{"id":35741,"date":"2014-06-12T04:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=35741"},"modified":"2014-06-08T11:44:47","modified_gmt":"2014-06-08T19:44:47","slug":"4-shocking-reasons-the-bible-is-unique-reason-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/4-shocking-reasons-the-bible-is-unique-reason-3\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Shocking Reasons the Bible is Unique (Reason 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"
So far in this short series on why the Bible is unique among the spiritual writings of the world religions, we have seen that the Scriptures reveal human mimetic rivalry and the scapegoat mechanism<\/a>, and that Jesus fulfills the Hebrew Scriptures (just as He fulfills other religious writings as well<\/a>). <\/p>\n The question we concluded the previous post with, however, was that if Jesus fulfills the hopes and dreams and ideals of other religious writings as well, why did Jesus come specifically in fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. This post seeks to answer that question. <\/p>\n And here is the answer:<\/p>\n The third reason the Hebrew Scriptures are unique among all religious writings in the world is that they are the most violent religious writings in history.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I do not say this lightly.<\/p>\n While I do not consider myself an expert on all the religious writings of all of the main religions in the world, I have read most of the main religious texts for most of the main world religions, and while it is not uncommon to find violent events being described in these other religious books, no other set of religious writings comes even close to describing the violence and bloodshed that one finds within the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures. <\/p>\n And I am not referring to simple descriptions of human violence, though there is a lot of that within the Bible. I am talking about direct commands from God for His people to go and commit violence. I am talking about commands from God for His people to engage in genocide. I am talking about descriptions of God intentionally setting plans in motion to wipe out entire groups of people (such as the Amalekites), and to kill through natural disasters millions (or maybe even billions) of people (as in the flood). <\/p>\n When taken as a whole, the Bible is the most violent religious text in all of history.<\/strong> Not even the violence of the Muslim Qu\u2019ran comes close to describing and divinely sanctioning the violence that is found within the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures<\/a> (see Jenkin’s book, Laying Down the Sword<\/a><\/em>). <\/p>\n This certainly makes the Bible unique! Though it is not in a way most Christians are comfortable admitting. <\/p>\nThe Hebrew Scriptures are the Most Violent<\/h2>\n