O.T. God vs. N.T. Jesus
Q. Why is the O.T. God different from the N.T. God, who seems to doing more “Public Relations”?
A. The issue has 2 basic parts:
- OT has judgment, punishment, sin, etc…
- N.T. Jesus is slow to judge and quick to forgive, etc…
As I pointed out in “Illegitimate Contradictions,” (Link) there are some questions that can be answered by simply reading the Biblical texts. This is one of them.
Mercy & Justice
“O.T. God is quick to act and doesn’t offer mercy.”
If this is true, the O.T. Israelites were totally oblivious to this idea. God repeatedly forgave and had mercy on them to the extent that they coined a phrase describing him. The said he was “slow to anger and abounding in love.” This exact phrase is repeated 9 different times throughout the Bible (e.g., Numbers 14:18).
Regardless of how the Israelites viewed God, I personally see the same God in the N.T. as I do in the Old. In the First Covenant, there are repeated examples where portions of humanity deserved to die, and yet they were spared. For example, as I showed in Old Testament Genocide (Link), God always offers mercy before judgment. (A good O.T. Example of this would be the repentance of a very wicked man in 1 Kings 21:25-29.)
Jesus echoes this same idea in the New Testament. For instance, humanity is offered mercy for their sin. While on Earth, we are given free chances to choose God and forego our punishments. This example is full of meaning in our own personal lives!
Condemnation
“O.T. God is quick to condemn sin while the N.T. Jesus seems to hesitate every once in a while. See John 8:1-11 & the adulteress. Jesus didn’t condemn her while the O.T. did.”
In the New Testament, Jesus often acts in ways we don’t expect. He surrounds himself with a group comprised of low-class workers and random people everyone hated. This seems rather odd since we would guess that he’d be hanging around the more “religious” people of the day, which ended up being the people he condemned.
The O.T. was setting up some of the rules for sinfulness, but it was GOD that carried out the judgment. This is a connection skeptics often fail to make. The Mosaic Covenant didn’t magically come alive and rain billows of fire upon those who breached it. God was the ultimate judge.
So where does this leave us? God (i.e., Jesus) saw repentance in the woman and used the situation to bring Himself glory. God is the ultimate judge. He is perfectly within his rights to do what he wants-yes, even forgiving those who repent.
Attitude
“Jesus is nice and loving towards others, while God Jehovah is mean and angry.”
This is not the Jesus and “Jehovah” that I know. When I see Jesus in the gospels I see a person who many hate. Jesus condemns the unrepentant and forgives those who seek forgiveness. On 2 or so separate occasions, Jesus ransacks the businesses in outer courts of the Temple, because they were taking financial advantage of those in need.
In the Old Testament, I see God giving the same types of commands that Jesus gave (e.g., Ex. 22:21-27). In fact, in making the 2 greatest commands of all time (Love the Lord with all that is in you & Love your neighbor as yourself), Jesus was quoting from the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus (chapters 6 and 19, respectively).
Finally, the question itself has irony when Christians espouse that the God of both Testaments is the establisher of morality.
apologetiks 