Did God command genocide in the Old Testament?

One of the most frequent objections to Christianity concerns violence in the Old Testament. Critics claim that God’s command to the Israelite army to completely destroy the Canaanites and other enemy tribes (Deuteronomy 20:17) amounts to ethnic cleansing. Responding to this month’s thorny question, Peter J Williams, a speaker at this year’s Spring Harvest, helps us understand the issues.