When God Commands Death | Can Genocide Be Justified?

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Today Dr. Jacobs takes a look at the challenge of genocide in the Old Testament, particularly the commanded extermination of the Amalekites and Canaanites. We’ll critique divine command theory from a realist metaphysical framework and explores how Eastern patristic theology understood divine providence, justice, and redemption in relation to these narratives. Dr. Jacobs will dig into cultural practices of ancient Near Eastern peoples, the distinction between race-based genocide and practice-based judgment, and how concepts like Christ's descent into Hades inform a coherent theological reading of these difficult passages.

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00:00:00 Intro
00:00:19 Series context & the question
00:05:27 Divine Command Theory is not the answer
00:38:13 A thought experiment about evil
00:41:05 Cultural examples: Game of Thrones & black death
00:47:40 Lord of the Rings & the Orcs
00:51:48 Understanding the Amalekites
00:56:20 What Genocide really means
01:05:40 A horror movie scenario
01:13:02 The story of Saul & Samuel
01:17:34 The story of Jonah
01:26:08 Christ's descent and redemption
01:31:38 Death as gift and mercy
01:35:08 The broader narrative context
01:39:03 Addressing the epistemological worry

Other words for the algorithm…
Old Testament genocide, Amalekites, Canaanite conquest, divine command theory, realism, nominalism, William of Ockham, problem of evil, theodicy, Eastern Orthodox, church fathers, patristics, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, Cyril of Alexandria, C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, natural law, moral philosophy, objective morality, biblical ethics, Old Testament ethics, holy war, just war theory, divine providence, divine goodness, Council of Nicaea, Athanasius, Arius, Arianism, Christian metaphysics, theological realism, Platonic realism, Aristotelian ethics, scholasticism, medieval philosophy, Christian philosophy, ontology, epistemology, metaethics, moral objectivism, privation theory of evil, ancient Near East, Jonah, Nineveh, Saul, Samuel, biblical interpretation, hermeneutics, Christology, descent into Hades, harrowing of hell, redemption, soteriology, theosis, deification, systematic theology, philosophical theology, apologetics, problem of divine hiddenness, Gottfried Leibniz, best of all possible worlds, great chain of being, divine obligations, cosmic narrative, salvation history, messianic prophecy, incarnation, antecedent will, consequent will, religious epistemology, moral epistemology, religious zealotry, witch trials, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, orcs, moral intuition, virtue ethics, Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, biblical archaeology, ancient warfare, child sacrifice, Moloch worship, blood rituals, cannibalism, cultic practices, abomination, repentance, sin, judgment, justice, mercy, spiritual formation, anthropology, theological anthropology, imago dei, human dignity, death and dying, resurrection, eschatology, Orthodox theology, Catholic theology, Protestant theology, patristic theology, Edward Feser, David Bentley Hart, Bishop Robert Barron, Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, Paul VanderKlay, Peter Kreeft, Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, biblical criticism, historical critical method, literary context, narrative theology, Stephen De Young, The Whole Counsel of God, Father De Young, Lord of Spirits podcast, ancient faith, Orthodox Christianity, Byzantine theology, Nicene Christianity