How Can a God of Love Use Violence?

Abstract

Violence in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, is a stumbling block to many. People expect to find words of love, light and life, but not the language of violence. Nevertheless, just a few pages after the beginning, it does come to revolution, manslaughter, vengeance and a destructive flood and this continues right to the end of the Bible. This raises questions to many people, ‘Shouldn’t the Bible be a book that points to a different world, the world of shalom (peace),instead of the world of hamas (the Hebrew word for ‘violence’)?’ However, the Bible testifies in order to come to a world of shalom, God sometimes, in this broken world of hamas, has to make use of violence: counter- violence to curb the evil, to punish and to cast it out. God’s violence stands in a broader frame:his violence serves the restoration of justice and peace. Deeply anchored in the Bible is the confession of the compassionate God who is love, and who therefore can rise so ardently to anger. Both sides of this basic confession －God’s holy love and Gods holy wrath－ dominate history.