Drunk With Blood.
Steve Wells.
Introduction.
A few years ago, I started to doc.u.ment G.o.d"s killings at my blog, Dwindling in Unbelief. I began with Genesis and worked my way through the Bible, writing a post for each killing event and keeping a running count of the number of victims as I went along. I don"t think it"s ever been done before, which is a shame, since G.o.d is so proud of his killings.
You don"t believe me? Well, here, I"ll let him tell you directly.
I kill ... I wound ... I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh. Deuteronomy 32.39-42 (NRSV) Bible believers, on the other hand, are less proud of G.o.d"s killings. Oh, they like a few of them-Noah"s flood, David and Goliath, the walls of Jericho, Job"s daughters-those that can be made (with considerable dishonesty) into cute children"s stories. But the rest are completely ignored by, or completely unknown to, believers.
I believe that most believers would stop believing in the Bible if they knew what was in it. And this is particularly true of G.o.d"s killings. All of the stories are absurd from an historical standpoint; they could not have happened the way they are told in the Bible. But what is even more d.a.m.ning is their unspeakable cruelty and obvious immorality. If the killings described in this book actually happened, then the G.o.d of the Bible is not the kind of G.o.d that believers pretend him to be.
It is my hope that as G.o.d"s killings become better known, people will know better than to believe in the Bible. Such belief should be admired by no one and ridiculed by all.
In this book, I"ve tried to count all of G.o.d"s killings: those that are numbered in the Bible and those that are not; the ones that G.o.d did himself; those that he instructed others to do; and those that, while he may not have taken an active role in, met with his approval.
Of course, some killings are easier to count than others. When G.o.d burned to death 250 men for burning incense (21) in Numbers 16.35, we know how many were killed. But how many did G.o.d drown in the flood (1) or burn to death in Sodom and Gomorrah (3)? How many first-born Egyptian children did he kill (9)? There"s just no way to know for sure.
So I have two tallies: one for the killings in which numbers are given in the Bible, excluding the others; and another that uses both the Biblical numbers and estimates when numbers are absent.
But what about the killings that G.o.d apparently approved of, but didn"t take an active role in?
Take the story in 1 Samuel 18.25-28, for example, in which David buys his first wife with 200 Philistine foreskins (68). Did G.o.d approve of that killing?
Well, yes he did, if you believe the Bible, that is. G.o.d approved of everything David did, including all of his killings, with only one exception: the killing of Uriah. How do we know this? Because it says so in the Bible.
David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hitt.i.te. 1 Kings 15:5 Drunk with Blood includes a separate account for each of G.o.d"s 135 killings. They are listed in the order that they occur in the Bible, with a note at the top that lists the verses in which the killing occurs, along with the number killed, either the Bible"s number or an estimate, or both. In each account, I"ve made an effort to quote enough of the actual story from the Bible (using the King James Version) to make it unnecessary to refer to the Bible itself. Still, I encourage everyone to read these stories in the Bible. It is nearly impossible to believe in the Bible once you have read them.
How many did G.o.d kill?
Here"s the total, if you use only numbers that are provided in the Bible: 2,476,636 (For a complete list of G.o.d"s killings with biblical number and estimate for each killing, see the list at the end of this ebook.).
Who has killed more, Satan or G.o.d?
How many did Satan kill in the Bible?
I can only find ten, and even these he shares with G.o.d, since G.o.d allowed him to do it as a part of a bet. I"m talking about the seven sons and three daughters of Job (130).
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job...And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth G.o.d, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the LORD ... put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother"s house ... And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Job 1.1-19 So it seems that both Satan and G.o.d share the blame (or the credit) for killing Job"s children. If so, then the tally would be: G.o.d: 2,476,636.
Satan: 10.
Estimated totals: Satan and G.o.d.
When the Bible doesn"t say how many were killed, I try to provide a reasonable estimate.
For example, the Bible says that Job"s ten children were killed in G.o.d and Satan"s bet. The Bible also says that all of Job"s slaves were killed, though it doesn"t say how many slaves Job owned. But since he was a wealthy man ("the greatest of all the men of the east"), he must have owned many slaves. So I guessed that fifty slaves were killed, and I gave both Satan and G.o.d credit for their killings.
I made similar estimates for the other killings when a number was not provided in the Bible. I tried to give an idea of my thinking for each estimate at the end of each killing account.
When there was no clear way to get a number directly from the Bible itself, I used estimates from Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones" Atlas of World Population History (Middles.e.x, England: Penguin, 1978).
Using these estimates, I came up with the following grand totals for the number killed by G.o.d and Satan in the Bible: G.o.d: 24,634,205.
Satan: 60.
How many more will G.o.d kill?
What about G.o.d"s future plans? Does the Bible tell us anything about that?
Well, yes it does. But it"s hard to take any of it seriously, especially if you"re a believer.
Take the great winepress of the wrath of G.o.d, for example. You know, the one featured in the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:.
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword.
His truth is marching on.
The story is told in the 14th chapter of the book of Revelation, which begins with Jesus (or "someone like unto the Son of man") sitting on a white cloud with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. Revelation 14.14 Then an angel stops by to tell Jesus that it"s time to start swinging his sickle.
Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. 14.15 So Jesus thrusts his sickle on the earth, while still sitting on his cloud.
He that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. 14.16 Another angel came out of the temple in heaven and joined Jesus on his cloud. He also has a sharp sickle with him, and together they begin to reap the harvest on earth.
Another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 14.17 They swing their sickles and pour the resulting blood into a huge winepress. There is so much blood that it flows out of the winepress and covers the ground up to the horses" bridles in a s.p.a.ce of 1600 furlongs.
The winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the s.p.a.ce of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. 14:20 And from that we can estimate how many people will be killed by Jesus and his angel sidekick.
It"s a simple calculation. A furlong is 202 meters, so 1600 furlongs is about 320 kilometers, and a horse"s bridle is 1.5 m high or so. If we take the bloodbath to be circular with a diameter of 320 kilometers, then the total volume is 1.2 x 1014 liters. And since an adult has about 5 liters of blood, that gives us 2.4 x 1013 (24 trillion) people.
Which could be a problem, even for G.o.d. Where will he find so many people to kill? His overflowing winepress requires the blood from nearly 4,000 times the number of people on earth.
Does this mean that Armageddon won"t occur until the human population reaches 24 trillion? Perhaps.
Or maybe G.o.d will just create more people when the time comes just to kill them.
Or it could just be hyperbole. G.o.d doesn"t really plan on killing trillions of people; he"s just trying to scare the h.e.l.l out of everyone.
I"ll leave it for the believers to figure out.
But there are many other verses that say similar (bats.h.i.t crazy) things in the Bible, and they"re not all in Revelation either.
G.o.d will kill so many people that the land will be soaked, the rivers flooded, and the mountains melted in blood. The ground will be covered with dead bodies, which will stink to high heaven. The whole earth will be destroyed. So I guess that means that everybody on earth will be killed by G.o.d.
Here are the verses:.
Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. Isaiah 34.3 The unicorns shall come down with them ... and their land shall be soaked with blood. Isaiah 34.7 The slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. Jeremiah 25.33 I will also water with thy blood the land ... even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee. Ezekiel 32.6 I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword. Ezekiel 35.8 Saith the Lord G.o.d: there shall be many dead bodies in every place. Amos 8.3 I will slay the last of them with the sword. Amos 9.1 I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good. Amos 9.4 There is a mult.i.tude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses. Nahum 3.3 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. Zephaniah 1.2.
I will bring distress upon men ... their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Zephaniah 1.17.
The earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. Zephaniah 3.8.
I will kill her children with death. Revelation 2.23.
The third part of the sea became blood. Revelation 8.8.
They ... shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. Revelation 11.9.
Still, I suspect that in many of these verses G.o.d is exaggerating. Sure, he"s planning to kill lots of people, but not everyone. The land won"t be entirely covered with dead bodies and the mountaintops won"t drown in blood. So I"m not going to estimate the number that G.o.d plans to kill from these verses. I"ll wait until G.o.d sobers up a bit to do my counting.
So we"re back where we started. How many does G.o.d plan to kill in the "end times" that believers hope and pray will come soon?
Well, the Bible tells us how many will be saved, which implies, I guess, that everyone else will be killed.
I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Revelation 7.4 ...the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. Revelation 14.3-4 So if the "end times" happened today, only 144,000 Jewish male virgins would survive. The rest of the 6.8 billion would be killed by G.o.d (and then be tormented forever in h.e.l.l).
Most believers don"t believe this of course. (The Jehovah"s Witnesses are a notable exception.) They say the 144,000 Jewish male virgins is symbolic of something. They just don"t know what the something is.
Are you ready to give up yet? I"m not.
There"s one other way to get an estimate, but I must warn you. It, too, is from Revelation.
Here are the verses: I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and h.e.l.l followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. Revelation 6.8 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the hors.e.m.e.n were two hundred thousand thousand ... By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. Revelation 9.15-18 OK, let"s count them up. 1/4 will be killed by Death and h.e.l.l (per Rev 6.8). That leaves 3/4 alive, 1/3 of which will be burned to death by the 200 million fire and brimstone breathing hors.e.m.e.n of Rev 9.15-18. Since 1/3 of 3/4 is 1/4, half the human population will be killed in these two slaughters.
a.s.suming that the rapture (or whatever) is soon (and it"s always coming soon), and that the earth"s population will be about what it is today, 6.8 billion, then G.o.d will soon kill 3,400,000,000.
So what is our final answer?
Well, we have a lower and upper bound. G.o.d will kill at least 3.4 billion and perhaps as many as 24 trillion (if he"s going to get his b.l.o.o.d.y winepress overfilled to the Bible"s specifications).
So let"s call it 3.4 billion.
Oh, and what about Satan?
He has no plans for killing any more people (at least none that are recorded in the Bible or that he has told me about).
G.o.d 3,400,000,000.
Satan 0.
A note about the t.i.tle.
You might think the t.i.tle of the book is a bit unfair. A single verse that uses the phrase "drunk with blood" is hardly enough to go on, especially if context is taken into account. But the phrase (or variants of it) is used five times in the Bible, and context doesn"t help at all.
1. G.o.d first uses it to describe himself: his arrows are drunk with blood.
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh. Deuteronomy 32.42 Now I know that G.o.d doesn"t mean this literally. G.o.d"s arrows don"t have mouths; they don"t drink blood and they"ve never been drunk on anything. His sword doesn"t eat flesh either. G.o.d is being metaphorical here.
Still, G.o.d is trying to make a point. He"s saying that he kills people. Lots and lots of people. And that is what this book is about.
2. G.o.d"s sword is also drunk with blood, just like his arrows.