A New Kind of Christianity: violent God?

A pastor writes:

In your post Is God Violent? How about Jesus? How about. . .? you do a good job of explaining your view that Jesus is not violent, even in his second coming. But, what about God in the OT? He kills people, whole nations, women and children, etc. If Jesus is the full revelation of God, how do you reconcile this killing with a vonviolent version of Jesus?

This is such an important question. I’ve been a little surprised to see many Christians answer by saying, basically, “Yes, God is violent. What’s the problem with that?”
As you know, I don’t find that a satisfactory answer. The first four sections in my new book together try to find a more credible and ethical response.

The narrative question – what’s the big storyline of the Bible?
The authority question – how does the Bible have authority? what kind of authority?
The God question – is God violent, and if not, how do we deal with all the violent Bible passages?
The Jesus question – who is Jesus and why is he important?

I hope you’ll get a chance to read at least those chapters.