When God Seems Like A Moral Monster: God-Ordained Violence in the Bible | Agassiz Campus

Deuteronomy 20:16-18 The first passage in our “My Weird & Wonderful Bible” summer series seems both bizarre and unsettling – a text where God instructs the Israelites to completely eradicate the Canaanites from the Promised Land ... a text that some have mistaken as a divine mandate for “ethnic cleansing” ... a text that seemingly highlights an extreme disparity between “the God of the Old Testament” and “the God of the New Testament.” This sermon will point out that neither objection is true ... that the character of “the God of the OT” is more patient, loving and gracious than people often assume, and that “the God of the NT” is much more consistent about judgment from OT to NT than people often assume. Ultimately, there is also bloodshed in the NT that it is levelled against Jesus – a game changer in the unfolding history of redemption.