The Old Testament Case for Nonviolence

Addressing Christians who struggle with reconciling Old Testament images of a violent God with New Testament images of a peaceful Jesus, Fleischer, an attorney, argues that God engages in “incremental ethical revelation,” gradually revealing Christianity’s nonviolent moral standard. Beginning with a comprehensive listing of Old Testament accounts of God committing or ordering Israel to commit violence, Fleischer acknowledges that humans throughout millennia have used these stories to justify slavery, apartheid, slaughter of indigenous peoples, and other atrocities. Fleischer claims that Israel’s Mosaic Law, compared to contemporaneous ancient Near Eastern religions, offered significant moral advancement in warfare policy, treatment of the disadvantaged, and management of bloodlust. Arguing that God’s “introductory moral lessons” included teaching obedience and trust in God rather than military might and temporarily sanctioning limited violence while leading people from retribution to restorative justice, Fleischer contends that God’s “end goal” was always the revelation of the “universally applicable moral code” of nonviolence and enemy love preached by Jesus. In a section entitled “Maybe God Didn’t Do It,” Fleischer suggests that human misinterpretation may be responsible for the violent portrayal of God. While some biblical scholars may quarrel with Fleischer’s argument for chronological divine revelation, Fleischer makes a strong argument for a Christian embrace of nonviolence based on both testaments. (BookLife)