I’ll be frank. This is not a blog that will be easy for some people to read. But it’s a blog I believe every follower of Jesus should read – even if you have to force yourself to press on. It’s about something we all wish was not true. It’s about the way the Bible has throughout history been used to justify and motivate violence – in Jesus name.

Jesus made the same point when he dared to say that “no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him”. Here again I have to suspect that Jesus is using a bit of hyperbole, for “no one” clearly covers everyone in the Old Testament, yet Jesus clearly believed that those who were inspired by God to write the Old Testament knew some things about God. But compared to the way Jesus knows God and reveals God, it’s as though folks in the Old Testament knew nothing.

While most of the Bible exhibits a “God-breathed” quality, reflecting a magnificently beautiful God that is consistent with God’s definitive revelation on the cross, we must honestly acknowledge that some depictions of God in Scripture are simply horrific. They are included in what is sometimes called “the dark side of the Bible.”

The forthcoming Crucifixion of the Warrior God has generated a good deal of interest, for the problem of divine violence in the OT is something that a large number of people are wrestling with today. It is especially problematic for followers of Jesus who embrace Jesus’ example of laying down his life for his enemies as something we are to imitate and who take seriously his unqualified teachings on loving enemies and swearing off all violence.

Even more importantly, this passive aspect of God’s “breathing” is confirmed in the fact that Scripture incorporates the questions, confessions, and even mistaken perspectives of the human authors. When the grief-stricken Job exclaims that God “mocks at the calamity of the innocent” and “covers the eyes of judges” so they rule unjustly, for example, it’s evident that God is allowing Job’s mistaken theological perspective to condition his “breathing”.