Originally posted by TheSkipper
That is fine. I'm not going to run you over the cheese grater over it. I'm sure we have both studied the Bible a great deal and if you do not see a difference between the god of the old testament and the god of the new...I respect your perspective.
TheSkipper
Ok if I take a shot at this?....
The God of the OT is the same God of the NT...plain and simple. He is all light and in Him is no darkness at all....The reasons for the apparent difference is complex and the answers are found right in the bible.
In the OT God appears to kill people. Understood. In the NT He appears loving, etc.
Also, keep in mind that Jesus came to "declare" God. Why did he say this?
I believe because God was misunderstood in the OT....not a whole lot was revealed...even Jesus spoke in parables...
The gift of holy spirit was not yet avaliable "in" people. It was always "upon" them. It was also "conditional"....In the NT, because of Christ's accomplishments it was "In" Christians, and "unconditional".
When God ordered David and other great leaders to destroy the Amalikites, and all the other "ites" there was good reason. These people were demonic..."nephalim"..they could not be "rehabilitated"...they were "of" Satan. Read Genesis chapter 6...God could not reveal Satan and his power to His people for reasons I can't go into right now.....God was "stuck" with taking blame for all the evil and killing...That is why there are many phrases like "an evil spirit from the Lord". As I said this topic is extensive and I would have to refer you to a website that has much more info and is much more articulate than I can be....I will post it at the bottom of this post for anyone interested at having a look.
If these people were evil and were out to destroy God's people, he had to send David, Caleb, Joshua, etc. to destroy them. These people or "Nephalim" were out to destroy the "seed" promised in Genesis 3:15. Satan had always tried to destroy the Jews for this very reason. He knew that the promised Messiah would eventually "crush" his head. So all through the OT he is trying to do this very thing....BUT he failed, the Christ was born, God protected the "seed" of the woman...that is why Matthew and Luke present the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, etc. because Man's redemption had to be legal. Payment for sin required a blood sacrafice...Read Hebrews chap 9...
Anyway getting back to "killing".....in a body with cancer cells, we "kill" the cancer cells to save the good cells....same thing in the OT....God had to ensure that the seed of the woman would survive....
If you carefully read the gospels , Jesus "declared" God ..."In the law it says this, but I say to you..."
Now we have God's gift of holy spirit "in" us and it is unconditional...which led Paul by the holy spirit to say...
1 Cor 2:7-8
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
(NKJ)
The OT prophets searched the scriptures looking for this Messiah that would come...but a lot was kept hidden until the time was right. Satan even tried killing the Messiah via Herod with the killing of all firstborn under two..
Matt 2:16
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had...
(NKJ)
sorry have to stop for now...have chores to attend to...
http://www.truthortradition.com/