When was the last time you heard a sermon on Deuteronomy 7:2 'and when the LORD your God gives the Canaanites over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.' (ESV)?
Does the Bible condone or even encourage genocide? That's certainly how these texts have been interpreted in the past. Chilling stories from Rwanda show us how important it is to understand these uncomfortable parts of the Scriptures. Do we just ignore them? Does this 'prove' the stereotypes of the Old Testament God as harsh and violent in contrast to the loving, caring God of the New Testament?
Show Them No Mercy is a brilliant book. In it you will find four different writers contributing a chapter each to explain their understanding of these difficult OT texts. Following each contribution the other three authors write a short response. It makes you think very deeply about this important subject.
Often the writers agree, but they do not shy away from confrontation. The helpful thing about the book is the interaction between different points of view. The issue soon becomes not just 'what shall we do about genocide texts', but 'how exactly do the Old and New Testaments relate to each other?' and 'how can we understand God in all the fullness of Scripture?'
It is too easy to ignore the issue of 'holy war' in the Old Testament. If like me this has been a subject that has niggled away in the back of your mind for a long time, why not take the opportunity to chew it over in the company of four scholars committed to understanding God's Word for God's world.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to find out more about this difficult subject or who would like to look at a 'case study' in biblical theology.
Show Them No Mercy is part of the brilliant Counterpoint series, which gathers together a number of writers and thrashes out such hot topics as miraculous gifts, the nature of hell, creation/evolution, eternal security and the rapture.
- View other titles by C S Cowles / Eugene H Merrill / Daniel L Gard / Tremper Longman III
- Send us your review of Show Them No Mercy: Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide
ISBN: 9780310245681
Catalogue code: N/A
Publisher: ZONDERVAN PUBLISHING - published N/A
Format: Paperback