My view, although a heretical one, is that the Bible shows the gradual understanding that man had. The God of the OT kills anyone that disobeys the smallest transgression, approves of slaughtering neighboring villages in his name should they be worshipping other Gods. He enjoys songs of bashing the heads of the enemies' children against the rocks.
The Jesus of the NT teaches people to bless those who curse you, to act always in love, to forgive others as God forgives you. I think this is because people were ready for it. Someone asked, "How many times should I forgive my neighbor? Seven?" They were at the right place to understand the mercy of God, the love of God for the Centurian who showed his faith, to the woman who was not a Jew who, even when discouraged, argued that even the crumbs fall to the dogs from the master's table, again showing her faith. He reached out in humility to the sinners, and condemned those that thought themselves holier than others, who claimed authority over the bible, but were blind guides because they focused on law, and not on love.
I think we continue to understand the true nature of God, understanding that God is not an angry ogre ready to flick us into the fire if we disobey the pettiest of sin, but that God loves us constantly, unconditionally, in order to get us to love him and one another, and to know God by loving each other.
I wonder sometimes if it is possible, for us to have a world where we stop dividing Us and Them, and simply become Us, where we actually love our neighbor as ourself, care for the poor because they are part of the human family, care for the underprivileged, the sick, those in prison, to dispose of the "good people" and "bad people" false dichotomy. I imagine what that world would be - a place where you no longer feared someone taking your bike, but stopping their car, and waving you to cross, a place where a woman could walk home safely to her house, a place where people would run to your aid should you need help, a place where people thought of the community and others instead of only themselves. I imagine a place where governments stopped pumping so much money into killing each other, and instead, worked together to help 3rd World Countries where children die of starvation, put the money into education, to health care, to finding ways to clean the environment, rather than succumb to greed at the cost of the planet. I imagine a place where status is no longer a concept, where everyone is considered a valuable life, a gift from God, and something to offer.
And the world would be an amazing place.
