The Old Testament Case for Nonviolence

Written by Matthew Curtis Fleischer

Narrated by Eric Altheide

“Do not leave alive anything that breathes.” – God

The violence in the Old Testament is one of the biggest obstacles facing Christianity today.

Believers regularly identify it as one of the most confounding and challenging aspects of the entire Bible.

Unbelievers often cite it as one reason why they don’t believe.

A few prominent atheists even use it to publicly demean God’s character. Richard Dawkins claims the God of the Old Testament is “arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

In The Old Testament Case for Nonviolence, Fleischer cuts through the rhetoric and popular misperceptions to provide a compelling, scripturally based, and highly readable case for a good, just, and loving God, one who is not only not bloodthirsty but who actually hates violence.

If you have ever struggled to understand or appreciate what God was doing in the Old Testament, you will love this book. You might even discover a deity who is more beautiful than you have ever imagined.

“In the first six pages of his new book, Matthew Curtis Fleischer describes the problem of divine violence in the Old Testament as well as anyone ever has. In the following 200-plus pages, he offers Christians committed to biblical authority an intelligent and humane way of interpreting those passages, leading humanity from violence to nonviolence in the way of Jesus. Fleischer is an attorney, and he makes his case with clarity that would win over any unbiased jury.” - Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration

• Language: English
• Publisher: Epic Octavius the Triumphant, LLC
• Release date: Jul 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9780999430675

Reviews for The Old Testament Case for Nonviolence

[deusvitae · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The maximalist case for God as a God of nonviolence despite common perceptions of God as violent in the Old Testament.The author does not shy away from the challenge: he attempts to show from the Old Testament that God is fundamentally a God of non-violence. He explores all of the narratives about God to show His general nature of love, care, and provision for His people, and all people. All of the apologetic arguments are brought out over the course of the book: violence authorized by God is limited and constrained; it often is accomplished through peoples and nations in ways that do not involve God's direct action; eventually the author will even cast aspersions on the revelation in the OT, possibly suggesting that Israel as a violent people attributed violence to God in their limited understanding, but is actually not true.Much is made of incremental revelation leading up to Christ, and ultimately to use Jesus as the ultimate expression of the nature of God. Since Jesus is entirely nonviolent in His life, it is reasoned, God must be entirely nonviolent. The work could have used a good editor; the continual use of abbreviations can be disorienting, and the style of writing very conversational. Much is made of quotes, particularly from a host of authors from a nonviolence posture. But the author does do a great job of providing the maximalist position, making the best possible argument from the posture that nonviolence is an essential quality of God.I affirm a pacifist posture in Christ; I would agree that God in the Old Testament is not the bloodthirsty tyrant which many moderns imagine. But I must conclude that the author, in showing the extremity of the argument for nonviolence, shows the limitations of such argumentation. In the end, it cannot fully respect the revelation of God in the Old Testament as is.It is one thing to show that God is loving, loyal to covenant, etc., in the Old Testament; yet, in the inspired text, there is a book referred to called the Book of the Wars of YHWH. Moses and Miriam in song extol YHWH as a "man of war." Even if it is going a bit far to call the Canaan campaign ethnic cleansing or genocide, it wasn't a peaceful move-in, either. The author is entirely too dismissive of protestations against a full nonviolent posture of Jesus. The whip of cords and the sword on the disciples shows that He at least tolerated a show of force, even if He did not engage in the substance thereof. And there is one major thing missing in the narrative: yes, Jesus is entirely nonviolent in His life and death...but it is because He entrusted Himself to God who judges justly (cf. 1 Peter 2:18-25). Jesus Himself spoke of a coming Day of YHWH which would involve violence against Israel, and it came to pass at the hands of the Romans 40 years later. Jesus spoke of judgment of condemnation: I suppose one could argue that the torments of hell are somehow non-violent, but it really does beg a question. In Revelation Jesus is seen slaying His enemies with the sword of His mouth; before that, the whole cycles of judgment feature ways of portraying the condemnation of Rome, and it certainly involved a lot of violence. It's not for nothing that Paul tells Christians in Romans 12 not to take vengeance, but to give space for the wrath of God. And none of this speaks to how Jude says that "the Lord" led a people out of Egypt, directly associating the violent end of the sojourn in Egypt with Jesus as well as the Father. The God of the Old Testament is indeed fully manifest in Jesus: not just Jesus in what He did in His life and death, but also in His Lordship and judgment in His imminent return. And so there is space given for God to enact justice, and the enactment of justice may well involve violence; this is not antithetical to Jesus, even though, and it must be emphasized, it is not given for Christians to enact. It will only be faithfully enacted by God in Christ. Thus this is a great work to show the extreme of an argument, and how the extremity cannot be sustained. I would agree with the author that what passes for Christianity today is far too militaristic and far too much in bed with the nation-states of the world. But we can easily make an idol out of nonviolence, and demand for God to now be made in the image of non-violence, and that is just as much not the true God who has made Himself known as is the bloodthirsty god of the imagination of many. To assert God as completely nonviolent is too easy; it's far harder to confess the substantive reality of what has been revealed in the Old Testament regarding God, and finding ways to live in the tension between our own faithful practice of nonviolence in Christ, and entrusting judgment and vengeance to God who judges justly.

[hjvanderklis_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The image of God in the Old Testament as violent, cruel, condemning is a persistent one. Based on God's instructions to the Hebrews, many wars throughout the ages have been justified, and even today are used to justify the use of arms and wage wars. Christians struggle with the Old Testament picture of God, who in the New Testament turns out to be the heavenly Father of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ in the Beatitudes proclaimed pacifism, is called Prince of Peace and nowhere instructed his followers to take up their arms and bring God's Kingdom to this world by violence. Are we talking about the same God? Did He switch character traits between Malachi and Matthew?Matthew Curtis Fleischer in The Old Testament Case for Nonviolence argues that God didn't change at all, but chose to reveal himself progressively amidst an inert creation and sinful people on Earth. The authors of the Old Testament books didn't fully know God, and could only grasp or long for a better world. Patience and grace are abundant in the Old Testament, and where violence is used, permitted or limited, it was already way less than what surrounding pagan people were used to. The progression is fulfilled in Jesus' ministry on Earth, and the example He set for Christians ever since.Fleischer busts myths and urges his readers to study all Bible books to discover the big picture and get to know the One God who is righteous and loving, the one who actually hates violence.