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The Violence and Hospitality of God

Recently a friend registered her shock at the extent of violence in the Old Testament. Her dismay was not so much at the violence of the ‘ungodly’ but the violence of the ‘godly’. In fact, what shocked her most was God’s violence.

Her reaction is not unusual. It articulates a disquiet that Christians increasingly feel and voice. We must be frank and lay the blame for this unease squarely at the door of church leaders. Violence is frequent and graphic in the Bible yet congregations seem largely unaware of it. It is evidently missing from our preaching. Few, I think, will dispute this. The contemporary evangelical gospel stresses God’s love, forgiveness and acceptance. It is almost exclusively about hospitality, about inclusion. Hospitality , of course, is central to the gospel. Parables like the Prodigal Son (Lk 15) and the King’s Banquet (Matt 22) make this clear. However, the hospitable, inclusive gospel is by no means the whole gospel and when it is presented as if it were, becomes dishonest, dangerous, and ultimately idolatrous, for it seriously misrepresents both God and the gospel.

So, why the misrepresentation? Why the contemporary silence about gospel violence?

As my friend observed, violence, expressed in destruction and exclusion , is integral to the Bible story. In the hospitality story of the prodigal son, the hostile elder brother remains ‘outside’ (Lk 15:28). In the story of the banquet, the King’s anger is aroused and at his instruction, some are ‘destroyed’ and others ‘thrown into outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth’ (Matt 22:7,13). In fact, violence lies at the heart of both the OT and the NT’s greatest display of hospitality; the two central meals of God’s people, the Passover and Lord’s Supper, both celebrate violent death. In a word, the Biblical story of divine hospitality sits unambiguously in a context of violence; signifying, as we shall see, divine hospitality in a violent world is only possible on the basis of divine violence. Remove violence from the gospel and there is little gospel left.

Nevertheless, biblical violence profoundly embarrasses modern Christians. This is why it is absent from the preacher’s vocabulary. Its absence is not an oversight but deliberate obliteration. Scholars who carry an evangelical label are hard at work rewriting the Biblical narrative to evacuate it of violence . God, they insist, is not violent. Wrath, if it exists, is simply an impersonal karma of the universe. The cross is a place of unconditional love not violence. There may be human and demonic violence at the cross but not divine violence. God is not punishing his Son – that is inconceivable sadomasochism, ‘cosmic child abuse ’ that ‘fuels pathological deviance’. Hell, that medieval final dungeon of destruction and exclusion, in all probability does not exist. It is a bogeyman to protect us from danger (though one may protest that the lie of the bogeyman is surely psychological violence).

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About John

Hi there - I am a member of Greenview and have been for over 20 years. For a number of these years I functioned as an elder, however, indifferent health forced me to take more of a back seat. I see this as an opportunity to do a little writing, often focussing on issues that are a matter of evangelical debate today. Naturally the views expressed are my own and may not reflect the views of the elders or church at large, though differences are likely to be in the detail and not the substance.

These articles and sermons were written partly to clarify my own thoughts and partly with the intention of provoking thought in others who may read them. If you read one I hope you find it stimulating. Please feel free to give me feedback or discuss my articles in the forums.

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