When you take the Bible seriously, not symbolically or emotionally but literally, you run into one of the most uncomfortable conclusions imaginable for someone like me, a Métis man with Mi'kmaq ancestry:
If my people had lived anywhere near ancient Israel, the God of the Bible would have ordered us exterminated.
Not for crimes.
Not for violence.
Not for immorality.
Just for our spirituality.
And if you think that sounds extreme, the Bible itself proves otherwise.
1. The Old Testament God commanded the extermination of cultures like mine.
Over and over again, God commanded the total destruction of nations that worshipped other gods, honoured nature, practiced ancestral traditions, used ceremonies or rituals, followed their own spiritual leaders, lived on land Israel wanted, or simply existed outside Israel’s religion.
Here are His exact words:
- “Do not leave alive anything that breathes.” Deuteronomy 20:16
- “Show no mercy… destroy them completely.” Deuteronomy 7:2
- “Kill men, women, children, and infants.” 1 Samuel 15:3
By the Bible’s definition, my people, with our connection to the land, our medicine people, drum circles, ceremonies, and reverence for the earth, would have been labeled the same as the Canaanites or Amalekites.
And according to scripture, those groups were not to be debated with or persuaded. They were to be wiped out.
2. My ancestors fit the exact profile of those God commanded Israel to destroy.
The Mi’kmaq, Métis, Cree, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and every Indigenous nation across Turtle Island practiced reverence for Mother Earth, ancestral ceremonies, medicine wheels, sweat lodges, spirit traditions, and rituals connected to the land and sky.
According to the Old Testament, that is idolatry.
And according to the Old Testament, the penalty for idolatry is extermination, not correction or coexistence.
God commanded the Israelites to wipe out entire nations because they had their own spiritual practices. If my people had lived near them, scripture is clear: we would have been targets.
Every part of our culture, stories, teachings, ceremonies, and identity would have been considered an offense worthy of annihilation.
This is not exaggeration. It is exactly what the text says.
3. Christians say God is love, but the Bible records a very different pattern of behaviour.
Modern Christians say God loves all nations.
But the Bible presents a different picture.
According to scripture, God destroys cultures, wipes out societies for their spirituality, commands genocide, kills children, orders cultural erasure, and demands the death of people who worship differently.
Examples include:
- The Flood, which killed millions including children (Genesis 6–8)
- Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by fire (Genesis 19:24–25)
- The death of Egypt’s firstborn children (Exodus 11–12)
- 14,700 killed by plague (Numbers 16:49)
- 24,000 killed (Numbers 25:9)
- 70,000 killed over David’s census (2 Samuel 24:15)
- 185,000 killed in one night (Isaiah 37:36)
Even conservative scholars estimate God personally causes or commands at least two to three million deaths in the Old Testament, not counting the global flood, which pushes the number into the tens of millions.
So when Christians say God is love, it creates a massive contradiction with the behaviour recorded in scripture.
- A loving being does not order the slaughter of children.
- A fair being does not wipe out cultures for spiritual differences.
- A moral being does not command genocide as obedience.
But the Old Testament God does all three.
4. The double standard is impossible to ignore.
If any other religion commanded followers to kill men, women, children, and infants, wipe out nations, and leave no survivors, Christians would call that evil.
But when the Old Testament God does it, they say things like:
- “It was justified.”
- “They were wicked.”
- “God knows best.”
- “You can’t question His ways.”
This exposes a contradiction.
Either genocide is always evil, or it is not.
Either killing children is always evil, or it is not.
You cannot condemn one and praise the other without bending morality beyond recognition.
5. My point is simple and personal.
If my ancestors had lived near ancient Israel, the Bible’s commands reveal exactly what would have happened to us:
- Kill them all.
- Leave nothing alive.
- Not even the children.
- That is not love.
- That is not justice.
- That is not holiness.
- It is religious supremacy.
Seeing that clearly is part of why I no longer accept the old explanations. When you apply the Bible consistently, the contradictions reveal themselves.
In the end, this is not about attacking faith.
It is about confronting the truth written in the text:
If the God of the Bible were judging my ancestors, He would have demanded our extinction.
And that reality speaks louder than any sermon ever could.