Mass Divine Judgement: Systematizing the Shephetic Protocol
What the Bible actually reveals is that God is both willing (benevolence intact) and able (omnipotence intact) to rid the human world of evil. What humanity has a problem with is impatience with the speed of this process. The Bible reveals that there are three levels at which God deals with evil when it comes to human affairs, at three timescales.
The first occurs at the individual (micro) scale. This is the biblical fact that, after an average of 73 years (the global human life expectancy) when every individual dies and goes to face judgement. Because atheism does not believe in an afterlife, atheists tend to systematically interpolate an exclusively material worldview into a hypernatural worldview when asking about God and evil. However, post-death judgement means that the outcome for the meek and righteous is long-term bliss, while that of the unjust is negative.
The second occurs at the macro-scale. This plan involved balancing multiple goals for humanity. The first was humanity populating the earth and securing the rise of cities mainly after the Neolithic revolution and the emergence of the Ancient Near East as the center of human civilization. It was in this context that he seeded a group of peoples — the descendants of Jacob/Israel — whom he made to be his oracle to the rest of the world (a role which relies on the availability of written languages and large populations to foster long-distance inter-societal trade, diplomacy, migration and relations, which could only be achieved through the prior emergence of agriculture). Through the experience of the Israelites, the scriptures of God were theosubdemocratically written and passed on across generations. When Rome, the largest and longest-lasting empire that straddled all three continents of the Old World rose to prominence, God’s Son was incarnated on earth within the nation he had created (Judea), which was then under the dominion of this trans-continental empire. God’s herald then incubated a group of Jews who then, after his re-ascension, began the movement to spread his word to the ends of the earth. The coming of the end of days is also a theosubdemocratic process, whereby when the gospel reaches the last nation and there is “fullness of the gentiles”, God’s Son will return to judge the world, end the old earth, and usher in the new heaven and the new earth of eternity without evil.
The third level is at the meso-scale. Human history is full of justice residuals that are much larger than acts of justice. Justice residuals accumulated on earth are dealt with in entirety in the afterlife. In other words, at the existential scale of affairs, there are no residuals of justice. Why is there not a 100% rate of earth-based divine justice? The typical response offered by Christian apologists is human free will. However, there are two other factors at play. The first is social individuality. The second factor is hevelian causality.
But without going further, I will introduce a phenomenon which is described in the bible as a course-correction mechanism: a hypernatural mechanism which eliminates the most extreme societal-scale injustices from diffusing and serves as a limit to the worsening of evil on earth. This is what may be called the “Shephetic Protocol”. The Shephetic Protocol is the biblical pattern of God’s judgement of nations — i.e. God’s judgements at the macrosocial level. It may be expressed by the acronym, DALURR (Death, Authority, Last Resort, Universality, Remorse, and Revelation). Some critics have accused God of being genocidal and tribalistic, favouring one nation and ethnicity over all others. Yet, this is based on a complete misreading of the bible. Such critics fail to explain why God says to the Israelites, “Are you more valuable to me than Ethiopia?” and “You think I like to see the wicked die?”
In addition, the plenitude and diversity of violent passages in the bible is a direct statistical reflection of the multiplicity of cases of judgement. It is almost exactly like asking why, going to a criminal court of law, there are so many references to violence and murder, even though there are many more about evidence, witnesses, plaintiffs, etc. The violent events and rhetoric found in the bible are the minority; but the high absolute frequency is a reflection of the diversity and multiplicity of wicked acts of people and the regulatory role of God.
Death
It is important to always have in mind that what the atheist means by death is completely different from what the Christian means by death and what death is in God’s sight. For the atheist, who believes in materialism, death is the cessation of existence that comes with the cessation of biological life. On the contrary, in the eyes of God and of the Christian death is the transition to spiritual administration with continued consciousness — one only moves from one state of existence to another. Hence, while for the atheist death may be the worst thing to happen to a human (especially when the foregone life on earth holds much prospect for further enjoyment), it is not the worst thing to happen in the Christian’s eyes. This is why Jesus says, “fear not the one who can destroy your body. Instead fear he who can destroy both your body and your soul” (Matthew 10:28). In Christianity, death is therefore more of a “recall” from the premises of earth fully into the premises of the spiritual, leaving the people on earth to move on.
Authority
Sometimes the question goes, “Why does God command humans not to murder but goes ahead to break his own commandment himself?” This is not a serious biblical issue. It actually includes a glaring error. The error is that it fails to mention that God communicates two principles simultaneously: that he alone has the authority to take life; and that humans are not authorized to take the life of other humans (or even animals) without explicit authorization from him (the universal authorization he gave is his sanctioning of the death penalty for a murderer).
God’s authority to take life technically means his authority to determine how long each human should spend on earth and hence when they should transition to non-physical hypernatural administration. Therefore, he had the authority to chase the first humans out of the reach of the Edenic Tree of Life which would have given them access to perpetual life on earth and leaving their life expectancy to be determined by the vagaries of geoarchy (i.e., the dynamics of human struggle with the dangers and provisions of nature); he has the authority in determining when and how everyone passes from the earth; and he has the power and authority to give life back to the dead (i.e. resurrection) (Ezekiel 37).
God’s authority to determine who dies, when it happens, and how it happens, arises from two sources: him being the Creator and him being the one “in whom we live and breathe and exist” (Acts 17:28) (meaning that we live within his — and the only possible — existential regime; and under his perpetual administration (both pre- and post-biological death).
This is why God could command the first humans to eat plants, implying an injunction not to take the life of any animals for food (Genesis 1:29–30), but could rescind this when the circumstances of humanity changed (Genesis 9:3–4). Any law is particular to its object of application. Post-Edenic humans differed from Edenic humans, and hence a new command on consuming animals for food was given to them (likewise, on the New Earth when humans revert to a similar Edenic state, the first/original command applies to them — Isaiah 65). It is also why although God commands against murder, for fallen humans who now had the capacity to murder he permitted the taking of the life of someone who murders another human (Genesis 9:6).
Last Resort
First, in all the cases, God used death (as both punishment and a containment mechanism of earthly anarchy) only when sin became too “great” — i.e. too widespread and too wicked. This involves systematic dispossessions, bloodshed and injustices being conducted in the land. In the case of the whole world during Noah’s time it was because “there was bloodshed everywhere” (Genesis 6:13). In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous” (Genesis 18:20). This is why, over 400 years prior, when God saw the sins of the Canaanite groups, he foretold his judgement upon them but at the time said that “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:13–16). It is important to remember that God never punished nations for worshipping other gods. The only people he entered into a contract/covenant/agreement with were the children of Israel whom he literally cultivated himself by bringing forth Isaac through Abraham and Sarah miraculously.
Death to different lands, city-states, nations and kingdoms in the Old Testament was a last resort by God. Following the theosubdemocratic pattern, God insisted on human self-correction as a first measure through the conscience of the peoples. He expected humans to intervene in their own affairs to check and balance prevalent acts of wickedness and the spread of moral decadence. Thus, when he proclaimed doom upon Ninevah through Jonah, he rescinded the prophecy of destruction once they repented and reformed. He also relied on social regulation through governments and laws. This is why Paul says that “The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1b) and the one in authority “is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).
This is why he gave them all time, and only proclaimed death upon them when their sin became too “great” to be left on earth and they hadn’t taken steps to address it: “I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one.” (Ezekiel 22:30a). For Sodom and Gomorrah, “Suppose [God] [had found ten] righteous people living there… then [he would not] destroy it for the sake of the ten.” (Gen 18:23–32). The prevalence of murder is especially problematic, for “bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it” (Numbers 35:33), and “if you defile the land, it will vomit you out” (Leviticus 18:28). When God was going to flood the earth, he said that “for the earth is filled with violence” (Genesis 6:13). He also intervened subtly to individuals. He also sent prophets or “watchmen”.
Another manifestation of the last resort nature of the fatal intervention is God repeatedly saying he wants the people to repent and live, as he is compassionate and merciful.
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Entreaty/Petition
It is important to always remember that the bible depicts a hypernatural legal, judicial, political and administrative system. That is, with God being “possessor of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:19–22), “lawgiver, judge and king” (Isaiah 33:22), and “ruler of all the nations of the earth” who has the power and authority to “set up kings and depose them” (Daniel 2:21). The hypernatural system is full of hierarchies, councils, protocols, authorities, militaries, messengers, etc.
One thing that we observe is that God’s intervention is also moved by the petitions which those oppressed under Shephetic-incurring human regimes make to God. God told Cain to “Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” (Genesis 4:10); for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah God said he had “heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant,” (Gen 18:20); for the people of Ninevah God said “its wickedness has come up before me” (Jon 1:2; NIV); for Egypt God said the Israelites “cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God…He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.” (Exo 2:23–25); It was when King Hezekiah petitioned God to intervene during Israel’s confrontation with King Sennacherib of Assyria that God said “Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose…” (Isaiah 37:29). Habakkuk petitioned God, saying “How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! ‘Violence is everywhere!’ I cry, but you do not come to save” (Habakkuk 1:2); for the horn the host of heaven queried “how long will he defy the host of heaven” (Daniel 8:13); the people of earth in the last days the spirits of the martyred Christians in heaven queried “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” (Revelation 6:10); and David petitioned God numerous times to conquer his enemies who were oppressing him and his people.
In other words, the shephetic protocol is not unilaterally triggered, but is bilateral at the minimum and multilateral at the maximum (i.e. involving other supernatural beings). In other words, it is a theosubdemocratic process. Other humans, dead and alive, were also involved in petitioning God to intervene. Note that the principle of last resort implies that other humans could potentially act as “counsel to the accused” by taking corrective measures so as not to incur God’s recall from earth — representing an actual hypernatural judicial system, with God being the judge.
Universality
Judgment of nations was (and is) universal. God blessed and deposed non-Israelite nations (horizontal universality) just as he did for the Israelites; and he used other nations to bless and depose Israel just as Israel was used to bless and depose other nations (vertical universality). The reason why the Israelites’ instrumentality in deposing other nations is given greater attention in the bible — such that it cognitively skews the perception of universality (towards particularism/partiality/tribalism) — is that the Israelites are a key part of the biblical story for globally functional reasons (as chapter 2 argues). In other words, the allegation of tribalism is largely the result of the “spatial compression” part of the spatio-temporal compression of biblical accounts.
God warned the Israelites not to attack or provoke the Edomites in Seir whom God handed the land over to from the Horites; he dispossessed the Emites and gave the land of Ar to the Moabites as a possession and warned the Israelites not to harass them or provoke them to war. He dispossessed the Rephaites from the land of Ar and gave it to the Ammonites as their possession. God also dispossessed the Avvites from the villages “as far as Gaza” and handed them over to the Caphtorites/Philistines who were rescued from Caphtor just as the Arameans were rescued from Kir (Deuteronomy 2:23; Amos 9:7). However, God ordered the Israelites to dispossess the Amorites in Heshbon (Deuteronomy 2:24) and Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:1–2).
People only see the nations that God orders to be dispossessed and destroyed, but pay no attention to the nations that he orders to be untouched and the fact that God’s activity of dispossessing and saving is not exclusive to the Israelites but is global. They also fail to see that even for those that God orders to be dispossessed or destroyed, at different points in time he spared them (such as the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebushites 400 years prior to their dispossession — Genesis 15:16–21). The hypothesis of God being “tribalistic” or “genocidal” is false and does not explain anything at all. A consideration of both blessings and punishments, across nations (horizontally and vertically) and across time easily reveals this.
Remorse
I will leave the Quotational Narrative (QN) below to show that God does not enjoy it when he has to resort to fatal corrective measures (which is firstly reflected in his use of it as a last resort):
“Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? Says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live” (Ezekiel 18:23). “[God] does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow” (Lamentations 3:33). He is a “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2c). He wants you to “choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (Deuteronomy 30:19c). “If wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. And all their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done” (Ezekiel 18:21–22). But [His] kindness to the wicked does not make them do good. Although others do right, the wicked keep doing wrong and take no notice of the Lord’s majesty” (Isaiah 26:10).
Hence, Jonah was even angered by God’s mercy and restraint when God responded to the repentance of even when Jonah wanted God to destroy Ninevah, the capital city of Assyria, despite their repentance from their wickedness, God
Revelation
The Shephetic Protocol is not an “old testament thing”. Sometimes people say there is a difference between the “wrathful and vengeful God” of the Old Testament and the “merciful and loving God” of the New Testament. As previously explained, both elements (wrath and mercy) are strongly found in both the OT and the NT, with incredible continuity.
However, while much of it within the OT is concentrated on earth (because there was no hope for spiritual and eternal life), much of it within the NT is concentrated on the afterlife (whereas all went to Sheol under the OT, there is then heaven and hell under the NT). The frequency of these earthly wrathful passages in the OT matches the frequency with which Israel and humans incurred God’s wrath (i.e. a manifestation of human proclivity to evil and moral entropy in the absence of overarching corrective/disciplinary measures).
In the New Testament, because God moves beyond Israel and to the whole world based on a spiritual kingdom, the focus is not on the activities of a nation, but of people moving across nations and writing on things of the Spirit and the preaching of the gospel across the world. At the same time, since there is a movement from the natural to the spiritual, the notion of judgement moves to focus more on the afterlife — the destruction of the soul rather than of the body. Therefore, there is both wrath and compassion as well as judgement of destruction in both the OT and NT; it just takes a mostly different form in the NT.
Nevertheless, there is still physical judgement of destruction in the NT. In the end of days, it is foretold that a “great rebellion” among humanity will occur, and there would be “bloodshed” and opposition to Christ and his followers on earth, to the extent that slain Christians would petition God asking, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” (Revelation 6:10). As a result, the wrath of God would also be seen on the whole earth at some point in the future, just as it was in the days of Noah.
Even before that, there is no reason to believe that the Shephetic Protocol has been suspended. God still judges nations, but two factors have made these post-biblical cases non-salient. The first is that, at least since the second century, there have been no biblical prophets to document cases of God’s wrath. There is, therefore, no easy way to say which national disasters are attributable to the shephetic protocol. In addition to this measurement problem, it is even uncertain if, given the revolution in moral sensibilities since the eighteenth century, the institutionalization of international law, international criminal courts, and peacekeeping operations, any society would be able to reach the level of injustice required for a long enough period of time to trigger the shephetic protocol and incur divine devastation. The spread of civilisation since late antiquity appears to have truncated the absolute descent of societies into widespread evil, which has limited the frequency of shephetic genocide.
