In fact the supposed opposition between Christ and the God ‘of the Old Testament’, is just a disguise of the problem of Theodicy: If God is good, why all this evil and injustice? Whether we describe the question as a contrast between Christ and His Father, or as an internal contradiction in the Deity, its essence remains unchanged.
I highlight these dimensions, because behind the inaccurate accusation of the ‘barbarity’ of the Old Testament, usually it is concealed a trend to deny the Old Testament, and even sometimes a racist, anti-jewish, motivation – when Christ Himself, Whom they admire, not only did not deny the Old Testament, but also approved it to the last letter and accent. Why was He not the first to abandon the ‘bloodthirsty’ God of the Old Testament?
Therefore, let us leave the supposed opposition of the New to the Old Testament, and open up one more time, that will be neither the first nor the last, a real problem, the problem of Theodicy. We know that it will not be the last time, because the problem has been opened many times before, it was answered as well as it can be answered, and very well, I would add, yet it keeps recurring.
If you are in search of some books that explore the alleged Testaments-conflict, perhaps you’d like to try Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide, Disturbing Divine Behavior: Troubling Old Testament Images of God, Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God?
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rick
one thing that strikes me everytime i look into such issues is christians pick and choose what they wanna say from the bible. they will always nullify all the barbaric and ridiculuous things in the bible by quoting how jesus died for our sins etc (john 3:16). but essentially, the god of the old testament is the god of the new testament.
the god of old testament is only 1000 to 3000 earlier than the god of the new testament. can an eternal god change his attitude in such a short time? no. according to the bibile, god said ‘i change not’.
yet if you read Judges chapter 19 verse 24 to 29, you will see a man allow his wife/concubine (coincidentally labelled as an unfaithful one) to be gang raped throughout the night and left to die on the door step. When he found her, all he said as ‘get up, it is time to go’. after realising she is dead from her ordeal, he cut her up limb from limb into 12 pieces and send it to 12 tribes in israel to incite a war.
i”m a guy and i think it is extremely barbaric. And I don’t ever think this chapter has ever been discussed on a cherry sunday morning service. i nearly vomitted when i first read that chapter.
quite hyprocrites. christians will always try to come up with some answers to justify such things in the bible and wrap everything up with ‘ for god loves us so so much that he sends his only son jesus to earth and die for our despicable sins’.
Ellopos Blog
This event described in Judges 19 may have shocked you, but it does not support your case. First of all, it does not speak about a brutal action ordered by God, but by men. The woman that was raped and murdered is nowhere described as “unfaithful” as you inaccurately say, and the event itself (which regards divisions and fights between tribes of Israel) is punished in the next, 20th, chapter of the Judges.