God is love -- 1 John 4:8...and also through the life of Jesus, who was God in human flesh. Jesus' actions are clearly those of loving, caring, humble, person and those are generally what we look to when thinking of a Christian role model.
But very often we find people making out that Old Testament God is a very different character to New Testament God and Jesus, even though they are the same.
In one particularly hilarious example from the show 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt', a character at one point says, "Oh, thank angry Old Testament God, the one who's always threatening to kill children to prove a point!". While later, another character, Titus, while praying says, "Forgive me friendly New Testament God after you settled down and had a family."
Although perhaps a more well known example is a quote from the atheist flag-bearer Richard Dawkins which goes:
... and clearly has less going for it on the humour front."The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
So this popular idea that somehow the Old Testament God is different to the New Testament God is a problem for Christians. Christianity teaches that God does not change (Malachi 3:6), and as mentioned that God is love. He is also called loving, pure, generous, and perfect among other great qualities (Psalm 136:5, Hab 1:13, 2 Cor 9:15, Deut 32:4).
So it would seem that there is a contradiction between Christian belief and teaching that God is all good, and the sceptic or popular belief that the Old Testament God is all those things that Dawkins and co call him.
They can't both be right.
So why is it that non-believers like to throw these accusations at Old Testament God? Haven't they seen the Scripture that tells them that God is good, and loving, and pure, and holy, and righteous?
I think they are definitely aware of them. But that doesn't matter. To the sceptic the problem for Christians and a possible proof that Christianity is false, is that we are taught that God is great, yet there are several events and stories in the Bible that seem to suggest otherwise.
Time for the patented short answer that solves this issue: Put the passages in the correct context!
You'll find that the books, chapters, or passages that sceptics take issue with are actually no issue at all when you read them in the correct context.
Sometimes this is a simple case of reading the passage or chapter that came directly before, but other times they can be a little bit more complicated and require you to have a bit of an understanding of the culture of the day.
The way I like to explain it is to compare it to Austin Powers. This super-spy was cryogenically frozen in the 1960s, and rewoken in the 1990s. 30 years had passed and the culture had changed. He was a fish out of water. He didn't understand certain nuances and language and trends. Now think of that change over 30 years, and apply that to around 2,000 years ago when the last books of the Bible were being written. You can't expect to understand it all if you're reading with modern day eyes.
Another good example is from 'Back to the Future'. Marty McFly goes back in time, wanders into a diner and asks for a Pepsi Free. What he means is a Pepsi without sugar. What the server takes him to mean is that he wants a Pepsi without paying for it. Some of these things are just taken for granted when everyone in a culture understands it, but without that mutual understanding, things can get confusing.
But for those who are after a slightly longer answer, we're going to go over a few of the main offenders.
Does God cast people into Hellfire?
Was it fair for God to flood the world in the days of Noah?
Did God command Abraham to perform a human sacrifice?
More to come...
