Well I have a laundry list really, but one that sticks out is this: Do you believe that God is perfect? (flawless) Meaning incapable of making mistakes? Why then is there an Old and New Testament? It seems that before Christ, God kinda forgot something! So what is the explanation? I'd like to hear it.
Well, I'm not a believer, so take it for what you will. But I have spent time considering it all. One theology that deals with this is gnostic Christianity. Essentially, a view that the "old" god, the Abrahamic Jehovah, an anthropomorphic sky deity, jealous, spiteful, etc., was in actually a demiurge - an imperfect being, not fully "divine" but subject to human, fallable passions. Under gnosticism, it wasn't until the advent of Christ that realization of true divinity, and the possibility for joining with the true, perfect Creator, was possible. Christ embodies gnosis, "knoweldge," or deep, truthful, inner spirituality, "knowing" of the divine. Something like a western version of nirvana, or what buddhists call satori or kensho, enlightenment. In some versions, at least as it's been relayed to me, a second War in Heaven took place between the demiurge and the "true" Divinity, rendering possible Christ's birth and the redemption it promised. (The first would be the War of the Angels, with the archangel Michael on one side, Lucifer, "the Shining One," on the other; the fallen Lucifer became Satan). Gnosis had some sway during the first few centuries of the Christian ascendancy. It was declared heretical after a few hundred years. Worth a read, for it touches on many other aspects of western history over the first several centuries since Christ's birth. A good start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism Happy hunting.
The religious will never give a sensible answer to these types of questions, The best you can expect is a contrived rationalisation that justifies a continued belief in the unsupported in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. YEC's do it a lot, They are the worst offenders. When asked why, On a 6000 year old planet, we find fossils in rock laid down a million years ago they say god put them there to test us. when asked why, In a 6000 year old universe, We can see things millions of light years away they say god put the photons in the middle of space on route to earth when he made space to make it look like the universe is billions of years old. these aren't answers, They are contrived rationalisations.
This was just a timeline that God had. If you read the Old Testament there were several things prophesied over, including Jesus Christ. Reading the story about Adam and Eve would perhaps help you understand about sin and why Jesus Christ had to come. God knew he was going to have to send him before he ever did it though.
I don't see what is wrong with having an Old and New Testament. They are just kind of like 2 different parts of the Bible. The Old Testament is all the collection of works written before birth of Jesus, and the New Testament is everything written after the birth of Jesus, mainly about Jesus himself.
I was taught that the old testament was a preparation for us to receive the new testament. My bible study teacher compared it to teaching a baby as compared to teaching an adult. You cant possibly teach a a baby thats 2 years old about einsteins theory of relativity can you? The old testament taught attrition and the new testament taught us contrition(i hope i said this last part right lol)
I think the question goes to how can it be one and the same author, meaning, God, as understood in both testaments. As I said, I'm not a believer. I just wanted to point out at least one system of theology does address the issue directly, from within its faith.
Well, the old testament was written by several different authors through divine inspiration, so pretty much God did write the old testament. However, he did not write the New Testament. Most of the New Testament was written by the apostles and their first hand account of the works of Jesus.
Hmm. So the new testament is merely the works of men, but the old testament was not? God was in the old, not in the new? The old is true, the new is not? Logically, there is a problem, it seems to me. We either have two different gods in the two different books, since their ethos is so different from one another; or one is "divine," the other, "merely mortal." Not trashing anyone's faith - not my game. But Nate raised a legitimate problem, given the two texts.
I'm not sure you are exactly interpreting this correctly, or I guess I should say the way I am trying to explain it. The New Testament is I guess "merely the works of me," but these men are the ones who are closest to Jesus himself. And also, I guess I should say that they could have written it from divine inspiration, but they just do not claim to have done so. And I don't really think you could say God isn't in the New Testament, just because he doesn't "write" it. God makes several appearances, and it is his teachings that Jesus and the disciples are preaching. And I don't think that not having divine inspiration is any reason to say the New Testament isn't true. And I think you may have misunderstood something. In both books God is divine. He is never mortal. It is just that he does not write the New Testament through others. He doesn't really change at all from Old to New Testament.
And of course, I am no biblical scholar. I may not remember everything correctly, or what I'm saying might not be the believe of all branches of Christianity. And I'm sure no branch has Christianity perfect, as after thousands of years I'm sure things have become lost or changed in a way that does not accurately reflect the word of God.
OK, can I frame it this way? Both indicate they speak of the same God. Yet the "personality" of God in the OT is very different from that of the NT. Did God change his mind? One book, slake your thirst on the blood of my enemies, the other, still thirsty, but if you give me my own Son, it's Paul's "the greatest of these is love?" Not trying to be flippant - it does leave a disconnect for me, not easily answered.
I've provided a link below. This might help address your question: http://respondingtoskeptics.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/old-testament-god-vs-new-testament-god/
Let me also ask another question since this thread's getting juicy.. How is the Bible special? Why isn't the Book of Mormons, God's inspired word? Koran? Why the Bible and the Bible only? How is it that God can only channel through a few people in the course of human history and it would be BLASPHEMY if any channeling happened outside this realm?
The Bible is just what we believe in. We believe the others are false religions. They clearly cannot all be God's inspired word, as they at time greatly contradict each other. If you asked a Muslim he would say the Koran is but the Bible isn't. From the little research I have done, it also appears to me that their is much more evidence that supports the Bible that there is for any other religion, but again, it isn't like I have done years of research about this. I have just read about people who have. And of course, I have a biased opinion.