While reading 3 Nephi 9 today, I remembered an article written by Michael T. Griffith in response to Ed Decker, Divine Justice in the Book of Mormon: A Reply to Anti-Mormon Criticisms of the Great Destruction and of the Savior's New World Ministry Recorded in 3 Nephi; originally a chapter in his Refuting the Critics: Evidences of the Book of Mormon's Authenticity (Bountiful, UT.: Horizon Publishers, 1993 Here is one of the relevant sections:
The Judgments Of Yahweh In The Old Testament
When considering Decker's arguments, one of the first questions that comes to mind is, What about those instances in Old Testament times when Yahweh (Jehovah) destroyed the wicked for many of the same reasons the wicked were killed in the great destruction?
For example, Moses was commanded by Yahweh to kill three thousand Israelite idolaters (Exodus 32:26-28). Through Joshua the Lord told the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child of the pagan inhabitants of Jericho, except for Rahab and her family (Joshua 6:17, 21, 27). Similarly, Yahweh commanded King Saul to destroy all living things, including infants, among the wayward Amalekites (1 Samuel 15 :2-3, 32), and the Lord destroyed the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire (Genesis 19).
A number of Bible scholars have questioned the morality of Yahweh's command to destroy the Canaanites. Some of the objections raised by these scholars resemble Decker's attacks on the great destruction recorded in the Book of Mormon.
Conservative Protestant scholar Merrill Unger responded to those who have questioned the morality of Jehovah's devastation of the Canaanites. Note the way Unger's reply answers some of Decker's criticisms of the great destruction:
Was the command to exterminate the Canaanites a justifiable act on the part of God, who ordered it, or on the part of man, who partially, at least, obeyed it? Was the episode at variance with the character of God and His people? That it was inconsistent and unjustified both on God's side and man's has been so often asserted, that a consideration of the moral and religious character of the Canaanites is a question of utmost importance in solving the supposed theological difficulties that are commonly adduced.
Professor H. H. Rowley, for example, claims that the divine command to destroy the Canaanites in general, or Jericho and its inhabitants in particular, and similar episodes in the Old Testament, are contrary to the New Testament revelation of God in Christ, and involve merely the erroneous thoughts of the writers or characters in question about God, which we can now no longer accept as true. Moreover, Rowley claims that such incidents of wholesale destruction contain that which is "spiritually unsatisfying" and involve "dishonoring God ...."
The character of the Canaanite cults completely justifies the divine command to destroy their devotees. It is without sound theological basis to question God's justice in ordering the extermination of such a depraved people or to deny Israel's integrity as God's people in carrying out the divine order. Nor is there anything in this episode or the devotion of jericho to destruction that involves conflict with the new testament revelation of God in Christ . . .. God's infinite holiness is just as much outraged by sin in the new testament as in the old, and the divine wrath is not one whit mitigated against the sin of those who do not accept the forgiveness provided in christ, as the apocalyptic judgements of the book of revelation, directed against Christ-rejecting men of endtime, amply testify. (1954:167, 176, emphasis added).
Other conservative Bible scholars have expressed similar sentiments on the subject (Harrison 1970:174-175; Archer 157-159).
