Whose Side Is God On? - Greg Albrecht

Adapted from Greg Albrecht, Spiritual Soup for the Hungry Soul, Vol. 2.

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”—Joshua 5:13-14

Even the Nazis assumed God was on their side!
Their military belt-buckles bragged, "GOD WITH US"

Have you ever noticed how many individual Christians and incorporated religious institutions assume that God is exclusively on their side? Many seem to think that God is a member-in-good-standing of their denomination. Many seem to assume that God carries the same national passport they do and that he always supports their country in any military altercation. Some even act and talk as if God supports their favorite athletic team and their particular political party.

But if you think about the whole idea of God being polarized and politicized for about three seconds, it really doesn’t make any sense, does it? After all the Bible clearly teaches that God loves all mankind equally. The man in our keynote passage who appeared to Joshua could have been an angel of the Lord, or this incident could have been yet another example of a theophany, an appearance of God himself. Whether it was the Lord or an angel of the Lord is really not all that important—what is important is the message given to Joshua and the context of that message.

CWRlive Event: Brad Jersak interviews Derek Flood on "Disarming Scripture"

A God of love and genocide? For many Christians the problem of violence in Scripture can result in a crisis of faith--especially when we see how such passages have been used throughout history to justify horrific bloodshed in God's name.

Moving beyond typical conservative and liberal approaches, which seek either to defend or whitewash over violence in the Bible, Derek Flood's Disarming Scripture takes a surprising and compelling approach: Learning to read the Bible like Jesus did.

In this inaugural CWRlive event, Brad Jersak, author of 'A More Christlike God,' interviewed Derek Flood in order to explore this creative approach which interprets biblical violence texts through Christlike eyes.