This post is being written (and sermon to be preached) one week following the death former atheist Anthony Flew.  Flew was raised in a Christian home (son of a preacher) and educated at Oxford.  While in his teen years, he began to question the validity of a God who was all-loving and all-powerful.  If God was, and is, both, then how can there be evil in the world?  If He is truly good and truly powerful, then evil should not be able to exist.  But, he disclosed, since there is great evil in this world, then God cannot be.  Thus, Flew became an atheist.  It is interesting that he pondered the existence of evil and the issue of God’s actions in specific (mainly OT texts) passages.  For instance, how can a loving God, who is sovereign, destroy all of the people in the city of Jericho?  How can a loving and gracious God tell His people to destroy the people of Canaan?  Certainly we can see the complexity of the issue for someone like Flew.  God’s actions force questions that are difficult to answer.

Now, on the other side of the table from the atheists such as Flew, you have the “In Church his whole life Christian.”  This person is the one who grew up in the nursery of the church, was in the Awana program, a member of the youth group, and then went on to become involved in the BSU on his college campus.  He is the one who looks at the passage of Joshua 6 and remembers singing and dancing to the song, “Joshua and that Battle of Jericho….and the walls came tumbling down (all of the kids falls down giggling and laughing here)!”  This person, while blessed to be raised in a Chr home, also  has a major problem!  He looks at the walls tumbling down and praises the Lord for His power and might (which is right to do!)…but he fails to see and to  comprehend what Flew saw.  The in-the-church-his-whole-life (or just poorly taught) Christian sees the walls falling down, but he fails to see (and feel) the absolute anguish of verse 21, “They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.”  They fail to see that the Israelite army had to rush into the city, take a sword, a kill, not just the men, but the women and the children as well.  Everything in the city was devoted to the ban (cherem).

And when someone teaches this type of Christian that God is more than a flower-in-the-ear-hippie who blows kisses to and shouts, “I love you” to all people, then a crisis of monumental proportions is in order.  What are the options available to the poorly taught Christian?  It’s time that we, as maturing Christians, allow the God of the universe to speak for Himself in these matters.  Yes, God is love, and He does love HIS PEOPLE.  In another aspect, He does love all of His creation, even those who are His enemies.  But they will not get away with being enemies of God Almighty!  He will crush them!  To His people, He gives life, but to His enemies, He brings swift and terrible judgment!  Both realities are true!

Now you are ready to read this text again.  See both sides of the falling wall…see both the bitterness and the sweetness of the application of the gospel.  To those who are His, life.  TO those who are not His (His enemies), terrible judgment.

These paragraphs are the introduction to my sermon on this passage.  TO see the rest of my toughts (from my May 1, 2010 sermon), then click on Part II of JOshua 6 “The Bitter and Sweet Application of the Gospel in Type and Shadow” where we will exam how this battle is a foretaste of Armageddon in Revelation 8-11.

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