Why should I serve an inconsistent and bloody God?
Hello. This is my first post! Hooray!!! Please tell me if I seem heretical in any of this.
Today in Sunday school we were discussing why would one want to serve a viscous, bloody warlike God as seen in the old testament? Why would one want to serve a God who suddenly changes to an oooeeey gooey god of love once his son comes down? Well, I think that god only seems so warlike in the OT because he had to do so much more to protect his people and he had to do mighty/ seemingly extreme things to preserve the Israelites, because they were his only people, the only hope/example for the other nations to follow, and saying that, he had to punish his people severely when they strayed, because the nations needed a good example to follow. To whom much is given, much is required. And God has always been merciful to his people, especially in the OT. If he gave them what they deserved, then all the people would have been wiped out, and he did do that once, but he left Noah to continue his people and raise up a mighty nation. He gave hope through Noah, and didn't completely wipe mankind out, which is what we really deserved. In the NT, God still punishes. Some of the harshest, most judging words come from Christ's mouth. The second coming is a harsh judgment. God has not changed. But he isn't just mean mean mean. He is just. All of the punishments were deserved. He punished the wicked Israelites just as he did the wicked gentiles. He isn't partial. In the NT, God gives us a choice. To believe in Christ and be saved, or continue in sin without repentance and recognition of Christ's sacrifice. The people in the OT didn't have that option. We do now. And we will be judged when He comes again. We have our whole lives to get it together. He is giving us a bit more of a lease, one could say, than he gave the OT peeps.
So. God is the same forever, and always has been. God is Love. But he is also just. We are loved by God, but we must also fear him. He is after all, our creator and king of all there is. Things have changed in the NT covenant, but God never changes.
Today in Sunday school we were discussing why would one want to serve a viscous, bloody warlike God as seen in the old testament? Why would one want to serve a God who suddenly changes to an oooeeey gooey god of love once his son comes down? Well, I think that god only seems so warlike in the OT because he had to do so much more to protect his people and he had to do mighty/ seemingly extreme things to preserve the Israelites, because they were his only people, the only hope/example for the other nations to follow, and saying that, he had to punish his people severely when they strayed, because the nations needed a good example to follow. To whom much is given, much is required. And God has always been merciful to his people, especially in the OT. If he gave them what they deserved, then all the people would have been wiped out, and he did do that once, but he left Noah to continue his people and raise up a mighty nation. He gave hope through Noah, and didn't completely wipe mankind out, which is what we really deserved. In the NT, God still punishes. Some of the harshest, most judging words come from Christ's mouth. The second coming is a harsh judgment. God has not changed. But he isn't just mean mean mean. He is just. All of the punishments were deserved. He punished the wicked Israelites just as he did the wicked gentiles. He isn't partial. In the NT, God gives us a choice. To believe in Christ and be saved, or continue in sin without repentance and recognition of Christ's sacrifice. The people in the OT didn't have that option. We do now. And we will be judged when He comes again. We have our whole lives to get it together. He is giving us a bit more of a lease, one could say, than he gave the OT peeps.
So. God is the same forever, and always has been. God is Love. But he is also just. We are loved by God, but we must also fear him. He is after all, our creator and king of all there is. Things have changed in the NT covenant, but God never changes.
posted by munkybrat @ 12:18 PM
4 Comments:
At 8:27 PM,
Serena said…
Christ came to set us free from the mean, ugly, vengeful OT God who imprisoned us in the material world. duh.
:D
At 8:21 PM,
Serena said…
Okay so serious response. You don't start easy do you? No instead of a lighthearted, meaningless first post you drown me in deep, theological inquiry. Ahh!! *head sinks*
Anyway, I think that people assume a false dichotomy: either God is loving and therefore is nice and cottony and covered with rubber or he's mean and cruel and strict. This is basically, from my point of view, a misunderstanding of love. Warm and fuzzy is not love. In fact the greatest love is to lay down one's life for someone else. That is not very nice. That does not make me feel good. An understanding of God's character, and in turn his Love, calls for an understanding of his Glory and Sovereignty and Mercy.
I really don't get this comment of yours: "In the NT, God gives us a choice. To believe in Christ and be saved, or continue in sin without repentance and recognition of Christ's sacrifice. The people in the OT didn't have that option. We do now. And we will be judged when He comes again." What do you mean?
At 8:22 PM,
Serena said…
P.S. You're a communist. Sashimi is of the gods. In small amounts. With wassabi. And soy.
At 1:22 PM,
Pilgrim said…
I think you too quickly passed the key word "just". God is just. The first time I lost one of my children, I was hit with the "dilemma" of a bloody God. By the third, or tenth, I was able to reconcile things in my mind. Our minds cannot understand the extent of God's Justice, His holy blade. What do you think the Israelites were thinking when they had to drown their babies? But God was faithful, He saved Moses by the same rite. This argument comes down to an acknowledgment that we are finite, and He infinite; we are temporal, and He eternal.
I do know that He tells us to pray imprecatory Psalms against our enemies. I do know that all of His salvation comes through death. And I do know what Nietzsche couldn't understand: through death comes life.
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