Is the God of the OT the same God of the NT ? From smite the enemy to love your enemy ?

Question

Did having a son on earth mellow God out . From the God of the OT , kill the Baal worshipers ,Egyptians & others who opposed the Isralites to the God of love in the NT , love your enemy & do not kill.
This has often confused me.

Answer 1

Many struggle with the Old Testament accounts of the wholesale destruction of some nations and cities by God. God destroyed the whole world civilization of Noah's day by a flood (Genesis 6:13) and whole cities by fire, such as Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). In other cases, He ordered the destruction of Canaanite cities by the armies of Israel (Deuteronomy 7:1-2).



It is important to remember that, while God is a God of love, He is also a holy God, separate from sinners and perfect in righteousness, justice, and purity. The powerful seraphim are pictured as flying and calling, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty" (Isaiah 6:3). Judgment against rebellious and indifferent sinners is inevitable, apart from repentance, "for the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23a).



God had endured the idolatry, child sacrifice, and moral corruption of the original inhabitants of the land of Canaan for centuries. When He gave the land to Israel and ordered the destruction of the Canaanites it was both judgment on a people hardened against God and protection for Israel lest they be drawn into the corrupt life of the land's inhabitants.



Our difficulty with these acts of judgment is closely associated with our failure to comprehend the purity of God and the sinfulness of mankind, including ourselves. According to the Bible, we all deserve not only physical death but eternal punishment—apart from the death of Jesus as our substitute. Our only hope for escaping the wrath of God is through repentance from sin and by faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.



In the words of Jesus, "Unless you repent, you too will all perish" (Luke 13:5)—stern words from a God who is "patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9).



Many people decide that the seemingly senseless acts of God's judgment are a valid reason to reject Him. But this is a serious error. Because God is just, He cannot excuse sin or act somehow as if it did not exist. But because God is also loving, He does not want us to have to endure the punishment we deserve for our sins. We do ourselves no good by thinking we have a greater sense of justice than God Himself.



We must surrender to this truth: "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). You cannot save yourself from God's judgment—but Christ can, and He will as you commit your life to Him by faith.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, your question clearly indicates your lack of knowledge about God and about what the OT says. You need to look at it as a whole, not just pick out a few passages here or there that support your agenda. God never sent his children into battle alone. He was always with them. If you care to read about the various leaders of the time, you will see in each case that his people were always outnumbered, ourgunned (more or less) and almost certain to suffer defeat, yet when they had God going before them into battle, they were victorious over the enemy. God's own words in Genesis made it clear that those who worship the devil (such as those you mentioned) would be defeated not by man, but by him. Jesus preached the same thing. Jesus was not a push over as he demonstrated that day in the temple courtyard when he overturned the tables of the money changers. He spoke in rightousness and acted accordingly. As the purpose of Jesus was to lay down the life of a sinless "man" on behalf of all sinners, he had to demonstrate the side of God that would draw men to him, not away. That side of God is his unending love.



As to specific incidents in the OT, please reread the material and note if the followers of God were acting in self defense or according to God's promise to them. They were being obedient.



I often see comments from those who do not believe, that God is cruel or unjust in his statement that those who do not follow him will end up in hell with Satan. (New Testament) God does not condemn someone to death, He is simply stating to sinners what the result of their sin will be if they do not believe in his Son. Same as the OT.



God does not change. He is always loving to his children and has no desire that any be lost to hell. That is why he sent Jesus....to give EVERYONE a chance no matter what they have done in the past.

Answer 3

In the Old testament if you Sinned against God and the Law you perished by the Law. There was no second chance. The Laws were spelled out a head of time and taught from a child. obey these Laws or die. Israel agreed also to abide by these Laws and follow them.



In the New testament God offers people to repent and receive salvation. The gospel went to the gentiles. Israel rejected Jesus and God sent Salvation to the gentiles. Israel can be saved if they chose.



Rom 11:11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.



God will still judge people it happens after death.

God still watches over Israel and will redeem them back to him.



Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

Answer 4

Short answer -- yes, he is the same God. And now to the rest your question.



One of your other answerers mentioned the book of Revelation (not Revelations, that bugs me) as being a return to the Old Testament. So now we go from smite the enemy to love your enemy, back to smite the enemy. But Jesus never denied the existence of hell. And surprise, surprise, he never said God "mellowed out" with his arrival. At this point we have to introduce the concept of being reprobate and not deserving of heaven. In fact, this was the whole point of the Reformation, with the idea that man cannot merit his own salvation.



In other words, there are people that will never be his. And there are people that will always be his -- some of them just don't know it yet. But God is in control of who belongs to him, man is not. Smite the enemy -- yes, in a nationalist sense, God protected his own. But the new Israel, also God's own, no longer has a nationalist platform. Christians will be persecuted. But they also share John 10:30, "I and my father are one," (this verse has to do with authority and backing, not essence of being) with Christ, if you read the surrounding text.

Answer 5

See, that's just it, and THAT'S why I - just like the "heretic" Marcion - believe that the "god" of the Old Testament was none other than that God-wanna-be Satan himself. That's how Satan acts (2 Corinthians 11:14) - throwing in just enough of the truth to make his lies believable, too.



Then, the real God came along and gave us Jesus Christ to straighten out the Hebrews of that time - and, in the future, us, too.



On the other hand: They were not called the "children" of God for no reason, and God as Father dealt with children differently than He did with men when they became - for better or for worse (mostly for worse, but that's another story) - "adults." With children, you have to lay down the law, with punishments and such to, if you will, "beat" it into them. When children grow up, punishing them is no longer effective; all you can do in that case is love them enough that maybe - just maybe - how you raised them to be is who they become.



I can certainly understand your confusion - to some degree, I share it. My advice would be to forget about the Old Testament (except for the only part of it that Jesus brought forward into the New Testament - the Ten Commandments), because, in any case, the Old Testament is the past, and ever since Jesus Christ (A.D. 70, actually - when the Old Covenant was "officially" made null and void), we have been living in the kingdom of God. It's entirely up to us whether we live how He raised us, or choose to destroy ourselves by NOT living how He raised us.



P.S. Did you know that ONLY the New Testament exists in some languages, and the Old Testamant has been left out of the translation? Check out the third link, but the Filipino dialect of Ilonggo (Hiligaynon) is one such of these. Although I cannot say for sure, I would imagine that this was done purposely in order to simply avoid the confusion we have with BOTH testaments.

Answer 6

The Bible is a chosen crew of texts, chosen by using the Bishops who Constantine the Emperor of Rome approved of. He neede a faith that blanketed Jesus yet to boot may nicely be violent each and each and every time the Empire required it. The previous testomony represents a Jewish heritage and a Jewish way of searching at issues. The Emperor also cherished that it confirmed that Jesus had divine lineage decrease back to David, its type of the outlet act. Now Jesus grow to be lengthy previous alongside time from his native land and folk, travelling the silk street to India and Tibet. There he realized of the God of love and got here decrease back to keep his those with this reality. The Priesthood contained in the Temple grow to be very threatened by using him and had him killed so that they could keep administration of the Jews. Jesus says to the people "it really is asserted of previous an eye fixed for an eye fixed and a tooth for a tooth yet I say unto you whosever hits you on the right cheek turn also to him the left cheek and forgive your enemies." they did not listen and seem on the conflict they're in.

Answer 7

Well I don't know where you find the OT stuff from, but yes, the OT God is the same God of the NT... I don't think its a contradiction as much as Jesus promoting the love part more. He does also talk about those who are against him should be sent to hell, blah blah blah, but you are using two small parts of the bible against each other outside context so it doesn't make sense.



Oh, and to Mr. Powers, you don't even know what NT and OT stand for? Then you've not done enough research to argue with me... sorry...

Answer 8

According to gnosticism and marcionism no.



According to Gnosticism YHWH is some kind of twisted god who was created by some really benevolent higher being (or by Sophia, some angel of this higher being) and created earth and humans to have someone to worship him.

Because YHWH wanted to be worshiped alone he withheld knowledge about this higher god from humans (something which was thwarted by Sophia, ending the snake to Eden to get Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, giving them knowledge and helping them to find the truth about the universe and the true benevolent god)

Humans, because of being created by YHWH but at the same time being creatures of the higher god, are some kind of mix from good and evil, but unlike YHWH wants to make humans believe, you just have to find the light of the true benevolent god withim yourself, to get united with this benevolent god after death.

Which is something that Jesus (who was sent by Sophia) wanted to teach humans.

Answer 9

What changed was the way God speaks to us. The way he deals with us. Much like a parent will deal with a five year old in one manner, and a 17 year old in another manner, God has dealt with mankind in one way, and now that we have the lessons of the past to remember, he builds upon them and deals with us in a different way. God, nor his purposes have changed, only his method. In the past, God demonstrated his judgment and mercy through the Law in the Old Testament. Those repercussions for sin in the Old Testament were definitely harsh, but in these last days the Bible says, God demonstrates his judgment and mercy through his Son. Listen to the words of Jesus himself: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”-John 3:36 (NIV)



In the New Testament, Jesus didn’t represent a change in God. Jesus simply took our place and the wrath of God was taken out on him. The punishment the adulteress deserved, that King David deserved, that all of us have earned because of our disobedience to God, was put on Jesus. Isaiah said it best: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” –Isaiah 53:6

Answer 10

believer_in_jesus_37421 hit this one on the head!



Let us remember that the Lord of the Old Testament is the same as the Lord in the New - (Uh, Revelations anyone?)



The Lord is merciful, but there is a limit to the amount of injustice he will tolerate.



We are seeing things through the eyes of ignorance. We did not know what things the Cannanites were doing, but in recent archaology we are discovering a wickedly evil group of people.



He was attempting to raise a Holy people - and mixing the traditions of the evil with the holy will not produce a people with the ability to produce Messiah Yashua - (Jesus) - which was the entire goal in the first place.



Shalom

Answer 11

Similiar. The Lord (O.T.) was the Lord Jesus Christ (God the Son). In the 'N.T.' Jesus points to his Father, God the Father.

Answer 12

God is wrathful and loving. He will punish sinners. He came to earth as a human and died so that we can escape that punishment by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Make no mistake. The wrath is there and will be used.

Answer 13

God, in the OT, was more focused on getting people to survive and obey Him and His rules. In the NT God was here to forgive us, and well forgiveness is ncie ^_^

Answer 14

Yes.

Answer 15

When YHVH was King, and running the country, He tried to direct the nation to do righteousness. Now that we have king George, YAHOSHUA is calling His people out of the human kingdom and into His heavenly kingdom.

Answer 16

It is the same exact God. Grace and love are taught in both testaments, and so are wrath and justice.

Answer 17

God was still a prick even if his son was kind of cool.

Answer 18

let me explain. It's intellectually absurd. We do not need to kill women who aren't virgins when they marry, homosexuals, or children who are disobedient to their parents. Open your eyes instead of your heart.

Answer 19

Jesus was a whip-wielding, pig-killing, tree-shriveling hothead who used an ethnic slur to describe a non-Jew.



Sounds like he followed in dad's footsteps to me.

Answer 20

How many times are you going to ask this question?

Answer 21

what is OT and what is NT~



doesn't matter, god is NULL and VOID~