Is God a Moral Monster?

Why would God wipe anybody out?

How could a good God kill his own creation?

In the N.T God is all love but in the O.T he is full of hated and misogynistic!

Here are only a few argument that Christian are up against when it comes to people who don't believe in Him and the above question are the claimed that they would make against the God of the Bible.

The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The operation, given the code name OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. Why? because they had a though out plan for attack! Guess why so does the enemy for us as Christians! The enemy will try to make you doubt what you believe in so that he could win at the end. However, with the understanding of who God is and understanding of His word, the enemy doesn't stand a chance just like the invasion in Normandy!

Lets talk about how atheist view slavery in the Bible and without the proper understanding of it one might mistake past slavery with the slavery we read in the Bible.

Exodus 21:20–21 ““Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.” “If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. 21 If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property [lit. money].”

Corporal punishment was common in the Ancient Near East and was used upon the free as well as slaves: Code of Hammurabi, 211; Scourged, Twelve Tables of Roman Law 8:15 (See Quotes from various Ancient Near East Law Codes regarding Slavery).  Likewise, in the Bible, the rod was applied to slaves and non-slaves alike.

Deuteronomy 25:1-3, “If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, 2 then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. 3 “He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes.”Proverbs 10:13, “On the lips of the discerning, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks understanding.”Proverbs 26:3, “A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.”

Proverbs 23:13-14, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.”Proverbs 23:13–14, “Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. 14 You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from Sheol.”

Also, prisons were not common back then.  They were costly, required maintenance, and needed people to work them.  So, in the ancient near East, discipline was delivered quickly. Then, both the judged and society would move forward. “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. Punish them with the rod and save them from death.”

A rod was meant, in the context of Exodus 21:20-21, as an instrument of discipline. It was to be applied fairly and equally. In Hebrew, the word for “rod” is שֵׁבֶט, shebet. In the NASB, it is translated into the English club (4 times), correction (1), half-tribe (22), Rod (27), scepter (12), Spears (one), staff (1), and tribe (122).

Since the rod is not a lethal weapon like a knife, dagger, or sword, we can conclude that the intention of the master was not to kill but to discipline. But, if the slave dies, the master was to be punished. From the context, it appears the punishment is execution since just a few verses earlier, it says in Exodus 21:12, “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.”

Such a warning was intended to prevent the abuse of slaves by their masters. In fact, slaves were set free for destroyed eyes or teeth (Exodus 21:26-27). This strongly implies that they were not to be treated severely, which is why when a slave is beaten with a rod and dies, the master was to be executed.

The law allowed for Hebrew men and women to sell themselves into slavery to another Hebrew. They could only serve for six years, however. In the seventh year, they were to be set free (Exodus 21:2). This arrangement amounted to what we might call indentured servanthood. And the slaves were to be treated well: “Do not make them work as slaves. They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you” (Leviticus 25:39–40). The law also specified that, “when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you” (Deuteronomy 15:13–14). The freed slave had the option of staying with his master and becoming a “servant for life” (Exodus 21:5–6).

These laws gave some basic rights to slaves and curtailed the actions of masters in a historically unprecedented way. In the ancient world outside of Israel, slaves had no rights. But God’s Law extended to slaves the right to keep a wife (verse 3), the right not to be sold to foreigners (verse 8), the right to be adopted into a family by marriage (verse 9), and the right to food and clothing (verse 10). The law also limited masters in their use of corporeal punishment

Jesus and the apostles did not outright condemn slavery. They didn’t need to. The effect of the gospel is that lives are changed, one by one, and those changed lives in turn bring transformation to entire families, clans, and cultures. Christianity was never designed to be a political movement, but, over time, it naturally affected political policy. Alexander MacLaren wrote that the gospel “meddles directly with no political or social arrangements, but lays down principles which will profoundly affect these, and leaves them to soak into the general mind” (The Expositor’s Bible, vol. VI, Eerdmans, 1940, p. 301). In nations where Christianity spread and took firm hold, slavery was brought to an end through the efforts of born-again individuals.

The seeds of the emancipation of slaves are in the Bible, which teaches that all men are created by God and made in His image (Genesis 1:27), which condemns those who kidnap and sell a person (Exodus 21:16; cf. 1 Timothy 1:8–10), and which shows that a slave can truly be “a brother in the Lord” (Philemon 1:16).

In Deuteronomy 20:16–17, God commanded the Israelites, “In the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you.” A similar command is given concerning the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15:2–3. Why would God have the Israelites exterminate entire groups of people, women and children included?

Before we look at the reasons given in Scripture for the commands to exterminate certain groups of people, it’s important to realize that the Israelites were not given free rein to slaughter everyone they met. Consider the following:

• The standard procedure for battling a city was to first extend terms of peace (Deuteronomy 20:10). If the terms were accepted, the people of that city lived and became subservient to Israel (verse 11). If the terms were rejected, the city was besieged and the men were killed, but the women and children were spared (verses 12–14). Attacking a city within Canaan called for different rules and represented an exception to this standard.

• God did not sanction all of the wars recorded in the Old Testament. The battles that were part of the conquest of Canaan were intended for a particular time and limited to a particular people group. The conquest of Canaan had clear limits, geographically and historically.

• The wars sanctioned by God beyond the time of Joshua were defensive in nature. A number of the battles that Israel fought on the way to and within Canaan were also defensive in nature (Exodus 17:8; Numbers 21:21 –32; Deuteronomy 2:26 –37; Joshua 10:4).

Here are the reasons Scripture gives for commanding ancient Israel to annihilate certain people groups:

1. To judge the Canaanites for their abominations. The Canaanites were a brutal and wicked culture that frequently engaged in incredibly decadent behavior. Leviticus 18 provides a list of sins that Israel was to avoid at all costs: incest, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality. All these sins were practiced by the people of Canaan: “This is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. . . . All these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled” (Leviticus 18:24–27).

In ordering the destruction of the Canaanites, God enacted a form of corporate capital punishment on a people that had been deserving of God’s judgment for some time. God had given the Canaanite people over 400 years to repent (Genesis 15:13–16). Then came judgment day. God could have used any means to destroy the Canaanites, but He chose to use the Israelites as the instrument of judgment. This method not only rid the world of an evil and deeply depraved society, but it also provided a ready-made home for God’s chosen people, the Hebrews.

The Canaanites knew what was coming and had heard of God’s awesome power (Joshua 2:10–11; 9:9). Such awareness should have prompted their repentance, but they remained resistant to God. The Canaanite Rahab was saved, and so was her family, and they are proof that the Canaanites could have avoided destruction if they had repented (Joshua 2). No person had to die. God’s desire is that the wicked turn from their sin rather than perish (Ezekiel 18:31–32; 33:11).

2. To stave off idolatry and compromise. In Deuteronomy 20, immediately after God commanded that the Canaanites be completely wiped out, God gave the reason: “Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 20:18). The reason for the extermination was to prevent religious compromise and spiritual adultery: if the Israelites left survivors, the sin of idolatry would follow.

The Israelites failed in their mission and left many Canaanites alive (Joshua 16:10; 17:12–13; Judges 1:29). Exactly what God said would happen occurred. Israel compromised with Canaanite culture and fell into idolatry time and again (Judges 2:1–3; 1 Kings 11:5; 14:24; 2 Kings 16:3–4). God’s order to exterminate the Canaanites was meant to guard His relationship with His people.

3. To prevent future problems. God knows the future. God knew what the results would be if Israel did not completely eradicate their enemies. The Amalekites were not Canaanites, but they attacked Israel several times and forged alliances with the Canaanites (Exodus 17:8–13; Numbers 14:45; Judges 3:13; 6:3), so they also fell under God’s judgment. King Saul was given the responsibility to exterminate the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:2–3). Saul shirked his duty and lied about it (1 Samuel 15:20). The results were dire—just a couple of decades later, there were enough Amalekites to take David and his men’s families captive (1 Samuel 30:1–2). Several hundred years after that, a descendant of the Amalekites, Haman, tried to have the entire Jewish people exterminated (see the book of Esther). So, Saul’s incomplete obedience almost resulted in Israel’s destruction. If Saul had obeyed the voice of the Lord, it would have saved David’s men and the Jews of Esther’s day a lot of trouble.

4. To fulfil the curse on Canaan. Centuries before Moses’ command to eradicate the Canaanites, Noah had cursed one of Ham’s sons: “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers” (Genesis 9:25). Canaan was the ancestor of the Canaanites, as Genesis 10 makes clear. The descendants of Canaan include the Sidonians, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 10:15–19). Noah’s curse/prophecy came true during the time of Joshua. The Canaanites were conquered by the Israelites, who were descendants of one of Ham’s brothers, Shem. Not all of the Canaanites were exterminated; true to God’s Word, some of the Canaanites became slaves (Joshua 9:27; 17:12–13).

The most difficult part of the command of Deuteronomy 20:16–17 is that, when the Canaanites were exterminated, women and children were not spared. Why would God order the death of noncombatants and innocent children? Here are some things to remember:

⁍ No one is “innocent” in the sense of being sinless (Psalm 51:5; 58:3).

⁍ These women were participants in the degrading sins of Canaan, and the children would have grown up sympathetic to the evil religions and practices of their parents.

⁍ These women and, eventually, the children would naturally have been resentful of the Israelites and later sought to avenge the “unjust” treatment the Canaanite men had received.

In the end, God is sovereign over all of life, and He can take it whenever and however He sees fit. God alone can give life, and God alone has the right to take it. God is under no obligation to extend anyone’s life for even another day. How and when we die is completely up to Him. In the case of the Canaanites, their end came after a time of tolerance and patient grace. But Judgment Day finally comes to all, and it came to the Canaanites via the Hebrew people.