February 9, 2026 • 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (02/09/26), Hank answers the following questions:
Why would God command the killing of children in the divine judgment carried out by Joshua? J.R. - Oklahoma City, OK (0:53)
What happens to the soul after death? Relatives tell me the soul of the dead can physically interact with the living. Can you help me with this? Greg - Mission, KS (19:30)
Luke mentions two thieves crucified with Christ; one mocked the Lord, but the other defended Him. However, Matthew and Mark state that both mocked Christ. How to resolve this apparent contradiction? Jonathan - Memphis, TN (24:14)
Why would God command the killing of children in the divine judgment carried out by Joshua? J.R. - Oklahoma City, OK (0:53)
What happens to the soul after death? Relatives tell me the soul of the dead can physically interact with the living. Can you help me with this? Greg - Mission, KS (19:30)
Luke mentions two thieves crucified with Christ; one mocked the Lord, but the other defended Him. However, Matthew and Mark state that both mocked Christ. How to resolve this apparent contradiction? Jonathan - Memphis, TN (24:14)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
This is the Bible answer Man Broadcast with Hank Hannagraph.
Hank is president of the Christian Research Institute at CRII.
Our desire is to equip you to not only defend
the historic Christian faith, but become an apprentice of Jesus
Christ because life and truth matter. To learn more or
(00:31):
to find resources to help you grow in grace, call
eight eight eight seven thousand CRII. That's eight eight eight
seven thousand, two seven four, or go to our website
at equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded
and now here's Hank Hanagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thank you very much, Randy. What are you hanging on?
We'll go right to our phone Callors Jr. Up first
listing Oklahoma, Height Jr. Hey, there are doing I'm doing well.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I've had a concern that I'm studying lately. Basically the
concern is I'm a big proponent of the sanctity of life. Yeah,
and uh, it appears to me that in you know, Exodus,
God says, you know, do not murder, but then in Joshua,
God commands the you know, the killing of the Canaanites,
(01:20):
and you know, the Joshua was full of killing men, women,
and children. I understand the judgment part of it on
the aspect of you know, of the adults. But where
my issue is is with the children. As you know,
innocent children. Why would they also have to be have
to be killed as part of God's judgment.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, remember that the aim of God's command was not
the obliteration of the wicked, but the obliteration of wickedness.
And we cannot fully understand all of the consequences of
the sin of the Canaanites. What we know is that
it full measure. God had been patient with them for
(02:02):
a long period of time. What we also know is
that for those who repented, they and their families were spared.
And of course we have the great example with Rayhab.
She was spared along with her family. Why because she
believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel. So the one
principle we have is that God never acts capriciously or
(02:25):
in an unwarranted fashion. We also know that the Canaanites
were sacrificing their sons and daughters in the fire, such
that they would put a baby in the glowing hot
arms of bail or molech and that baby would be incinerated.
So they were taking the lives of innocent human beings,
(02:45):
and therefore they were justly given the sentence of capital punishment,
and the Israelites were used as the rod of judgment
against the Canaanites. God also said that if the Israelites
would start to follow the patterns and the procedures and
(03:06):
the same kinds of abominations that the Canaanites were involved in,
that the land would vomit them out in the same way.
So we know that God knows everything exhaustively. He knows
what would have happened with every one of the children.
We know that God's justice is perfect. It may be
(03:28):
that God allowed these children to die during the acts
of his judgment falling on the Canaanites, because what they
would have experienced otherwise would have been far more grotesque
and gruesome than we can even imagine. Because there are
consequences to the sins of their parents. All we know
(03:49):
for certain is that what happened with the Canaanites was
not genocide. It was capital punishment for people who were
legitimately guilt of capital crimes, including having their little ones
killed and sacrificed in the fire.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Then at the same time and not saying this is
the case, I wouldn't say this is the case at all.
But you could almost make the same argument for something
like abortion, that abortion could be seen as well, God
is saving those you know, those children from something that
could be a worse life. You know, if you find that, well,
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That we can take that position, because if we take
that position, what is the problem we're now judging. We're
making a judgment that we're not qualified to make, you know.
I think what we have to do is protect the innocent,
and in essence, that's what's going on. Even with the
capital punishment that took place with respect to the Canaanites,
(04:46):
the innocence we're being protected. If you think about it,
Rahab and her progeny were being protected by God because
they didn't want to continue in these evil, abominable ways
in which children were being killed, in which all of
society was put on its head.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And then could he take the same stance with capital punishment.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I mean, no, this is a different thing. Capital punishment. Yeah,
I mean that's the distinction. I'm trying to make. Capital
punishment is the killing of someone for a capital crime
when we're talking about the sanctity of life, we're talking
about taking the life of an innocent human being.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah, But what I'm saying is, could you take the
same stance on capital punishment? My problem with UH with
capital punishment is not necessarily the capital punishment and of itself,
but the system by which it's carried out. Do we
as a nation have the right to take somebody's life
or something they've done? Because at that point, you know,
are we are we doing you know, exactly the same
(05:52):
thing that you know that the Israelites did, And where
do we have the right of that person? Then you know,
then repents in the same way that Ahab did. Should
we turn and say, okay, well that person should be saved.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Well, again, my point is is what the Israelites did
was capital punishment. It was not genocide, but capital punishment,
and capital punishment was instituted by God when human civilization began,
and it was never repealed by Jesus, it was never
repealed by the Apostles. It set forth in Exodus twenty one,
(06:24):
it set forth in Deuteronomy nineteen by Moses. And so
the assumption I think on a biblical basis is that
capital punishment appears to be a universal principle never abrogated
in the text of Scripture. So we're not saying that
there's something wrong with capital punishment. We're saying that capital
(06:45):
punishment is commensurate with what happened with respect to the Canaanites.
They were culpable and justly and condignly condemned as a
result of capital crimes.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Then you know, I guess God brought punishment upon the
nation for the sin of I mean to the same thing,
you know, and judgment of Israel. I understand the habbit.
God brought punishment upon, you know, upon the nation.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yes and no, because remember God unequivocally commanded Israel to
treat the aliens living among them with respect and equality,
so not everyone was killed. Foreigners living among the Israelites
were allowed to celebrate Passover, they benefited from an agrarian
system of welfare, they enjoyed full legal protection, and even
(07:34):
descendants of Israel's enemies, the Edomites and the Egyptians were
allowed to enter the Assembly of the Lord. So the
point still remains as a universal principle. Blessings for those
who follow cursings for those who rebel. In fact, God
condemned oppression of aliens in the harshest possible language, cursed
(07:57):
is the man who withholds just from the alien, the fatherless,
or the widow. And that concern for foreigners clearly demonstrates
that mercy was shown to those who, by faith repented
of their idolatry, of their wicked practices, and were thereby
grafted into true Israel. So if you look at what
(08:20):
happened with the Canaanites, it was not one nation against another.
The Israelites, who were involved in the same kind of
wicked practices could receive capital punishment as well. Conversely, the
Canaanites who repented could be spared and could be shown
the mercy of God and could be brought into all
(08:40):
the types and shadows that ultimately would point forward to
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I guess my concern is again the children. I mean,
you can almost say the victims of it would be
the soldiers that had to carry it out. In a way,
more so if the children were being rescued from what
kind of been a worse sacrifice themselves.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
That well, Remember, though nothing happens without God's loving care
and providence. God knows the fate of every single person.
We can't make those judgments for God. But God made
this judgment when he himself established Israel in a land
so that they could be a light to the nations
(09:22):
around them, nations that would have brought all of society
to a screeching halt because of their own idolatry and wickedness.
God's commands to destroy the nations inhabiting the promised land
of Canaan must never be interpreted in isolation from the
immediate context. The command to destroy them totally, therefore, is
(09:46):
contextualized by the words, do not inter marry with them,
for they will turn your sons and daughters away from
following me to serve other gods. This is what you
are to do to them. And then what is he
say say? He says, break down their altar, smashed their
sacred stones, cut down their astisk poles, and burned their
(10:09):
idols in the fire. So again, the aim was the
obliteration of wickedness. And what God did was for the
preservation of humankind, so that children could enjoy the Lord
and worship him in spirit and in truth. So again
there has to be contextualization. There's an article to your
(10:32):
point that ran in the Christian Research Journal, which I
think is extraordinarily helpful.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I went on a quick I saw an article and equipped.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, it's called a response to New Atheism's divine genocide claims.
I think it'd be extraordinarily helpful for you to read
that article. Were right back with one of your questions.
Please don't touch that dial.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
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Broadcast and your host and Canigraph.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Thank you very much. Randy, and I want to say
just a couple more words about this issue that comes
up over and over again on the Bible answer Man
Broadcast with respect of the Canaanites. The Bible is explicit
concerning the sins of the Canaanites idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality,
(15:35):
beast reality. In other words, the idolatry of the Canaanites
was such that they were an offense to God. Not
only that, but their idolatry caused great harm to their community.
(15:57):
The incest was likewise, abominable sex with your mother or
your sister was considered a good omen adultery in the
sense that the Canaanites remade the God of the Bible
in their own image and portrayed him ceremonially as having
(16:21):
sex with two women or goddesses. Child sacrifice Molek was
the Canaanite underworld deity. He was a bullheaded idol with
a human body, and he had outstretched arms, and a
(16:43):
child would be placed in those arms by a parent
and then burned to death. The children as old as
four were sacrificed in the fire in that way, and
as the flame burning the child surrounded the body, the
(17:05):
limbs would shrivel up, the mouth would appear to grin
as if laughing, until it was shrunk enough to slip
into the cauldron or the belly of the idol. Beastiality.
There had to be specific laws against this given in
(17:30):
the Bible because of the perversion that cultures had already
experienced and that would ultimately become the death knell of
the culture. And therefore the Israelites were warned against being Canaanized.
(17:52):
We had to recognize that God knows the end from
the beginning. He knows who will or will not repent.
If he concludes that all the children would have been
similarly corrupted, he is right to institute capital punishment. And
why should we take seriously the outcry when people say,
(18:17):
look at the Canaanites, Because today those who bring this
up as skeptics to the Christian faith are on the
forefront of defending a woman's right to suction, dismember, scold
an unborn baby to death. And we today live in
(18:38):
a society in which we have people like Richard Dawkins
who condemns God and judges God for his commands with
respect to the Canaanites, and yet endorses Princeton atheist Peter Singer,
who's talking about sex across the species barrier and saying
(19:01):
it ceases to be an offense to our status and
dignity as human beings. Look where we have come, and
some in the atheistic community now set themselves up as
judges of God. And so we did a response to
the New Atheism's divine genocide claims in the Christian Research Journal,
(19:25):
and again that article is available to the Ministry of
the Christian Research Institute. Well, let's go back to the
phone lines. Talk to Greg and Mission Kansas.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Hi Greg, Oh, Hank, how are you.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I'm well, thank you.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
That's good. I want to say, first of all, I
appreciate you taking my call, and I appreciate your program,
and i've and I also had the opportunity to meet
you several times when you came to Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Yes, I just want to thank you for your ministry.
My question, I had a quick question. I'll try and
break it down as simple as I can. I was,
this is every to the body and the soul, where
it u when it departs the body, and where it goes.
I kind of got into somewhat an argument with one
(20:08):
of my relatives recently about where the soul goes when
they depart and also and the thing was they were
saying that the uh person, once they had died, they
have the ability to come back and and to do
physical things or in other words, such as ghosts and
things like that. And then I had, like I had
(20:30):
a couple of friends of mine who basically said the
same thing, like they would be in houses that were
haunted by spirits and things. And I tried to explain
to them that and perhaps you you can correct me
if I'm wrong. But I said, well, the you know,
the the souls don't go floating around. And first of all,
they and just like uh Paul said, to be absent
with the body is to be present with the Lord.
(20:51):
Uh I believe that. And also I I I felt
I explained to them that there's only two places and
there's no end betwey. I mean that they either go
to be with the Lord or they go to Hell.
And the fact that even if people wanted to come
back to hear, you know, they couldn't they couldn't do so.
(21:13):
And like I said, the argument with my relative was that,
for instance, once I heard where they were saying, well, like,
for instance, a parent had died and their child was
still here, and they kind of made a statement like, well,
who knows they might come back after him? And I said,
there's no such things that they can't do that. So
can you kind of help me on this, Hank.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, I think you're dead on I think you're explaining
this correctly. First of all, let's say this that, as
I've said before, souls do not have locational qualities. They're
non physical and therefore they don't have extension in space,
so the idea that souls are floating around and traveling
from one house to another house, or haunting a house
and moving from one room to the other simply makes
(21:55):
no sense whatsoever. It's a category mistake to assign locational
qualities to souls. So when you're dead, you're absent from
the body, you're present with the Lord. That's not talking
about location, but relationship with the Lord. And therefore those
souls are not anymore in the time space continuum. They've
(22:17):
transcended that and they are in the presence of the Lord.
They won't have locational qualities again until they're reunited with
the body, and that doesn't happen until Jesus Christ returns.
You're absolutely right to say that the whole notion of
souls floating around is completely mythological and nonsensical.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Thank you. I appreciate the hand. So in the future,
like when I'm confronted with persons who say, well, you know,
for instance, like their relative, or they've been in a
house and where they're seeing things objects move and things
television just turn off, or toys start to move across
the floor and things like that, and you know, I
(22:56):
don't really want to say that they're lying about such
a thing. But at the same time, like like you
were saying, you know, like I just I tell them,
I said, well, you know, I just don't believe that
that's human souls that are doing that. Another thing too,
A couple of these people that were coming to me
with this, they were Christians, and they were saying, this
was happening to their relatives, and like I explained to him,
(23:19):
and one of them actually said, well, I believe they
were saying that it was in the Bible. I said, well,
you know, I said, show me chapter and verse where
people can come back, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
There is no chapter in verse. And we also can
rule out the notion that Satan is doing this because
Satan does not have the ability to move physical objects.
He can tempt you. He can says, as we're on
your shoulder and whisper into your ear, so there's mind
to mind communication, and as a result of that, he
can tempt you to do something. But Satan himself is
(23:52):
not able to bite you or hit you or throw
a toy at you. So we have to get this
straight and not take any votes and develop our theology
on the basis of the anecdotes. But rather do what
you're suggesting, we should do. Test all things in light
of scripture, hold fast to that which is good. The
Bible is the final court of arbitration. Good talking to you, Greg.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Thank thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
You got it back to the phone lines. We'll talk
to Jonathan next. Listening in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Hi, Jonathan, thank you very much for taking my call.
And I have a clarification question what appears to be
a contradiction, and I don't want to go that for
but I would like some clarification from you. And I'm
talking you actually mentioned in the Scripture and Luke where
(24:37):
it talks about the two thieves that were crucified with
Christ and one of them starts berating him, and the
other one says, you know, we're here justly for what
we've done, and this man has done no wrong. But
when you look in Matthew and Mark, it talks about
the two thieves that were crucified with him, and it
(24:58):
said they mocked him. I've looked in different I've looked
in King James and New King James, and all of
them are consistent. I'm just I struggle with that a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah. Well, and I think that is consistently what the
text says. I mean, if you look at Matthew, Matthew
says the thieves plural mark Christ. And if you read Luke,
Luke says one of the thieves who marck Christ asked
Jesus to remember him when Christ comes into his kingdom.
So he went through a conversion process as he watched
what happened to Messiah in his passion on the cross,
(25:32):
he went through a conversion process. So I think a
possible reconciliation is that the thief who rebuked the other
thief for hurling insults at Jesus Christ had himself mocked
Christ prior to his repentance. That repentance takes place, and
as a result of that, Jesus Christ says, today you'll
be with me in Paradise. So that conversion took place
(25:53):
as he watched the passion of the Christ and recognized
that Jesus Christ was in fact who he said he was,
and recognize that Jesus Christ would rise from the dead
as he said he would rise from the dead. And
therefore he put his faith in Jesus Christ. Thanks for
tuning in. We'll see you next time with more of
the show.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
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Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
This is the Bible answer Man Broadcast with Hank Hannagraph.
Hank is president of the Christian Research Institute at CRII.
Our desire is to equip you to not only defend
the historic Christian faith, but become an apprentice of Jesus
Christ because life and truth matter. To learn more or
(00:31):
to find resources to help you grow in grace, call
eight eight eight seven thousand CRII. That's eight eight eight
seven thousand, two seven four, or go to our website
at equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded
and now here's Hank Hanagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thank you very much, Randy. What are you hanging on?
We'll go right to our phone Callors Jr. Up first
listing Oklahoma, Height Jr. Hey, there are doing I'm doing well.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I've had a concern that I'm studying lately. Basically the
concern is I'm a big proponent of the sanctity of life. Yeah,
and uh, it appears to me that in you know, Exodus,
God says, you know, do not murder, but then in Joshua,
God commands the you know, the killing of the Canaanites,
(01:20):
and you know, the Joshua was full of killing men, women,
and children. I understand the judgment part of it on
the aspect of you know, of the adults. But where
my issue is is with the children. As you know,
innocent children. Why would they also have to be have
to be killed as part of God's judgment.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, remember that the aim of God's command was not
the obliteration of the wicked, but the obliteration of wickedness.
And we cannot fully understand all of the consequences of
the sin of the Canaanites. What we know is that
it full measure. God had been patient with them for
(02:02):
a long period of time. What we also know is
that for those who repented, they and their families were spared.
And of course we have the great example with Rayhab.
She was spared along with her family. Why because she
believed in Yahweh, the God of Israel. So the one
principle we have is that God never acts capriciously or
(02:25):
in an unwarranted fashion. We also know that the Canaanites
were sacrificing their sons and daughters in the fire, such
that they would put a baby in the glowing hot
arms of bail or molech and that baby would be incinerated.
So they were taking the lives of innocent human beings,
(02:45):
and therefore they were justly given the sentence of capital punishment,
and the Israelites were used as the rod of judgment
against the Canaanites. God also said that if the Israelites
would start to follow the patterns and the procedures and
(03:06):
the same kinds of abominations that the Canaanites were involved in,
that the land would vomit them out in the same way.
So we know that God knows everything exhaustively. He knows
what would have happened with every one of the children.
We know that God's justice is perfect. It may be
(03:28):
that God allowed these children to die during the acts
of his judgment falling on the Canaanites, because what they
would have experienced otherwise would have been far more grotesque
and gruesome than we can even imagine. Because there are
consequences to the sins of their parents. All we know
(03:49):
for certain is that what happened with the Canaanites was
not genocide. It was capital punishment for people who were
legitimately guilt of capital crimes, including having their little ones
killed and sacrificed in the fire.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Then at the same time and not saying this is
the case, I wouldn't say this is the case at all.
But you could almost make the same argument for something
like abortion, that abortion could be seen as well, God
is saving those you know, those children from something that
could be a worse life. You know, if you find that, well,
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That we can take that position, because if we take
that position, what is the problem we're now judging. We're
making a judgment that we're not qualified to make, you know.
I think what we have to do is protect the innocent,
and in essence, that's what's going on. Even with the
capital punishment that took place with respect to the Canaanites,
(04:46):
the innocence we're being protected. If you think about it,
Rahab and her progeny were being protected by God because
they didn't want to continue in these evil, abominable ways
in which children were being killed, in which all of
society was put on its head.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And then could he take the same stance with capital punishment.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I mean, no, this is a different thing. Capital punishment. Yeah,
I mean that's the distinction. I'm trying to make. Capital
punishment is the killing of someone for a capital crime
when we're talking about the sanctity of life, we're talking
about taking the life of an innocent human being.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah, But what I'm saying is, could you take the
same stance on capital punishment? My problem with UH with
capital punishment is not necessarily the capital punishment and of itself,
but the system by which it's carried out. Do we
as a nation have the right to take somebody's life
or something they've done? Because at that point, you know,
are we are we doing you know, exactly the same
(05:52):
thing that you know that the Israelites did, And where
do we have the right of that person? Then you know,
then repents in the same way that Ahab did. Should
we turn and say, okay, well that person should be saved.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Well, again, my point is is what the Israelites did
was capital punishment. It was not genocide, but capital punishment,
and capital punishment was instituted by God when human civilization began,
and it was never repealed by Jesus, it was never
repealed by the Apostles. It set forth in Exodus twenty one,
(06:24):
it set forth in Deuteronomy nineteen by Moses. And so
the assumption I think on a biblical basis is that
capital punishment appears to be a universal principle never abrogated
in the text of Scripture. So we're not saying that
there's something wrong with capital punishment. We're saying that capital
(06:45):
punishment is commensurate with what happened with respect to the Canaanites.
They were culpable and justly and condignly condemned as a
result of capital crimes.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Then you know, I guess God brought punishment upon the
nation for the sin of I mean to the same thing,
you know, and judgment of Israel. I understand the habbit.
God brought punishment upon, you know, upon the nation.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yes and no, because remember God unequivocally commanded Israel to
treat the aliens living among them with respect and equality,
so not everyone was killed. Foreigners living among the Israelites
were allowed to celebrate Passover, they benefited from an agrarian
system of welfare, they enjoyed full legal protection, and even
(07:34):
descendants of Israel's enemies, the Edomites and the Egyptians were
allowed to enter the Assembly of the Lord. So the
point still remains as a universal principle. Blessings for those
who follow cursings for those who rebel. In fact, God
condemned oppression of aliens in the harshest possible language, cursed
(07:57):
is the man who withholds just from the alien, the fatherless,
or the widow. And that concern for foreigners clearly demonstrates
that mercy was shown to those who, by faith repented
of their idolatry, of their wicked practices, and were thereby
grafted into true Israel. So if you look at what
(08:20):
happened with the Canaanites, it was not one nation against another.
The Israelites, who were involved in the same kind of
wicked practices could receive capital punishment as well. Conversely, the
Canaanites who repented could be spared and could be shown
the mercy of God and could be brought into all
(08:40):
the types and shadows that ultimately would point forward to
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I guess my concern is again the children. I mean,
you can almost say the victims of it would be
the soldiers that had to carry it out. In a way,
more so if the children were being rescued from what
kind of been a worse sacrifice themselves.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
That well, Remember, though nothing happens without God's loving care
and providence. God knows the fate of every single person.
We can't make those judgments for God. But God made
this judgment when he himself established Israel in a land
so that they could be a light to the nations
(09:22):
around them, nations that would have brought all of society
to a screeching halt because of their own idolatry and wickedness.
God's commands to destroy the nations inhabiting the promised land
of Canaan must never be interpreted in isolation from the
immediate context. The command to destroy them totally, therefore, is
(09:46):
contextualized by the words, do not inter marry with them,
for they will turn your sons and daughters away from
following me to serve other gods. This is what you
are to do to them. And then what is he
say say? He says, break down their altar, smashed their
sacred stones, cut down their astisk poles, and burned their
(10:09):
idols in the fire. So again, the aim was the
obliteration of wickedness. And what God did was for the
preservation of humankind, so that children could enjoy the Lord
and worship him in spirit and in truth. So again
there has to be contextualization. There's an article to your
(10:32):
point that ran in the Christian Research Journal, which I
think is extraordinarily helpful.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I went on a quick I saw an article and equipped.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, it's called a response to New Atheism's divine genocide claims.
I think it'd be extraordinarily helpful for you to read
that article. Were right back with one of your questions.
Please don't touch that dial.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
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(14:10):
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(14:55):
EQUIP dot org. Now back to the Bible answer Man
Broadcast and your host and Canigraph.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Thank you very much. Randy, and I want to say
just a couple more words about this issue that comes
up over and over again on the Bible answer Man
Broadcast with respect of the Canaanites. The Bible is explicit
concerning the sins of the Canaanites idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality,
(15:35):
beast reality. In other words, the idolatry of the Canaanites
was such that they were an offense to God. Not
only that, but their idolatry caused great harm to their community.
(15:57):
The incest was likewise, abominable sex with your mother or
your sister was considered a good omen adultery in the
sense that the Canaanites remade the God of the Bible
in their own image and portrayed him ceremonially as having
(16:21):
sex with two women or goddesses. Child sacrifice Molek was
the Canaanite underworld deity. He was a bullheaded idol with
a human body, and he had outstretched arms, and a
(16:43):
child would be placed in those arms by a parent
and then burned to death. The children as old as
four were sacrificed in the fire in that way, and
as the flame burning the child surrounded the body, the
(17:05):
limbs would shrivel up, the mouth would appear to grin
as if laughing, until it was shrunk enough to slip
into the cauldron or the belly of the idol. Beastiality.
There had to be specific laws against this given in
(17:30):
the Bible because of the perversion that cultures had already
experienced and that would ultimately become the death knell of
the culture. And therefore the Israelites were warned against being Canaanized.
(17:52):
We had to recognize that God knows the end from
the beginning. He knows who will or will not repent.
If he concludes that all the children would have been
similarly corrupted, he is right to institute capital punishment. And
why should we take seriously the outcry when people say,
(18:17):
look at the Canaanites, Because today those who bring this
up as skeptics to the Christian faith are on the
forefront of defending a woman's right to suction, dismember, scold
an unborn baby to death. And we today live in
(18:38):
a society in which we have people like Richard Dawkins
who condemns God and judges God for his commands with
respect to the Canaanites, and yet endorses Princeton atheist Peter Singer,
who's talking about sex across the species barrier and saying
(19:01):
it ceases to be an offense to our status and
dignity as human beings. Look where we have come, and
some in the atheistic community now set themselves up as
judges of God. And so we did a response to
the New Atheism's divine genocide claims in the Christian Research Journal,
(19:25):
and again that article is available to the Ministry of
the Christian Research Institute. Well, let's go back to the
phone lines. Talk to Greg and Mission Kansas.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Hi Greg, Oh, Hank, how are you.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I'm well, thank you.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
That's good. I want to say, first of all, I
appreciate you taking my call, and I appreciate your program,
and i've and I also had the opportunity to meet
you several times when you came to Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Yes, I just want to thank you for your ministry.
My question, I had a quick question. I'll try and
break it down as simple as I can. I was,
this is every to the body and the soul, where
it u when it departs the body, and where it goes.
I kind of got into somewhat an argument with one
(20:08):
of my relatives recently about where the soul goes when
they depart and also and the thing was they were
saying that the uh person, once they had died, they
have the ability to come back and and to do
physical things or in other words, such as ghosts and
things like that. And then I had, like I had
(20:30):
a couple of friends of mine who basically said the
same thing, like they would be in houses that were
haunted by spirits and things. And I tried to explain
to them that and perhaps you you can correct me
if I'm wrong. But I said, well, the you know,
the the souls don't go floating around. And first of all,
they and just like uh Paul said, to be absent
with the body is to be present with the Lord.
(20:51):
Uh I believe that. And also I I I felt
I explained to them that there's only two places and
there's no end betwey. I mean that they either go
to be with the Lord or they go to Hell.
And the fact that even if people wanted to come
back to hear, you know, they couldn't they couldn't do so.
(21:13):
And like I said, the argument with my relative was that,
for instance, once I heard where they were saying, well, like,
for instance, a parent had died and their child was
still here, and they kind of made a statement like, well,
who knows they might come back after him? And I said,
there's no such things that they can't do that. So
can you kind of help me on this, Hank.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, I think you're dead on I think you're explaining
this correctly. First of all, let's say this that, as
I've said before, souls do not have locational qualities. They're
non physical and therefore they don't have extension in space,
so the idea that souls are floating around and traveling
from one house to another house, or haunting a house
and moving from one room to the other simply makes
(21:55):
no sense whatsoever. It's a category mistake to assign locational
qualities to souls. So when you're dead, you're absent from
the body, you're present with the Lord. That's not talking
about location, but relationship with the Lord. And therefore those
souls are not anymore in the time space continuum. They've
(22:17):
transcended that and they are in the presence of the Lord.
They won't have locational qualities again until they're reunited with
the body, and that doesn't happen until Jesus Christ returns.
You're absolutely right to say that the whole notion of
souls floating around is completely mythological and nonsensical.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Thank you. I appreciate the hand. So in the future,
like when I'm confronted with persons who say, well, you know,
for instance, like their relative, or they've been in a
house and where they're seeing things objects move and things
television just turn off, or toys start to move across
the floor and things like that, and you know, I
(22:56):
don't really want to say that they're lying about such
a thing. But at the same time, like like you
were saying, you know, like I just I tell them,
I said, well, you know, I just don't believe that
that's human souls that are doing that. Another thing too,
A couple of these people that were coming to me
with this, they were Christians, and they were saying, this
was happening to their relatives, and like I explained to him,
(23:19):
and one of them actually said, well, I believe they
were saying that it was in the Bible. I said, well,
you know, I said, show me chapter and verse where
people can come back, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
There is no chapter in verse. And we also can
rule out the notion that Satan is doing this because
Satan does not have the ability to move physical objects.
He can tempt you. He can says, as we're on
your shoulder and whisper into your ear, so there's mind
to mind communication, and as a result of that, he
can tempt you to do something. But Satan himself is
(23:52):
not able to bite you or hit you or throw
a toy at you. So we have to get this
straight and not take any votes and develop our theology
on the basis of the anecdotes. But rather do what
you're suggesting, we should do. Test all things in light
of scripture, hold fast to that which is good. The
Bible is the final court of arbitration. Good talking to you, Greg.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Thank thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
You got it back to the phone lines. We'll talk
to Jonathan next. Listening in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Hi, Jonathan, thank you very much for taking my call.
And I have a clarification question what appears to be
a contradiction, and I don't want to go that for
but I would like some clarification from you. And I'm
talking you actually mentioned in the Scripture and Luke where
(24:37):
it talks about the two thieves that were crucified with
Christ and one of them starts berating him, and the
other one says, you know, we're here justly for what
we've done, and this man has done no wrong. But
when you look in Matthew and Mark, it talks about
the two thieves that were crucified with him, and it
(24:58):
said they mocked him. I've looked in different I've looked
in King James and New King James, and all of
them are consistent. I'm just I struggle with that a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah. Well, and I think that is consistently what the
text says. I mean, if you look at Matthew, Matthew
says the thieves plural mark Christ. And if you read Luke,
Luke says one of the thieves who marck Christ asked
Jesus to remember him when Christ comes into his kingdom.
So he went through a conversion process as he watched
what happened to Messiah in his passion on the cross,
(25:32):
he went through a conversion process. So I think a
possible reconciliation is that the thief who rebuked the other
thief for hurling insults at Jesus Christ had himself mocked
Christ prior to his repentance. That repentance takes place, and
as a result of that, Jesus Christ says, today you'll
be with me in Paradise. So that conversion took place
(25:53):
as he watched the passion of the Christ and recognized
that Jesus Christ was in fact who he said he was,
and recognize that Jesus Christ would rise from the dead
as he said he would rise from the dead. And
therefore he put his faith in Jesus Christ. Thanks for
tuning in. We'll see you next time with more of
the show.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Thank you for joining us for the Bible answer Man Broadcast.
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(26:37):
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