Why is the God in the OT very different to the God in the NT?

Question

In the NT anyone and everyone who has a simple opinion or thinks different is killed of, whether its when God tells the Hebrews to invade the land and kill all men and children, killing all first borns of Egypt, the flood that supposedly wiped out 99.9% of the worlds population and even when He told Moses to kill 10,000 people.

Yet in the NT it has quotes like "we love because He loved us first" and also “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Why are they so different, I thought Christians worshipped the same God as the Jews?

Answer 1

Men rewrote mens first try.

Answer 2

The Bill of Rights directly violates the commandments;

#1. You can have all the gods you want.

#2. Graven images are completely legal.

#3. Freedom of speech allows taking the lords name in vain.

#4. We don't have to have any Sabbath day, let alone Sunday.

#5. We don't have to honor our parents, especially if they are alcoholics.

#7. Adultery is not actually a crime. Felony or misdemeanor.

#10. Coveting is also not a crime.



The only ones that are actually laws are;

#8. Stealing.

#9. is debatable since politicians would all be in jail if lying were outlawed.



Which has done more good?

The ten commandments?

Or the Bill of Rights?

Answer 3

The two faith books differ in many fundamental and significant respects. that is why they are not compatible and Christianity became a seperate faith. Although the later writing does refer and occasionally quote from the Jewish Bible, it does not accept the Jewish Bible teachings by and large.



I do quibble however with your presentation -- the God depicted in the "Old Testament" is loving and compassionate -- for forgiveness, all one has to do is return to God and strive to follow His methods of ethics, morality and compassion. He says there that everyone sins, both the righteous and the wicked. The difference between the righteous and wicked however is that the wicked wallow in their sin while the righteous (who fall seven times and get back up) care about their mistakes and continue to strive to be better humans etc



In the New Testament He is presented as a vindictive and rather irrational God -- who has created a "hell" of everlasting torment into which even all persons who love Him and strive to follow Him (the "righteous" of the Old Testament) must go. It says he cares more about having blood than about having their devotion; i.e. that He must have some blood in order to forgive, and that the best blood of course would be His own.



So He shows His "love" by coming Himself as a blood sacrifice to Himself and thereafter -- STILL having the righteous go to everlasting torment -- but giving them a chance to avoid it by accepting the concepts of this blood sacrifice etc. Only then can those who love Him avoid the horrific eternal suffering. Otherwise, they have to suffer for ever and ever. His own followers and lovers are otherwise "doomed" etc.



That being said, there is only One God. So Christians cannot but worship the same God as do Jews. They just have gotten a little off the track. If they treat others well however, it is very likely that under the "Old Testament" concept God is forgiving them anyway. not "dooming" them to Hell as in the New testament.

Answer 4

The first parts of Genesis, from the tale of Creation through the tales of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel, the Great Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Wars of the Kings in which Abraham was involved -- are all based on earlier Sumerian records.



The origin of the Biblical seven days of creation is almost certainly the seven tablets on which the Enuma Elish was written. This is evident from the contrast between the first six Babylonian tablets describing Marduk’s acts of creation and the seventh tablet which is dedicated to a general exaltation of the god (and thus a parallel to the Biblical seventh day when God rested).

Answer 5

I understand what you mean, but please recognize that what you call 'God in the OT' is in only about half of the OT. It was the OT prophets who began to change the way God is viewed, and the change had already taken place in Judaism before the NT was written. In fact, much of the NT is based on the 'God of the prophets' in the OT. So, as far as the viewpoint in Jesus' day was concerned, they were not so different.

Answer 6

Its just a continuity error, most fiction falls short in some detail or other. I imagine the faithful will say it was because of the new covenant. Don't be fooled Jesus predicted the end of the world was imminent. Another continuity error.Perhaps the bible should have been written by a proffessional.

Answer 7

When we have a goal to reach, we often do things differently during different steps we must take to get the job done . . . Consider the gardener . . . First he must remove all of the weeds, then he adds appropriate amendments where needed, and only then does he begin to plant & water & landscape to create a beautiful garden! Well, think of Jehovah as the gardener, the earth as the garden, and pagan cultures as the weeds. God removed them so that his chosen fruit trees could eventually take root & thrive, without their deathly competition!





The OT shares the history of people's relationship/s with --including an extreme rebelliousness toward-- Almighty Jehovah God. They often became so violent & depraved that God destroyed entire towns, tribe, and even everyone except one family of 8 in the Flood of Noah's day!





For example, the Canaanites were *exceedingly* savage with their *own* babies, among other horrible practices:



"...Immorality, pagan worship, and child sacrifice were widespread in Canaan.



Bible historian Henry H. Halley notes that archaeologists excavating the area

“found great numbers of jars containing the remains of children

who had been *sacrificed* to Baal [a prominent god of the Canaanites].



“The whole area proved to be a cemetery for new-born babes. . . . Canaanites worshiped, by immoral indulgence, as a religious rite, in the presence of their gods; and then, by *murdering their first-born children, as a sacrifice* to these same gods. It seems that, in large measure, the land of Canaan had become a sort of Sodom and Gomorrah on a national scale. . . . *Archaeologists who dig in the ruins of Canaanite cities wonder that God did not destroy them sooner than he did!”...*



"Why Did God Wage War Against the Canaanites?"

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2010006





"Other practices of the Canaanites were:

spiritism with its seances, casting of spells, fortune-telling (De 18:9-12),

offering children --as LIVE BURNT OFFERINGS-- to their gods (De 12:31; Jer 32:35; 2Ki 16:3),

incest, sodomy, and bestiality. (Le 18:6, 22-30; 20:13) . . .



"The Canaanites also practiced “sacred” prostitution by male and female temple prostitutes . . .

De 23:17, 18; 1Ki 14:24.



"On the basis of these and other “abominable” or “detestable” practices, Jehovah God ordered Israel to devote the Canaanites to destruction so that no contamination by false religion would result. (De 20:17, 18)



"Any Israelite practicing the same things or advocating such apostasy was to receive *precisely the same* penalty.—De 13:12-15; 17:2-7; Ezr 9:1, 11-14.

.



"Detestable Thing"

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001161?q=canaanites&p=par





Not only were the pagan cultures steeped in such practices, they were living on land that God had earlier promised to the extended family of his friend, Abraham . . . and, they were NOT inclined to give it up to them!



God was preparing a place & a people among which his son --Jesus Christ-- would be born & raised. but --eve though he took the precautions of removing pagan religion & its followers from the land-- the Israelites still succumbed to it, and after warning them & them ignoring him further, he allowed them to be removed (many died in the process) for a set amount of time, after which he saw to it that a remnant of their offspring were allowed to return. Thus, Jesus Christ was eventually born in Israel. . .



Jesus began teaching several new concepts to God's people, but the vast majority rejected him, having him killed! This, even though the hundreds of prophesies about him only his life fulfilled, proving him to be their Messiah! Yet, during his short ministry, Jesus taught that a few of his faithful followers would actually be reassigned to rule alongside him in heaven over humankind & the earth, after Armageddon; that God would henceforth not require them to kill anyone under any circumstance. Jesus had come & would soon leave the earth, and from then on the pagan nations would be allowed to do as they please . . . up until Armageddon, when they will be annihilated for all time.

Answer 8

God remained and remains the same, it is the type of covenant that changed from the OT to the NT. The OT was a covenant based on justification by God's Law's. The NT was and is and always will be a covenant based on justification by Jesus Christ' shed blood on the cross. Both were based on blood as the atonement for sin, one ritually in sacrifice, year after year...the final one, once and for all, a finished work by the one mediator qualified and acceptable to God to be our redeemer, Jesus Christ.(Heb 9:22 - And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.)



Hebrews 1:1-3 -

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;



And no, many Jews, just as in Bible times continued to disobey God, continue to do so today. True Christians believe the same as Messianic Jews in general...both acknowledging and having faith in their justification through the blood of Jesus Christ.



Furthermore Galatians 3 is a great book to read regarding the place of the Law in the life of a New Testament believer:



Galatians 3:19, 23-25 --Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Answer 9

The Bible says God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So it must be our perception that's skewed. Throughout the Bible one fact remains consistent. The wages of sin is death. But there's one more, equally important. Unfortunately it hardly ever gets mentioned, at least in regard to the Old Testament. God forgives all who ask.



King David had sex with Bathsheba (a married woman) and got her pregnant. That's adultery and them some. The penalty was stoning until death.



Then David tried to cover up his sin by pulling Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, from the front lines of battle long enough for him to have sex with his wife. David then sent Uriah into the thick of battle to be killed. Now David could pin the pregnancy on Uriah and dead people don't talk. So now David is an accessory to murder. That's good for another stoning until death.



But God never condemned David to death. Why? Because David humbled himself before God and asked forgiveness (Psalm 51). A righteous God must forgive if asked with a humble heart. It amazes me how often people miss that side of God. It's right in the Bible, but who really studies it?



What did Adam do when God confronted him? He blamed God for giving him 'that woman.' What did Eve do when God confronted her? She blamed the serpent: the devil made me do it. And they suffered at the hands of a righteous God. Imagine where we'd all be today if Adam and Eve had simply said, "We messed up. Please forgive us."



God gave the Canaanites 400 years to repent of their evil ways (child sacrifice, divination, sorcery, interpreting omens, witchcraft, casting spells, acting as a medium or spiritist, consulting the dead) before He finally passed judgement on them. He gave the people of Nineveh the same warning. They repented after 40 years and were not only spared, but blessed. God's relationship with the Israelites was a continual see-saw of judgements and blessings depending on how they responded to His call. In fact it's still that way today with the Jews.



The question God asked of all those in the Old Testament was: will you obey me?



Then God sent His only begotten Son to pay the price in full for the sins of the entire world. Because He was sinless, Jesus was the only man ever qualified to pay for another's sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. (2 Peter 3:18) He also fulfilled the requirements of the Law set out in Leviticus 25:25, 47-49. And since God punished His innocent Son for our sins, God cannot punish us. A righteous God could never do that. The question He asks us is: will you believe in me?



Those who do, those who trust Jesus for their eternal salvation will be spared God's final judgement on this world. They've humbled themselves before the Lord just like King David and the people of Nineveh did hundreds of years ago. Those who prefer to do an Adam and Eve and blame others or deny God like the Amorites will face judgement.



So you see, God hasn't changed one bit. But you'll never know the true nature of God without studying his word: the Bible.

Answer 10

The character of God has never changed. God demands that His creation do what He has commanded. The only change is the sacrifice of Christ and that God will wait until the day of Judgment to bring His wrath upon mankind that rebels.

Answer 11

The O.T. deity was a tribal god. The N.T. version was an export product.

Answer 12

he is not different he is the same



god said the same things to his followers in the old testament



Leviticus 19:18

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.



Leviticus 19:34

But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.



Deuteronomy 6:5

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.



Luke 10:27

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.