Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide

Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide. By C. S. Cowles, Eugene Merrill, Daniel L. Gard, and Tremper Longman III. Counterpoints. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003, 218 pp., $16.99 paper.

Much of the "news" in American culture has for a long time been equivalent to "bad news," typically the reporting of violent crimes, including exceptional cases in which the violence was associated with some kind of religious motivation. But with the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and subsequent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, the subject of religion and violence has dominated not only the news media, but to a great extent, the American conscience.

Thus, appearance of the present title is quite timely. Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide is the thirteenth volume in the Counterpoints series. These volumes offer treatments of long-debated issues such as miracles, Law and Gospel, hell, women in ministry, and more. The distinctive approach of these works is that in each one, a number of scholars set forth their own perspective on a given subject, and then each of the other scholars writes a response to each position statement. So not only do readers get a number of well-reasoned views on a given subject, but they also get helpful critiques of each point of view from the other contributors.

This particular volume contains a brief editorial introduction, four chapters reflecting the four views and responses, a scripture index, and a subject index. The book contains no separate bibliography, but citations within the chapters constitute a rich store of both classical and recent resources related to the subject.

Chapter 1, "The case for Radical Discontinuity," was written by C. S. Cowles, professor of Bible and theology at Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA. Cowles sets the tone for his perspective early on with the following statements: "To attribute such atrocities to the actual intention and will of God . . . poses insuperable difficulties for Christian theology, ethics, and praxis" (p. 15). Citing Sept. 11, 2001 as a shocking example of "the way distorted concepts of God are being acted out in the religiously incited violence of our time," he then asserts that "evangelicals no longer have the luxury of defending genocidal 'texts of terror' as reflective of either God's 'moral being' or his 'will and activity.' Nor is there any need to do so" (p. 18). His approach is set forth in a more formal fashion in the following: The way to deal with "conflicting divine commands regarding the treatment of enemies ... is to acknowledge what is everywhere assumed in the New Testament, namely, that while there are vast and vitally important areas of continuity between Israel's faith and that of the church, there are significant instances of radical discontinuity as well, none more so than in reference to divinely initiated and sanctioned violence" (p. 19). Thus, he sets forth a conviction he consistently emphasizes throughout the chapter-the idea that any positive acceptance or endorsement of the OT description of the destruction of the Canaanites as a true reflection of God's character or action is diametrically opposed to the real truth of God as revealed in Jesus. In fact, he eventually declares the idea of such action "can only be described as pre-Christ, sub-Christ, and anti-Christ" (p. 36).

Although Cowles's contribution is passionate and thought-provoking, it is a position few evangelicals will embrace, primarily because of its negative implications for the authority of Scripture, particularly the OT. In addition, his perspective seems to reject any kind of active judgment by God, whether past, present, or future.

Chapter 2, "The case for Moderate Discontinuity," was written by Eugene H. Merrill, Distinguished Professor of Old Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. Merrill sets forth his purpose clearly: "to identify Yahweh war as distinct from war in general, to determine its characteristic features, to attempt to justify it in light of the character of God as a whole, and to determine to what extent such a notion is continuous or discontinuous with the New Testament and applicable to modern life" (p. 65).

Merrill sees Yahweh war as part and parcel of the covenant relationship. God was acting through and with Israel, by means of Yahweh war, to establish and protect his unique people in the land of Canaan (p. 67). Components of that activity included defending the sovereignty of Yahweh against the "imaginary gods of the world" (p. 71), protecting the holiness of Yahweh (p. 81), punishing sinners because of "irremediable hardness" of their hearts, and educating Israel and the nations regarding "the character and intentions of the one true God" (p. 85).

Merrill's contribution is systematic and thorough, influenced by an expected dispensational point of view and producing assured conclusions. However it may seem somewhat sterile to those who believe the subject under consideration raises legitimate moral and ethical questions.