Is God a Genocidal Murderer? // Ty Gibson

well hello storyline we have been asking a series of questions regarding the character of god now i want to qualify that when we use the word character with regards to god or for that matter when we use the word character with regards to any of us character is the composition of two factors that yield a third factor character is the combination of one's thoughts and feelings which then produce one's behavior patterns thoughts and feelings combined make up moral character and then from the way a person thinks and feels they act in certain patterns they act in certain ways when we ask questions regarding the character of god we are asking essentially how does god think how does god feel how does god behave which is to say what kind of person is god now there is a popular notion that we're going to address right now in asking a question is god a genocidal murderer now the question is startling i know it's a shocking bit of language to speak in juxtaposition to the name of god to the notion of god and yet this is a concept that many people have entertained over the years they have looked at scripture i'm going to suggest to you they have looked at scripture with kind of a myopic vision just noticing certain texts without the context but they have looked at scripture and they have concluded that yes indeed the god of scripture yahweh the god of the bible is a genocidal murderer well at the top of this food chain of misconceptions regarding the character of god is richard dawkins of course now i mean no disrespect to richard dawkins i think that he is a monumental intellect no doubt but i want you to notice that dawkins is probably i guess we could argue the foremost advocate of atheism on planet earth at this time now there are others that are putting forth a great deal of effort to articulate unbelief as the logical and rational thing to do but dawkins is an extremely articulate individual and dawkins over and over again even though he's an evolutionary biologist by education over and over again when he articulates his atheism he doesn't really go in the direction of biology or darwinian evolution in other words he's generally not making scientific statements in order to justify his atheism he's generally making moral statements theological statements philosophical statements and dawkins apparently has taken a look at the bible and this is his assessment of the bible in general and the god of the bible in particular notice what he says dawkins richard dawkins says the god of the old testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction now he's using the word fiction because dawkins looks at the god of the old testament the god of the bible and he says that's so frighteningly awful that it must be a myth it must be it must be fiction it can't possibly be true now i'm going to suggest to you that what dawkins is about to articulate if it is what the bible teaches i will be the first to push back on the bible and want nothing to do with it so here's how dawkins describes the god of the old testament he says that the god of the old testament is jealous and proud of it a petty unjust unforgiving control freak a vindictive bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser and that is key key language that we're going to be exploring in just a moment a a bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser a misogynistic homophobic racist infanticidal genocidal filicidal pestilential megalomaniacal sadomasochistic capricious malevolent bully now that's a mouthful dawkins wants us to believe that the god of the bible is nothing short of a monster now again i respect duckin's intellect i respect his command of the english language but dawkins clearly has not taken the time to actually read the large panorama of scripture that is to say the aerial view the big picture now scripture i believe is best understood as a story i mean after all the church that you are right now tuned in for is called storyline which is a nod to the narrative quality of scripture the bible is a story and good theology or just good understanding of what the bible actually means is really only arrived at when we pan out far enough to take in the entire scope of the story and so i say to people sometimes when they get hung up on a text on a verse on a single sentence of scripture and it's causing them to trip i will often say when in doubt pan out when in doubt pan out if you trip over an individual sentence or verse of scripture or even a short passage of scripture and you find it to be unpalatable and you think wow that's just crazy how could that be in the bible it is invariably the case that if you just back up far enough you will see that in the immediate context you will discover the solution to what you're struggling with or sometimes you have to pan out beyond the immediate context to the narrative context to the big story of scripture so dawkins says a number of things here in this statement but i want to focus in on the language genocide that he employs which he then also defines as god being a blood thirsty ethnic cleanser now dawkins is correct in his use of the word ethnic with regards to genocide because genocide is a greek word a word of of greek origin combined or is the result of two greek words genos which is a race or a particular people group inside which is killing genocide is in fact the idea of ethnic cleansing ethnic murder ethnic killing the focus is on the ethnicity i don't like that particular people group i don't like the color of their skin their eyes their hair i don't like where they're from i don't like something about them nationally ethnically and so we're going to murder them so here's what dawkins thinks he sees in the biblical narrative this is what he imagines is the story of scripture that god likes one ethnic group namely israel and hates all others and so what does god do god goes on a murderous rampage to extinguish every ethnic group but the one he likes now again i'm going to be the first to say that if that's true if that is in fact what the bible teaches then i will be the first to back away from the bible as a work of ancient fiction that is not worthy of the formation of a moral value system i will reject scripture with dawkins if this is what the bible actually teaches because this is heinous to say the least if god is like this well atheism is the only logical option but i'm going to suggest to you that what dawkins has articulated that this is precisely what is not taking place in the biblical narrative in fact dawkins could not be more off base again i respect his intellect but he's obviously not read the text as a whole or with an unbiased mind trying to understand the the kind of flow of the narrative and what is actually trying to communicate well as we launch into our response to the idea that god is a genocidal murderer let's just look at one of the most blunt probably the most blunt text in question that obviously dawkins has read he's read this passage this text outside of its context and it's pretty it's pretty hard to read i mean look at this in in deuteronomy chapter 20 in verse 16. but of the cities this is god through moses speaking to israel but of the cities of these peoples which the lord your god gives you as an inheritance pause right there the background of the story is that god is giving the children of israel the land of canaan hence the cities of these people god is giving the land of canaan to israel who have recently been been delivered from bondage from slavery in egypt now so that's the context of this language so but of the cities of these peoples which the lord your god gives you as an inheritance you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive now that's startling language let's not romanticize it this is startling language is it not you're not happy with this idea you shouldn't be i'm not happy with this idea what i'm going to suggest to you is that the biblical storyline suggests that god himself is not happy with this language with this situation with this pursuit but you shall utterly destroy them whoa what really the hittite and the amorite and the canaanite and the perizzite and the hivite and the jebusite just as the lord your god commanded you utterly destroy all these people groups well one of two things is going on here either these people groups are basically to be imagined in a romanticized sense as you know basically nice people who are pushing their babies in prams on the way to target and god capriciously out of nowhere is like i just don't like you because of your ethnicity so i'm going to slaughter you because of your ethnicity but everything else about you is fine i mean after all you're just you know getting married and raising a family and on your way to target but i'm going to slaughter you that's one option and that's what dawkins thinks he sees here right there's another option that we're going to unpack because the next verse verse 18 gives the logic for what we've just read destroy them utterly destroy them and here's why lest they teach you to do according to their abominations which they have done notice this language for their gods hold on to that language put that right there in your pocket because we're coming back we're going to pull this language out of our pocket and define it hold on to it they are doing abominations note the language for their gods for their guts hold on to that and you will sin against the lord your god by adopting their practices do you see what's happening here it's not ethnic cleansing that is embedded within the narrative it's moral judgment notice what the text said there are certain behaviors certain moral works that they are doing for their gods god is assessing and judging morally judging their behaviors not their ethnicity and this is crucial to understand so what's not happening in the text is that god is murdering innocent people that's what is not taking place in the text rather what the story reveals if we're willing to pan out and read the whole story is that god is mitigating the spread of evil god is assessing abominable behaviors which we're about to define by the way and those abominable behaviors are what is bringing the judgment of god upon those nations not ethnic cleansing of innocent people but mitigating the spread of evil so in a tour de force of just rapid pace language we're going to outline the biblical narrative leading up to this difficult period of biblical history right so in genesis 1 and 2 please notice god creates the world here's the story we're panning out god creates the world well what kind of world is this is this a world in which god has created and necessitated the survival of the fittest in brutality and murder and ethnic cleansing no god creates the world in genesis 1 2 and it is described as very good and free of evil the god of scripture is a god whose character is fundamentally against evil he's not the source or origin of it according to the story but the story indicates that there is freedom granted that there is dominion granted to human beings god created human humanity and said you have dominion that's the word that is used in genesis one and two you have dominion over the earth that is to say god has delegated authority to human beings to use their free will to shape the world and yet the passage indicates that evil lurks as a potential listen not as a necessity god is not the engineer of evil it is not a necessity that evil overtake the world it is a potential god warns them in genesis 1 2 of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but don't eat of this one tree well this one tree is the tree of the knowledge of what do you remember good and what is it evil that's right evil is a potential that is the downside of human freedom misused or abused and so that's genesis 1 and 2 a potential but not a necessity genesis 3 shows us that evil enters the picture sure enough the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said to the woman a conversation ensues and humanity is deceived humanity is deceived dominion is then transferred to satan adam and eve were given dominion over the earth well they by sinning or yielding to the temptation of the enemy of god in humanity they have transferred dominion to a foreign invading force according to the biblical narrative so then the story describes that there will be two and tags antagonistic forces will be at war now down through human history but that good will triumph that's in verse 15 of genesis 3. there will be two lineages two moral lineages the lineage of the woman the lineage of the serpent to ideological lineages and those two ideological moral theological lineages will clash down through history according to genesis chapter 3. two antagonistic forces then in genesis 4 as the immediate outworking of the principle of evil cain and abel's story is told and evil takes the form of murder evil takes the form of murder it begins with deception regarding the character of god that's genesis 3 and then it takes the form of violence cain's lineage is identified in chapter four and lamech in cain's lineage engages in gratuitous violence i mean somebody commits a wrong against him and rather than some kind of just engagement he takes it to the next level exponential violence is committed by lamech and so now we have not only the first murder and the first act of violence but violence going viral if you will violence becoming gratuitous violence over the top so we come to genesis 6 through 9 and the earth is filled with violence do you see what's happening here the story is consistently unfolding a picture if we just pan out far enough to read it if we take it in violence fills the earth as a result of the entrance of sin into the world in genesis 3 the first act of murder violence enters the picture as a manifestation of evil and then lamech's gratuitous violence until violence according to genesis 6 fills the whole earth how does god respond to the violence is god in favor of the violence in the biblical narrative is god the source and origin of the violence does he delight in the violence is he in fact a capricious malevolent bully as dawkins says no the biblical text reveals that god is grieved at his heart by the violence which is to say that in the biblical story god is the antithesis of violence god hates violence he looks upon the violent world and he sees according to the text that violence threatens human extinction the end of all flesh has come up before me the text says that is to say human beings by pandemic violence are on the verge of complete self-destruction the human race is about to completely implode upon itself by means of violence right that's what the story is telling us we're just trying to understand what the story is saying as opposed to what dawkins and others are suggesting so what does god do god because he is grieved by the pandemic violence of the human race and the threat of human extinction god intervenes with a flood and the logic of the passage is that god intervenes as the sovereign creator of the human race he intervenes with a flood not because he's a capricious malevolent bully he intervenes to stop the violence he intervenes to preserve the human race from extinction that's the story richard dawkins if you read the story now you can still regard it as fiction but at very least it is a fiction that portrays god as good as beautiful as intervening because god is against violence not for it he's grieved at his heart emotionally torn apart by human violence now call it fiction if you want but it's a story that is the exact opposite of the way dawkins and others suggest the story portrays the character of god the flood is a moral judgment calculated to mitigate evil and preserve humanity it's not a mass murder it's god intervening the same way i suppose dawkins would agree that the allied forces necessarily had to intervene in world war ii to stop hitler in the third reich from overtaking the world and continuing their quote-unquote final solution now that's a moral judgment the allied nations came together against hitler and the third reich should they have i would guess that dawkins is happy that they did because it was a moral act of judgment against evil that involved an intervention that is undesirable but necessary and that's what we see taking place in the biblical narrative then we come to chapters 10 and 11 of genesis after the flood waters recede what happens nations are formed and the patterns of violence again develop human beings pick up right where they left off right god has saved the human race from extinction and what happens violence ensues again and god intervenes this time by dispersing the human race by confusing their speech by confusing their language this is the story of the tower of babel and this entire episode of the biblical narrative is designed to teach us that again god is the good guy in the story god is intervening to mitigate violence and evil and so he disperses the human race in order to kind of dilute the consolidation of power that would result in an oppression of the weak that cannot be stopped when we come to chapter 12 this is a crucial development in the story god now follows through with the promise he made in genesis 3 15. the promise in genesis 3 15 was that there would be two antagonistic forces down through history good and evil would be at a war down through history but genesis 3 15 says that god would through human lineage send a child a babe of the woman who would become the conqueror of evil and establish the kingdom of god which is essentially non-violent that's the story abram becomes the conduit through which god is going to establish this promise so abraham abram his name is abram at this point he becomes abraham later on abram is chosen by god as as the vehicle to drive the covenant promise and the covenant promise is explicitly said in chapter 12. check this out you guys read genesis chapter 12 the covenant promise is explicitly for all the families of the earth god is not an ethnic cleanser god does not favor one ethnicity above another ethnicity god scripture says in other places is no respecter of persons his love is universal god is fundamentally good and he loves all peoples of all nations of all language groups of all ethnicities he doesn't choose abraham because he favors his skin tone he doesn't choose abraham because he prefers his his his the texture of his hair or the color of his eyes he chooses abraham not ethnically but covenantally he chooses abraham for a mission not because he favors abram above other people groups and he says explicitly to abraham i'm going to use you not to posture against all other nations i'm going to use you abraham and your descendants to fulfill the covenant promise for all the nations of the earth for all the families of the earth if if dawkins and others don't see this part of the story well they're not being honest with the text they're not taking into consideration the flow of the story then we come to genesis chapters 13 through 20 where the story of abraham now continues to unfold and simultaneously in the story of genesis we see that evil escalates among the surrounding nations we'll come back to that in a moment sodom and gomorrah are depicted in the genesis account as normalizing evil nobody's resisting there's this entire dickering process with that abraham goes through with god what if there are 50 people in sodom and gomorrah that are not participating in the in the abuse and the violence and the immorality what if there's 40 what if there's 30 all the way down to 10 and every step of the way god says even if there's 50 40 30 2010 i will not intervene to destroy sodom and gomorrah because god is compassionate god is just god is good the story reveals that as long as there's hope for the spread of truth and righteousness god does not intervene he actually he actually endures watching the abuse of human beings against one another as long as he possibly can and then with sodom and gomorrh the story reveals that god reluctantly intervenes not as a capricious malevolent bully but reluctantly as a good god as a good heavenly father who doesn't desire the pain and suffering of any so here's my key point if you take nothing away from this sermon but this one point this is the bottom line throughout the biblical narrative the logic is moral not ethnic the logic for god's actions is moral not ethnic so genesis 21 and 22 the story continues and abraham is emancipated from the notion of human sacrifice abraham take your son your only son isaac and sacrifice him on an altar you know slit his throat and burn him to ashes human sacrifice which abraham was very familiar with because scripture testifies that he came from the other side of the river in er which means fire which was an indication that that city was known for human sacrifice abram was called out of that theological that ideological that philosophical paradigm into a new direction of thought and feeling and behavior so god puts abram to the test he puts his theology to the test his picture of god to the test and at the moment of the most heightened sense of the ugly image of a god who would require human sacrifice just as he's about to drive the knife through his son his hand is stopped and god says abraham that's not that's not who i am i will make the sacrifice for your salvation and the salvation of the human race you can't make the sacrifice i can and will make the sacrifice so in this story in genesis god essentially denounces human sacrifice and here's why this is important watch as the story continues in genesis 23 through 50 the story of isaac and jacob and the formation of israel unfolds right we're just moving through the narrative in order to come to the punch line joseph's betrayal occurs and he is taken into slavery in egypt right and then israel eventually moves to egypt because joseph now is in a position of political preeminence then that ends the book of genesis and we come to exodus now genesis ends with israel moving to egypt and they become an enslaved people group under egyptian domination and what does the story reveal that god is against slavery that's what the story reveals another topic that we'll take up at another time is the idea that the bible condones slavery as in chattel slavery in the american south well no and we'll take that subject up another time in the story of exodus god is fundamentally against slavery and moses leads the exodus that is the deliverance of the children of israel out of slavery and egypt is judged you will notice as you read the story that god gives pharaoh the leader the king the emperor of egypt god gives pharaoh every conceivable opportunity to not be morally judged as evil god gives him the opportunity to do the right thing i mean that's one of the themes of exodus is god through moses saying to pharaoh hey pharaoh this is very uncool what you're doing it's morally reprehensible do the right thing pharaoh do the right thing do the right thing and over and over and over and over again pharaoh is resistant to doing the right thing namely for economic purposes the story reveals so genesis ends and exodus opens and we have god posturing against slavery and judging the enslavers the egyptians again the logic of the story is moral not ethnic god is as happy to love and to lavish blessing upon pharaoh and the egyptians as israel it's not that god favors israel ethnically above egyptians ethnically it's that god favors freedom and the dignity of the individual over enslavement and oppression that's the point of the story so genesis 1 through 15 continues with the land of canaan being promised to israel god's saying okay now that i've taken you out of egyptian bondage i'm going to give you the land of canaan why the land of canaan well we're about to discover why the canaanite nations are judged by god because they are engaging in pandemic patterns of evil god promises to push the canaanites out of the land with hornets in the passage the first line of defense is not hey israel go destroy them but israel go into the land and i'll push them back push them back push them back with hornets they will just be afraid of the pestilence of these hornets and they will leave and the land will be vacated for you that's the first line of attack and again the logic is moral not ethnic exodus 20 then and this is crucial this is we're turning a corner right now in our time together then in exodus we come to chapter 20 where the ten commandments are given now watch this the ten commandments open by referencing deliverance from slavery in egypt i am the lord your god this is exodus chapter 20 verses 1 and 2 and onward i am the lord you god who brought you out of the land of egypt out of the house of bondage you shall have no other gods before me god's character is revealed in this law in 10 brief statements of the highest moral ground conceivable essentially the ten commandments articulate in short form what it looks like to love god supremely and to love your neighbor as yourself even richard dawkins should be elated to discover such high moral ground articulated in scripture treat people right do what is right don't murder don't commit adultery don't steal don't bear false witness don't even covet be content with whatever stuff you have don't become a materialist is embedded in the ten commandments so god's character is revealed as a character of love very very high moral ground is revealed in the ten commandments but the first commandment forbids the worship of false gods that's interesting because here's the question that is raised at this point well isn't there just one god one god yahweh god the creator are there actually other gods or are these other gods just the figments of people's imaginations are they just dumb idols made of stone and and wood sitting on little shelves in the house well there is that dimension going on but the first commandment says don't worship these other gods well let's flesh this out that's in exodus 20 don't worship false gods when we come to chapter 23 notice the language verse 24 you shall not bow down to their gods that is the gods of the canaanite nations here they're referenced again nor serve them nor notice the language do according to their works again it's a moral question not an ethnic question don't do the kinds of things these people do they're engaged in patterns of behavior that are abominable they are reprehensible behavior patterns do not engage in what they do their works but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars that is their their worship centers are to be destroyed because horrible reprehensible violent ugly things are taking place in this system of worship being dictated by their gods you shall make no covenant with them not because you're elitist not because you're better than them ethnically you are to make no covenant with them nor with their gods they shall not dwell in your land lest here's god's concern they make you sin against me with their abominable practices for if you serve their gods if you serve their gods it will surely be a snare to you what kind of snare will it be well later on in the biblical narrative in psalm 115 and verse 8 it says those who make them that is idols false gods those who make them will notice this be like them and so will all who trust in them here's god's concern idolatry is a snare because it shapes human character and behavior it's not ethnic it's moral god says don't worship their gods because their gods are morally evil and if you worship those gods you're going to take on the traits the characteristics of the gods that you worship no worship me and worship me alone because i'm good i'm against all evil i'm just and merciful and kind i am a god of love worship me and you will take on my traits you will become gradually incrementally like the god you worship so worship the very highest notion of moral goodness worship me the one and only true god and you will become like me in your character and behaviors but if you worship these false gods you're going to become like them some of the false gods are actually named in scripture these are these are some of the ones that are actually named in the biblical narrative these are the gods of the canaanite nations molek and dagon and ishtar and baal and marduk and kimosh now here's the fascinating thing and don't miss this these are not figments of human imagination these are according to the biblical narrative gods who are pedaling immoral practices not ethnic exclusivity again the logic is moral not ethnic so who are these gods well deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 12 the lord alone guided him that's israel as a collective as a singular israel the nation the lord guided israel no foreign god was with them notice the word foreign and god that is foreign meaning the gods of the other nations of the canaanite nations no foreign god was with them now watch this then he that is israel forsook god who made him and scoffed at the rock that's god a metaphor for god the rock of his salvation the god who delivered them from egyptian bondage and they that is israel stirred him god to jealousy remember dawkins said god is jealous and proud of it well notice the context of god's jealousy they stirred him god to jealousy with strange gods with abominations they provoked god to anger i want to ask dawkins i want to ask myself i want to ask you are there behaviors that necessarily should provoke people to anger of course if you're driving down the street and you see a man beating a child you're going to legitimately be angry and try to intervene to stop it if a tyrant takes over a nation politically and leads that nation to engage in heinous acts of of preemptive war against other nations you're going to judge that as evil and be angry about it there is a legitimate anger that psychologically well-adjusted people feel when they encounter evil so why not god do we want a god who literally can watch babies be raped and not feel anger of course not according to this scripture there are abominations that these gods are prompting and it's the abominations not the ethnic group god is not angry and jealous about one ethnicity above another ethnicity or the gods of other ethnicities god is angry about certain abominations that are being committed prompted by these foreign gods now comes the punchline verse 17 of chapter 32 of deuteronomy they now it's going to define the pinnacle of these abominable activities they israelites who are now worshiping the false gods of the other nations they sacrificed to demons that were no gods to gods they had never known to new gods that had come recently whom your fathers had never dreaded what this is a key bit of biblical perception and insight the gods of the canaanite nations are not merely figments of the canaanites imaginations the gods of the canaanite nations are fallen angels i.e demons who are masquerading as deities taking the worship that is due to the one and only true god alone who is good and we will take on his traits if we worship him but these demons are pretending to be deities pretending to be gods dagon and molech and kimash and ishtar and the false gods are actually demons pretending to be deities and these false gods that is demons are prompting their worshipers to engage in abominable activities including sacrifice what kind of sacrifice well the false gods are leading the canaanite nations and israel in its backsliding against the one and only true good god who we saw in the biblical narrative is diametrically opposed to human sacrifice in the abraham isaac story while the false gods are prompting their followers and worshipers to engage in abominations what kind of abominations well at the very pinnacle of the abominate the abominations and there are a list of them in scripture but at the top of the list the most abominable thing that the false gods lead their worshipers to engage in is human sacrifice according to the biblical narrative look at this from psalm 106 verse 36 they that is israel in its apostasy in backsliding to worship the false gods they served their idols which became a snare to them what kind of snare they even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons here's the second instance in which scripture identifies the idols or the false gods of the canaanite nations as actually fallen angels masquerading as gods demons and what are these demon gods prompting their followers to do to sacrifice their sons and daughters to engage in the heinous practice of human sacrifice and to shed the text goes on in verse 38 to shed innocent blood to shed innocent blood the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of canaan and the land was polluted with blood do you see what's happening here again the logic of the biblical narrative is moral logic not ethnic logic god does not favor one ethnicity above another god is working through abraham and his descendants to bless all the families and nations of the earth so here's what can be said here's what can be said from the biblical narrative if we're true to the text if we just read the story for what it actually reveals here's what can be said god yes god did command israel to destroy the canaanite nations that's a hard truth it's unavoidable scripture does show god commanding them to destroy but god is against all violence but working within the parameters set by violent human beings violence is essentially foreign to the character of the god of scripture but human beings engaging in violence present a problem that the god of scripture must navigate and god navigates the parameters of human violence by yes displacing people who have normalized abuse of children and the murder of children people groups that have normalized abuse and sacrifice human sacrifice and murder god did tell the children of israel to displace them from the land now that's a hard truth we need to sit with that for a moment and ask ourselves the question would we want a god with such a high sense of moral justice that he would be against human sacrifice i think your answer would be yes we could ask the question in a more immediate context of history would you want to be a part of a nation that would have enough sense of moral justice to intervene against a dictator who is engaged in exterminating the entire jewish population as fast as he can would you want the allied troops to intervene against the third reich against the nazi regime of course you would so don't judge the god of scripture as a malevolent bully because he intervenes in a climate in a world of brutality and insanity god is doing what must be done not because he is himself intrinsically in favor of violence but in fact because he is diametrically opposed to violence the entire biblical narrative is god essentially trying to work violence out of the human system out of the human psyche here's what cannot be said if we're honest with the biblical texts it cannot be said that god is capriciously violent no god is not arbitrarily capriciously violent he is not intrinsically inherently violent god does not like one ethnic group and hate all others that cannot be it cannot be said that god likes one ethnic group and hates all others cannot be said that doesn't bear out in the biblical narrative and it cannot be said with any kind of coherent logic if we read the story of scripture that god is a genocidal murderer in fact the exact opposite is true down through history we have one development after another coming up to this point where the promised warrior the non-violent warrior messiah would come and according to first john chapter 3 and verse 8 for this purpose the son of god was manifested for what purpose john why did god send christ into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil that's where the biblical narrative goes that's how it unfolds is god a genocidal murder no god is diametrically opposed to genocide god is diametrically opposed to murder god is in fact working within the violent parameters of brutality that human beings have created navigating our violence and our evil intervening reluctantly when he has to in order to preserve the human race so that eventually messiah could come and set in motion a set of non-coercive non-violent principles that reach their pinnacle manifestation when jesus voluntarily laid down his life and died on calvary's cross to prove unequivocally that god is love in the most extreme sense imaginable and would himself rather die at our hands than to be a genocidal murderer who would come against us with capricious power god is good god is beautiful god is love father in heaven thank you for scripture thank you for the clarity of scripture please help us to ponder these things i know it's a mouthful i just said a lot of things somebody might need to go back and actually watch this again and take notes and slow it down because we just said a lot but what we did is we looked at the panorama the big picture and in that big picture we see that you are a god of goodness and love and sometimes intervening justice so we thank you for the good god that you are in jesus name amen

Channel: Storyline Church

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Keywords: storyline church, ty gibson

Id: o_7EX949zO8

Length: 50min 51sec (3051 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021