I dont believe God is totally non-violent. I believe He prefers all other methods of resolution but under certain extreme conditions will resort to violence as a last line of defense for the creation, which, if anyone recalls, He placed under Adam’s dominion, where it remains today, with the caveat that adam has placed himself under the adversary, and the further caveat- except for those who have entered the kingdom of God, placing themselves under the Lord Jesus.
All else is confusion, chaos and futility, into which, in this age, God is speaking “Let there be light” through the gospel and the Ecclesia of God as more “dry ground” emerges as the ages proceed and the waters above are separated from the waters below.
The fact that “Our weapons are not carnal but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds and fortresses that exalt them selves against the true knowledge of God”- which I agree with, does not necessarily contradict that God, in the unfolding of this letter from Him…
“the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an** administration** suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth”…
Has gone through some changes in how He deals as mankind has emerged through the continuing creation onto wider ground. Yes, His goal is that we would turn our swords into pruning forks and “learn war no more”. If He wanted to just zap that into us maybe He could, but I think something else is going on.
I personally think that portraying God as a totally non-violent being who has been hood-winked by the adversary, or portraying the OT as one big screw up, is just as off as portraying Him as a cruel tyrant, unless we disregard the testimony of the scripture totally as well. Rather, imo, the OT was a stage to grow through, even as this age is also as we(all mankind) proceed toward the “all in all”.
Sodom and Gomorrah were ended violently. Directly by YHWH. Noah’s flood was an act of immense violence that destroyed a world where such perversity and violence held sway that God was forced by His own character to end it, as the Potter ends the clay vessel that has been marred beyond repair upon the wheel, then remakes it according to His pleasure and purpose.
God has created us for a purpose, the further we stray from that purpose(love God, love one another), the more likely we are to incur disciplinary intervention.
IMO these judgments have entered into the “consciousness of corporate mankind” as testimonies to the error of wickedness and the consequences of that error and that is what it means when it says “her smoke will rise up forever and ever”.
Jesus didnt kill anyone but he was violent in clearing the Temple and I can’t help but believe that the only reason any one man could have done such a thing without being physically restrained by the multitudes gathered there is that the wrath of an angry God was crackling all around and through Him.
IMO the explanation of the violence perpetrated by Israel in the Old Testament has to do with the constraints YHWH has placed upon His own hands in working with man as he was then- in the age before the revelation of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.
A full preterist must believe that God is violent in some degree, in that they believe the destruction of Jerusalem was the signal event transitioning from that age to this- Pretty violent.
And if some major interpretations of prophecy are to be believed there is more violence to come, as man, in his stubborn and hardened rebellion continues to force His mighty hand to intervene in tumultuous ways to preserve His creation from even greater depredations from the hands of the stewards he has placed the earth under- mankind.
God is disposed against violence. His ultimate goal is for all that is not love to be consumed by the fire of His love. But at times he “shows Himself froward with the froward” and “answers a fool according to his folly”
I think not enough credit is given to the corporate consciousness of mankind and the general accountability we have for one another, and the lessons we are learning as a whole.
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good.** But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.**
the highest sword is wielded by God. Just because someone does not want to believe a good God could ever be violent doesnt mean that their perception is the highest one, since they are, in some measure, setting themselves apart from mankind, who is corporately responsible in some measure for its own fate.
I do not think the violence done by men of all religions, like the Crusades or Calvin or Salem is the same as the violence required of Israel in the OT in certain circumstances where the testimony of the Word is clearly that YHWH spoke plainly to Moses in the tent of meeting, or that he spoke plainly to Samuel in regards to destroying the Amalakites, etc.
Why destroy the whole family? because the children would perpetuate the perversity of their father’s and the cancer(within the body of Creation) would remain, malignant to the point of becoming a terminal illness.
The Crusades and Geneva(to me) are examples of ambitious liars and deceivers subverting the people over which they were stewards to incite them to violence for their own ambitions and politics and empire building.
I think it flies in the face of a false self image of humanity to admit that a group of humans could become so perverse that they ought to be eliminated or destroyed as a family from the face of the earth. I think that is in itself an error, not seeing the depths of the consequences of our wickedness as a race and our corporate accountability for our general irresponsibility. i think it is the reason we call “them” bad and “us” good while we do the same things for the same reasons behind different forms of propaganda and different enticements.
I think we could very well be reaching such a point again, where God intervenes to arrest the abominable wickedness of mankind by some great act that must necessarily be categorized as “violent”.
But God sent Jonah to Nineveh, and He sent Jesus to Jerusalem, He sent Noah into the world that was destroyed by water and he is sending us into the world that is now reserved for fire unto a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells, in which the lion lays down with the lamb and a child plays by an adders den, and as we are subjected to Christ in the “administration suitable to the fulness of times” corporate mankind is being brought onto even wider ground of consciousness, where the glory of the Lord covers the earth and the underlying enmity of man is further reduced by the presence in the earth of the Lord Jesus and many sons unto glory- who suffered violence with Him in this age so that they might be the “repairers of the breach” and “restorers of paths to dwell in” in the age to come.
6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
All partake of discipline, and scourging at times involves violence. sometimes we need it and standing back at a very far distance and looking at the depravity of man and the slow learning curve of the ages, God is justified in sometimes, as a last resort, giving mankind what disciplines He must to maintain the balance between His plan and man’s participation in it as stewards, sons and daughters, families, etc.
but thats just one guys opinion 
