• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FairMormon

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Come, Follow Me Resources

  • Find Answers
  • Blog
  • Media & Apps
  • Conference
  • Bookstore
  • Archive
  • About
  • Get Involved
  • Search

Is God a Moral Monster?

July 28, 2012 by Daniel C. Peterson

Many people — seekers, believing Christians, even some Latter-day Saints — have problems with the portrayal of God in the Old Testament.

Probably even more people just have problems with the Old Testament itself, because they find it hard to follow.  This is, I think, very unfortunate, both because the Old Testament is at the foundation of all Judeo-Christian faith and because, among other things, it’s a rich treasure house of history, moral lessons, inspirational stories, and literature.  But that’s a topic for another day.

They’re bothered because, sometimes, the Old Testament God seems to be arrogant, petty, “jealous,” harsh, and violent.  The Old Testament seems to tolerate or even endorse slavery, the oppression of women, and mass murder (effectively, ethnic cleansing).

The problem is that, for Christian believers (unless, perhaps, they follow the ancient heretic Marcion), the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New.  How can the loving Jesus be reconciled with the often vengeful and fierce Jehovah?  (For Latter-day Saints, Jesus is Jehovah.)

This is a big and serious topic, much beyond the scope of a simple blog post.  I will say, though, that I believe the contrast to be seriously overdrawn.  There is a great deal of love and mercy in the Old Testament.  And, frankly, the Jesus who carefully braids a whip to drive the moneychangers from his Father’s house isn’t quite the proto-Gandhi or flower child that some portray.

I can’t resolve all concerns here — and, probably, not anywhere.  But I do want to recommend a book that might help.

Paul Copan is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, and a prominent Evangelical apologist.  (I know him slightly, having participated, with him, in a formal Mormon-Evangelical debate a number of years ago during an academic conference in Denver.  He is a bright and decent man.)

Last year, he published Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 2011).

In twenty chapters bearing such titles as “The Bible’s Ubiquitous Weirdness? Kosher Foods, Kooky Laws?” and “Child Abuse and Bullying? God’s Ways and the Binding of Isaac,” and “Misogynistic? Women in Israel,” and “Indiscriminate Massacre and Ethnic Cleansing? The Killing of the Canaanites,” Dr. Copan forthrightly addresses the most troubling stories and passages in the Old Testament, comparing them with their ancient Near Eastern environment and subjecting them to careful analysis.

Professor Copan has plainly been driven to defend the biblical texts against attacks from such “new atheists” as Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens.  His first two chapters, “Who Are the New Atheists?” and “The New Atheists and the Old Testament God,” make this explicit, and a later chapter, “The Root of All Evil? Does Religion Cause Violence?” takes on one of their principal accusations.

Is God a Moral Monster? probably contains quite a bit more in-depth analysis than most readers will care to follow.  But those who have been seriously bothered by elements of the Old Testament’s depiction of God will, I think, find it helpful at many points.  Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals differ substantially on a number of theological issues and Latter-day Saints aren’t biblical inerrantists, but we tend to take a high view of the historicity of the Bible, including the pre-Christian part, and there is little if anything in Professor Copan’s analysis and argument that will pose any difficulties for the typical Latter-day Saint.

Filed Under: Apologetics, Book reviews

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Is God a Moral Monster? | FAIR Blog | Christian Dailys says:
    July 28, 2012 at 2:48 pm

    […] ancient Near Eastern environment and subjecting them to careful analysis. … View post: Is God a Moral Monster? | FAIR Blog ← I LOOK to YOU (With Inspirational Bible […]

  2. 29 July 2012 | MormonVoices says:
    July 30, 2012 at 6:02 am

    […] http://www.fairblog.org/2012/07/28/is-god-a-moral-monster/ […]

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Blog

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


RSS-Icon RSS Feed (all posts)

Subscribe to Podcast

Podcast icon
Subscribe to podcast in iTunes
Subscribe to podcast elsewhere
Listen with FairMormon app
Android app on Google Play

Pages

  • Blog Guidelines

FairMormon Latest

  • Come Follow Me Week 4: Doctrine and Covenants 3–5
  • Come Follow Me Week Three: The Turning of Hearts
  • Joseph Smith’s First Vision
  • Willing to Be Weak
  • FairMormon Finances

Blog Categories

Recent Comments

  • Shanon Edwards on Come Follow Me Week 4: Doctrine and Covenants 3–5
  • Hogarth on Come Follow Me Week 4: Doctrine and Covenants 3–5
  • Dennis Horne on Come Follow Me Week 4: Doctrine and Covenants 3–5
  • Neal Smith on FAIR Voice Podcast #25: Interview with Blake Ostler
  • Debbi Rollo on Joseph Smith’s First Vision

Archives

Footer

FairMormon Logo

FairMormon is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our Friends

  • Book of Mormon Central
  • BYU Religious Studies Center
  • BYU Studies
  • Interpreter Foundation
  • LDS Perspectives Podcast
  • Pearl of Great Price Central

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • iTunes
  • YouTube

Donate to FairMormon

We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.

Donate Now

Donate to us by shopping at Amazon at no extra cost to you. Learn how →

Site Footer

Copyright © 1997-2021 by The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No portion of this site may be reproduced without the express written consent of The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc.

Any opinions expressed, implied, or included in or with the goods and services offered by FairMormon are solely those of FairMormon and not those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) Logo

FairMormon™ is controlled and operated by the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR)