Old vs. New Testament God

If you read the bible, you will run across 3 faces of God: father, son, and holy spirit. The best way to think of this is 3 aspects of one being. You’ve heard this before. Today, I want to talk about the father and son. The old testament is where we read about the father and the new testament is where we read about the son. They are quite different…….. so much so that it can be hard to reconcile them. It is hard to buy into the idea that they are even related………much less that they are the same being. But, in order to see the big picture, you have to deal with both of them.

God (ver. 1.0)

In the old testament, God is the creator. He then sets up a long list of rules, some of which are hard to understand. He periodically punishes his people for breaking the rules. He seems a bit distant. He is very intimidating…..not a really warm, fuzzy type. Later he spends a lot of time telling his people what to expect. The God of the old testament doesn’t read like somebody that you’d get a hug from. A great many people dislike this version of God. I am reading “The God Delusion”, by Dawkins. I hate to put words in the other guy’s mouth…….but I suspect that he despises the old testament God based on the adjectives that he uses. I have noticed that most people who dislike God…….or object to God…….. are reacting to the God described in the old testament. The God of the old testament seems focused on rules, justice, and punishment. He’s just not much fun.

God (ver. 2.0)

In the new testament, we see an entirely different face of God. Jesus is much more like us……..in a word, he is human. He has experienced our pain. He has experienced our temptations. He has been mistreated. He has been let down. He has been abandoned by his friends in his hour of need. And yet, he is kind, generous, and forgiving. He can laugh……….and he can cry. He embodies our highest aspirations. But most of all…… he is approachable. I can see him holding a child’s hand. I can see him hugging somebody…………I can imagine him hugging me. I can imagine that I may have had a conversation with him in a crowd somewhere along the way.

How do we reconcile these two faces of God?

I think that the old testament deals with God’s ideal expectations of us and his hopes for us. The new testament deals with his love for us. It is a lot like our parents (at least the good ones). When we were young, they spent a lot of time laying down the rules and their expectations of us. We spent some time sitting in “time out”……… and yes……..heaven forbid………..we got paddled. Our parents loved us but they had a job to do………. they socialized us. They taught us how to function in the household that they had built. They taught us how to operate in the family that they had created. Sometimes they did things that really made us mad. Sometimes they did things that we just didn’t understand. When we grew older and more mature, our relationship changed. We became more like friends. With a firm framework to build on, we came to relate to them differently. No more time out and paddling……..now we get emotional support when we are in trouble. We get good advice. And when we screw up……hopefully not too often……….we know that we can count on their love and forgiveness. Our parents didn’t change. They are exactly the same people. Their objective from the start was to lead us into adulthood …….to mold us into happy complete people and to build a deep satisfying relationship with us. Because we grew, they began to show us a different face. They nudged our relationship into a new, more mature phase.

To those who object to the God of the old testament: I say don’t dwell on the paddling that you got as a child. You should focus on growing into mature adult relationship with a father who loves you.

You need to focus on Jesus……….God (ver. 2.0).

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