It is not unusual for one to receive responses to sermons. In an electronic age, many of our sermons and Bible classes are available on YouTube and other social media sources. With the potential of reaching wide audiences throughout the world, one never knows who might hear the truth and respond to it in a positive manner.

That having been said, some of the responses are not always favorable. Just recently, I offered a sermon on the problem of human suffering that was met with vitriol and anger by one who now identifies as an atheist. Sadly, this person was once a member of the New Testament church and a friend. I have prayed for him several times since this interaction.

The one part of the sermon that was met with the most anger dealt with God telling Saul to “utterly destroy the Amalekites.” From that one statement, several comments mixed with a plethora of expletives were made about God that were not grounded in truth and subsequently blasphemed Jehovah. This person who was at one time polite, respectful, and knew how to make sentences without profanity had lost all politeness and tact. Amazing what atheism does for one’s morals!

This is a standard argument that many atheists attempt to make. That God is the author of genocide regarding His command to remove the inhabitants of the promised land. For one thing, the term genocide implies that people were being killed because of their racial or ethnic background. Genocide is formally defined as “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” This simply is not the case regarding the removal of the Canaanites from the land of promise.

The inhabitants of the land were being killed because of their evil and the influence they invariably had upon the covenant people of God. They had been judged by God for doing detestable things. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 says, "When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.”

Instead of being good moral and righteous in nature, the inhabitants of the land were vile and evil. Moses writes about their depravity when he says in Deuteronomy 12:29-31 "When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.”

Even the Israelites, at various points in their history, would suffer at the hands of the surrounding pagan nations in a similar manner for their own idolatry and for offering their children to pagan gods—no person regardless of their race or ethnic background was above the righteous judgment of God. Lamentations 2:4b-5 says, “…On the tent of the daughter of Zion, He has poured out His fury like fire. The Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces; He has destroyed her strongholds, And has increased mourning and lamentation In the daughter of Judah.”

Moreover, being “driven” from the land meant more than people being killed in conquest of the promised land. The reputation of the Israelites and the nature of the God they served preceded them into the land of promise, and it invoked fear in the hearts of those who remained in the land. Notice Rahab’s words to the spies who came into the land. Joshua 2:9-11 says, "…I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” The formidable reputation of the army of the Israelites backed by the God of Heaven would have caused many people to leave the land rather than face the power of Jehovah.

Next, the people who were destroyed, or threatened with destruction had ample time to repent, but they were unwilling to do so. Noah preached for one hundred and twenty years before the flood destroyed the earth. Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." The scriptures depict God as “longsuffering” during this time that might have enabled people to repent at Noah’s preaching. 1 Peter 3:20b says, “…When once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.”

The inhabitants of the land had more than enough time to change their sinful behaviors. God would wait more than four centuries before the Israelites would be allowed to inherit the promised land. It appears that God knew about their iniquities long before the conquest of the land. Genesis 15:16 says, “But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." The term “Amorites” was a general term applied to most every inhabitant of the promised land. “However, by the time of Joshua (more than 400 years later), the Canaanites’ iniquity was full, and God used the army of Israel to destroy them.”1

We understand (for the most part) that the judicial system has the right to punish people who do wicked things in violation of the law (Romans 13:1-4). We want evildoers to receive punishment for things like murder, so why do people become upset when the Righteous Judge of all humankind makes a judgement that requires the death of wicked people? Ideally, this is NOT what a loving God wants, but the righteous and holy nature of God requires it. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Finally, atheism is not an answer for the problem of evil. It might answer the problem that many people have with God to deny his existence, but atheists are not among the moral majority that we have seen in our world. Wayne Jackson makes the following observation,

It is truly a thing of wonder that most atheists appear to be unable to foresee the consequences of their arguments. Has it never occurred to our skeptical friends that the administrations of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin—atheists all—were responsible for the slaughter of more than one hundred million souls who would not yield to godless communism?2

Denying the existence of God has caused untold human suffering and pain. Atheism fails to answer the question of suffering—it contributes to it!

1 Lyons, Eric (n.d.). “God’s Just Destruction of the Canaanites, Apologetics Press. https://apologeticspress.org/God’s Just Destruction of the Canaanites - Apologetics Press.
2 Jackson, Wayne (n.d.) “Richard Dawkins: God Hater,” Christian Courier. https://christiancourier.com/.