However, Part II at least appears to have much more substance and his efforts much more serious. The Chapters are only 2 with a conclusion and very lengthly. So we will not be able to address a chapter per post but will have to break it down into parts as we progress.
Mr. Paine's first observance in Chapter 1 is a very valid challenge to the Scriptures and deserves an honest Christian response. He does not mix or sweeten words but charges them as the Bible states them. He does not begin lightly but goes to task with the heavest of Theological questions.
"There are matters in that book [the bible], said to be done by the express command of God, that are as shocking to humanity, and to every idea we have of moral justice, as any thing done by Robespierre, by Carrier, by Joseph le Bon, in France, by the English government in the East Indies, or by any other assassin in modern times. When we read in the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, etc., that they (the Israelites) came by stealth upon whole nations of people, who, as the history itself shews, had given them no offence; that they put all those nations to the sword; that they spared neither age nor infancy; that they utterly destroyed men, women and children; that they left not a soul to breathe; expressions that are repeated over and over again in those books, and that too with exulting ferocity; are we sure these things are facts?" - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)
"To charge the commission of things upon the Almighty, which in their own nature, and by every rule of moral justice, are crimes, as all assassination is, and more especially the assassination of infants, is matter of serious concern. The Bible tells us, that those assassinations were done by the express command of God. To believe therefore the Bible to be true, we must unbelieve all our belief in the moral justice of God; for wherein could crying or smiling infants offend? And to read the Bible without horror, we must undo every thing that is tender, sympathising, and benevolent in the heart of man. Speaking for myself, if I had no other evidence that the Bible is fabulous, than the sacrifice I must make to believe it to be true, that alone would be sufficient to determine my choice." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)
I am with Mr. Paine in feeling the human shock when reading this account of judgment upon other nations by the hand of Israel. It is a troubling passage for Christians to explain and most difficult to answer in a satisfactory manner. In whatever manner we attempt to answer this question it must not be out of our emotions, it must be from Scripture alone. Even Mr. Paine later in this discourse states he will seek no other sources other than the Bible to prove its fallacies. Shall we do any less in our defense?
Mr. Paine's first difficulty in understanding this passage is his view of man. He refers to the heart of man as tender, sympathizing, and benevolent while presenting these people upon whom Israel's army slaughtered as innocent individuals. {Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV (9) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (10) “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”} We first must understand these were pagan people steeped in their own religions and practicing all kinds of immoral rituals even sacrificing their own children burning them alive on the pagan altar. In the western world, especially to those living and sheltered in the United States, it is difficult for us to understand the cruelty of which men are capable. We have lived in a society mostly governed by Christian morality. Over the last few hundred years, it has given us a balance, a social understanding of acceptable behavior which most held to and attempted to live by. However, even under this influence man's depravity from time to time would upset that balance and shock us into a moment of reality. Sometimes we are able to camouflage our depravity in such a way we artificially maintain that balance. We do this by legalizing the killing of our children much like the pagan altar and calling it abortion.
The Biblical answer to the passage above is not assassination as Mr. Paine views, but judgment upon a people for the fulness of their sins. It begins in {Genesis 15:13-16 ESV (13) Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. (14) But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. (15) As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. (16) And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”} The context of the passage Mr. Paine is referencing is Isreal's return after those 400 years. The people they are sent to conquer and kill are the ones referenced in Genesis 15:16. After 400 years of national iniquity, God was bringing judgment and using Isreal to do it. Isreal itself would suffer such judgment for its own sin in the future.
The god Mr. Paine envisions in his own mind is an unjust god. He sees him as kind and benevolent, forgiving our iniquities and giving us a wonderful life here and eternal bliss in the world to come. He believes his god is pleased in our good works and kind ways which earn us his favor. He would never respond to us as the God of the Bible does in the Scripture. But justice requires payment, if Mr. Paine's god forgives without payment, justice is not met and his god is unjust. This is not the God of the Bible, for though he is good, His perfect justice is not or cannot be set aside. His goodness is as just as His Justice is good. There is perfect harmony in all his attributes, therefore in His goodness His Justice is always met and satisfied.
{Proverbs 17:15 ESV (15) He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.}
{Romans 3:21-26 ESV (21) But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it (22) the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24) and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (25) whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (26) It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.}
The passages above demonstrate how the God of the Bible passed over our sins and remained just in Himself. Through Christ justice was met, and the sinner was set free. It is called Grace, {Ephesians 2:4-9 ESV (4) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, (5) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved (6) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (8) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast.}
Mr. Paine's concept of God is much too small and his view of man much to good. The God of the Bible is an infinite being in every aspect of who he is. Man is a finite creature full of sin and every day even in his most pious acts offends and sins against this God. We cannot comprehend infinite perfection, we are flawed in our being to such an extent we cannot cease from sin. Without a mediator, we are condemned from our very conception. As a child, we are innocent only in the aspect we have not yet comprehended our sin, it is our nature, it is who we are. God chose to judge those people in the passages Mr. Paine presented, even worse than the slaughter, hell awaited and they are still there. If God chose today to close the door of his Mercy and judge the world in horrified judgment and cast it into hell, He would be justified in doing so. The fact Mr. Paine does not see or understand will not change it.
