When God Pled Guilty Archives - Page 14 of 20

Did you hear what John Piper said online a few years back? Check out this quote:

It’s right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases. God gives life and he takes life. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die.

That is not the God I know.

Yuri Wijting on Facebook directed me to an article by Peter Enns which talked about this statement by John Piper.

Here are a couple things Peter Enns said in response to John Piper:

1. It is unguarded to make a general principle of God’s character on the basis of the treatment of the Canaanites in the Old Testament. Of course, Piper would likely retort that all of Scripture is God-breathed, does not mislead us, and reveals the character of God. But then he would need to address squarely Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount that “death to our enemies” is no longer valid.

The insider-outsider premise that undergirds Canaanite slaughter (and the killing of many of Israel’s enemies in the Old Testament–see #3) is the very thing Jesus squashed: “My kingdom is not of this world.” That alone should give Piper pause from venturing forward with his assessment of God’s character on the basis of how Canaanites are dealt with.

2. Following on #1, “the Bible said it, that settles it” answer to God’s violence in the Old Testament not only runs into problems with respect to the New Testament but the Old Testament as well. There is a fair amount of theological diversity in the Old Testament regarding the nature of God’s judgment on the nations that would need to be taken into account. (For example, compare Jonah and Nahum on the fate of Assyria; the glorious fate of Egypt in Isaiah 19:23-25.) To make one view on such a thorny issue the model for how God acts throughout time runs the danger of privileging certain texts that support one’s theology.

If you get a chance, go read the rest of the article by Peter Enns. It is excellent.

I thought about adding a few choice words of my own directed at John Piper, but then I realized I was not angry. Instead, I was extremely, extremely sad.

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Does Jesus Condemn People? NO!

By Jeremy Myers

24 Comments

Okay, okay, the title might be a little too strong. I do believe that Jesus is the righteous judge of the world and that we will all stand before Him to give an accounting, and that based on the judgment of Jesus, some will be eternally separated from God… So don’t rake me over the coals too much for that title….

I am only wrote that title in connection to Romans 8:34 due to a comment that was left on someone else’s blog about my recent series on God, violence, and evil. Here is what happened:

Peter Kirk recently posted a quote from one of my blog posts (if you do this, let me know so I can come interact with your readers!), and one of the people who left comments strongly disagreed with my ideas, and quoted Romans 8:34 this way: “Who is it that condemns? Christ Jesus…”

Whoa!

Is that a verse which says that Jesus Christ does actually condemn people? When I saw that verse, I blinked and shook my head and thought, “Really? How could I have missed that all these years?”

So I went and looked it up.

And guess what? The devil is in the dots. The problem is with the ellipses (…).

I know we all use them, but always be wary of Scripture quotations that include ellipses.

In Romans 8:34, Paul is not answering his question and saying that Jesus Christ condemns. No! Exactly the opposite. Paul is saying Jesus Christ is the only one who could condemn, but far from condemning anyone, Jesus died for us and intercedes for us! This is the only way to make Roman 8:34 fit with Romans 8:1.

Romans 8:34 should be understood this way: “Who is he who condemns? Jesus Christ is the only one who could, but He doesn’t! Instead, he died for us, and rose again from the dead, and now intercedes for us at the right hand of God the Father in heaven!”

Beautiful! Far from condemning humanity, Jesus loves us, died for us, and now intercedes for us!

Look, I know that not everybody will agree with the theory I am proposing about how to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament (see the link list at the bottom of this post).

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The Violence of God and Evil

By Jeremy Myers

4 Comments

I was thinking a bit more about the violence of God and the source of evil today (as these topics are consuming my thoughts recently), and I remembered a paper I wrote back in 1999 while at Denver Seminary for a class I had with Douglas Groothuis. It was on the nature and source of evil.

I was curious what I thought about this topic nearly fifteen years ago, so I waded through the files in a file cabinet I have lugged with me through fifteen moves, and miraculously, found the paper!

I remember thinking that my paper was “groundbreaking.” (What seminary student doesn’t think this about his every research paper?) When Dr. Groothuis gave my paper back to me, he gave me a good grade, but not because he agreed with me (he strongly disagreed). Instead, he graded me based on my research and thought process. (This, by the way, is one sign of a good professor… to grade based on research and thought, not based on whether or not the student agrees with the professor.)

Here is what Dr. Groothuis wrote on the last page of my paper:

Guess what I concluded in my paper?

I concluded much the same thing that I am writing about in my recent series on the violence of God in the Old Testament (see the link list at the bottom of this post). In my paper from 1999 I argued that although God did not cause evil, He is nevertheless somewhat morally responsible for it because He created a world where such evil is possible. The actual source of evil is within the free will of God’s creatures (humans and angels), and since these were gifts of God to His good creation, when these gifts were misused and abused to do things contrary to God’s will, evil resulted.

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Storms are Not from God

By Jeremy Myers

20 Comments

As we seek to learn why bad things happen in this world, we are looking at several principles of a theological chaos theory. We are currently discussing the point that due to the fall of humanity, nature has spun out of control. In yesterday’s post we saw that Scripture and theology seems to indicate that in some way humans were enabled by God to guide and control natural forces, but when we sinned, we lost this ability, and nature spun out of control.

Due to sin, we lost control of the powers that control nature, and having spun out of control, they now wreak havoc on the world. There is now disarray and chaos in creation.

From this, we can know several things.

Storms are Not Sent “From God”

First, when storms and disasters occur, they do not “come from God.” Storms are not sent by God. (I know that some will object and point to the Flood or to the storm that God sent to bring back a fleeing Jonah. We will look at these texts at a later time.)

Storms occur because the forces of nature are out of control. Much of the work of God on earth is focused on protecting humanity from complete destruction at the hand of these destroying powers. Sometimes God “withdraws” His hand of protection and allows storms to rage, but we must be careful with saying that this is why all storms occur. We do not know why God allows some storms. When it comes to storms, there is much we do not know.

For example, we will never know all of the boundaries that God has placed upon the destructive powers so that they do not overwhelm and annihilate mankind forever. We can never know how many disasters have been averted, how many floods have been avoided, how many meteorites have been nudged off course by God. And when storms and disasters do occur, we can never know what string of events and decisions by God, angels, and human beings led to that storm occurring.

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Why Nature is Destructive

By Jeremy Myers

2 Comments

The second principle of the chaos theory is that while God originally created a beautiful and orderly universe that functioned in beautiful symmetry, once free agents used their freedom to rebel against God, many elements of God’s creation spun out of control, that is, they no longer work in coordination with all the other parts of God’s creation.

There is a whole theology behind this idea, but let me try to summarize it here and in the next post.

God’s Created Order

God created a world which contains powerful natural and spiritual forces, all of which are interconnected. In God’s original design, all elements and aspects of creation were intended to work together in a symphony of joy and beauty. Cycles of light and darkness along with seasons of cold and warmth provided opportunities for work and rest.

The animals and natural elements were perfectly balanced to support and sustain one another. Plants, trees, and vegetation provided sustenance for the animals, while the animals helped tend and guide the growth of plants. There were waters below and waters above, working together with the heat of the sun and the movement of the air to bring growth, light, and refreshment to all. It was beautiful.

At the pinnacle of this creation God placed mankind, both male and female. Together, they were to work in a partnership with God and with each other to serve as a conductor over this orchestra of creation. Humans were to partner with the plants and with the animals to guide, help, and direct all things to work together in unison and for the purpose God intended.

The Principalities and Powers

Part of this symphony also involved the angels.

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It’s Right for God to Slaughter Women and Children Anytime He Pleases

Does Jesus Condemn People? NO!

The Violence of God and Evil

Storms are Not from God

Storms are Not Sent “From God”

Why Nature is Destructive

God’s Created Order

The Principalities and Powers

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