Is God Immoral for Killing the Canaanites?
by Terry Wane Benton
Judge of All the Earth
God is the Judge of all the earth. He does not kill anyone arbitrarily, and when He does take a life out of this world (Genesis 15:16), it is always just and right. If God commanded the killing of the Canaanites, any of them, then it was divine justice, never murder. When a government judicial system sentences a man to death, that is not murder and evil on their part, but justice toward a criminal (Genesis 9:6).
The atheist wants to flip everything on its head and have us think that God is on the same standard as we are. But, if atheism is true, what is the standard that he uses? Does each person get to make up their own standard? If everyone has the right to make up their own standard, then there is no real standard. In that case, the standard Hitler chose was as good as any, but if there is a standard that trumps all human standards, then there is reason to hold his view accountable to that higher measure of justice. The atheist cannot legitimately say that Hitler was wrong and evil, as he thought Jews were evil and needed to be exterminated. His standard was like that of the atheist. He got it from his own thoughts, but he did not have the highest standard. That standard has to come from somewhere outside ourselves and above ourselves. Ultimately, it has to be an impartial standard, one not invented by the human conscience, and the atheist and Hitler cannot identify it when God is denied.
Why would it be wrong for God, the giver of life, to take back the lives of people? Was He obligated to create my life? If not, is He obligated to keep my life from slipping away? No! The atheist would need to show us the divine rules for God to lawfully give and take back life.
Since he can’t show us the rules for God, he has no business pretending special knowledge of what God should and should not do. Do some people deserve to live and others don’t? Here is another question to ask the atheist. Why complain that God doesn’t stop evil, but then complain when He does? Didn’t He sometimes stop evil by killing certain people? Why complain when He stops evil? How would you know if God was stopping a worse evil by stopping the evil Canaanite? The Canaanites were evil and had built up a level of iniquity that was ripe for execution. Israel did not arbitrarily make that decision. They got their marching orders from God.
There were times when, because of evil in Israel, God gave marching orders against Israel. So, God was not arbitrary. Sometimes He used Israel against evil cities and nations, and sometimes He used other nations against Israel. So, the target was always evil, and justice was the reason.
God Owns Life
Since God owns life and gives it, does He not have the right to end it? If He gives it —and you don’t own all lives, but He does —then doesn't He get to decide when to end them? With God, He is just changing people's locations. With us, we are murdering, doing something we have no right to do, and are in no position to judge clearly. God sees the big picture —the whole picture —and knows what needs to be done and when. So, we cannot use our limited judgment to judge His all-seeing judgment. If God saw the need to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, it was a matter of Holy Justice, not arbitrary murder.
But what about the babies and young children? Again, with God, it is a matter of changing their location from an evil environment and a bad ending to a better location and a good ending. God will give the rewards that are due since He sees all. Preventive measures to the spread of evil are involved, and God knows what He is preventing and when something has reached an irreversible point of iniquity. We are not nearly in such a position of judgment.
Since we don’t have the capacity to judge what God is preventing by the death of babies dying before wicked parents ruin them, then this question is too far beyond our knowledge and judgment curve to judge. We can’t judge what God is allowing or preventing, but we know that there is no evil in God Himself. His plans are always right and good. We may not always understand what He allows or prevents or why, but we can be sure that evil is in the heart of the accuser of God rather than in God. There are times we need to confess like Job, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3). We need to “lay my hand over my mouth” (Job 40:4).
The atheist has no standard by which to judge God or man. It is totally arbitrary, and the only reason he is trying to charge God with evil is to justify his own rejection of God.
Is God evil to bring judgment down on evil people? Of course not!
