Question: You have criticized Islam's sponsorship of terrorism and have asked..., "What kind of God gives entrance into paradise...for killing innocent [people]?" God commanded destruction of entire populations,...How can you condemn Allah and not Yahweh? | thebereancall.org

Question: You have criticized Islam's sponsorship of terrorism and have asked..., "What kind of God gives entrance into paradise...for killing innocent [people]?" God commanded destruction of entire populations,...How can you condemn Allah and not Yahweh?

TBC Staff

Question: You have criticized Islam's sponsorship of terrorism and have asked the question, "What kind of God gives entrance into paradise and rewards for killing innocent women and children?"

Unbelievers also could say that the God of the Bible commands murder: Deuteronomy:2:34, 13:12-16; Joshua:8:25; 1 Samuel:27:8; Numbers 31. God commanded destruction of entire populations, cultures, and people. How can you condemn Allah and not Yahweh?

Response: Israel was not commanded to take over the entire world and to kill all who resisted (as Allah commanded Muhammad) but was given a specific land because of the extreme evil and demonization of its people. Israel was not commanded to "convert" them, much less with the sword, but to kill them all because God deemed that necessary and just.

All but one of the scriptures you cite involve the land of Canaan, which God promised to Israel but delayed giving to them because the people were not evil enough to justify their destruction: "The iniquity of the Amorites [i.e. Canaanites] is not yet full" (Gn 15:16). Deuteronomy:2:34 pertains to the destruction of the Amorites. God did not arbitrarily wipe out the Canaanites. The nations who occupied Canaan followed gods, goddesses, serpent worship, lewd fertility cults with prostitute priestesses, and nature religions. The evil of all of these religions is unmentionable. God held back their judgment for many centuries and only released Israel from slavery specifically to wipe them out when he could no longer delay their just punishment.

Deuteronomy:13:15 orders the execution of those who had led Israelites into the worship of false gods, all of whom represented demons. Israel could not be allowed to be seduced into the very thing for which the Canaanites were being destroyed. Joshua:8:25 tells of the destruction of Ai, a Canaanite city, as commanded. In

1 Samuel:27:8, David is slaughtering more Canaanites, all of whom were to be killed by Israel, thus executing God's judgment upon them for their wickedness.

The destruction of the Midianites in Numbers 31 is a different case. They were descendants of Abraham by Keturah, whom he married after Sarah's death. They were not Canaanites, nor were the children of Israel given their land. They had sent their young women to seduce Israel's young men, whom they enticed into immorality and the worship of their gods. God executed this severe punishment to teach His people the seriousness of turning from Him to demonic deities.