Why is there violence in the Bible?

Many people who read the Bible for the first time may ask, “Why is there so much violence in the Bible?”  If God is a God of peace, people wonder why there is so much violence in the Bible instead.  In the New Testament alone, we see the whippings suffered by the apostles, we see the passion and crucifixion of Christ.  Can there be a more violent death indeed?



Yet through all these, one could see a reflection of reality, the kind of world one is living in right now where no one is exempt from pain, and from the evil that others do.



Yes, we seek peace.  But peace is not the mere absence of war, or the perennial avoidance of conflict.  True peace is within one’s heart, and is never shattered even with the most violent storms outside.



If the Bible spoke only of superficial peace, we would have doubted its authenticity.  Instead of this however, we are presented with Truth, for we live yet in a world where Light and darkness are still mingled together for the sake of the Mercy of God giving us more time to know Him before we make our final decision.



Many people ask that if there is a God, why does He allow suffering?  Yet few people ever ask, why did God allow Himself to suffer here with us and share our sorrows and this violent world we are living in.



We do not have a mystical peaceful God in some mystical heaven faraway watching us in our misery.  We have a God who came down for us to embrace us in our darkest hour, the hour when we needed to be with Him the most and share His peace which passes all understanding.