God in Old Testament vs. God in New Testament

writtenwordministries said:

So let's throw a thought out there, regarding God's foreknowledge of the events leading up to and including the flood. What if...and I'm just conjecturing...there's more to the story than what was recorded? God puts Adam and Eve in the garden, gives them free will, already knowing they will disobey and already knowing the outcome of their actions. He does not intervene. He allows sin to run its course. In the years that follow sin, unimpeded, corrupts the earth so badly that the stench reaches all the way to heaven. What we see in those early chapters of Genesis is what happens when sin is allowed free reign. Without God, without the conviction and the restraining influence of His Spirit, sin spreads like a cancer. This is a picture of what happens when there is no God, no judgment, and when man has his way. As the floodwaters recede, God allows history to start again...only this time, He intervenes. He becomes involved in man's struggles. He reveals Himself to Abraham, to Moses, to the prophets. Whispers of God's promise of restoration increase, until the moment is right and God the Son steps down from heaven, coming to earth as a Servant to save His people. God foreknew how all this would turn out--Isaiah 46:9-10. We may not understand how He works but we can rest assured that He has the future in His hands.

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It's a good story. It is written. It is finished.

ScottA said:

That is quite observant of you. The difference is in the manifestation. The manifestation of "Our" image...is indeed different, but One.

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Jaxxi said:

Very good points you make and a great post indeed.

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If one considers the many Old Testament prophecies - by prophets of different times, the fulfillment of the OT and Gods' forgiveness with a 'sacrificial lamb', whom is Jesus. Please refer to John 17; especially vs 20-25. In those days, the spirit was not freely given; the prophets mostly. "but in the last days I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh...."
Why, in the Garden did they not choose fruit from the tree of Life (Jesus). Now since the Father knows the end from the beginning, His crown of creation (man) is offered another chance to 'eat' of The Lord so that we may be made clean, and holy in His sight - the Father doesn't change - "God is light, and in Him is no variableness or shadow in turning".

Sorry, let me off the soapbox now - Don:^)|

Jaxxi said:

Understandable, however if He made us in His image, why would we have many of His emotional traits like love, compassion, kindness, empathy, anger, resentment, jealousy, pride, rage, sadness, grief and not the capacity to change? We already know God changes His mind so why would He not change but give us the ability to?

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When mankind lost their innocence by partaking of good and evil, they became capable of creating both good and evil; the duality Law of Moses (eye for an eye) became their reality - and separation (veil) from their Creator; now, how is it that the two considered their nakedness with shame, once they "ate" the knowledge of Good and Evil.
Ask the Father to reveal the truth in this matter....for His ways are higher than ours...."...who hath known the mind of God at any time?"
I do know that if you walk in the Spirit (and this is your free will choice), you will manifest the Fruit of the Spirit; love, patience, joy, forgiveness....vs fear ("Perfect love casts out all fear"), envy, hatred, lust, anger, etc.

"You just have to choose"
Choose wisely:^)|

Jaxxi said:

I can understand what you are saying but wasn't Jesus a man who did not fully receive God until He was baptized and began His ministry? And why would God be instructing "Son of Man" if He was the Son of Man? And to whom was Jesus praying to when He went off to be alone to pray? When He said "Father forgive them they know not what they do?" or " Father why has't Thou forsaken Me?" I think God and Jesus are seperate beings because They converse with One Another...yet I believe They share the same credentials. "Let Us make man in Our own image" refers to more than One which I believe Jesus was there, yes but I think They are seperate...hence The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

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There is a controversial belief out there about in the beginning when God said let there be light. When he separated the light from the darkness and saw the light was good. I can't truly get 100% behind it but JESUS is the way, the truth and the light. And yes the darkness would be Lucifer, the antichrist which we all have to put our grown up pants on all things come from God so knowing that is true when he said let us make man in our image he was speaking as the Father as spirit, JESUS as our Lord a come to earth as a able man to fail, and satan, pure evil, Destined to fall from grace. We have to remember that even though Our father knows the outcome and has already written our names, we don't know which names they are and for us to have free will evil needed to be created without it we would be robots. That doesn't mean God is evil that means man's inherent choice is evil. God created us in his image. His SPIRIT image not necessarily physical. The conscious choice to do good or bad comes from God separating the light from the darkness. Have you ever wondered where the old adage " the apple didn't fall far from the tree came from"? Little word play to trick us on the real meaning of the original sin but I digress. I agree with what you say about separate but you also have to understand that we are also talking about God. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere so when he is separate he is also together. When he created the light the only thing he ever truly separated was the darkness because God can and will not be evil. He knows it but will not speak it.

Jaxxi said:

Understandable, however if He made us in His image, why would we have many of His emotional traits like love, compassion, kindness, empathy, anger, resentment, jealousy, pride, rage, sadness, grief and not the capacity to change? We already know God changes His mind so why would He not change but give us the ability to?

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There's one reason that all of the people that believe " secret teachings" are going to save them aren't going to make it. One reason all these intellectuals, Bible scholars, people who spend countless years scratchings their head trying to "crack a code" keep missing the mark. It's so complicated because it's it's overlooked Matt 18:3. It's through innocent thinking that you'll understand what God wants. Man perverts and twists everything it's been in our nature since the fall.

I went to a convent school we used to have bible classes. I was a non believer then. Reading the stories and events I thought "christian God" was always angry and ruthless. Only later when I started going to church and knew more about Jesus I became a believer.
I guess God didn't change but he changed how things work.

Jaxxi said:

• Every time I pick up the Bible and read it I am reading it like a sponge trying to soak up what it says, not how it's written. I share moments with it rather than analyze it for validity or errors. All those Biblical scholars become too hauty and proud of their Bible knowledge and tend to dismiss others interpretations and they fall way short of grace. It blows my mind all these people who doubt the Bible crying "it was written by man.". Was it really? It might have been written THROUGH man but I guarantee you it wasn't BY man.Try this. Sit down and describe on paper what the world will be like in 2000 years. In depth, and list all of the countries, and tell exactly where they fall into place and what's going to happen. In our ever changing world we can't predict 10 years from now let alone 2000 years!! Well, the Bible is right on the money and is about 7 major instances from Christ's return. All the other things have already happened. Nothing is out of place. You want to read something incredibly interesting and enjoyable...Google The Books of Adam and Eve part one.

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Haha I love it believe it or not I have it downloaded from youtube

Jaxxi said:

it possible that maybe He had better understanding after being human?

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That is certainly one way to consider it, but I don't think that is it. I think it is humanity that changed over the course of the two Testaments and not God, and that after the Fall, God began the long process of bringing us back to Himself. Just as a parent must be stern with a child for its own good when he or she is young, but more lenient in some respects as the child grows and acquires some degree of wisdom, so God behaved towards us. If this interpretation is wrong, then it begs the question, I think, of why God waited so many centuries before He sent His Son. I don't think that it was because He became exasperated and decided to see for Himself why humans seemed to be having so many problems.

Just my opinions, though. I am not a theologian.

Jaxxi said:

Isn't it good? It fills in so many blanks of Genesis and we really see how much God loved Adam which is not captured from reading the Bible. And it's almost sad and kind of humorous how they don't understand and don't like it here so they keep killing themselves....only to have God breathe life back into them. They should have included it in the Bible...

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I liked it. There's quite a few of books I got a lot out of that I think should've stayed in the Bible. My friend suggested I get a douay-Rheims Bible with the full Apocrypha and I found out it was a Catholic Bible so it was a big pass on that lol but I got all the books of the apocrypha and they are great. Along with the Book of Enoch they are with my reading and research material.

SCHOOLS OUT FOREVER by Grabs Popcorn
People wonder why the Old Testament was so harsh. The answer is that God has never changed, but the way he had to package himself to get his message across HAS changed, he had to talk in harsh primitive OT terms to earlier harsh primitive peoples in their own "language" like a strict headteacher to get their attention.
"The law brought us to Christ like a schoolmaster,but now through Christ we are not under that schoolmaster" (Galatians 3:22-25)
Likewise, when Riker joined Klingon vessel Pagh on an exchange visit as 1st Officer he had to punch and throw stroppy 2nd Officer Klag across the bridge to get the attention and respect of him and the rest of the crew.
Then when God felt the time was right to package himself in a softer way to more advanced peoples, he gave us Jesus who came not to abolish the OT wholesale, but to show us how to apply its rules with enlightened goodnatured commonsense.
For example Jesus said - "It was said 'eye for eye,tooth for tooth' but I say turn the other cheek" (Matthew 5:38-39)
And people quickly realised - "The covenant of which Jesus is mediator is superior to the old one" (Hebrews 8:6-7)
"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent"- (Acts 17:30)
Jesus saves, not the OT, right Klag?
"Grrrr..."

antletems said:

Jesus was God from Conception. A new covenant was created when Jesus was Born. NT overtook the OT. God brought a new answer to mans problems when Jesus was born. A new beginning. A new covenant. A new way of looking at things. Jesus brought us a new way to get closer to God. A way of forgiveness and a way into heaven

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True true

Blind post.

The New testament covers only fifty years or something but the Old Testament covers thousands of years. Putting it in perspectve like that makes sense to me that there were times in Israel where God blessed them and everything was good. then he sent the Romans to destroy Jerusalem and if Josephus wasn't lying that had to be one of the bloodiest and horrifying wars in history.

Martinius said:

I agree with the idea that the difference is not in God, but in the people's perception and understanding of God. So yes, the God portrayed in the NT is much different than the God of Hebrew Scripture. A big difference is that the OT God is viewed as a tribal God, who blesses the Hebrews when they follow God's commands and punishes them when they obstinately turn away. It is not about the people as individuals as much as it as about the people as a nation.

The OT God is also presented as a blood thirsty, fickle divinity who has no problem with having one group doing the most despicable things to other groups of people. The NT God is seen as being much more concerned with individual faith and behavior, and reward and punishment is meted out individually, not to whole groups or nations.

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Great reply he has never changed it is how we have perceived him through time

Paul1963 said:

Great reply he has never changed it is how we have perceived him through time

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Thanks. If one believes that God is THE author of the Bible, not just the inspiration for it, it is difficult to reconcile the "personalities" found in the OT vs. the NT. Even within the OT, there are differences in how God appears or acts. But accepting that the Bible was written over the course of centuries, by different people in different circumstances, of different cultures, with different points of view, dealing with different issues and problems, and having different agendas, it is not that difficult to see why there is such variety.

Even today, there may be as many different perceptions and understandings of God as there are people. I have yet to find two people who think exactly the same about God. Something like snowflakes, no two alike.

I think maybe the God in the New Testament seems different because of the way that humans could better understand and know him after Jesus.

Hmmmmm.....I've been reading the Old testament a lot for the first time in my life...and less new testament...actually I was suprised bc Ppl said oh G-d was a lot more angry back then and strict..but no, I haven't seen what they mean. I have seen him the same as new testament and Yeshua. He IS merciful...and Holy, and he spoke to His ppl. And other things but, I was glad to see , in my opinion , they were wrong about that. He punishes sin, but He still does that...He has too. But , prayer, and rightousness..could help change His mind because of His awesome mercy.

Jaxxi said:

I just wanted to ask if anyone else feels like God in the Old Testament reads differently than the God in the New Testament. I know the LORD never changes, but is it possible that maybe He had better understanding after being human? Even then, He could do stuff we cant so...but He suffered.

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The God of the OT and the God of the NT is the same God. What changes is the Covenant. The Hebrews at one point rejected the Covenant and the laws of Zion....So God gave them the Ordinance of the Circumcision and later a lower set of laws and statutes designed to remind them of their duties to God in ever facet of their lives...they could not even eat what they wanted anymore. Over 600 commandments and Statutes were given to Israel. It is written that the law of Moses was to be a School teacher unto Christ. In the Covenant of Christ for example...in loving our neighbors....this fulfill the 10 commandments...for example if a person truly loved his neighbors...does he need to be commanded to not steal?....or to not kill? Of course not...all the laws and prophets are fulfilled in the higher laws that Jesus came to give us in the New and Everlasting Covenant of the Father...which only became in effect after His death. That is why it is called the New Testament.