Does God command genocide? How should Christians deal with the
disturbing Old Testament passages that speak of divine violence,
destruction, or harsh punishments? In this episode, we talk with
Dr. Paul Copan, leading Christian philosopher, apologist, and
author of Is God a Moral Monster? and Is God a Vindictive Bully?.
Together we explore how context, hyperbole, and ancient Near
Eastern war language reshape our understanding of these
texts.
Copan argues that what often appears as moral scandal becomes
intelligible when read through its historical, cultural, and
literary lens. We discuss how justice, mercy, and divine love
coexist—even in difficult scriptures—and what both Christians and
skeptics often miss in these debates.
A candid and intellectually rich conversation about the God of
judgment and the God of love — and why both are
inseparable.
Keywords: Old Testament ethics, divine violence, genocide,
Canaanites, Amalekites, Deuteronomy, Book of Joshua, hyperbole,
war rhetoric, ancient Near Eastern context, moral objections to
God, divine justice, holiness of God, wrath and love, biblical
interpretation, hermeneutics, contextualization, exegesis, moral
theology, capital punishment, covenant, divine patience,
judgment, mercy, apologetics, atheism, faith and reason, moral
coherence, ethical challenge, theology of the Old Testament,
God’s character, historical context, literary genre, Scripture
interpretation, Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster?, Is God a
Vindictive Bully?, Clay Jones, Miroslav Volf, C.S. Lewis, N.T.
Wright, biblical realism, narrative theology, coherence of
Scripture, moral skepticism, biblical literacy, Christian
apologetics, difficult Bible passages, faith and doubt.
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