Hello. I was wondering how you would reconcile the violence in the old testament ( Deut. Joshua, judges) with the love your enemies of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your time.
Hello there! Thank you for your interesting question! 🙂 First off, this is a difficult question and I don’t claim to have all answers neither do I claim that my answer will be correct. My answer will be an attempt to at least offer some form of apology.
Inspired by a podcast* by Chris Fisher (on which I partly agree), I was talking over dinner to an 78 year old Eastern man who had only recently learned about the Bible. He asked me why God seems so angry in the Old Testament and so loving in the New Testament.
I told him that the reason why God sent a flood over the earth, was because God was deeply hurt because, through their sins, human beings were raising their fists against God. The exact words of the text are:
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
– Genesis 6:5-7 (KJV)
So I told Him that it’s not the case that God is an evil God who wants to destroy people. God doesn’t want anyone to perish (1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9) and the greatest proof for this is that he went to the uttermost for offering us reconciliation:
“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
– Romans 8:32 (KJV)
It is up to us whether we want to be reconciled to this infinitely loving and good God or whether we want to estrange ourselves from Him, hurting Him, hurting our neighbours and hurting ourselves.
crosstheology.wordpress.com 
Hello. I was wondering how you would reconcile the violence in the old testament ( Deut. Joshua, judges) with the love your enemies of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your time.
LikeLike
Hello there! Thank you for your interesting question! 🙂 First off, this is a difficult question and I don’t claim to have all answers neither do I claim that my answer will be correct. My answer will be an attempt to at least offer some form of apology.
Inspired by a podcast* by Chris Fisher (on which I partly agree), I was talking over dinner to an 78 year old Eastern man who had only recently learned about the Bible. He asked me why God seems so angry in the Old Testament and so loving in the New Testament.
I told him that the reason why God sent a flood over the earth, was because God was deeply hurt because, through their sins, human beings were raising their fists against God. The exact words of the text are:
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
– Genesis 6:5-7 (KJV)
So I told Him that it’s not the case that God is an evil God who wants to destroy people. God doesn’t want anyone to perish (1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9) and the greatest proof for this is that he went to the uttermost for offering us reconciliation:
“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
– Romans 8:32 (KJV)
It is up to us whether we want to be reconciled to this infinitely loving and good God or whether we want to estrange ourselves from Him, hurting Him, hurting our neighbours and hurting ourselves.
* I think it is this podcast: https://soundcloud.com/chris-fisher-35/ep112-genesis-6
LikeLike