Why is the OT God so different from the NT God?

[Robert_Sock]

God did not change, just the recorded tone of His voice. Yeah, I’m confused here too, but the birth of the Messiah would warrant such a change, would it not? I would be most interested what the Kabbalah would have to imply in all this. If my memory serves me correctly, the Kabbalah states that our world was once governed by ‘evil’ alone, and not ‘good.’ I sincerely hope I do not offend anybody with my confessed ignorance on the matter! Just food for thought, and I do believe that Jewish Mysticism will paint a more cohesive picture once studied in the light of things.

LOVE!

 

[Counterpoint]

Question is pretty straightforward: Why is the God of the Old Testament so different from the God of the New Testament?

It seems like in the OT God is a little bit meaner, he favors the Jews over all other ethnicities to the point of killing other groups of people, destroys cities and even almost the entire population at one point, and just in general is more of a God to worship out of fear than love? And then you come to the New Testament and God all of the sudden loves all humans (not just the Jews), spreads a message of totally loving your enemies and turning the other cheek, and all that?

Yahweh was a tribal war 'god" that evolved into “God” as the Jews evolved from a tribal culture to a civilized one.

 

[Credo_in_Deum]

Question is pretty straightforward: Why is the God of the Old Testament so different from the God of the New Testament?

They’re not. The Old and New Testaments cannot be separated. This is why the both of them combined make up one Bible, because in it we have the Word and Actions of One God. But if you want to find an example of God’s unchanging justice from the OT in the NT then turn to Acts 5, where God strikes dead, Ananias and his wife Saphira.

Same God my friend.

 

[VeritasLuxMea]

No, you misunderstand.

God is the same, unchanging.

We are different but there is nothing anyone should be held accountable to.

Read the Bible and you will see Gods love and protection in the Old Testament. It’s everywhere. People cherry pick verses about how the enemies of Israel were handled and when using our modern lens we see no mercy or love. But if we viewed it with the lens of 3000 BC, we would see the mercy much more clearly because of the violence of the time.

OK, but why not go with a more straightforward interpretation (IMO)–this one:

Counterpoint:

Yahweh was a tribal war 'god" that evolved into “God” as the Jews evolved from a tribal culture to a civilized one.

It seems like you have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to make the answer into something other than the one above.

 

[oldcelt]

OK, but why not go with a more straightforward interpretation (IMO)–this one:

It seems like you have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to make the answer into something other than the one above.

I agree with the notion of God as a developing intelligence.

 

[Robert_Sock]

I agree with the notion of God as a developing intelligence.

Well, yes, of course. In the Face of God, all is naught (Judaism)! God even knew the exact course of each and every snowflake that ever fell, before it fell! (Come all you people, check this Guy out!)

 

[Sochi]

Question is pretty straightforward: Why is the God of the Old Testament so different from the God of the New Testament?

It seems like in the OT God is a little bit meaner, he favors the Jews over all other ethnicities to the point of killing other groups of people, destroys cities and even almost the entire population at one point, and just in general is more of a God to worship out of fear than love? And then you come to the New Testament and God all of the sudden loves all humans (not just the Jews), spreads a message of totally loving your enemies and turning the other cheek, and all that?

Anyone who reads the Bible cover to cover with any sense of proportion comes up with this sort of question. It is important to remember that the Bible is a collection of books selected from a huge number that were all used by Christians in the early days of the Church. How these were selected and why, and how they came to be held in the regard they are, is a study in itself, leading to even more questions, faithful or not!

The simplest way to see this, might for some, be to understand that these are stories about God written in accord with the understanding of the many authors of their different times and circumstances. Even if the claim to inspiration is made, it is evident that inspiration if filtered by the mind and knowledge of the inspiree, and is not a direct dictation or transmission. If it was, why are there so many versions of each? So the place holder word “God” (Don’t forget, they didn’t have capital letters, punctuation or even vowels, or spaces between words) is far more about the authors and translators than about the purity of Diety as such. Some even argue that the “authority” of God was used, as it is today by many of many religions, to legitimize an agenda.

A wonderful book, although it is old, that has been used in the comparative religion clases of several religions, including some Catholic, is Gina Cermiara’s Insights for the Age of Aquarius; a handbook for religious sanity. I know, wretched title, but the premise of the book is sound, functional, and endorsed by many faith leaders of the time. Worth checking out. Our multi-faith book club is reading it now, and many revealing, useful, and barrier dissolving ideas have been brought forth and embraced.