Why is God not as kind as Jesus?

Question

I'm still trying to figure out why in the old testament, God was so cruel killing most of his own creation except for his favoured few in Noah's Ark, killing innocent new-born babies of the romans in the Moses story, and then suddenly in the new testament where instead of destroying the entire world again, God chose to bring Jesus down to so-called die for people's sin. If God was so powerful, why does he have to make 1 person suffer for other people's sin. Can't he just erase them or just forgive? Why does his mind work in such sick ways? He is GOD, he should be able to come up with a more less violent solution.

Answer 1

The God of the Old Testament is a violent, cruel, genocidal maniac. Jesus is supposed to be an antidote to that, a kind-hearted fellow. Christianity is really a polytheistic religion with at least three different gods. The OT god was included in the pantheon (the list of gods) because the Christian Church in Rome wanted to make Christianity continuous with Judaism and it's god (so they could claim Abraham as originator). Jesus was added to the pantheon as the NT, the new way. The problem is that the old god and the new god are diametrically opposite in character and temperament. To be consistent, Christianity would need to get rid of the old god and make Jesus the chief god, but they obviously can't do that because the whole religion would collapse.

Answer 2

Jesus said, "I and my Father are one." (John 10:6)
"If you have seen me you have seen the father. (John 14:9
"Before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:58)

There is no difference between God the Father and Jesus or God in the Old Testament and God in the New Testament.

Sin is a terrible cancer and requires drastic measures -- even the death of God's own Son.

Reading the history of the tribes that God told the Israelites to wipe out is quite informative. God told Abraham that his descendants would have to live in a foreign land for 400 years because, "the iniquity of the Armorites was not yet full." (Gen 15:16) God in His foreknowledge knew that these people would become wicked to the point where there was no hope. (Like a car being totaled beyond repair.) But he let things progress naturally until the Armorites sealed their own fate. These people held regular human sacrifices of children and had male and female prostitutes in their idolatrous temples. Incest was regularly practiced.

Side note: The OT Israelites were the only true theocracy in history with an all knowing God in charge (although the Israelites blew it most of the time.) I am scared that some in America seem to be trying to form a theocracy today. But that is impossible. It goes against Bible prophesy and common sense.

But back to the point. God is just and operates on the principle of love, although we don't understand most things. He hates sin but loves sinners.

The book of Job has always helped me when thinking about these things.

Answer 3

I have heard two good answers to this question; depending on your persuasion one will probably appeal to you more than another:

1) The Bible is a story that must be read from beginning to end because it tells the story of how God's love for us changed over time. The Old Testament is like the disciplinary phase parents go through with their children, where God shows us that he is in control and we must trust him. The New Testament is like the unconditional love parents also feel for their children even though they discipline them, and it shows us what we have to gain from a meaningful relationship with God.

2) Some people believe that the Bible was a book written and perpetuated largely to scare people into following social law. In the time of the Old Testament, people responded more positively to fear than they do now. As civilization developed, the way the Bible was written changed to accommodate the fact that people increasingly responded better to the promise of love than the threat of fear. So the New Testament was added to give people the promise of grace in exchange for following social law in addition to the threat of damnation.

Answer 4

For some, Jesus is God-made-man. I do not personally subscribe to that theory. I believe that Jesus is the son of God and his presence on Earth was God's method of having chosen a "new way". The power of God was within him and he surely could have used it in ways not unlike in the Old Testament. However, that was not the intent. Jesus was put here for us to follow by example, a visual incarnation representing God's change of heart. We still crucified him, so you see, the fault lies within man, not God or his son. Free will is a power granted to us that has been so deplorably abused. In the end, your choices and their subsequent ramifications on others will be what you are judged on. Until that day, free will reigns upon this Earth. Jesus tried and succeeded to a large degree, but our paths are our own. Jesus tried to show us the light of the new way.

Answer 5

God and Jesus are one and the same. All of these things came about because of the persecutions to God's people. Those where evil people doing evil things to innocent people and remember these people where killing innocent people and children just because they chose to believe and serve their heavenly father and not bow down before man-made Idols. And God is a forgiving God, if we choose to repent of our wrong doings and change our ways. those people did not. God loves us all but he gave us ten commandments to live by, Deuteronomy (5: 1-21) please read.

May God give you eyes to see, ears to hear, and an understanding heart.

Answer 6

The version of god Jesus spoke of was more described by the Buddhist version. The OT version is not our creative force but the Anannaki. Read the Sumerian tablets with the original garden of eden story on them.

Answer 7

Who said He is not kind? Look at all the things He did and continues to do for ungrateful unfaithful people. He gets blamed for man's own sins and for their mistakes, He never gets credit for His gifts and the good things He sends? It's a testament to His love and kindness that we still exist at all. If He were like us humans we would all have been wiped away centuries ago.

Answer 8

I have started leaning towards athiesm after having suffered at the hands of muslims for most of my life.

Also I dont know if I believe in the existence of GOD anymore because of what you say.

But can anyone give one thought to how much GOD must be suffering because of us humans? If GOD exists, I think it must be a very painful life, for whoever we call GOD, to see what we have done to this creation and what we continue to do inspite of all the knowledge we possess.

Answer 9

You are misreading the OT.
God loves his people like a mother hen in Exodus.
"I knew you before you were born" Jeremiah
The Song of Songs is a love poem that is too erotic to be read in most churches.
A Jewish daily prayer the Shema: you shall love God with your whole heart, mind and strength.

Answer 10

I think you have not looked close enough at the New Testament.

When Jesus finishes telling the parable of the ten talents/minas, He mentions those who would not come and submit to Him (Luke 19:27):

"But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me."

And there are numerous statements about the sword Jesus will kill most people with when He returns (Revelation 2:16, 19:15, 19:21):

"Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth."

"From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty."

"And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh."

And, it's actually Jesus who warns more about hell than any other speaker in the New Testament (Matthew 5:22, 29, 30, 10:28, 16:18, 18:9, 23:15, 33, Mark 9:43, 45, 47, Luke 12:5), not to mention His similar references to casting people into the Lake of Fire.

So, I think it is clear here that we are dealing with primarily the same God in the Old Testament and New Testament.

There was a way to escape punishment in the Old Testament times (by entering into the old covenant given to the 12 tribes of Israel).

There is a way to escape punishment in these New Testament times (by entering into the new covenant extended to include all "tribes" and nations of people).

When God sent Jesus to the cross to crush Him for the sins of many people (see Isaiah 53), it was the one place where the perfect justice of God would meet the perfect mercy of God.

God does not merely turn a blind-eye and sweep the sins of the world under the rug of the universe. God cares more about His righteousness than you or I do, and He would be unrighteous to simply ignore sins - justice demands punishment for disobedience.

However, God is also merciful and slow to anger and abounding in love. No greater love exists than what Jesus absorbed on that cross for sinners, namely the punishment they deserved.

This is explained somewhat in Romans 3:21-26:

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

If you want a better understanding of all these things, I strongly encourage you to get a copy of "The Pleasures of God" by John Piper. Or visit http://www.desiringgod.org/library/series/LBPG.html and read a shortened set of sermons...