: In one of the apostle Paul's letters, he said to a group of people who were newly converted to Christianity because of his preaching to them:

(1 Thessalonians chapter 1, NLT)

4 We know that God loves you, dear brothers and sisters, and that he chose you to be his own people. ... 8 And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Greece, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don't need to tell them about it, 9 for they themselves keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the true and living God.

That implies that Christians were expected not to be violent, but to tell Pagans about God in the hope that they'd turn to follow him.

An earlier book in the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, describes how Paul travelled around preaching about Christianity. It says that he explained the gospel message to Pagans, in an attempt to persuade them to become Christians. Nowhere does it say that he instructed Christians to be violent towards them. In a couple of his letters, he instructed people to imitate his behaviour patterns.

The reason for the two very different attitudes to Pagans can partly be explained by what the New Testament says about the Law of Moses, which was the part of the Bible that commanded that those who might entice the Israelites to worship Pagan gods should be killed.

Firstly, there is a New Testament passage that can only be understood in the context of the relevant Old Testament verses that say:

(Exodus chapter 34, TEV)

29 When Moses went down from Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, his face was shining because he had been speaking with the Lord; but he did not know it. 30 Aaron and all the people looked at Moses and saw that his face was shining, and they were afraid to go near him. 31 But Moses called them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community went to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32 After that, all the people of Israel gathered around him, and Moses gave them all the laws that the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

The apostle Paul wrote in a letter which is in the New Testament:

(2 Corinthians chapter 3, TEV)

6 ... the new covenant ... consists not of a written law but of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life. 7 The Law was carved in letters on stone tablets, and God's glory appeared when it was given. Even though the brightness on Moses' face was fading, it was so strong that the people of Israel could not keep their eyes fixed on him. If the Law, which brings death when it is in force, came with such glory, 8 how much greater is the glory that belongs to the activity of the Spirit! 9 The system which brings condemnation was glorious; how much more glorious is the activity which brings salvation! 10 We may say that because of the far brighter glory now the glory that was so bright in the past is gone. 11 For if there was glory in that which lasted for a while, how much more glory is there in that which lasts forever!

The Holy Spirit, which the passage refers to, is said by the Bible to be a part of God, who can also indwell Christians to help make them less sinful. To read more about it, and about what the Bible says about other spirits, visit: What The Bible Says About The Life-Changing Power Of The Holy Spirit, And Other Spirits.

Quoting some of the things Paul, who himself was Jewish, wrote in other letters to Christians, about the Law that Moses gave to the ancient Israelites, which actually had a multitude of little commands concerning behaviour, festivals and ceremonial rules, he said:

(1 Corinthians chapter 9, NLT)

20 When I am with the Jews, I become one of them so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with those who follow the Jewish laws, I do the same, even though I am not subject to the law, so that I can bring them to Christ. 21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not have the Jewish law, I fit in with them as much as I can. In this way, I gain their confidence and bring them to Christ. But I do not discard the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.

(Galatians chapter 3, NLT)

19 Well then, why was the law given? It was given to show people how guilty they are.

21 If the law could have given us new life, we could have been made right with God by obeying it. 22 But the Scriptures have declared that we are all prisoners of sin. ... 23 Until faith in Christ was shown to us as the way of becoming right with God, we were guarded by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until we could put our faith in the coming Savior. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ came. ... 25 But now that faith in Christ has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

(Galatians chapter 4, NLT)

4 When the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. 7 ... And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.

(Romans chapter 7, NLT)

5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died with Christ, and we are no longer captive to its power. Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.

(Romans chapter 13, TEV)

8 Be under obligation to no one-the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law. 9 The commandments,
"Do not commit adultery;
do not commit murder;
do not steal;
do not desire what belongs to someone else"
all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." 10 If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.

Besides the specific information Paul gives about how the Old Testament relates to the New, he and other apostles give many instructions to Christians to be peaceful, loving, gentle and considerate. You can read such Bible passages by visiting: What The Bible Says About Violence, Anger, Jealousy, Arguments, And Living In Peace With Each Other.

To give the example of adultery, Old Testament law taught:

(Leviticus chapter 20, CEV)

10 If any of you men have sex with another man's wife, both you and the woman will be put to death.

A New Testament passage, however, indicates that leaders should use their own judgment in dealing with adulterers. To give the background to it: At the time when Jesus Christ lived, the Romans were occupying Israel and had forbidden the Jews to carry out the death penalties which their law had commanded them to do. Some enemies of Jesus among the Jewish leadership wanted to trap him into saying that a particular woman caught in adultery should be killed, in order that they could accuse him of speaking out against Roman rules. If, on the other hand, he'd said that she shouldn't be killed because of the Roman regulation forbidding them to use the death penalty, the Jewish leaders could have accused him of being a collaborator with the Romans or a heretic who was implying that Roman law superseded God's law. The Bible says:

(John chapter 8, CEV)

1 Jesus walked out to the Mount of Olives. 2 Then early the next morning he went to the temple. The people came to him, and he sat down and started teaching them. 3 The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses brought in a woman who had been caught in bed with a man who wasn't her husband. They made her stand in the middle of the crowd. 4 Then they said, "Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who isn't her husband. 5 The Law of Moses teaches that a woman like this should be stoned to death! What do you say?"
6 They asked Jesus this question, because they wanted to test him and bring some charge against him. But Jesus simply bent over and started writing on the ground with his finger.
7 They kept on asking Jesus about the woman. Finally, he stood up and said, "If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!" 8 Once again he bent over and began writing on the ground.
9 The people left one by one, beginning with theoldest.Finally,Jesusand the woman were there alone.
10 Jesus stood up and asked her, "Where is everyone? Isn't there anyone left to accuse you?"
11 "No sir," the woman answered.
Then Jesus told her, "I am not going to accuse you either. You may go now, but don't sin anymore."

Jesus could have simply replied to the Jewish leaders as he did to evade their question. But he wasn't afraid of saying things that could bring down the wrath of the Jewish leaders against him.

Therefore, his response suggests that the Old Testament punishments ought to be tempered with mercy where appropriate.

I personally believe that adultery should be illegal unless both husband and wife have consented to it, because of the suffering it causes the wronged party. I think that people who can be proved to be habitual offenders ought to risk a term of imprisonment. But I think that people caught for the first time should be offered marriage counselling. Hopefully the deterrent factor of a possible prison sentence would dissuade many people from having affairs. It has been argued that it wouldn't, since bank robbery is punished with imprisonment and yet banks still get robbed. But how many more banks might be robbed if bank robbery was no longer considered a crime!

The deterrent principle has been seen to work. I heard that up until recent times, Saudi Arabia was one of the safest places in the world to live. One of the reasons for this was because of the harsh punishments decreed for crimes - for instance, theft was punishable by the amputation of a hand. I'm not suggesting that punishments like that ought to be introduced in the Western world - and in fact that was a harsher punishment than the one decreed by the Law of Moses, which commanded that thieves should pay for what they stole twice, four or five times over, depending on the circumstances, or if they couldn't pay, they had to be forced to work as slaves until the equivalent worth of the amount they stole and the amount due as a penalty was paid.

The Bible does specifically say in The Law of Moses that the reason for some of the harsh punishments it decreed was that they would be a deterrent. To give an example of the punishment decreed for one type of wrongdoing, it says:

(Deuteronomy chapter 19, TEV)

16 If any of you try to harm another by false accusations, 17 both of you are to go to the one place of worship and be judged by the priests and judges who are then in office. 18 The judges will investigate the case thoroughly; and if you have made a false accusation, 19 you are to receive the punishment the accused would have received. In this way your nation will get rid of this evil. 20 Then everyone else will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing. 21 In such cases show no mercy; the punishment is to be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.

Another part of Moses' teaching that seems harsh is his command to the Israelites to kill and drive out the inhabitants of the land they were entering to possess. He said:

(Deuteronomy chapter 9, NLT)

1 "Hear, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to occupy the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you. They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky! 2 They are strong and tall - descendants of the famous Anakite giants. You've heard the saying, 'Who can stand up to the Anakites?' 3 But the LORD your God will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them. He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the LORD has promised.

4 "After the LORD your God has done this for you, don't say to yourselves, 'The LORD has given us this land because we are so righteous!' No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is doing it. 5 It is not at all because you are such righteous, upright people that you are about to occupy their land. The LORD your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he had sworn to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 I will say it again: The LORD your God is not giving you this good land because you are righteous, for you are not - you are a stubborn people.

Here is a link to an article on this and other such commands which concludes that they weren't as bad as they sound, because the majority of them commanded the Israelites to "drive out" the Canaanites rather than to kill them, and they were apparently semi-nomadic anyway, so leaving wouldn't have been so bad. Many Canaanites would have been able to migrate away from their land before the Israelites arrived, since they would have been given warning that they were on the way. The article claims that there is evidence that the Canaanites had a history of aggression against other nations and a degenerate culture, and that it was the effects of these that God wanted the Israelites to destroy rather than the people themselves, partly to protect surrounding nations, and partly so the Canaanites wouldn't influence the Israelites to start committing such things as human sacrifice and ritual prostitution, as they did in the worship of their gods, and which they would stop doing if they had to leave their worship centres and were assimilated into other cultures. To read it, visit:
How could a God of Love order the massacre/annihilation of the Canaanites?

The Bible says:

(Matthew chapter 19, TEV)

3 Some Pharisees came to [Jesus] and tried to trap him by asking, "Does our Law allow a man to divorce his wife for whatever reason he wishes?"

8 Jesus answered, "Moses gave you permission to divorce your wives because you are so hard to teach."

This bears some relation to why the God of the Old Testament is considered harsh and quick to punish, whereas the commands of Jesus seem loving. It is argued that God was addressing two different sets of people, of whom he could expect very different moral standards. There would have been no point in preaching about turning the other cheek, for example, and using reason, with people who were engaged in all manner of cruel practices, or who wouldn't have had a mature enough attitude to morality to understand the teaching. They would have to have been punished, to show them that their behaviour was bad and to make them stop it. The article's called:
Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development.

To digress for a minute, another example of a command of the law that may have been a compromise was:

(Deuteronomy chapter 21, NIV)

10 When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, 11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails 13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14 If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

Giving a command allowing people to force women to marry them sounds abhorrent. But if the people interpreted it as meaning that if they wanted to have sex with a captive woman they would have to take her into their home, wait a full month and then marry her first, it may at least have cut down on the sexual brutality common in war.

Some people find the fact of Jesus' death offensive, wondering how God could be at all humane if he allowed his "son" to be killed cruelly on a cross. But the Bible quotes Jesus himself as saying:

(John chapter 10, TEV)

14 I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them.

27 "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than everything, and no one can snatch them away from the Father's care. 30 The Father and I are one."

In the First Letter of Peter in the New Testament, he wrote to Christians:

1 Peter chapter 1 (NLT)

13 Think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to you at the return of Jesus Christ. 14 Obey God because you are his children. Don't slip back into your old ways of doing evil; you didn't know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God - who chose you to be his children - is holy. 16 For he himself has said, "You must be holy because I am holy." 17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when he judges. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as foreigners here on earth. 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. 19 He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you. 21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God.

The Jews who lived in the centuries after Moses had led them, on the other hand, often did not show allegiance to God. Old Testament passages not only condemned them for turning away from God to follow other gods, but also for disobeying his commands - which would logically follow such behaviour. Hundreds of years after the time of Moses, Old Testament prophets, when warning the people that disaster was going to befall them at the hands of the ancient Babylonian army - an invasion they said was brought about by God because of the failure of the Jews to obey him - not only condemned them because of their worship of other gods, but also because of their disregard for his commands. For instance, the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel said:

(Ezekiel chapter 22, NLT)

1 Now this message came to me from the LORD: 2 "Son of man, are you ready to judge Jerusalem? Are you ready to judge this city of murderers? Denounce her terrible deeds in public, 3 and give her this message from the Sovereign LORD: O city of murderers, doomed and damned - city of idols, filthy and foul - 4 you are guilty of both murder and idolatry. Your day of destruction has come! You have reached the end of your years. I will make you an object of mockery throughout the world. 5 O infamous city, filled with confusion, you will be mocked by people both far and near.

13 "But now I clap my hands in indignation over your dishonest gain and bloodshed. 14 How strong and courageous will you be in my day of reckoning? I, the LORD, have spoken! I will do what I have said. 15 I will scatter you among the nations and purge you of your wickedness. 16 And when you have been dishonored among the nations, you will know that I am the LORD."

To quote more of what the prophets said regarding the sins of the people:

(Ezekiel chapter 23, NLT)

37 They have committed both adultery and murder - adultery by worshiping idols and murder by burning their children as sacrifices on their altars. 38 Then after doing these terrible things, they defiled my Temple and violated my Sabbath day! 39 On the very day that they murdered their children in front of their idols, they boldly came into my Temple to worship! They came in and defiled my house!

(Hosea chapter 4, TEV)

1 The Lord has an accusation to bring against the people who live in this land. Listen, Israel, to what he says: "There is no faithfulness or love in the land, and the people do not acknowledge me as God. 2 They make promises and break them; they lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another.

(Isaiah chapter 5, NIV)

7 The ... LORD Almighty ... looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

(Isaiah chapter 10, NIV)

1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, 2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.

(Amos chapter 5 (GWT)

10 Israel, you hate anyone who speaks out against injustice. You are disgusted by anyone who speaks the truth. 11 You trample on the poor and take their wheat from them for taxes. That is why you build houses from hand-cut stones, but you will not live in them. You plant beautiful vineyards, but you will not drink their wine. 12 I know that your crimes are numerous and your sins are many. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes. You deny the needy access to the courts. 13 That is why a wise person remains silent at such times, because those times are so evil. 14 Search for good instead of evil so that you may live. Then the LORD God of Armies will be with you, as you have said [he is]. 15 Hate evil and love good. Then you will be able to have justice in your courts. Maybe the LORD God of Armies will have pity on the faithful few of Joseph.

(Amos chapter 8, TEV)

4 Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country. 5 You say to yourselves, "We can hardly wait for the holy days to be over so that we can sell our grain. When will the Sabbath end, so that we can start selling again? Then we can overcharge, use false measures, and fix the scales to cheat our customers. 6 We can sell worthless wheat at a high price. We'll find someone poor who can't pay his debts, not even the price of a pair of sandals, and we'll buy him as a slave."

(Isaiah chapter 5, TEV)

22 You are doomed! Heroes of the wine bottle! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing drinks! 23 But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the innocent from getting justice.

(Hosea chapter 4, NLT)

12 They are asking a piece of wood to tell them what to do! They think a stick can tell them the future! Longing after idols has made them foolish. They have played the prostitute, serving other gods and deserting their God. 13 They offer sacrifices to idols on the tops of mountains. They go up into the hills to burn incense in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and other trees. That is why your daughters turn to prostitution, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. 14 Why should I punish them? For you men are doing the same thing, sinning with whores and shrine prostitutes. O foolish people! You will be destroyed, for you refuse to understand. 15 Their worship is mere pretense as they take oaths in the LORD's name. 18 The men of Israel finish up their drinking bouts and off they go to find some prostitutes. Their love for shame is greater than their love for honor. 19 So a mighty wind will sweep them away. They will die in shame because they offer sacrifices to idols.

(Jeremiah chapter 9, TEV)

1 I wish my head were a well of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed. 2 I wish I had a place to stay in the desert where I could get away from my people. They are all unfaithful, a mob of traitors. 3 They are always ready to tell lies; dishonesty instead of truth rules the land.

The Lord says, "My people do one evil thing after another and do not acknowledge me as their God." 4 Everyone must be on guard against their friends, and no one can trust their relatives; for all relatives are as deceitful as Jacob, and everyone slanders their friends. 5 They all mislead their friends, and no one tells the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie and will not give up their sinning. They do one violent thing after another, and one deceitful act follows another. The Lord says that his people reject him.

7 Because of this the Lord Almighty says, "I will refine my people like metal and put them to the test. My people have done evil- what else can I do with them? 8 Their tongues are like deadly arrows; they always tell lies. Everyone speaks friendly words to their neighbors, but they are really setting a trap for them. 9 Will I not punish them for these things? Will I not take revenge on a nation like this? I, the Lord, have spoken."

(Amos chapter 2, NLT)

7 They trample helpless people in the dust and deny justice to those who are oppressed. Both father and son sleep with the same woman, corrupting my holy name. 8 At their religious festivals, they lounge around in clothing stolen from their debtors. In the house of their god, they present offerings of wine purchased with stolen money.

(Hosea chapter 12, TEV)

1 Everything that the people of Israel do from morning to night is useless and destructive. Treachery and acts of violence increase among them.

(Isaiah chapter 58, NLT)

1 "Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Tell my people Israel of their sins! 2 Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to hear my laws. You would almost think this was a righteous nation that would never abandon its God. They love to make a show of coming to me and asking me to take action on their behalf.

"If you do this, 14 the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and give you your full share of the inheritance I promised to Jacob, your ancestor. I, the LORD, have spoken!"

(Hosea chapter 14, NIV)

1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!

The Bible says that God's punishments weren't always an end in themselves. They were often designed to bring the people back to him. In modern times, there is documented evidence that disasters do increase people's awareness of God. In the two world wars, people apparently became more interested in him, and after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 in America, the same thing happened; although often with one-off disasters, the people's interest in religion drops back to what it was beforehand after a while. That's not to say that those things were punishments from God. Only God will know what is a punishment from him and what isn't!

Nevertheless, biblical prophets described some of the disasters that befell the ancient Israelites as being punishments from God that had been designed to turn the people back to him, and thus to make them stop doing evil, which might have meant saving their souls in the after-life, as well as leading to the long-term good of their communities. For instance, he Old Testament prophet Amos told the Jews that God was saying:

(Amos chapter 4, NLT)

6 "I brought hunger to every city and famine to every town. But still you wouldn't return to me," says the LORD.

12 "Therefore, I will bring upon you all these further disasters I have announced. Prepare to meet your God as he comes in judgment, you people of Israel!"

The fear of God can be a powerful incentive to obey him. Thinking of him merely as a loving God may tend to make people less concerned to turn from wrongdoing, because they don't think it really matters to him. Interestingly, twice in a period of a few weeks, I heard ex-young offenders asked for their opinions on what kind of sentences people who had been found guilty of particular crimes ought to get, and I expected them to say that the people ought to be treated leniently and that the causes of their criminal behaviour ought to be addressed. However, on both occasions, they said the sentences ought to be tough; in fact on one occasion, their views were compared with those of the public in general, and they were found to be the harshest in their opinions. They said they thought long sentences were necessary as a deterrent.

The Old Testament prophets who warned of the Babylonian invasion urged the people to stop their sinful actions, saying that if they did, the invasion wouldn't happen. Apparently, however, they didn't listen, and it did.

To give some examples of passages where the people were informed that all would go well with them if they would only change their ways:

(Jeremiah chapter 7, NLT)

1 The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 "Go to the entrance of the LORD's Temple, and give this message to the people: 'O Judah, listen to this message from the LORD! Listen to it, all of you who worship here! 3 The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

• Stop The Use Of Child Soldiers! (Human Rights Watch)

As for the morality of responding to the violence by destroying the earth, we can take a lesson on what can happen from Nineveh! Jonah preached that Nineveh would be destroyed, but the people repented, so God had mercy on them and spared the city. However, the repentance was only brief; they returned to their violent ways and engaged in cruel warfare against neighbouring countries until it was eventually destroyed, as prophesied by another man, Nahum. See:


• The Life and Times of Jonah - Prophet to the Assyrians.

Thus, having mercy on people so accustomed to violence as we are led to believe those of the pre-flood society were may have backfired!

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Some Old Testament punishments may, in part, also have been meant as examples for future generations of the importance of paying attention to God's commands to obey him.

There is a New Testament passage that claims this, which can be understood in the context of Psalm 106, which outlines the behaviour of the Israelites in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses and the way God punished them:

(Psalm 106, NLT)

6
Both we and our ancestors have sinned.
We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!
7
Our ancestors in Egypt
were not impressed by the LORD's miracles.
They soon forgot his many acts of kindness to them.
Instead, they rebelled against him at the Red Sea.

8
Even so, he saved them--
to defend the honor of his name
and to demonstrate his mighty power.
9
He commanded the Red Sea
to divide, and a dry path appeared.
He led Israel across the sea bottom that was dry ....
10
So he rescued them from their enemies
and redeemed them from their foes.
11
Then the water returned and covered their enemies;
not one of them survived.
12
Then at last his people believed his promises.
Then they finally sang his praise.
13
Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done!
They wouldn't wait for his counsel!
14
In the wilderness, their desires ran wild,
testing God's patience in that dry land.
15
So he gave them what they asked for,
but he sent a plague along with it.

19
The people made a calf at Mount Sinai;
they bowed before an image made of gold.
20
They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating ox!
21
They forgot God, their savior,
who had done such great things in Egypt--
22
such wonderful things in that land,
such awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
23
So he declared he would destroy them.
But Moses, his chosen one, stepped between the LORD and the people.
He begged him to turn from his anger and not destroy them.
24
The people refused to enter the pleasant land,
for they wouldn't believe his promise to care for them.
25
Instead, they grumbled in their tents
and refused to obey the LORD.
34
Israel failed to destroy the nations in the land,
as the LORD had told them to.
35
Instead, they mingled among the pagans
and adopted their evil customs.
36
They worshiped their idols,
and this led to their downfall.
37
They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons.
38
They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters.
By sacrificing them to the idols of Canaan,
they polluted the land with murder.
39
They defiled themselves by their evil deeds,
and their love of idols was adultery in the LORD's sight.
40
That is why the LORD's anger burned against his people,
and he abhorred his own special possession.
41
He handed them over to pagan nations,
and those who hated them ruled over them.
42
Their enemies crushed them
and brought them under their cruel power.
43
Again and again he delivered them,
but they continued to rebel against him,
and they were finally destroyed by their sin.
44
Even so, he pitied them in their distress
and listened to their cries.
45
He remembered his covenant with them
and relented because of his unfailing love.
46
He even caused their captors
to treat them with kindness.
47
O LORD our God, save us!
Gather us back from among the nations,
so we can thank your holy name
and rejoice and praise you.
48
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Let all the people say, "Amen!"
Praise the LORD!

---

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul, writing to Christians and referring to the journey of the ancient Hebrews through the desert under the leadership of Moses, says:

(1 Corinthians chapter 10, NLT)

1 I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, what happened to our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea on dry ground. 5 Yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and he destroyed [many of] them in the wilderness.

6 These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did 7 or worship idols as some of them did. For the Scriptures say, "The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged themselves in pagan revelry." 8 And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. 9 Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. 10 And don't grumble as some of them did, for that is why God sent his angel of death to destroy them. 11 All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close. 12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin.

---

It could be said that we could also be cautioned by the lesson of the wars the Old Testament says God caused to happen. And indeed, the Bible suggests that God has not finished acting in such a manner. Besides the Old Testament passages quoted earlier to that effect, in the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, which contains accounts of the author's visions which he says were given to him as prophecies of what would happen in his own time and in the future, it says:

(Revelation chapter 6, NLT)

I looked up and saw a white horse. Its rider carried a bow, and a crown was placed on his head. He rode out to win many battles and gain the victory.

4 And another horse appeared, a red one. Its rider was given a mighty sword and the authority to remove peace from the earth. And there was war and slaughter everywhere.

5 ... And I looked up and saw a black horse, and its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And a voice from among the four living beings said, "A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley for a day's pay. And don't waste the olive oil and wine."

8 And I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green like a corpse. And Death was the name of its rider, who was followed around by the Grave. They were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals.

---

Whether that foretells a time in the future or a time in the past is debatable. It has been argued that it referred to the upheavals in the Roman world of the first century, rather than the whole world of the future. See an article entitled: Dating and Interpreting Revelation.

---

Whether the prophecy was about the whole world or just the Roman world, it sounds horrendous. But again, God's punishments aren't always an end in themselves. The Book of Revelation does indicate that the reason for the infliction of the horrors it describes would be, at least partly, to turn people back to God. However, it also indicates that many people wouldn't turn to God. After prophesying more terrible things, it says:

(Revelation chapter 9, GWT)

20 The people who survived these plagues still did not turn [to God] and change the way they were thinking and acting. If they had, they would have stopped worshipping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. 21 They did not turn away from committing murder, practising witchcraft, sinning sexually, or stealing.

---

If God still works today in the same way that he did in Old Testament times, people need to be warned about it. I've got a lot of gruesome Bible quotations concerning the things that Old Testament prophets predicted about wars against ancient Israel and other countries on my website. I find the descriptions of what was about to happen offensive. But I think people need to know about them. Maybe if in places where there are wars and famines today, large numbers of people turned to God and became obedient to his commands, their countries would grow more peaceful and prosperous, partly because they'd become peaceful as a result of their adherence to Christianity and so their countries would have a chance to grow prosperous, but maybe partly because they would be blessed in a way that would precipitate it. It's interesting that virtually all the prosperous countries of the world are the ones formerly - or still - known as Christian countries, particularly the Protestant Christi an countries where the Bible and its commands were held up as the Word of God more thoroughly than in Catholic Countries.

---

The very same God who was said to have caused wars as judgments on societies for wrongdoing, is described by the New Testament as being a God of love. There do seem to be two very distinct sides to his nature. The Bible, in fact, says there are itself. It says:

(Romans chapter 11, TEV)

22 Here we see how kind and how severe God is. He is severe toward those who have fallen, but kind to you-if you continue in his kindness. But if you do not, you too will be broken off.

---

The Bible says that the Spirit of the same God who caused wars to break out can produce good qualities in his followers. It says:

(Galatians chapter 5, NLT)

14 The whole law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. 16 So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.

22 When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.

---

I can give some modern-day examples of the way God's Holy Spirit seems to have worked. For instance, here are some testimonies of how people say their attitudes and behaviour were completely changed when they became Christians, not just because they willed them to change:

Links To Stories Of Former Drug Addicts And Criminals Who Became Christians:

• A Captive Set Free.
• Three Times a Loser, Now Forever a Winner.
• Testimony of Skip Lewis.
• Testimony of Bill Davis.

---

In my own life, a few years ago, someone said something that annoyed me one day, but I didn't want to be annoyed with them, and I asked God to give me his love for them instead. When they came into the room, my attitude to them was totally different.

I heard a talk by someone who mentioned that her husband was very critical of her at one time. She said that one day, she made him a cup of coffee, and he criticised it as usual, and she went back to the kitchen to make a new one, and while there, she asked God to give her his love for her husband. That would have relieved the tension his criticism had been causing and helped them to get along better. She said that when she asked, she felt as if God's love was "filling" her.

---

In the New Testament, the Bible says that Jesus Christ said:

(Matthew chapter 5, TEV)

43 "You have heard that it was said, "Love your friends, hate your enemies.' 44 But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven."

---

I read a book called "The Hiding Place" by a Christian woman called Corrie Ten Boom, who was imprisoned by the Nazis in World War II for hiding Jews in her home. She writes that after the war, she set up a house where people recovering from life in concentration camp could go. She says she went on speaking tours, partly to finance it. She says that on one of them in Germany, she met one of her old jailers after a meeting. She had obviously mentioned in her speech that the Bible says that the death of Jesus Christ had been planned by God so Jesus could take the punishment that people deserve for sins, so that his followers won't be sent to hell for them, but can be with him forever. She writes, referring to the ex-jailer:

"He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing.

"How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said. "To think that, as you say, he has washed my sins away!"

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even while the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more?

Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me, and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile; I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing; not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer: Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.

As I took his hand, the most incredible thing happened. Through my shoulder, along my arm and through my hand, a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness, any more than on our goodness, that the world's healing hinges, but on his. When he tells us to love our enemies, he gives, along with the command, the love itself."

---

Some people may dismiss these phenomena as having been caused by the power of the people's minds. But it would be just as unscientific to do so as it would be to accept everything anyone says without question.

The apostle Paul wrote in various letters in the New Testament to different groups of Christians he knew:

(2 Corinthians chapter 1, TEV)

21 It is God himself who makes us, together with you, sure of our life in union with Christ; it is God himself who has set us apart, 22 who has placed his mark of ownership upon us, and who has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.

Ephesians chapter 1 (TEV)

4 Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him.

Because of his love 5 God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children-this was his pleasure and purpose. 6 Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son! 7 For by the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, 8 which he gave to us in such large measure!

13 And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised. 14 The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people.

(Philippians chapter 3, NLT)

17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. 18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their future is eternal destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and all they think about is this life here on earth. 20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer everything, everywhere.

---

One thing about the Bible that some people find offensive is its teaching on hell. It has been argued that God is unfair to send so many people there. To read some reflections on hell, visit: What kind of choice is THIS?!

Perhaps the reason why people become interested in religion in times of war and disaster is because they suddenly become very aware of their own mortality and the fact that they could meet God before very long. If that motivates people to follow and obey him, then maybe part of the reason for God causing wars to happen is so that people will turn to him and save themselves from hell.

---

But one question that has to be asked is: Was the Bible really written under the authority of God, as it claims to have been, or were people like Moses merely justifying their warlike commands and actions by claiming that the commands were given by God?

One thing that makes me think that Moses did have the authority of God is that Jesus Christ described him as a prophet of God, and said the law that he gave - the same law that commanded that worshippers of other gods were to be killed - was the law of God. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. If he was, then he'd know with certainty whether the commands that Moses gave the people were God's commands or not. So the pertinent question is: Was Jesus the Son of God?

Jesus claimed to be the Son of God on several occasions, and/or on others, he would say things that no human being would say if they were sane. For instance, the Bible says:

(John chapter 12, NLT)

44 Jesus shouted to the crowds, "If you trust me, you are really trusting God who sent me. 45 For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the darkness. 47 If anyone hears me and doesn't obey me, I am not his judge - for I have come to save the world and not to judge it. 48 But all who reject me and my message will be judged at the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken."

(John chapter 6, TEV)

35 "I am the bread of life," Jesus told them. "Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty. 36 Now, I told you that you have seen me but will not believe. 37 Everyone whom my Father gives me will come to me. 39 And it is the will of him who sent me that I should not lose any of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day. 40 For what my Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last day."

(John chapter 5, NLT)

24 "I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

25 "And I assure you that the time is coming, in fact it is here, when the dead will hear my voice - the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live.

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John's gospel says that on more than one occasion, people picked up stones to kill Jesus with for blasphemy because of his claims. Even when Jesus was on trial for his life, he didn't retract them. The Bible says:

(Mark chapter14, TEV)

60 The High Priest stood up in front of them all and questioned Jesus, "Have you no answer to the accusation they bring against you?" 61 But Jesus kept quiet and would not say a word. Again the High Priest questioned him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed God?"

62 "I am," answered Jesus, "and you will all see the Son of Man seated at the right side of the Almighty and coming with the clouds of heaven!"

63 The High Priest tore his robes and said, "We don't need any more witnesses! 64 You heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?"
They all voted against him: he was guilty and should be put to death.

---

If Jesus wasn't the Son of God, he would have to have been insane to make the claims he did, and especially so since he was willing to die for them. But it seems unlikely that he could have attracted such a following if he had been insane. As for the resurrection of Jesus, if that had been a lie made up by the disciples, the Jewish leaders could surely have snuffed out the claim by simply producing his body. It's unlikely that the disciples could have stolen the body when there were guards on the tomb to prevent just such a thing from happening, who had been put there because Jesus had specifically said that he would be killed and would come back to life. In any case, the disciples themselves were persecuted for their beliefs. If they knew them to be false, they would surely have stopped talking about them. What possible motive could there have been for anyone to have made up a story like that, and under persecution, to still claim it as fact? For more arguments in favour of the resurrection, visit: The Resurrection: Fact or Fiction?

If Jesus was the Son of God, as he claimed to be, we can take him as being authoritative when he described some of the words of Old Testament prophets as having been given to them by God.

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The Bible says that Jesus said to the Jewish leaders:

(John chapter 5, NLT)

<39 "You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.

45 "Yet it is not I who will accuse you of this before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, on whom you set your hopes. 46 But if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me because he wrote about me. 47 And since you don't believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?"

The Bible says that after Jesus was raised from the dead, he met two people who had been his disciples walking along a road. It says:

(Luke chapter 24, NLT)

27 Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself.

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It's unlikely that the gospel writers put words into Jesus' mouth and claimed that he said things that endorsed Moses and others as prophets of God if he hadn't said them. Three of the four gospel writers in particular were keen to highlight the caring nature of Jesus, describing miracles that they said he'd done and times when the crowds were so large that he didn't even have time to eat, and yet he kept on teaching and healing them. They describe how on one occasion, when he got into a boat with his disciples to go to a quiet place on the other side of a lake to rest and the crowds got there before him and were waiting for him, he spent more time teaching and healing them. The gospel writer Mark specifically says that he had "compassion" on them because of their problems. None of the gospels say that he showed any signs of irritation. If the gospel writers wanted to portray the caring concern of Jesus, it would have been counterproductive and seemingly out of character for them to have made up stories where he endorsed the teachings of Moses as God's teachings and thereby implicitly endorsed what Moses said about how God had commanded the ancient Israelites to commit the slaughter of the invasion and conquest of the land now called Israel. If those bits had been put in the gospels by later writers for some reason, the Bible would have probably been too widely distributed for all the manuscripts to contain the verses, and the discrepancies would be known about today. Furthermore, there would probably be records of disputes about the matter in the early Church. I'm not aware of any.

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In conclusion, the Bible says on several occasions that God's punishments on societies - wars, famines and other disasters - were, at least in part, designed to turn the people back to him. God will view things from the point of view of eternity rather than from that of the present, and so the strategy may have been designed so people would be saved from the worse punishment of hell by giving up their sinful actions and turning to God. Some of the gruesome bits of the Bible were also meant as examples of the severity with which God views disobedience to his commands. Another factor may have been that the disciplines of the punishments inspired a Jewish leadership to arise who were ultra-zealous to uphold the Law of Moses, which enabled Jesus to be born into a climate where he would be killed for contravention of it, which would have meant that he could take the punishment for sins, which would have led to the long-term greater good of humanity.

If a sadist or warmonger read the nasty Bible passages out of context, it could be dangerous, because they might view them as a precedent for evil actions they themselves wanted to carry out. However, the Bible does not give authority for anyone to use the passages to justify committing atrocities.

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If this is the first page you have visited on this site, this is part of Broadcaster.org.uk a website about social issues, what the Bible says about them and other topics, and how they affect people's lives today.

The Bible page has been split into 3 sections. Go To: Bible Part 1: The Bible, The Holy Spirit Today, People And Their Stories Bible Part 2: The Lives and Suffering of the Ancient Israelites, The Book of Revelation, And People's Religious Experiences Today Bible Part 3: The Bible, Articles About Alleged Inaccuracies in it, And Stories of People who Became Christians Or go to the Broadcaster.org.uk home page




The selections of Bible quotations have been put together by Diana Holbourn.

Throughout this series, wherever the initials TEV appear, they stand for Today's English Version (The Good News Bible).

Other initials:
• GWT =God's Word Translation;
• CEV =Contemporary English Version;
• NIV =New International Version;
• NRSV =New Revised Standard Version;
• NLT =New Living Translation;
• NEB =New English Bible;
• NKJV =New King James Version;
• NASB =New American Standard Bible.