Testaments Connection Essay

Answer

Did the Old Testament Wrathful God Change to the New Testament Loving God?

To many people, reading the Old Testament (OT) of the Bible is like watching a horror movie with various horrifying episodes. Only eight people survived while the Noah’s time flood scourged all from the face of the Earth. The Egyptians’ first born were executed regardless of whether they were from rich and royal or poor and peasant families, with no blood on doorposts signifying that one is not a heir/heiress for the heavenly kingdom. Except for a prostitute, along with her family members, Jericho was annihilated to the last animal and human being.  A man was equally stoned to death for collecting wood on the Sabbath day and fire from God consumed the High Priest’s two sons who did not worship God as He had prescribed. These and many other instances make people feel that the God of the old testament was a wrathful one in comparison to the New Testament who comes in the form of a human being to recue man from the agonies and pains associated with sin. It is upon this ground that this paper aims at arguing that despite the varied depictions of God both in the Old and New testaments, God has not changed that He is the one who was in the OT and still in the NT despite popular view that God has changed from a wrathful God to a loving God, thus attracting the attention of many.

Reading through the OT is not for faint hearted individuals. The Lord describes Himself as a consuming fire: “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:24). Who can dare go contrary to a “consuming fire”? and one who hates “all who do wrong”?  (Ps. 5:5)  For these and many other reasons, people often jump to the NT book and read Gospel messages in Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke since they seem different from OT. In the NT Gospels, Jesus hugged children and blessed them, fed hungry stomachs, filled boats with fish, raised a dead man, ate with the outcasts, and forgave the scandalous society (Caluori et al. 285). Jesus also rescued an adulteress a mob that wanted to stone to death, befriended a despised and rejected tax collector, and advocated constantly for a love of our enemies.

The question that arises is why the Lord God seems different in the two portions of the Bible. According to Jackson, in the OT, God intervened on one nation’s behalf, a nation that was graciously selected to be used by God as the vehicle of his promises and word (212). The nation was Israel, which was set aside and guarded by the Lord God so that God could uphold His promises of sending his anointed and chosen one, Christ (Johnson et al. 231). Therefore, God zealously acted to defeat Israel’s foes since those foes threatened God’s salvation plan. However, with the birth of Jesus Christ and the completion of the salvation plan of God, God no more required the Israel nation to play its defined role.

Importantly, a careful reading of the scripture reveals no difference in God’s character. In both testaments, God is described as a God who forgives and condemns and who loves and chastises, among other traits. For instance, in the OT, God lovingly provided manna, water, and quill to a nation that never deserved it, implying that His grace was constant in the face man’s unfaithfulness (Laurin et al. 3375). He is the same God who said, “Whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). The scripture attests to the fact that God does not change with time. God did reveal Himself a just and holy God who penalizes all sins. God is also depicted as the one who provided a substitute to take punishments that were meant to be levied upon man. In the OT, chapter 53 of Isaiah reads: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. … The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” In the NT, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.   God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21).

The (supposedly) unloving and wrathful Go in the OT describes Himself as merciful, forgiving, and loving before finishing by warning human beings of punishment for their sins as a His Justice dictates (Barrett 61). The OT constantly depicts God’s love on His people as a love bestowed upon a bride by the bridegroom. In the book of Ezekiel, God says:

“I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment…when I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine….but you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his.” (Ezekiel 16:7-20).

As in the NT, it is easy to see God’s mercy and love in Jesus’ readiness to suffer to the extent of losing His life, healing miracles, forgiveness of sins, among other aspects. Nonetheless, Jesus also employed harsh words while talking and often talked about hell. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.” Matthew 5:21-22. This quote implies that in the OT, God was a bit more permissive compared to how He actually demands of us. In the NT, God discloses that He demands perfection. Jesus’ talk about hell implies that it is truly quite easy for most of us to end up in hell, which may casually lead us to the belief that God is not as loving and merciful as thought to be in the NT.

To conclude, the Bible clearly communicates that God is consistent/unchanging as reinforced by James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” and Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Despite being a God of love (1 John 4:8) in the NT, he is not just a permissive, kind, doting, and grandfatherly figure as depicted in the story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5: 1-11), “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:5), and “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31) since “our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). Contrarily, God of the OT is not the constantly bad-tempered master since god is depicted as a “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” (Psalm 103:8-10) who “does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (Exodus 34:6-7). Paul, in the NT, stresses on faith and grace. This central biblical concept is traceable back to the book of Genesis: Abraham “believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Thus, the God of the OT is still the God of the NT, never changing, and that the message cutting across the Bible is a message of gospel and law. The law points us to our sin, while the gospel is the good news that shows us our Saviour from the perspective of sin.