Could it maybe be true that the OT angry God needed Jesus in His heart, instead of us? Is it true that NT God found Jesus and became far more forgiving?
2007-01-22 08:08:49 · 23 answers · asked by ? 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The idea of God being like a father means much more to me now that I have 2 kids of my own.
I set pretty easy to meet rules for my sons. For example, at dinner, I make him eat a little bit of everything we are having - sometimes just a nibble. By my perspective, how hard is it to eat a pea? But my son (5 yrs old) is capable of making a huge fuss about eating one pea.
This is kind of how I understand how God was in the OT. He set rules that should be easy enough to follow, but people didn't. And just like me with my children, he got angry and wrathful. I've punished my son for not eating his pea - the OT is full of God's punishment.
What God realized, was that we humans, who he chose to give free will to, are bone-heads. We don't do what we know we should do, and we often do what we shouldn't do. He realized that our own natures were separating us from him, and rather than continue to guide us by wrath and fear, he sent Jesus to us.
God is unchanging. He's still jealous, he's still wrathful, but by sending Jesus to us, he gave mankind a new way to Him.
After thinking it through, it makes sense to me. I hope this helps...
2007-01-22 08:17:10 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'm an atheist, but, after having read the Bible multiple times, I've grown to dislike the notion that the Old Testament God is much different from the New Testament God. In the OT, God isn't "wrathful, violent, tyrannical" as so many of my fellow atheists claim. He certainly helped the Israelites against their Canaanite foes, but what would you do if your neighbors wanted to ravage your towns. The OT laws of Deuteronomy, though certainly unacceptable in today's more "civilized" society, were the norm back in the olden days of the ancient Hebrews and, therefore, must be seen in a proper context. However, the OT God was also merciful, from hearing the cries of his people and aiding them to even forgiving King David of his crime of murder/adultery. Enough of that, moving on to the New Testament. Christians enjoy picturing Jesus as a complete man of peace and love. Although he certainly did promote a prominent message of peace, there are many "hard sayings" that would make a few people scratch their heads. For example, he reminds us that many cross the road to damnation. Ooh, scary, not very "loving" after all. With love, an atheist
2016-05-23 22:26:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
those who view the god of the ot & nt the same would explain it as saying that there are demarcations from creation to the new heavens and new earth. popularly referenced as dispensations.
the idea is that god has dealt with mankind in different dispensations so at the end of time there are no excuses.
examples - creation and all things perfect - man screws it up
- the law; 10 rules & your in like flynn- nobody keeps em
-grace- man totally rejects the idea of a god of grace
these are only 3 there are more
anyway kind of a funny oxymoron the way you've proposed it. ot accepting the nt - very funny
2007-01-22 08:18:28 · answer #3 · answered by dharp66 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The difference between OT God and NT God, can simply be explained as one of the many contradictions and inconsitencies in the Bible. According to the Bible, Jesus was merely an incarnation of God and if anything, Jesus needed God for forgiveness for his own anger. God was just a way of keeping Law and order in old times. It explained natural disasters etc. God is a creation of man. Not the other way round.
2007-01-22 08:14:39 · answer #4 · answered by dosteyevsky_crimeandpunishment 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No. The OT reflects how the PEOPLE who wrote it at that particular time felt about God, and the NT reflects how the PEOPLE who wrote it at that time felt. Want 2 confuse urself even more? Try reading ALL 26 VERSIONS of the Bible. Though it's introduced us to Jesus and has some lovely stories(and horrific ones too), unfortunately we humans only use it to control one another. Jesus tried to unite the people with simple messages of faith and peace. Men wrote the Bibles and we've been ripped apart ever since.
2007-01-22 08:34:46 · answer #5 · answered by squishy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Was Jesus really so forgiving? Somewhere in the holy evangelical books he is reported to have declared "those who are not with me are against me". He is also reported to spitefully have shaken the dust off his sandals and gone his way at a village where the sceptical inhabitants did NOT want to hear of his holy message. He did indeed iteratively verbally (fortunately only verbally) threaten sinners, scandalmongers, unrepenting souls etc. with the fire of the Jehenna?, or burning in Hell if you please. He is also reported to bluntly have cursed to death the innocent fig-tree for not bearing any fruit when he passed by and was hungry. Jesus violently expelled those men who were selling souvenirs at the temple door; he did indeed not acknowledge that those poor family fathers were trying to earn some money to bring home to family. When he had stayed away from his parents and they asked him why he had disappeared without telling them anything, Jesus answered that it was none of their business to be worried about him. In this way he may also have contravened the precept of the second biblical commandment that declares that people shall honor their father and their mother.
We may also simplemindedly think that he by not getting a family, wife and children of his own, clearly contravened the holy biblical law of God which says that we God's predilect (semitic) people shal be man and wife and multiply and populate the World.
The blunt followers of Jesus down the centuries did indeed make great use of dire intolerance and of deadly punishments, they split into many sects and they did indeed violently fight each other and the infidels, and they eagerly burned to death heretics and their books, and witches, rebellious souls, bright philosophers, sincere scientists. No?
2007-01-22 08:28:31 · answer #6 · answered by pasquale garonfolo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in the OT, God judged the people by there actions a lot faster than he did with the people in the NT, because, when Christ went on the cross, God put all judgement on Christ, so before Christ, judgement on people, when Christ came, judgement on Christ (but people before Christ were still able to get saved). Now, and since the death of Christ, He is in control of all that needs to be judged because He took the blame for everyone, past and present, but people after Christs 1st coming (from what i can only assume) have a different outlook on the Christian lile. Christ's coming to the cross changed a lot of how things were to be done.
2007-01-22 08:16:38 · answer #7 · answered by Alexial Jastire 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There can't be many Gods or God with no perfection?
The great change from the time of Moses to the time of Christ shows the amazing effect of the Divine Education from the One True God. Humanity of our days must be more civilized than the Christians and the Muslims, not because they worship another God, but the One True God has destined humanity to reach to higher and higher summits of His knowledge.
2007-01-22 08:21:28 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
u cant see it like this...you need to think about the bible's history. the ot god is an angry god bec the people didnt know anything about science, so everything bad that happened was god. and the people of these times didnt have this feeling of love jesus brought.
2007-01-22 08:13:31 · answer #9 · answered by torrance_wendy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gnostic Christians have a very different view of the disparity between Jehovah and the Father that Jesus preached.
Gnostics believe that Jehovah is Yaldaboath, the demiurge, a false god who was brought forth by the sin of Sophia (wisdom) the last in a line of emanations.
They believed that the God Jesus preached was the true God of light and love.
The sin of Sophia caused a cosmic crisis. Yaldaboath was banished from the realm of light to the realm of darkness. However, when he left he took with him Sophia's light power.
In the realm of darkness Yaldaboath set up the heavens and the earth. He created man in his flawed image, along with all his flawed emotions of jealousy, wrath, hate, etc. For reasons that are too involved to go into here, our bodies were fashioned by Yaldaboath, but our spirit comes from the realm of light.
The Father cannot have direct contact with the realm of defiled darkness, for he is pure love and pure light, not even thinking evil.
Therefore he sent his only begotten son, Christ to be a conduit between this realm of darkness and the realm of light.
Gnostics believe that Jesus' true mission was to save us from Yaldaboath (Jehovah), and to act as a conduit between here and the realm of light. That is the reason given for Jesus saying, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
2007-01-22 08:53:03 · answer #10 · answered by Wisdom in Faith 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋