Jesus Loves Canaanites – Review
The Bible is an amazing book and it is the foundation for much of western morality, even if many atheists do not want to admit it. Even so, there are parts of the Bible that makes us uncomfortable. The killing of the Canaanites and other groups are a notable example.
Randal Rauser looks at these passages in his new book, Jesus Loves Canaanites. But this is not just an exegetical study. The foundation for Rauser’s argument is moral intuition.
Moral intuition is the idea that we just know certain things are wrong. We don’t need scripture or a teacher to tell us. When we hear about a shooter walking into a school and killing kids in cold blood, we know that is wrong. There is some moral revulsion.
The same is true when it comes to genocide and ethnic cleansing. When we hear about what happened in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, we know that is wrong. Moral intuition is an important part of epistemology.
If that is the case, that should inform how we read the passages in the Old Testament that speak of the slaughter of the Canaanites.
A side note: I have a problem with the language of genocide for these passages. When most people think of genocide, we think of attempts to eradicate an entire people group, such what the Nazis tried with the Jews. That is not what we see in the Old Testament, even with the most literal reading. The idea was never to kill every Canaanite, it was to remove them from the land.
Having said that, Rauser is technically correct in using genocide terminology as modern definitions do not require an attempt to kill every member of the group. Still, I think the term is confusing because people do use different definitions. However we define genocide, what we read definitely fits into ethnic cleansing, which is still problematic.
Having demonstrated that we know genocide today is wrong, he then works back using that same moral intuition to show that genocide in the Old Testament would be wrong as well.
However, people who value the Bible still are left with these passages. Rauser takes us on a tour of the most common attempts to understand and explain these difficult passages and explains why none of them are adequate.
Rauser’s lands on something he calls providential errantism. Before explaining that, you must understand that Rauser holds to a form of inerrancy. While acknowledging that the human authors could (and did) make errors in what they wrote, God (as the divine author) never made errors and that he even used the human errors for his own purposes.
This brings us to providential errantism. Unlike some theologians who have concluded that God never commanded the Israelites to kill the Canaanites but they claimed he did and killed them anyway, Rauser does not believe that this genocide happened at all. The events described in Joshua, from a historical perspective, are completely inaccurate.
However, Rauser believes that God intentionally wanted those accounts in the Bible for his own reasons. While they may not be historically accurate, those accounts are not there by mistake. Our job is to understand God’s purposes in this.
What do I think of this?
Rauser’s argument from moral intuition is pretty convincing. I am glad that my relationship with God is not founded in a full understanding of the killing of the Canaanites. I don’t enjoy reading those passages at all.
I’m less open to rejecting the historicity of the Old Testament passages. I would prefer that they not be accurate but I’m not currently prepared to reject their historicity. So I am not prepared to embrace the concept of providential errancy.
Having said that, I do not have a better explanation. How does the God of Jesus Christ command the death of men, women and children? I have read the defences and my moral intuition still has a problem.
I’m thankful for Randal Rauser and his book Jesus Loves Canaanites. It forces us to think about these hard questions. Not everyone is going to agree with his answers but we should all be asking the same questions.
Watch my interview with Randal Rauser, the author of Jesus Loves Canaanites.
Job’s trust in his own moral intuition caused him to lash out against God. Was Job right to do so? Are atheists right when they say, based on moral intuition, that a good God would not create a world of persistent evil and thus there is no God? Are God’s ways no longer higher than our ways, such that we cannot trust what He has done unless it fits our own sensibilities?
I enjoyed reading your comments, Stephen. I generally agree with your take-away especially the notion that we can’t fully understand God’s ways.
A couple of years ago I attended a talk by an author that has spent a lifetime in study (including Bible studies will University coworker, C.S. Lewis), and has written a number of books himself. Some of us approached him after the talk to express thanks, ask brief questions, etc. At the time I was one of many in a church community that were grappling with some biblical passages about God’s foreknowledge that seemed to be conflicting. When it was my turn to address the speaker I described the conflicting ideologies and asked to know his thoughts. He answered, without hesitation, in four words: “God is a paradox”. I found that answer to be sufficient. Two or more ideas that cannot be true in our world may not have the same limitations for God.
Scientists agree that from the spaces of the universes to the depths of the ocean… the design and functions of the human brain remains the least understood thing. If we can’t understand the complexity of an organ that can be held and studied. Why do we continue to think that we can understand it’s creator.
Thanks for sharing your insightful thoughts on this book.
These same questions of God are asked in the stories of Noah’s flood and Sodom’s destruction in Genesis. I take on these and other hard questions surrounding the goodness of God in my book, “God the Father Revealed: Understanding and Knowing Him Changes Everything”. We are good at “discrediting God’s justice, and condemning Him to justify ourselves” (Job 40:8) without ever taking a moment to see things from His point of view, to understand God’s position. How can we draw close to God if we are not willing to try to understand Him?
I am happy to send a free copy of my book to you Stephen or anyone who will read it and write a review. Just send me your mailing address and request a copy