July 29, 2013
Sprinkle (Erasing Hell: What God Said About Eternity and the Things We've Made Up), a gun-owning believer, asks Christians, especially evangelical Christians, to look anew at Christianity and violence. The book tackles difficult parts of the Old Testament to argue that nonviolence is at the core of God's plan for humanity. In the bloodiest parts of the Old Testament, God vanquishes foes when humans step aside and trust in him rather than chariots and weapons. The New Testament continues this theme when Jesus preaches love of enemies and uses non-violence to defeat evil. Even Revelation shows Jesus vanquishing Satan through suffering, not violence. Having surveyed the Bible, Sprinkle then addresses challenging questions, such as what to do if an armed intruder threatens a family, whether Jesus was violent in expelling the moneylenders, and whether it would have been right to assassinate Hitler. The book does not explore how submission and forgiveness can be used against women and minorities, but is persuasive in its argument that the Bible expects Christians to suffer rather than inflict harm.