Bad Theology

Text for today: Deuteronomy 13

Speaking through Moses, God states that if a prophet performs a miracle in the name of other gods, this means that God is testing the faith of His property. He then commands that any such prophet, as the instrument of His testing, should be executed. God also requires that if any family member or close friend suggests serving other gods, a lynch mob should be gathered to stone them to death; and that if anyone in a conquered city should suggest serving other gods, the entire population and their cattle should be killed, and the city burned as a sacrifice and never rebuilt. God warns against looting at the scenes of these autos-da-fé, on the grounds that such misbehaviour would hinder His compassion.

Like all the most durable cult leaders, God recognises the importance of binding His dupes to Himself by making them accomplices in His crimes. Although He has the power to burn His own heretics, He prefers to compel His children to murder so as to consolidate His hold over them. It is notable that, even at the time of Moses, the example of the fig tree holds good: by God's own admission, the prophets of other gods are acting by His will in order to test the master race, but they must nevertheless be killed for the actions to which He has predestined them.

By the time of the Saviour's ministry, God's genocidal ambitions had expanded from mere cities to the entirety of Creation: a fact for which He again blamed His chosen people, as when Jesus proclaimed (Matthew 19 viii) that the laws of Moses were made so lax and liberal because of the unauthorised hardness of the Israelites' hearts.