1. Three channels broadcast the value of a person God’s word tells the value of a human life. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Matthew 16:26, NIV God’s word tells the value of a human life. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Matthew 16:26, NIV

2. Three channels broadcast the value of a person God’s image tells the value of a human life. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. James 3:9,10, NIV God’s image tells the value of a human life. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. James 3:9,10, NIV

3. Three channels broadcast the value of a person God’s ransom tells the value of a human life. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 1 Peter 1:18,19, NIV God’s ransom tells the value of a human life. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 1 Peter 1:18,19, NIV

4. Three channels broadcast the value of a person But if God sees people as so valuable why does he order the wholesale slaughter of the nations of Canaan?

5. Richard Dawkins 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. Richard, please tell us what you really think! 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. Richard, please tell us what you really think!

6. Is God a war criminal? Genocide & the Sanctity of Human Life (SOHL) Genocide & the Sanctity of Human Life (SOHL)

7. Understanding body counts and trash talk in the ANE ANE = Ancient Near East (Israel and its neighbors in the Bronze Age) Don’t over-react to Old Testament statements. –Genocide = an on-going effort to exterminate a whole race. Accurate? So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded. Joshua 10:40 ANE = Ancient Near East (Israel and its neighbors in the Bronze Age) Don’t over-react to Old Testament statements. –Genocide = an on-going effort to exterminate a whole race. Accurate? So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded. Joshua 10:40

8. Understanding body counts and trash talk in the ANE Don’t over-react to Old Testament statements. –Look at other ancient texts & their “trash talk” Tuthmosis III: “the numerous army of Mitanni was overthrown within the hour, annihilated totally, like those not existent.” (but still two more centuries of fighting them) Moab’s king Mesha: “Israel has utterly perished for always” (yet 100 years later the Assyrians conquer Israel!) Sennacharib; “The solders of Hirimme, dangerous enemies, I cut down with the sword; and not one escaped.” –We say, “Wayne destroyed Centerville Friday night!” Don’t over-react to Old Testament statements. –Look at other ancient texts & their “trash talk” Tuthmosis III: “the numerous army of Mitanni was overthrown within the hour, annihilated totally, like those not existent.” (but still two more centuries of fighting them) Moab’s king Mesha: “Israel has utterly perished for always” (yet 100 years later the Assyrians conquer Israel!) Sennacharib; “The solders of Hirimme, dangerous enemies, I cut down with the sword; and not one escaped.” –We say, “Wayne destroyed Centerville Friday night!”

9. Understanding body counts and trash talk in the ANE Don’t over-react to Old Testament statements. –Figure of speech typically used in ANE battle? Women & children could be mentioned as slaughtered even if none were present! Archaeology of conquered sites suggests these were military garrisons without civilians. Standard ANE boilerplate that says, “we won convincingly.” –Well, do you have a “lock, stock, and barrel” at your house? Do you have a “kit and caboodle?” Don’t over-react to Old Testament statements. –Figure of speech typically used in ANE battle? Women & children could be mentioned as slaughtered even if none were present! Archaeology of conquered sites suggests these were military garrisons without civilians. Standard ANE boilerplate that says, “we won convincingly.” –Well, do you have a “lock, stock, and barrel” at your house? Do you have a “kit and caboodle?”

10. Understanding body counts and trash talk in the ANE Don’t miss other Old Testament information. –Apparently those wiped out races were still around in the OT! Look at 2 Samuel 24:18-21 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”... Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” Look at Psalm 87:4 “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me—Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush— and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’ Don’t miss other Old Testament information. –Apparently those wiped out races were still around in the OT! Look at 2 Samuel 24:18-21 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”... Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” Look at Psalm 87:4 “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me—Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush— and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’

11. Understanding body counts and trash talk in the ANE Don’t misrepresent Old Testament intentions. –A war of conquest aimed at fortress cities. –Not aimed at civilian populations. –Many examples of foreigners welcomed into the nation and religion of Israel. Uriah the Hittite, Ruth the Moabite, Rahab the Amorite Naaman, Queen of Sheba, Nebuchadnezzar, widow of Zarephath Don’t misrepresent Old Testament intentions. –A war of conquest aimed at fortress cities. –Not aimed at civilian populations. –Many examples of foreigners welcomed into the nation and religion of Israel. Uriah the Hittite, Ruth the Moabite, Rahab the Amorite Naaman, Queen of Sheba, Nebuchadnezzar, widow of Zarephath

12. Understanding body counts and trash talk in the ANE Don’t misrepresent Old Testament intentions. –Mosaic Law gave rights to the foreigner living among the nation of Israel. –God’s consistent message to Israel—‘a light to the nations.’ –Abrahamic covenant: ‘all nations blessed through you.’ Don’t misrepresent Old Testament intentions. –Mosaic Law gave rights to the foreigner living among the nation of Israel. –God’s consistent message to Israel—‘a light to the nations.’ –Abrahamic covenant: ‘all nations blessed through you.’

13. Understanding body counts and trash talk in the ANE Don’t ignore this Old Testament problem. –Reduce the number somewhat, limit it to military troops only, but the wholesale destruction of countless people is still ordered in the conquest of the Promise Land. –It may not be genocide, but it remains troubling! Don’t ignore this Old Testament problem. –Reduce the number somewhat, limit it to military troops only, but the wholesale destruction of countless people is still ordered in the conquest of the Promise Land. –It may not be genocide, but it remains troubling!

14. Seeing through the illusion of innocence Follow the descent of mankind in Genesis. The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” –Genesis 6:5-7

15. Seeing through the illusion of innocence Watch the intervention of God to limit evil. –Gen. 2:7, God warns Adam & Eve about sin: “You will surely die.” –Gen. 4:8-10, God confronts Cain, the murderer. –Gen. 6:6,7,11, “every inclination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil all the time;” “the earth was filled with violence.” God sent flood; Noah spared. –Gen. 15 & 20, God warns Pharoah, then Abimelech, about Sarah; they listen to God and are spared. –Gen. 19:4,5, God destroys Sodom & Gomorrah. Watch the intervention of God to limit evil. –Gen. 2:7, God warns Adam & Eve about sin: “You will surely die.” –Gen. 4:8-10, God confronts Cain, the murderer. –Gen. 6:6,7,11, “every inclination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil all the time;” “the earth was filled with violence.” God sent flood; Noah spared. –Gen. 15 & 20, God warns Pharoah, then Abimelech, about Sarah; they listen to God and are spared. –Gen. 19:4,5, God destroys Sodom & Gomorrah.

16. Seeing through the illusion of innocence Understand the way God intervenes to restrain evil. –Gen. 9:5,6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” –The Law of Moses had provisions that differentiated self defense and accidental death from premeditated murder. –God established a justice system that required people to do justice for a murderer. –People are part of God’s efforts to retrain evil. Understand the way God intervenes to restrain evil. –Gen. 9:5,6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” –The Law of Moses had provisions that differentiated self defense and accidental death from premeditated murder. –God established a justice system that required people to do justice for a murderer. –People are part of God’s efforts to retrain evil.

17. Checking God’s character references Does inductive reasoning bring us to God? –Do we figure out what an unseen God is like based on our own interpretation of the things we see? Crow #1 is black; Crow #2 is black; Crow #3 is black; looks like all crows are black (until I see a white & black crow!). “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. --Isaiah 55:8,9

18. Checking God’s character references Does revelation bring us to God? –God has to reveal himself to us for us to know him. The Bible is the major way we get to know God. –However, the people who lynched Jesus were Bible experts. –The deeper issue is our own internal prejudice, something the Bible calls, ‘spiritual blindness.’ –Jesus said, “You must be born again,” a change brought by God’s Spirit. Does revelation bring us to God? –God has to reveal himself to us for us to know him. The Bible is the major way we get to know God. –However, the people who lynched Jesus were Bible experts. –The deeper issue is our own internal prejudice, something the Bible calls, ‘spiritual blindness.’ –Jesus said, “You must be born again,” a change brought by God’s Spirit.

19. Checking God’s character references Only God’s grace bring us to God! In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit- taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. –1 Corinthians 1:11-14, NIV

20. Checking God’s character references “Burn Notice” & boundaries for our questions

21. “If Michael was trying to shoot you you would be dead.”

22. Checking God’s character references “Burn Notice” & boundaries for our questions C.S. Lewis commends this “obstinacy of faith.”... Lewis goes so far as to say that love involves trusting a friend beyond the evidence, even, at time, against the evidence. He reminds us that we should give the benefit of the doubt to a friend, even if the friend may display seemingly puzzling and uncharacteristic behavior. For example, if a trusted friend pledges to meet us somewhere but fails to show up, which of us “would not feel slightly ashamed if, one moment after we had given him up, he arrived with a full explanation of his delay. We should feel that we ought to have known him better.” –cited by Paul Copan

23. Caring about people more than Jesus does? What Jesus taught about human carnage. Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” –Luke 13:1-5

24. Caring about people more than Jesus does? What Jesus did about human carnage. –He spoke to people of different races and backgrounds, working miracles for them, and inviting them to trust him. The Syro-Phoenician widow, the demonized man in Gadara, the Roman centurion, the Samaritan women at the well. He sent his disciples to make disciples of _____ nations. He died for the world—all people of all nations. What Jesus did about human carnage. –He spoke to people of different races and backgrounds, working miracles for them, and inviting them to trust him. The Syro-Phoenician widow, the demonized man in Gadara, the Roman centurion, the Samaritan women at the well. He sent his disciples to make disciples of _____ nations. He died for the world—all people of all nations.

25. Caring about people more than Jesus does? What Jesus has planned for human carnage. –A day of accounting for all who sin, including those committing atrocities. –A new people of God made up of every tribe, every language, every race—none missing! –Swords will be turned into plowshares, and spears turned into pruning hooks. –No more sorrow or death or crying— “See I make all things new.”

26. Caring about people more than Jesus does? What Jesus warned about human carnage. I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” –Luke 13:5-9

27. Caring about people more than Jesus does? But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us. –Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us. –Romans 5:8