Perhaps the most perplexing issue facing Christan believers is a series of jarring texts in the Old Testament. After liberating Israel from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites arrived on the edge of the promised land. The book of Deuteronomy records that God then commanded Israel to “destroy totally” the people occupying these regions (the Canaanites); […]
Entries Tagged as 'Hermeneutics'
Contra Mundum: Did God Command Genocide in the Old Testament?
August 1st, 2010 147 Comments
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Canaanites · Contra Mundum · Investigate Magazine · James K. Hoffmeier · K Lawson Younger · Kenneth Kitchen · Old Testament Ethics
Inter-Continental Developments: Matt to Speak in the US
July 9th, 2010 19 Comments
When Matt wrote his blog series Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part I and Part II he had no idea just how far clicking the ‘publish’ button would end up taking him. It turns out that it will be taking him quite far; half-way around the world from Auckland, New Zealand to Atlanta, […]
Tags: Evangelical Philosophical Society · Evangelical Theological Society · Society of Biblical Literature
SBL Annual Meeting: Navigating Old Testament Ethics
July 9th, 2010 2 Comments
Matt has been invited to participate in a panel discussion at the annual Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, which runs 20-23 November 2010. He will join leading Christian academics Paul Copan, Richard Hess and Randal Rauser in a segment entitled “Navigating Old Testament Ethics.” Matt’s contribution to the panel discussion […]
Tags: Apologetics · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Paul Copan · Randal Rauser · Richard Hess · Society of Biblical Literature
EPS Apologetics Conference: God and the Genocide of the Canaanites
July 9th, 2010 9 Comments
Matt has been invited to speak at the annual Evangelical Philosophical Society (EPS) Apologetics Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, USA which runs 18-20 November 2010. He will be speaking alongside some big names in contemporary Christian philosophy including Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig. Experience seasoned teaching by Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, Greg […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Apologetics · Canaanites · Craig Blomberg · Craig Evans · Evangelical Philosophical Society · Frank Beckwith · Gary Habermas · God and Morality · Greg Koukl · Hermeneutics · Mike Licona · Old Testament Ethics · Paul Copan · Randy Newman · War Ethics · William Lane Craig
Wolterstorff, the Canaanites and Hyperbole: A Response to Ken Pulliam
June 29th, 2010 47 Comments
Critics of Christianity often ask how can a good and loving God command the extermination of the Canaanites as is taught the Old Testament? A clear assumption behind this question is that the Old Testament teaches that God did in fact command the extermination of the Canaanites, an assumption which is based on a straight-forward […]
Tags: Canaanites · Divine Command Theory · Genocide · Ken Pulliam · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Old Testament Ethics
Myth, Truth and Genesis 1-11
May 24th, 2010 44 Comments
In Naturalism Defeated, Evan Fales attacks the biblical teaching that man is made in the image of God. One reason he gives is, “How seriously, then, should one take the testimony of Genesis 1:26-27? … There is the generally mythical character of Genesis; many of the themes in the first 11 chapters are borrowed from, […]
Tags: Evan Fales · Genesis · Gordon Wenham · Greg Beale · Hermeneutics · Inerrancy · Peter Enns · Selection
Inerrancy and The Originals: A Response to John FH
April 4th, 2010 3 Comments
John FH of Ancient Hebrew Poetry has written a thoughtful hazing of some of my posts on inerrancy, Inerrancy and Biblical Authority and Two Forms of Inerrancy. The points he raised are issues worth taking up. John’s first concern is that the two conceptions of inerrancy I set out, those of Verbal Plenary Inspiration (VPI) […]
Tags: Ancient Hebrew Poetry · Inerrancy · John FH

A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.




