Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide
Pages
224
Publisher
Zondervan
Published
3/17/2003
ISBN-13
9780310245681
A discussion of various contemporary evangelical views of genocide in the Old Testament. Christians are often shocked to read that Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, commanded the total destruction---all men, women, and children---of the ethnic group know as the Canaanites. This seems to contradict Jesus’ command in the New Testament to love your enemies and do good to all people. How can Yahweh be the same God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? What does genocide in the Bible have to do with the politics of the 21st century? This book explores, in typical Counterpoints format, the Old Testament command of God to exterminate the Canaanite population and what that implies about continuity between the Old and New Testaments. The four points of view presented on the continuity of the Testaments are: * Strong Discontinuity --- C . S. Cowles * Moderate Discontinuity --- Eugene H. Merrill * piritual Continuity --- Tremper Longman III * Eschatological Continuity --- Daniel L. Gard The Counterpoints series provides a forum for comparison and critique of different views on issues important to Christians. Counterpoints books address two categories: Church Life and Bible and Theology. Complete your library with other books in the Counterpoints series.
Reviews
Really enjoyed this style. Four authors with different views get to state their case and respond to the other three viewpoints. This was a pretty good overview of the issue of genocide in the Old Testament, and really, the larger question of how do Christians deal with the Old Testament. The only reason I give it less than 5 stars is that a couple of the viewpoints are mostly indistinguishable from one another, and I felt like all 4 viewpoints left out a couple of salient and relevant points.
In short, a fairly concise and excellent read about a difficult subject. Great resource if you're struggling with the relationship between the Old and New Testaments