Context is important. If I told you I saw a man running up to an unsuspecting little boy and rugby tackling him, breaking the boy’s arm in the process, you might want to know was the man reported to the police.
However, a bit of context changes the
picture – the boy had wandered into the road and the man saved his life. What
seemed cruel is now shown to be noble and good. We need to make sure we have
all the facts before we rush to condemnation.
This is especially true when it comes
to condemning the Bible. A lot of people are in a hurry to condemn the God
revealed in Scripture as cruel based on a shallow understanding of out of
context passages.
The God of the Bible is a God whose nature is love (1 John 4:8),
and this isn’t just the “sanitised” New Testament version. In every part of the
Old Testament (the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets) we see the consistent
revelation of a God who is slow to anger, abounding in love and ready to
forgive (e.g., Exodus 34:6-7; Psalm 86:5; Jonah 4:2), who cares for the
stranger, the widow and the fatherless (e.g., Deuteronomy 14:28-29; 27:19;
Psalm 68:5; 146:9; Jeremiah 7:6-7).
So, what do we make then of the passages that make us wince?
Before diving into the particulars remember three things. First of all, God is
the only possible foundation for morality. It makes no sense to talk about God
being unjust, because that implies there is a standard of justice outside of
God that He has to conform to. God is the
standard of goodness. Anything He does is, by definition, right. Secondly, the
Bible has proven itself to be God’s word,[1] if
therefore we find something in it that seems wrong, then either we are wrong or our interpretation is
wrong, what can’t be the case is that God’s word is wrong. Thirdly, God has
revealed Himself fully in Christ (John 1:18; Hebrews 1:1-3). If we want to know
exactly what God is like, look at Jesus – He tells the full story and gives the
complete picture.
Let’s now look at a couple of issues that people think are examples
of cruelty on God’s part:
- Capital
punishments
- Eternal punishment
Capital punishments
One particularly troubling example of capital punishment being
carried out is the execution of Achan and his family in Joshua 7. Against God’s
command, Achan took spoil from the city of Jericho. When this came to light,
Achan and his family were stoned to death. There are three issues to deal with:
- Why would God want
anyone to be stoned to death?
- Why would God want
Achan to be stoned to death?
- Why would God want
Achan’s family to be stoned to death?
1. Why would God want anyone to be stoned to death?
It seems such a brutal means of execution, why would God not
institute something more humane as a death penalty? There are a few things to
keep in mind – first, it was a brutal world, life was hard, and people were a
lot less squeamish about such things back then. It is the transforming power of
the gospel in culture that has resulted in us looking at such things with such
horror. In lands where the gospel’s impact has not been widely known or deeply
felt, there still is such brutality. As we said in a previous chapter, there
were provisions in the Mosaic law that were included, not because they
reflected God’s perfect ideal, but “because of the hardness of your hearts” (Matthew
19:8). Secondly, the penalty was supposed to act as a deterrent, and it clearly
did. In the records of Israel’s early history we have a few instances of the
penalty being legitimately carried out (Leviticus 24:10-23; Numbers 15:30-36;
Joshua 7), and that is it – the marker had been laid down, God is serious about
this, and the people got the message: “all Israel shall hear and fear”
(Deuteronomy 21:21). Thirdly, it was a collective form of execution – it was
the whole congregation of Israel that was responsible for putting the offender
to death. They didn’t have an executioner. This heightened the solemnity of the
issue and helped drive the message home.
God knows better than we do what is required in different
circumstances. This was the sentence for certain crimes for the nation of
Israel living under the Mosaic Covenant. It is not a command for all nations
for all time. And let us remember, our society is really in no position to give
God advice on just punishments and effective deterrents.
2. Why would God want Achan to be stoned to death?
What had Achan done that was so serious? Well, this was Israel’s
first battle after crossing Jordan into the Promised Land; God had given a
specific command that nothing was to be taken from Jericho for themselves – it
was all devoted to destruction. Achan’s sin was an act of direct rebellion. The
nation of Israel was being used by God to purge the land of Canaan of its
idolatry and immorality; it would therefore be hypocritical of God to permit an
idolatrous and immoral man to inflict judgment on the Canaanites.
3. Why would God want Achan’s family to be stoned to death?
God’s law forbids children from being executed for the crimes of
their fathers:
Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall
children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for
his own sin. (Deuteronomy 24:16)
This establishes that Achan’s family were complicit in his
crime. After all, if someone buries a robe, 200 pieces of silver and a bar of gold
in his tent, it is pretty obvious that the other people who live in the tent
will know about it. It is not the case then that his family were innocent
parties. They shared in the punishment because they shared in the guilt.
Eternal punishment
“70 years of sin, eternal punishment?! Talk about an
overreaction! The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. 70 years of sin should
result in 70 years of punishment – an eye for an eye.” This was the content of
a (very understandable) rant from a man I was speaking to. There are two things
I think we should bear in mind as we look at this subject.
a) The infinite holiness of God
I suggested to the man I was speaking to that his reasoning
wasn’t altogether sound. We don’t base punishment for crimes on how long it
took to commit them. I asked him how long it took to commit a murder. Say it
takes someone a week to plan and carry it out, are we suggesting that an
appropriate punishment for the murderer is a week in prison? See the problem?
The punishment is not based on the time it took to commit the crime but on the
gravity of the crime.
When we look at it like that it is no surprise that the Bible
teaches eternal punishment. God is infinitely holy and sin-hating. Every sin
defies His authority and also defaces His image. He has created us in His
image, as His representatives, and when we sin we demean Him. “Hell is God’s
declaration to the universe that what every sin demeans is of infinite worth.”[2] To sin against Him is to commit a
crime of infinite seriousness which carries with it an infinite penalty. That
is why the punishment lasts forever – as finite creatures we can never pay an
infinite penalty.
b) The intrinsic value of man
J. P. Moreland said:
Believe it or not, everlasting separation from God is morally
superior to annihilation…Why would God be morally justified in annihilating
somebody? The only way that’s a good thing would be the end result, which would
be to keep people from experiencing the conscious separation from God forever.
Well, then you’re treating people as a means to an end…What hell does is
recognise that people have intrinsic value. If God loves intrinsic value, then
He has got to be a sustainer of persons, because that means He is a sustainer
of intrinsic value. He refuses to snuff out a creature that was made in His own
image. So in the final analysis, hell is the only morally legitimate option.[3]
If people don’t want God, then they will be exiled from Him, but
not extinguished by Him. In the end, they get what they want – separation from
God. And even if they could pay the penalty for past crimes (which they can’t),
their ongoing rebellion necessitates ongoing punishment.[4]
Conclusion
Lamentations 3:33 tells us, “For He does not afflict willingly
[literally, from His
heart], nor grieve the children of men.” God takes no pleasure in
human suffering. He only allows it when it is necessary, and, in order to save
us from the eternal punishment we deserve, He willingly bore the penalty for us
on the cross. Such a God is worthy of our trust – He is good.
[1]
For more on this see Paul McCauley, Prove It, How you can know and show that
the Bible is God’s word, Decapolis Press, 2017, or https://understandingthegospel.org/explore-the-gospel/the-bible/.
[2]
John Piper, Jesus: The Only Way to God –
Must You Hear the Gospel to be Saved?, Baker Books, 2010, p. 32.
[3]
Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith, Zondervan, 2000, p. 255.
[4] For more on this, see Paul McCauley, He that believeth not, John Ritchie Ltd, 2013.
