God in the OT days vs. now

[catholic1seeks]

Why did God communicate to the people of Old Testament times (Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc.) by talking? It seems as though God was more involved back then.

Should we take God talking as something else (like the individual discerning God’s will)? I just don’t understand God “talking”. Did a booming voice out of no where talk from the burning bush to Moses? Or when God called Abraham?

 

[learningtheway]

That’s what I get when I read the OT, it doesn’t seem metaphorical.

 

[AFormerCatholic]

There was also a whole lot more killing at the hands of God in the OT. I

If there is a corelation between God choosing to talk to people and reveal himself in burning bushes, by sending angels etc…and the number of people who die violently.

Then you had better thank your lucky stars that for the last 2000 years, God has chosen to keep himself invisible and silent.

 

[Little_Katie]

I think that this is one of those things that there is no real answer for right now. You might just have to ask God, himself, when you see him eventually .

Personally, reading it does give a literal impression.

This is how I think of it. In the OT God was preparing the Jewish people for the arrival of Christ and Christ dying on the cross. Maybe that has something to do with why God was more “vocal” back then. I have no idea. But it is a thought…

 

[LilyM]

God talked - but to certain people only - Moses and the other prophets. He rarely spoke to the whole people, even when giving them the ten commandments.

Today - not only does God still talk to us through certain people (mystics and visionaries, saints, priests and Popes), but appears in person before all of us in every church in the form of the Blessed Sacrament, which is more than the Israelites got!

 

[AFormerCatholic]

Today - not only does God still talk to us through certain people (mystics and visionaries, saints, priests and Popes), but appears in person before all of us in every church in the form of the Blessed Sacrament, which is more than the Israelites got!

You can no more prove that God presents himself in a Eucharistic Host, than a Mormon can prove that the Christian God personally revealed himself to their Prophet, Joseph Smith.

You, like the majority of Catholics, and all non-Mormon’s, likely find the religious faith of the Mormon’s and the claims of Joseph Smith, to be utterly fantastic, false and a fabrication.

Both concepts are believed by large numbers of people, neither one can be proven to be true and both are believed on faith, and only faith.

You believe absolutely in something that cannot be proven, the real presence and Christianity in general.

Mormons believe absolutely in something that cannot be proven, that Joseph Smith was a genuine Biblical North American Prophet.

By your reasoning, both claims must be true.

 

[LilyM]

Uh huh. What can the Mormon church produce comparable to the numerous Eucharistic miracles that have occurred in Catholic churches - ever since Lanciano in (I think) the 700s which are being examined by scientists to this day - where the Host at Catholic Masses has turned into REAL human flesh and REAL human blood (incidentally all the same blood type when tested, which is a curious detail)?

These miracles at least provide SOME evidence, which I’ll freely admit isn’t perfect, of the truth of Catholic claims. I’ve never seen the Mornon church produce any evidence of this magnitude in regard to their claims.

On the contrary, not only are Mormon claims falsifiable - they name real places in America where the ‘lost tribes of Israel’ lived and the like - but they have been falsified - no evidence of any kind has been found at those places that people lived there or the events described happened.

 

[Crumpy]

God talking directly to Adam and Eve and others, for example, may be an anthropomorphism as in other examples that depicts God as angry, hungry, etc.

In Crossing the Threshold of Truth, Pope John Paul II answered a related question, that people don’t believe because they don’t like how God has revealed himself. Well, that’s the same question as in this thread, just expressed differently. That was his answer as well.

Scripture says that faith is a gift, and so I’m not surprised to see that one person believes and another does not. Scripture says that we should strive for all the spiritual gifts. Amen.

 

[scameter18]

The God of the OT and NT are the same God; there is no real distinction. The only difference is that in the OT, Jesus was not incarnate yet, but while incarnate, He specifically tried to live a life for humans to imulate, which meant excluding some behaviours that God would do. For instance, Jesus said “I did not come to judge, but to forgive,” and yet He says God is the judge, and only He has the authority to judge, exact vengeance/justice, etc. But there is no real contradiction. Christ didn’t say, “I can’t and never will judge.” He merely said, I didn’t come to judge. The Bible also says that Christ can and will judge, especially in the Last Day. But if He judged people while alive, and then told people to imulate Him, people would judge others, and so He didn’t do that. But God in the OT, since he was not yet incarnate, fully performed every action of God, which included exacting judgement, justice and punishment on people, while still being supremely merciful and loving to everyone. People greatly exaggerate God’s killing in the OT, and also ignore why God did kill when He did in the OT, which was always for a good, just reason.

But, to answer the specific question of the topic creator. While the OT does use some human-like descriptives for God that a spirit would not have, such as mentioning God’s “back” or “face”, they mean something real, and when it says God “spoke” to people, He does that in many different ways; one of which is audibly. Through the burning bush, God audibly spoke to Moses, and He spoke to a later prophet (I forget who) through a soft, gentle wind atop a mountain, but most of the time, God spoke through an angel. In the NT, that is unnecessary. We have Christ, the Face of God, who is physically present at every single Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit, our Divine Advocate in a personal, constant inner presence of God that makes every baptized heart the Kingdom of God in His dwelling.