I’ve written before about how unbelievers reject God because they have a wrong idea about who He is. They create this false idea in their heads about how God should act if He were real and, since God doesn’t act that way, He must not be real. But they’re not rejecting the true God; they’re rejecting a straw god of their own making. I get the impression that’s what’s going on here. The atheist who posted this is trying to suggest that the Bible isn’t true (or God isn’t real) because a “true” Bible wouldn’t have passages about killing witches!
If we look carefully at the list, we see that some of the criticisms are misrepresentations of what the Bible is saying. Nowhere does the Bible say, “Kill non-Hebrews,” for example. Deuteronomy 20 is actually talking about specific peoples occupying the land God has promised to the fledgling nation of Israel. The same list also cites Deuteronomy 20 as saying to “Kill all males after winning battles.” In other words, they are taking 2 passages describing one particular event, and claiming the Bible commands these to be universal rules. Also, the list has “Kill gays” and “Kill men who have sex with other men” and even cites the same passage for both (Leviticus 20:13). These are exactly the same things so why are they on the list twice? It looks like items are being reworded, reinterpreted, and rewritten simply to bulk up the list. It’s like highschool kids who fill up their research papers with nonsense sentences simply to reach the required word count. In this case, the author of the list is padding the list simply to make the Bible sound worse than it actually is.
It’s hard to take arguments like this seriously because atheists lack credibility. They have a worldview that is built upon billions of years of death and struggle. “Survival of the fittest” is the unofficial motto of evolution and killing off the “undesirables” in a tribe or village isn’t really any different than predators picking off the weakest members of their prey. If the universe were all there is, the universe doesn’t care what happens. It’s only because there is a Christian worldview, one that values human lives above animals because we are made in God’s image, that criticisms like this have any weight at all. In other words, it’s only because the Bible is true that these claims seem horrific! Ironic, huh?
But what about these claims? Do they contradict the idea of a loving God? Do we hide from them and hope no one finds out about them? Do we say, “that's the Old Testament so it’s not true anymore?” No, no, and no. What we should do is seek to understand God better and stand boldly on His word. The answers to these criticisms are right there in the Scriptures and it is our job as Christians to be ready to respond when unbelievers speak them. In this post, I hope to point to a few passages that might shed light on this subject.
1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love. Some people seize upon this verse and others to try to portray Him as some namby-pamby kind of god. They try to make God seem like a hippy whose only response to sin is pacifism. If an earthly judge freed murderers because he “loved” them, we’d be outraged. He would be an unjust judge. If that’s what unbelievers think about God, then it’s no wonder they reject Him!
The Bible also tells us about God’s wrath. Romans 2:5-6 warns us, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds:” How frightening is the thought of standing before an angry God, knowing I am guilty of my sins!
You see, God is not only love, He is also just. He is also patient and long-suffering. He is merciful and good. He is perfect in all of His ways. The creatures around the Throne don’t sing, “Love, love, love.” They don’t sing, “Wrath, wrath, wrath.” They sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” (Revelation 4:8).
Let’s get to the real meat of the issue: The penalty for witchcraft is still death. The penalty for adultery is still death. The penalty for blasphemy is still death. The penalty for lying or stealing or looking at porn or cheating on your taxes is death. Need I remind you that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)? It is the only penalty for sin and it has been that way for the entire history of man. But here’s the good news: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). In this single verse, we see the love of God, the wrath of God, and the mercy of God. Praise Him!!
Now, I know what the skeptics are saying: what about the list? What about killing false prophets? To that I would ask, where are all the true prophets? Where is Moses and Daniel and Jeremiah? In case you haven’t noticed, they’re dead too. Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” So, yeah, the Israelite armies killed all the Amorites and Hittites but all the Jewish soldiers are dead now too. All the prophets are dead. Samson and all the other Judges are dead. David and Solomon and all the other kings of Israel are dead.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Hebrews 9:27 tells us that it is appointed unto men to die and afterward is the judgment. God is the author of life so it is His right to decide when we die. Some people die very old and some die very young. Some die peacefully and some die violently. When and how they die might vary but just as all have sinned, so all die. The mortality rate among humans is 100%. When you think about it, it's sort of silly to say that there's anyone who doesn't deserve to die. If everyone dies, then how can we say that a rebellious son or an adulterer isn't worthy of death?
No sin is “trivial.” The list might dismiss blasphemy, sexual immorality, and rebellion as harmless but any transgression of the law earns God's judgment and the wages of our sin is death. Nobody is stoned anymore but we all have the same destiny - a grave. We all also have the same opportunity - salvation through His Son. When we stand before God in judgment (and we all will), I'm going to receive mercy because I have believed in His Son. Others are welcome to tell God He's being unfair.
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