All of us have major problems with our theology.
And the sooner we recognize that our theology is not perfect, the better off we’ll be.
Of course, the trick is knowing where you theology is wrong.
Though I am certain I have problems in my theology right now, I do not know what these problems might be. If I knew, I would change my views.
This is why it is important to always be talking with others, reading the ideas of others, and thinking about theology and how it relates to life.
As a result of my own theological study and research, a lot of my theology has changed over the past fifteen years. Below are five of the main mistakes I made in my theology when I was a pastor.
1. I expected everyone to study the Bible and read theology.
Since I love to study Scripture and read theology, I believed and taught that every Christian should do the same.
I saw how much spiritual benefit I received from reading and studying Scripture and theology, and I assumed that everyone else would get just as much benefit from these practices as I had.
I also believed that people could not really come to know God unless they diligently studied Scripture and read widely from theology.
Looking back now, I see how wrong I was.
I now see that God has made Himself known to little children and to those who may never crack open a book of theology or read a chapter from the Pentateuch. I have encountered people who know more about God and how He works than I have ever hoped to know of God, and they have never read the Bible all the way through, nor do they even know what the word “theology” means.
I have now come to see that I enjoy reading and studying theology because this is partly why God put me on planet earth. I have gifts, talents, and abilities in the realm of Bible study and theology. But not everyone has these same gifts, and therefore, not everyone has these same interests.
Therefore, not everyone needs to read the Bible or study theology. And even when they don’t many of them will have a better knowledge and understanding of God than I ever will.
2. I took theology and Bible knowledge way too seriously.
I used to think that theology was a serious subject, which required sound thinking, sober minds, and no laughter or joy. I have since found that this is a common disease among theologians.
We tend to think that since we are “talking about God,” we must do so with all seriousness.
Now, however, I sometimes think that God gets just as bored with our serious theological discussions as would anyone else (except theologians). Furthermore, God does not really care for how seriously we take the words that come out of our mouth.
I now believe that we all need to lighten up about our theology.
I sometimes imagine there is a “Comedy Hour” in heaven where God and the angels read through all the things we Christian theologians preach and teach and write about. As I wrote a while back, in talking about God, we are like an oyster on the bottom of the sea trying to philosophize about ballerina knees.
I am not saying that our theology needs to be full of hilarious jokes and creatively told insights and stories. No. Just because Jesus told stories, this does not mean we should as well.
Instead, what it means is that we need to take ourselves less seriously. I need to take myself less seriously.
I know that just as much of what I believed in the past turned out to be seriously wrong, so also, much of what I believe right now might turn out to be wrong as well.
So I do my best. I study hard. But I hold my conclusions lightly.
And when I get a chance, I laugh. I laugh at Christianity. I laugh at church. I laugh at myself. Why? Because theology needs more laughter.
3. I thought that truth trumped love
While I always tried to be loving in what I said and did, as I read back through some of my old sermons, I find that I often erred in being so focused on truth, that I was not very loving.
I believed that the foundation for love was truth. And so while Paul instructed the Ephesians to find the balance between truth and love (Eph 4:15), I believed that the most important thing was truth. After all, I thought, it is never loving to withhold the truth.
I thought that it was preferable to speak the truth, even if it hurt, than to withhold the truth in the name of love.
I understand my logic, but I think that I often used such logic to say unloving things and treat people in unloving ways.
Today, while I do not condone falsehoods or lying, I try to err more on the side of love. I have discovered that some truth simply aren’t worth saying.
Besides, I have a view of truth which helps me see truth in almost everything.
I have noticed as well that Jesus wasn’t much of a stickler for orthodoxy. He was more than willing to contradict traditional theology to extend love. I try to follow His example and let my personal theology go out the window if doing so will help me love someone else.
4. I believed truly dedicated Christians regularly attended church
I still remember how I viewed the people in my church who only attended our Sunday morning service. I was grateful they came, but I knew, deep down in my heart, that if they were really devoted to following Jesus, they would also come to Sunday school, the Sunday evening service, the Wednesday evening Bible study, and the Saturday morning prayer meeting.
At least they came to the Sunday morning service though.
Which was more than could be said for the “so-called” Christians in town who didn’t attend any church at all!
There were several families I was aware of who said that they were following Jesus, but didn’t attend any church. I remember thinking how sad it was that they could be so deluded and deceived. After all, nobody could truly follow Jesus if they didn’t attend church!
I now realize how wrong I was.
Some of the greatest followers of Jesus I have met over the past fifteen years have not “attended church” in decades. I have now come to see that while church attendance is helpful and beneficial for a good many Christians, it is unhelpful and damaging for a good many more.
This does not mean that those who do not “attend church” are not part of the church; they are. In fact, it may be that many of those who do not attend church might be more active in the church than those who do attend.
Church, after all, is not the event that takes place in a brick building on Sunday morning, but is the people of God who follow Jesus into the world (See my book, Skeleton Church).
Following Jesus and being the church is not about sitting in a pew on Sunday morning (though for many it might include that), but is about being Jesus in the world.
5. I believed the goal of the Christian life was to get rid of sin.
To put it another way, I believed that God was in the sin management business. I believed that God was looking down on planet earth, wringing His hands in frustration (and even anger) at how bad we had messed things up.
I believed that the reason God gave us Scripture, and the reason God sent Jesus to this earth, was to tells us how to live “right.” I believed that God’s primary goal for our lives was to get us to stop sinning.
Today, I don’t believe God is nearly as concerned about sin as we are. I believe that sin is just not that big of an issue for God. If there is something God is concerned about, it is religion, which presents an ugly portrait of God to people and tells us to worship this ugly portrait “or else.”
And while sin is destructive and hurtful, I think that God would rather have us sin a little than live smug religious lives of self-righteous arrogance.
Bonus Item: 6. I believed that God was violent.
I used to teach that everything the Bible says God did is in fact what God actually did.
While I still hold to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, I now view things a little bit differently (I have a book coming out soon which explains more).
I no longer believe God is violent in any way, shape, or form. I do not believe God engages in violence or commands His people to do so. I believe that, if Jesus reveals God to us, then God is, by definition, non-violent.
This understanding, of course, has made me rethink a lot of other areas about theology, including how I read Scripture, but this entire topic is too huge to summarize in this post (which is already too long).
So those are some of the theological mistakes I made as a pastor. I imagine I am making more mistakes right now, but time will tell what those are.
How about you? What theological mistakes have you made in your past? What do you believe now instead and how did the change come about? Let us know in the comment section!
Every time I read your articles (which I do often), I have a big jumbled mix of “Amen!” hmmmm, and SMH moments. I may not agree with everything you write, but I am always challenged and interested. Thanks for your hard work.
Thanks Grant. I hope to invite people to think, and to share what I am learning.
Which parts were SMH moments?
Brother, I appreciate what you’re doing with your blog and I am not trying to throw stones. We need people who aren’t afraid to ask challenging questions about sacred cows. I just wrote what I wrote because wanted to share my experience with your articles.
So, for my SMH moments: when you say not everyone needs to read the Bible, or that God is not very concerned with sin, I don’t agree. I do agree that we tend to address those things in an ungodly way by seeking to control those things through religious mandate, which I think is your main point. But the Bible was given to lead us to freeing truth and sin is a cruel slave master. God wants us to be free, so he cares about both of those things.
We also fundamentally (though not entirely) disagree about the local church. “Sitting in a pew” is not something we are called to, but we need a local church so that we can encourage one another daily. The focus of the NT epistles is corporate, not individual, and I don’t believe we can live the Christian life on our own. Christ didn’t love the disciples in absentia, and we can’t love each other as he loved us in absentia either. I have seen so so many believers and followers of Christ fall away from the faith after not being part of a local church for some extended period of time. They all had great intentions, but without encouragement from the brethren, the world sucked them dry. It’s the rare exception that can press on alone, and even he misses out on many corporate blessings. Pews and sermons aren’t necessary, but fellowship, communion, encouragement, and mutual expressed love are.
All that being said, I really do enjoy your articles. I always learn something from them.
>we need a local church so that we can encourage one another daily.
The virtue of local church, is to be able to _discuss_ what The Bible really says, and change our lives to be more in accord with what The Bible actually teaches.
The vice of local church, is when one has to accept whatever the preacher says, because he is the preacher. Explanations, and discussions are absolutely verboten.
The failure of the local church, is when neither the preacher, nor the elders, nor the deacons, know their parishioners, much less spiritual condition.
Thanks for the kind and gracious reply.
I think we are in basic agreement. I do think God is concerned about sin; I just think that sin-management has become the goal of many people’s lives, which is sad, because this is not God’s goal for our lives.
As for church, note that I never said anything against encouragement, fellowship, or mutual edification, or anything like that. I only spoke about “attending” church. There are many ways to be the church without sitting in a pew on Sunday morning.
I appreciated your articles awhile back about how to be church. I noticed, though, that it primarily focused on how to love our neighbors and serve the needy. I would love to hear some of your ideas about how to live in community with our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Grant, the posts Jeremy and I wrote that talk about loving our neighbors, being the church in the community, and loving and helping the poor, homeless and needy are very much about how to live in community with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, as well as almost everyone in our community.
While these posts do not exclude meeting together with groups of other believers for whatever purpose, they try to broaden our perspective to help us be the church, the body of Jesus, wherever we are – at work, in the neighborhood, among the poor and homeless, while we’re shopping for groceries, with relatives, or wherever. We have discovered that all of those settings include other believers, as well as those who need to see, hear and talk to those who are following Jesus.
We understand those who want to spend more time, maybe most of their time with other believers, listening to sermons, studying the Bible, “encouraging” each other and so on. But we know from personal experience that often creates an “us” and “them” way of thinking about people. We see everyone as God’s special creation and want to spend time with more than just our “us” group. (We don’t have an “us” group.) Consider this: For many people we know we are their church, their only church. Sure, they know religious people (slightly), but we are their church. That is where we need to be. Yet another Bible study group studying the book of James: not so much.
This so much reminds me of 2 Pet 1 of which I am under the opinion that (strictly speaking) it is not possible to possess faith in Christ without compassion or love for your neighbor. Here is the specific potion of scripture: 2Pe 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
2Pe 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
2Pe 1:11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Selfless acts of charity shows to the world that Christ exists and is working through you and this delivers a fruitful witness. This is the point where faith in Christ Jesus has its true manifestation- it does not start by loving those who loves you…
Thank you for this eloquent and insightful post. It summarizes my own pilgrimage perfectly. In fact, I will likely use much of it, with attribution, of course, in my own blog. It is reassuring to see how God has led another pilgrim along a path similar to my own. Grace and peace to you, and may God bless your ministry.
We are MANY!
I agree, although it is hard for me to understand why other christians would not want to read up on this stuff? And those are usually the same people who say the one that did the studying is not right about the theology topic or whatever. I might have done it for the wrong reason in the beginning – to proof points and I hate to be wrong, but now I love it so much – I want to learn something new everyday and have many AH HA moments!
Thanks Jeremy. It’s a humbling thing when one discovers,”I’m part of the problem rather than the solution”; that I am mischaracterizing God. Instead of a ‘sweet smelling savour’ to the world, ‘I carry with me the stench of religion’. For me, I started to awaken when I realized- when Jesus walked this earth, sinners flocked to Him! Yet now, because of religion, ‘Christian’ is an object of contempt. Now, I no longer use the cop out, ‘I’m just a sinner saved by grace’; or ‘I’m suffering ridicule for Jesus sake’. Everyday I’m learning new ways to abandon religious cliches’ and put on Christ; which He told me to do in the first place. Yes, eventually we’ll be hated for Jesus sake, but it’s not because we blast people with scripture, but because we become salt and light.
Prov 4:20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
We are not to let God’s Word depart from our eyes.
Some theologian I read 30 yrs ago talked about how important it was to “think proper thoughts about God”. I forget who, Tozer maybe. I remember really liking that, but now as I watch my dear mothers memory give out, I wonder if that is true at all. She had/has a strong faith, but is asking spiritual questions that she once knew and gave the answers to. It is sad, but does not diminish my moms walk with God. My brain is fading as well as I get older. I realize that my brain and its thinking are not me, not like my soul is me. My brain is part of decaying body which now has more days behind it than in front of it. It will get worse before heavens full repair. Knowing God, believing in God, living for God cannot be about intelligence or thinking power or any other brain size thing. God grants some as braniacs and some as simpletons. Who is to say which is better or worse. God is wise and sovereignly orchestrated each person with a unique mix of pluses an minuses, blessings and challenges, mixed with the exact correct measure of faith. It is my job to go with and do with my mix as I follow God’s lead. Proper thoughts, improper thoughts, sinful thoughts, praiseful thought; theologians, people with brain damage; all are equally loved and matter to God and are welcome to recieve and radiate God’s love.
Here’s one mistake: We assume that how a person thinks theologically is how he will conduct his behavior.
I have found that most times we don’t; we actually contradict our theology by our behavior (and I’m not talking about committing sins).
For example, a Reformed Calvinist may say that God has his elect who will, no matter what, be certainly saved; yet they go about with their evangelistic effort – to their credit – as hard as any Arminian-minded person.
An Arminian may believe that salvation is conditioned by faith, but pray for God to save others as if salvation was monergistic.
A real conundrum I find with Christians of various theological persuasions is that they harp on how we must be engaged in studying the Bible, how the Bible is our guide in life, and hold the Bible on a pedestal, much like rabbinic Jews hold the Torah or Catholic hold up their Eucharist, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty of how they have come to know God, no matter how they explain it, it ends up being on the basis of experience.
Yep, it seems to me that Christians have a terrible habit of ignoring the value and significance of experiencing Christ while rationally, so they think, decipher the Bible to come to their (unquestioned?) theological conclusions.
By the way, I am still convinced God is genuinely concerned with sin and takes it serious enough to have died on the Cross. If we took sin as serious as God did, I think our fellowship with him would be a more evident to the world and much more effective in drawing the rebellious to him. Sin – not just as behavior but as an attitude, as that within which we frame our life – is the one thing that separates us from having the full pleasures of His presence and of Him enjoying us to the full.
But, I can agree that the problem may also be, not only that we carry our sin too lightly but, we are too demanding of “holiness” (aside from the fact that we don’t know what it really entails) that is, demanding it while we ourselves indulge in sin and demanding it more from others than from ourselves. Holding up “God hates faggots” signs is a clear example. We turn holiness into sinfulness.
A fellow Christian sins and we are appalled and ready to thrust him out of the assembly of “saints.” We sin and – ho-hum – it’s expected, we just “pray” and “repent” and encourage ourselves with the usual repertoire of comforting thoughts -“God understands me”; “I’m forgiven, not perfect”; “I’m a sinner”; “God forgave my sins even before I sinned because he knew I was going to sin”; “God forgives all my sins; past, present, and…future.”
Although I do believe that to get rid of sin is not the goal of the Christian life (although it may be a part of the means to a obtain the goal, which is experiencing fellowship with God), it seems to me that your comment, “I don’t believe God is nearly as concerned about sin as we are,” might give FB readers the wrong impression, and I think we take sin lightly enough; therefore, although seriously considering it, I opted not to share your article on my FB page.
I do not think it’s because I take sin too seriously, but it may be because I take the Cross too seriously.
Reading the Bible and becoming familiar with scripture is an important part of a good christian life. Is it an absolute necessity ? No, of course not. But it makes it much easier (in many ways) to understand who God is and what He expects from us.
There are several fables which have similar themes. The basic story line is about a traveler who sets out on a journey, but gets distracted and somewhere along the way stops, plants a garden and forgets about the journey. The story speaks to me about how we often get caught up in discussions about how we ought to properly interpret the Bible, how we ought to properly think about God, how we ought to live the Christian life.
We stop along the way to discuss all these things. “Consider …. But we must understand that…. Everyone ought to…. The Bible says that…. God wants us to….” All the while, the road is filled with weary travelers. We, however, have set up camp alongside the road. We rarely have a cup of water to offer a weary traveler. Nor are we available to walk alongside a traveler who is carrying a heavy load, share his journey and perhaps offer to help carry part of his load. We’re camped out at the rest stop discussing stuff, arguing stuff.
Theology that is not lived out is dead and useless. Theology that tells others how they ought to make their journey rarely offers them anything. Jesus came and walked alongside humanity as one of us, and set an example for us. He is our rabbi. He walks the road of life and invites us to journey with him. Sure, we can chat along the way. But let us not forget the journey and the others on the road.
Spot on!! I have run into a lot of dudes the past few years that carry around a theological arrogance… It’s gross and it hurts people. Thank you for sharing this. It really gave me a good boost of confidence that I am not crazy.
You’re not crazy! There are more of us than you know.
Yes, there are more of us… That IS THE CHURCH!
I no longer believe God is violent in any way, shape, or form.
I want to read more of your thoughts on this idea, one with which I agree.
For example, in 1 Kings 18:40, Elijah slaughtered the prophets of Baal. Did that action come from God or Elijah? If from Elijah, why did God not tell him to stop?
Mike
I see this theme crop up a lot here. That God ‘isn’t violent.’ The only argument against it I’ve seen seems to be, it’s mean, so there’s no way God could have done it, because God is ‘loving,’ or something to that effect.
Is God not allowed to judge? Are we allowed to put God in a box and tell him He can’t judge? How did we get that authority? Should we also get our white-out to blot out every mention of Hell in the Bible? Why not? Eternal torment is not 10x worse, not 100x worse, not 1,000,000 times worse, it’s infinitely worse than a violent act that takes the life of a mortal that was destined to experience death at some point anyway.
Is it EVER justifiable to take human life? What about a psychotic-shooter killing countless people? Is it ok to use lethal force to stop them? If so, why would we tell an omniscient, loving God he’s not allowed to use lethal force to do what He thinks is right? Why should we think He’d listen to us?
God is a just God, that is part of his character and he wants us to know that about him.
Being a violent God and just God are 2 different things.
God is a God of justice and getting rid of evil does not equal being violent.
You wrote:
‘Being a violent God and just God are 2 different things.’
Well, the Old Testament authors have a different take on that. They claim that God chose to, at times, express His justice in violent ways. They don’t see the two is antithetical. Violence is merely one expression of God’s justice, according to the OT.
In your opinion, how does God express His justice? Is Hell part of His system of justice? If not, what do you make of the dozens of references to Hell by both Jesus and other biblical authors?(I didn’t verify this, but one reference I checked stated that there are 162 references to Hell in the New Testament, including 70 by Jesus. Again, I didn’t verify these #’s, but Hell is referred to a lot).
Above all, God wants us to know his character
Jer 9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
God is a fair judge and the law was made for men such as murderers.
Man is to carry out laws such as the death penalty for murderers. Does that make God violent? No,it makes him a just God who is watching out for mankind against evil people.
Hell.
Hell, as a place of everlasting torment, is not taught in the bible.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Notice that Jesus Came to save men from perishing (death) not everlasting torment.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Again, the penalty for sin is death, not everlasting torment.
You can read more about hell here and the usage of that word in the bible.
http://www.revisedenglishversion.com/Appendix/5/Annihilation-in-the-Lake-of-Fire
You wrote:
Man is to carry out laws such as the death penalty for murderers. Does that make God violent? No,it makes him a just God who is watching out for mankind against evil people.
—
Agreed, and just the same God pronounced a death penalty for those under the ban in the OT.
You wrote:
Hell.
Hell, as a place of everlasting torment, is not taught in the bible.
—
I can’t agree with that sentence, at least not the way it’s worded here. The bible teaches that hell is a very real place with very real torment. The majority of conservative scholars/expositors hold that it is a place of everlasting torment. They use grammatical-historical exegesis to arrive at that conclusion. I tend to agree with them. Occasionally, I’ll come across someone that believes the bible is reliable, and doesn’t believe in eternal torment. It’s pretty rare, but it does happen. The only conservative scholar I know of and respect that has the same opinion is John Stott(I’m sure there are others, I just haven’t come across them). As much as I WOULD LIKE to agree with John Stott, I cannot. After all, it does SEEM unfair, that God would punish someone eternally for a finite amount of sin. Then again, my judgment/reasoning is not better than God’s. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than my ways, and His thoughts higher than my thoughts. The link you posted explains away certain verses as hyperbole, and I can respect that opinion, but will have to agree to disagree. Some I don’t see as hyperbolic. Here’s just one:
Isaiah 66:22-24
22“For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD,
so shall your offspring and your name remain.
23From new moon to new moon,
and from Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh shall come to worship before me,
declares the LORD.
24“And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
Thanks for the link though. It does bring up some interesting points and goes into more detail on this theory than others I’ve heard.
Yes, I agree hell is a real place but with the purpose of getting rid of evil people along with Satan and his spirits and not a place of everlasting torment.
I believe the bible says some (mainly Satan and his spirits) will burn for an extended period of time (how long –I have no idea) based on the evil they are responsible for but again this will not be forever.
Regarding Isaiah 66:22-24 –the worms are eating dead people not live people burning in hell. The worm and the fire will do their job on the dead bodies and nothing will stop until they are finished with them—that is how I see that verse.
For me , the character of God comes into question with an everlasting hell where people burn for 100000000 x 1000000000 years and then some more.
Edward William Fudge has a nice DVD movie on hell and has written a few good books on the subject.
Dave,
I do not argue that God cannot be violent “because God is loving.” You might want to reconsider the arguments made in some of my posts a little more carefully.
Yes yes yes.
Great post. Totally get it.
I am so glad to have your blog at present. Its very enlightening, fresh, and truthful. You are doing EXACTLY what the Lord has foresaw. All of us, in any given life, s second are doing just that. We can do no other. It might not be self evident or likable to us but it’s fact. Acceptance of lordship covers all. If we are in a boat going in the wrong direction, it’s only because that story must be told. The boat will eventually blow in the correct direction. Ask St Paul! But experience counts for a lot of learning. And qualities and qualifications are easily carried. All is worthwhile to fill out the story and all its worthiness. Yeeeeeaaah! Bless you Jeremy. Sound as a pound you are! Well. At the moment anyway. Lol
Jeremy. I prayed once fir God to show me his sense of humour. It was not that long after my conversion. And here is what he showed me. And I, m being really serious here. And honest. When I prayed for that, the next day there was a little article in a daily newspaper I was reading. There was a little cartoon of a minister with his white collar on. He was grasping on to or kneeling beside a caravan. And there was a little word bubble saying. “Please not the caravan lord!”. Lol lol lol. Honestly!!! That really happened and I knew God was showing me his humour. Can, t quite remember why I asked fir that in prayer. It was a long time ago. But do remember I was wrapoed up in zeal and tithing and all that jazz. Many, many years later I still remember that very short event. Lol. Aidan
“I no longer believe God is violent in any way, shape, or form. I do not believe God engages in violence or commands His people to do so.”
1. It seems God Himself commits, permits, and in some cases, commands and/or approves of violence:
– “the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom” (Gen 19:24).
– “God destroyed the cities of the plain” (v.29).
– “they stripped him…and threw him into a cistern” (Gen 37:23-24).
– “the LORD killed every firstborn” (Ex 13:15).
– “the people of the land shall stone him with stones” (Lev 20:2).
– destruction of Korah and others (Num 16:29-35).
– acts of violence against animals (e.g. Ex 13:13; 34:20).
– God approves of Phinehas violent act (Num 25:6-15).
– Take all the leaders…kill them” (Num 25:4).
– “Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them” (Num 25:16-18).
No?
– acts of violence required in making sacrificial offerings.
–
Ecclesiastes 31:8. It is true that God is not violent, but every believer must determine for themselves if it is a time to kill or a time to heal. The end for one thing is a beginning for another.