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

Did God condone genocide in the Old Testament? How do Christians harmonize the warrior God of Israel with the God of love incarnate in Jesus?

Christians are often shocked to read that Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, commanded the total destruction--all men, women, and children--of the ethnic group known as the Canaanites.

This seems to contradict Jesus' command in the New Testament to love your enemies and do good to all people. How can Yahweh be the same God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? What does genocide in the Bible have to do with the politics of the 21st century?

Show Them No Mercy explores the Old Testament command of God to exterminate the Canaanite population and what that implies about continuity between the Old and New Testaments. The four views presented are:

• Strong Discontinuity – emphasizes the strong tension, regarding violence, between the two main texts of the Bible (C.S. Cowles)
• Moderate Discontinuity – provides a justification of God’s actions in the Old Testament with strong emphasis on exegesis (Eugene H. Merrill)
• Eschatological Continuity – a reading of the warfare narratives that ties them contextually to the book of Revelation and the Second Coming (Daniel L. Gard)
• Spiritual Continuity – incorporates the genocidal account into the full picture of the Old and New Testaments (Tremper Longman III)

The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.

Stanley N. Gundry (PhD, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) is an author, editor, and theologian with graduate degrees in historical theology. After serving in pastoral ministry, he taught as an adjunct professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and as Professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute, where he taught for eleven years. He was a founding board member of Christians for Biblical Equality, serving two terms and later receiving the organization’s Priscilla and Aquila Award along with his wife. He is also a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society. Gundry is the author or coauthor of seven books and has contributed numerous articles to a wide range of publications. Beyond theological circles, he is known for his writings on the restoration of the Studebaker Avanti automobile. He and his wife, Patricia, have four grown children. In recognition of his more than forty years of influence in Christian publishing, he received the ECPA Kenneth N. Taylor Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.

Daniel L. Gard (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is dean of graduate studies and associate professor of exegetical theology at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Eugene H. Merrill (PhD, Columbia University) is distinguished professor of Old Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.

C. S. Cowles (STD, University of San Francisco Theological Seminary) is professor of Bible and theology at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California.

Tremper Longman III (PhD, Yale University) is a distinguished scholar and Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He is on the advisory council of the BioLogos Foundation, and is the Old Testament editor for the revised Expositor's Bible Commentary and general editor for the Story of God Bible Commentary Old Testament, and has authored many articles and books on the Psalms and other Old Testament books.