How can anyone believe God authorized genocide?

by Robert Riggs
(San Diego CA)

Rick Brentlinger Answers -

Thanks for such an interesting question. My answer is that God did not authorize genocide. Genocide is a recent word coined to describe the horrors of Nazi policy mainly against Jews but also against Christians, gays and gypsies during World War II. Genocide describes human conduct, not God's righteous judgment on sin.

To accuse God of genocide, we must ignore clear statements of scripture where God declares His love for the human beings He created. Bible verses alleged to speak of God committing genocide in reality record God's judgment on sin, not genocide.

According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia:

"The term "genocide" did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. Human rights, as laid out in the U.S. Bill of Rights or the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concern the rights of individuals.

In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder, including the destruction of the European Jews. He formed the word "genocide" by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing.

God gets no pleasure
when lost people die

“For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” -Ezekiel 18:32, 23

God is good to everyone
including the unsaved

“The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” Psalm 145:8-9

“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:45

“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” Deu 32:4

God wants everyone to
hear the gospel and be saved

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:22. This includes the heathen everywhere.

“The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” Isaiah 52:10

“Ge ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” Matthew 28:19

“And he said unto them, Ge ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15

Here is a longer answer to
the question of God and genocide.

Here is a helpful answer about how God deals with folks who've never heard the gospel, sometimes called the heathen.