GOD - Chapter 6 (Vindictive)

God is vindictive, according to this chapter in barker's book. By now, we have been exposed, chapter-&-verse, to the various depravities that YHWH imposes upon both his enemies & his faithful. This chapter seeks to furnish that horrible impression with yet more evidence that the god of the Old Testament has a desire for revenge. On everyone. 

Customarily, we start off a with a quote, from the Hebrew scripture of Isaiah (47:3):

"I will take vengeance, & I will spare no man"

Well that about sums it up. In the body of the text Barker starts with this explanation of Christian doctrines:

"The Church was charging money for the privilege of going through one of these special people to petition God. It got really bad when they began selling indulgences, which were like 'get out of jail' tickets to buy your way out of hell. The Roman Catholic Church, to this day, maintains the elevated status of "ordained" human beings who inhabit a loftier status of humanity, closer to God

Martin Luther & other Reformation thinkers challenged the classist hierarchy, they rebelled against the supreme authority of the Church & insisted that each human being has direct access to God. Baptists are one of the groups that adhere to the doctrine of The Priesthood of All Believers

#reformationratpack

So it is curious that Protestants do not join me in denouncing the vindictive God of the Old Testament for brutally crushing a similar Reformation attempt while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. The smashing (literally) of that rebellion was worse than any torture of the Inquisition"

I disagree with that last statement, as I am someone particularly sensitive to the horrors of the Inquisition, but all-in-all a good point. & a good question to ponder-- why did the Protestants not inveigh against YHWH for the story of Korah, where YHWH's victims have the gall to challenge the intermediaries. Well, because if Martin Luther, Calvin, or Zwingli were to have challenged YHWH's judgments in the Old Testament, what would stop their followers from questioning the Old Testament period? Or the entire Bible? It would be a 'slippery slope', one that would alienate Christian followers & would re-route the Reformation as an exit from Christianity rather than an invigorating revival of it. 

Reformationist propaganda 

The comparison I think of here is the prospect of the late-20th century 'Reform Communists'. They were helming decaying states with no legitimacy, their allies were withdrawing support, they were broke, & knew they had serious problems that needed to be addressed with change. The problem being the very change they needed to perform quickly spiraled into an unstoppable force that de-stabilized the system itself. Calvin & the Protestant reformers did not want to debase Christianity. On the very contrary, they believed it was the Roman Church & the Christian establishment that were debasing Christianity. Despite Martin Luther's fight against the narrow priesthood that reserved the exclusive right to speak to god, it was this very exclusive right that is present in the bible. Aaron & Moses claim it for themselves, & people are killed by the god for trying usurp this. The Roman system may be elitist & obviously prone to corruption & predation, but it is 'biblical', at least from an Old-Testament perspective. As Barker puts it, "...don't blame the Roman Catholic Church. The pope was actually acting biblically, in a more godly manner, more like Moses than the Protestants."

But back to god's vengeance --

Barker explains to us that the cryptically-named Hebrew book of Numbers is so-called because it contains those infamously-boring ancient census passages. YHWH expected the 'chosen' to rely upon only 2 people to communicate with their deity for them, & if they challenged this system, they were punished with finality by god-- he simply killed them by ordering the ground open up & swallow them. The 'rebel' Korah says what we would recognize as a very reasonable & principled statement:

"You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, every one of them, & the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt above the assembly of the Lord?" (Numbers 16:3)

& so the Lord smites Korah. Is not the 'writing on the wall' for any attempted truth-teller in Christianity? The conduct accorded Martin Luther was no different than what any close observant of Christianity would have expected. As Barker points out, Korah was not "an unbelieving pagan." Any person, even a Jew, who had used their sense & questioned YHWH's hierarchies, even those undeserved & arbitrary, are punished. He promised to punish all. &, in the Old Testament, he does. Barker points out that the word 'vengeance' appears numerous times in books like the Psalms & Deuteronomy. He also implies that the promise to 'reveal the nakedness' of unbelieving Babylon is a euphemism for raping. I do not know if this is true, & do not have the expertise to know whether this is the case or not, but anything is believable with this character. 

In Classic authoritarian fashion, Korah is portrayed as having 'disrespected' Aaron & Moses by challenging their unquestioned power

"...I will take vengeance on my adversaries, & will requite those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, & my sword shall devour flesh" (Deuteronomy 32:41-42) (RSV)

Judaism, & its much more-successful spinoff Christianity have ensured that in the intervening centuries since these backward & anti-humanist texts were written that YHWH's "glittering sword" has not gone without the blood of others for long.