The Problem Isn’t Christian Fundamentalism, It’s Biblical Ignorance and Deliberate Twisting of Scripture

Intriguing that in its attack on Christian “fundamentalists” – an amorphous term that, whatever else the speaker wants it to mean, usually applies to Christians who believe the Bible’s claims to be the literal Word of GodWashington’s Blog chooses to cite NPR. As Leviathan’s official medium, this network retails little but propaganda; its animus against Christianity is notorious. And why not? The satanic State knows that it competes with the Lord Almighty for our worship. How better to denigrate Christianity, and those who take it seriously, than to pretend that trusting Jesus Christ for salvation is just another religion, one among many, “immature” and “murderous.”

Meanwhile, let’s examine the supposedly violent Old Testament in context rather than deliberately telling only half the story as NPR does. The Almighty did indeed command the complete annihilation of various peoples in the ancient Near East and He graciously tells us why, too: “…the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.”

“The land” here is Canaan, the territory God was wresting from the peoples who already lived there to bestow on the Children of Israel. Any decent commentary on this verse will mention the natives’ utter wickedness; I like this summary from the Defender’s Study Bible:

The land of Canaan, which had long before been promised by God to Abraham and his seed, had become so defiled by the time of Joshua that God was completely vindicated in ordering the extermination of its incorrigibly wicked inhabitants, lest the people of Israel and eventually the whole world be corrupted by their influence, as in the world before … [Noah’s] flood. This chapter [Leviticus 18] gives a representative listing of their pervasive sins–promiscuity, incest, homosexuality, bestiality, even burning their children in sacrifice to a pagan god (Leviticus 18:21) and blaspheming the true God. God had been long-suffering for four hundred years, but now their iniquity was full and their time was up (note Genesis 15:13-16). [Emphasis added.]

I will bet a great many of the folks condemning the “violent” Old Testament, including NPR, have no problem at all with the Allied firebombing of Germany during WWII. Talk about herem (“’There is a specific kind of warfare laid down in the Bible…’ It is called herem, and it means total annihilation”)! The Nazis were absolutely despicable, certainly, but not every German was a Nazi. Yet they all suffered for the Nazis’ sins.

As NPR notes, King Saul disobeyed the Lord in refusing to execute one native leader; elsewhere, the Bible says the Israelites also spared some of the indigenous peoples.  And precisely what the Defender’s Study Bible predicts happened: “the people of Israel … [were] corrupted by their influence.” Among other horrors, the Israelites, too, sacrificed their children on pagan altars, to the Lord’s unending heartbreak. He repeatedly mentions in the Old Testament’s prophetic books His shock at such an abomination; one such passage comes from Jeremiah 19 (“They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind…”). Those who dare judge the Almighty, please tell us what punishment parents who incinerate their own children deserve.

Now, to critics who sneer, “So does your God still tell people to commit genocide?”, I respond, “Of course not. The Lord communicated directly with the Children of Israel because they did not have the written Word in its entirety as we do. And He specifically tells us that His revelation is finished; no one receives commands from Him any longer except through the Bible.” The Almighty’s order for herem was strictly limited to a certain time, place, and people. Those who extend it to anything beyond God’s punishment of the Canaanites and who thereby hope to justify their imperial wars will one day answer for such blasphemy.

We should also remember that the Israelites, too, eventually exhausted God’s patience, and He allowed other nations to destroy them, just as He had used them to destroy the Canaanites. From all this let us take a sober warning: America is traveling much the same path as these ancient societies. We, too, sacrifice our own children – to the gods of convenience, career, feminism, and abortion rights. We, too, applaud sodomy while persecuting anyone who refuses to endorse such perversion. We, too, wink at promiscuity as our homes and marriages disintegrate. We, too, are beginning to explore the “rights” of bestiality.

Our iniquity is full, and our time may very well be up.

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11:08 am on August 29, 2014