The Genocide of Inerrancy: A Personal Encounter

Depression lurks like a roaring lion….seeking whom it may devour.  My medicine ran out at the beginning of the week.  It would be a few days before I could refill it. I was vulnerable.  Then, the phone started ringing.  Four deaths.  I knew them all…some more than others…but…I knew them all.  It wasn’t long before I…

In the midst of it all, an old friend called.  When I told him what was going on, he encouraged me to cling to the inerrancy of scripture.  I don’t know that I’ve ever received more fucked up advice.  I’m supposed to find hope in this…

CLEAR:

Deuteronomy 7:1-2

King James Version (KJV)

When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them…

CLEARER:

Deuteronomy 7:1-2

New International Version (NIV)

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possessand drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites,Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

CLEAREST:

Deuteronomy 7:1-2

The Message (MSG)

When God, your God, brings you into the country that you are about to enter and take over, he will clear out the superpowers that were there before you: the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Those seven nations are all bigger and stronger than you are. God, your God, will turn them over to you and you will conquer them. You must completely destroy them, offering them up as a holy destruction to God. Don’t make a treaty with them. Don’t let them off in any way.

The only thing that is found in inerrancy is a God of genocide.  How could anyone find hope in such lunacy?  It’s like my old friend was trying to take life from me…not give it.  Maybe he was…

+Regardless, I’m doing better.

Amen.