And a call to action
But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
1 Peter 3:15
Defense is Apologia in Greek and is the word from which Apologetics is derived.
I absolutely love apologetics.
In fact, I have been invited to the Podcast The Bible Says What? scheduled to be filmed on December 9th.
The host is an atheist who hosts leaders and believers outside of ministry. He is utterly deluded. As a former evangelical atheist myself, I have a soft spot in my heart for him.
Herein lies the problem and the challenge.
Every believer I have watched on his show has been woefully unprepared for the question he levies on them near the end of the program.
“How could a good God cause innocent babies and kitties and puppys to suffer for the wrong doings of others and still be good?”
He cites the following scriptures in defense of his case against God,
“who disgusts him”.
“Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
1 Samuel 15:3
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” Then Nathan went to his house. And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.”
2 Samuel 12:13–18
At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.
Exodus 12:29
Noah’s flood
Genesis 6–7
Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
Numbers 31:17–18
Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. Give them, O Lor what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.Hosea 9:11–16
So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men. And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”
2 Samuel 24:15–17
The easy answer is God is Sovereign. He does what He does.
The only problem with that is that it doesn’t answer how the verses cited above are not contradictory to concept of an all loving God. It also ignores the “gentleness and respect” aspect of Peter’s exhortation.
The host is genuinely disturbed by verses like those above and by the intellectual dishonesty of many of his guests.
I have some ideas brewing as I seek the Lord in this and develop my own apologia. But I’d love some feedback from my readers.
How would you respond to the claim that either God is a hypocrite. Or the Bible is inaccurate?