Are people treated differently by God in the OT than they are in the NT?

[jcrichton]

I would agree that our relationship with God has been greatly enhanced in the NT. Since now we are made temples of the Holy Spirit, brothers to Jesus whose divine life we bear, and dear children of our Father in heaven. What a wonderful thing that is when we stop and give it some real thought.

It is true, that in the OT this was not the case and so the people in the OT did not have this spiritual closeness. And because our relationship with God has been so heightened in the NT, God would exhibit more goodness as it pleases him.

But the point of the original post was that there really isn’t a problem with thinking that God did treat people differently by the quality of his kindness in the OT from the NT. And that if God treats people in the OT differently this doesn’t make two different Gods as Marcion thought. For God can give of his goodness to the degree that pleases him and that this shouldn’t be a problem.

But I am not sure why you say that I’m stuck on “economy”?

Hi, Fred!

…in the OT, the Old Covenant looked forward to the Promise; God’s interaction with the people (both Israel and the Gentiles) had to be different (note that when foreigners sought to serve God as Israel did, Israel was Commanded to receive them into the Fold) than in the NT because the New Covenant is no longer looking forward but acting In Christ, the Promise.

…what we do have is a different economy: we see the wages of sin (death) in a palpable, yet limited, way. But the rewards, Eternal Life, remains for both the people of the OT and of the NT: Christ–it is the reason why Christ descends into hell/hades to preach to those spirits that were imprisoned. God’s Mercy is patent.

…further, the old economy required that we obey the Law and offer the various sacrifices that were required in the Old Covenant… the new economy requires that we offer up Christ!

From man’s perspective, it could well seem that God has somehow changed… from God’s perspective the Salvific Plan has unfolded according to plan:

4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: 5 That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. 7 Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through God.

(Galatians 4:4-7)
…and while we may enjoy the Grace of the New Covenant, the Old Covenant did not relegate man to nothingness since Yahweh God invites man to be Holy:

44 For I am Yahweh your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy.

(Leviticus 11:44a–HCSB)

6 I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High. (Psalm 81:6–DR)
…clearly, we cannot achieve Holiness outside of Christ… yet, God’s Mercy would embrace all, Old and New Covenant, in Christ.

Merry Christmas!
Maran atha!

Angel

 

[goout]

It’s good to ponder the damage that fundamentalist bible interpretations do to the faith.
Fundamentalist interpretations of these passages provide easy, well reasoned objections for atheists and others who would attack Christianity for the well documented violence in the bible.

“If this is your God, I want no part of him”, and they are right, if this is our God! But this is not our God.
The problem is, they don’t object to God, they object to a fundamentalist caricature of God:
“scratch an atheist, find a fundamentalist”

Please let’s not aid people in those objections by insisting that God ordered murder!

 

[PJM]

yes, jesus certainly died that all men might be saved which means that he gives all sufficient grace, in one way or another, to be saved. However some are more blessed with grace, such as our mother mary and other great men and women, while all receive the sufficient amount.

I do believe that god is the same god in both the ot and nt, but that he does respond differently which doesn’t make him different, but only that his treatment and favors are different.

What i think is that there has been an idea that god’s different behavour makes god different, or that behavour makes god who he is. So much so that to say that god is different in the ot is assumed to say that god himself is different which of course can’t be.

There is a parallel in this in the dark night of the soul. The behavour of god toward this person is different than one who has already passed thru the dark night. And it is common to hear someone thinking that their relationship with jesus deteriorated because of this dark night and thru misunderstanding, think that they lost that relationship. But rather jesus treats each one to bring them closer to himself tho it may not appear to be so at the time.

thank you

gby

 

[fred_conty]

It’s good to ponder the damage that fundamentalist bible interpretations do to the faith.
Fundamentalist interpretations of these passages provide easy, well reasoned objections for atheists and others who would attack Christianity for the well documented violence in the bible.

“If this is your God, I want no part of him”, and they are right, if this is our God! But this is not our God.
The problem is, they don’t object to God, they object to a fundamentalist caricature of God:
“scratch an atheist, find a fundamentalist”

Please let’s not aid people in those objections by insisting that God ordered murder!

Are people treated differently by God in the OT than they are in the NT?

originally posted by Fred Conty
It says in Genesis that Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise in the OT. What this means is that they became unjustified before God. While in the NT, they became justified.

So wouldn’t this mean that there would be a blessed/justified relationship with God in the NT, while in the OT it was an unblessed/unjustified relationship? And the different relationships might translate sometimes into the kind of treatment as well…harsher or softer?

Or what you think it might mean if anything.

grout, the above was the oringinal post. It was to set up the idea/impression made by the OT and the idea/impression made by the NT.
Then looking at those two impressions, seeing if they are different in the way that God treats each. Something like looking at the forest and not at the trees.

Why? Because on this websight there have been some who thought that there were two different Gods in the bible based on God’s treatment or favors shown in each testiment. And then from this followed a discussion to show that God was the same God in both for various reasons. I felt like this was a denial of what was apparent by attempting to show that both were in the same treatment camp. I didn’t see it that way at all because when I read the OT and then the NT I came away with the same conclusion that treatment was different. But I didn’t see that this was in any way wrong since what ever pleases God to do is right. Just as he does favor some with more grace than others, which to me is obvious from the accounts in the lives of the saints.

So I didn’t intend to get into the particular incidents which are highly controversial, but just looking at the over all impression received from both biblical books.

So my own idea that I came to was to settle something for some who were having trouble balancing both books which was troubling. So what it seems to be is that God is not different in either book, O or N, but that he does use his love and power to treat people where they are which may give the impression of two different Gods.

So this OP wasn’t started to get into some of the detailed dicier problems, but just the over all look of both testiments.

My apologies if there was some confusion.