The Myth of the Old Testament God

When someone uses the simile “like an old testament god” they are referring to a volatile, cruel, fiery behavior.  Indeed, there is a quote by Joseph Campbell which states, “A computer is like an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy”.  There are a number of people who stick to this definition of God and I must admit, I too, had thought this to be the case.  It may come as no surprise to bible students that this is largely due to the fact that we often do not actually study it nor read it in its entirety.  My views were a summation of popular culture and a lack of understanding.  We are admonished to take in the “whole counsel of God”.  That is, take it all together and take it all in context.

It is argued that the God of the Old Testament is mean, vindictive, callous, cruel and ruthless.  The famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, wrote in his book The God Delusion: “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”.[i]  On the other hand, The New Testament God is described as a caring, patient, loving god who cares for his people.  How, then can this be if God is unchanging?[ii][iii]

I was inclined to believe this dichotomy of personality as well until I learned to take the bible in context as I read it.  I made the same mistake most do while reading which is thinking the events described took place in close approximation in time.  This tends to lead to a view that God is impetuous and quick to anger and mete out judgment.  Also, it is easy to skip over statements that explain why a thing is done.  Thirdly, some of these reasons are outside of our understanding.  I know that sounds like a cop-out.  To assume we know all there is to know is not only arrogant but flies in the face of the very basis of our science.  Additionally, some of the reasoning has a basis in the spiritual realm and in this age of reason, especially in the western world, we are taught that the spiritual realm is not real.  Don’t get me wrong, I struggle with this concept myself.  I’m not talking about ghosts and goblins here, but the realm of the unseen universe which, yes, includes demons and angels.

In each case brought up about the supposed cruelty of God, it can be cleared up in a careful examination of the surrounding texts.  For example, it is argued that the great flood of Genesis killed so many innocent people with no warning.  This is patently untrue. A reading of Genesis 6:5 tells us what was going on.

The LORD saw that human evil was growing more and more throughout the earth, with every inclination of people’s thoughts becoming only evil on a continuous basis. (Gen 6:5)

Therefore these were not innocents.  Furthermore, what happened was not without warning.  It took Noah some many years (perhaps up to 100) to build the ark. [iv]  In addition to that, Noah wasn’t just building a great big boat in secret.  He was a preacher. [v] The people at the time had plenty of warning of what was coming.  Apparently they chose not to heed it.  Finally, a reading of the beginning of Genesis 6 gives us an insight into behavior of the spiritual realm going on at the time.  The Nephalim are talked about.  Apparently fallen angels had been tainting the gene pool.[vi]  Perhaps that later reason sounds too much like science fiction but it is stated there in the text.  One of the best bits of advice I was given when hearing the word of God was to let go of my preconceptions and at least consider the possibility that these things are true.  After all, the only barrier to truth is the belief that you already have it.  So the flood had reason and was not against innocents. 

Perhaps a more popular example of wanton genocide is God’s instruction to Israel to wipe out all the tribes and peoples inhabiting the land He was giving them, right down to the animals and children.  I agree, it sounds extreme.  There are hints as to the reason and perhaps even that they weren’t totally without warning either.  In fact, there are examples of some of those people saved either through belief in the God of Israel or because they at least saw that these people had something special going for them.  I’d even argue that God knew that the Israelites wouldn’t actually wipe out every former inhabitant of the Land.  One of those saved people is even an earthly ancestor of Jesus, Rahab.[vii]  This is one of those times I have to tell myself I do not have the whole picture.  Perhaps these people were warned and offered a chance.  In fact, 1 Samuel 15:6 shows us that the Kenites, a subset of the Amalekites, one of the groups of people living in the land of Canaan before the Israelites arrived were given the warning to leave so that they would be spared what was to come.  The Amalekites were the ones who ruthlessly attacked the people of Israel as they left Egypt.  Who is to say that others weren’t encouraged to move from this place?  This is a matter in which trust in the qualities of God carry us through.  We trust that God had reason but at least aren’t left totally without explanations while we may not have the whole picture.

What I want to do with this article is to list the attributes of God from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  These are taken from the bible with references where able.  Some are themes found throughout the bible.  It is this trust in the nature of God that we can rely on, much like we might trust our wife or husband or best friend to act in the best interest of the relationship even if at the moment their actions appear to be wrong.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.  It is one I put together just from reading the bible every day.  I would encourage you, as always, to do the same and apply the Berean principle of Acts 17:11.

These do not sound like qualities of a ruthless mass murderer.  The list is consistent across both the old and new testament.  God has been given a bad reputation as a distant disciplinarian ready to leap on any infraction.  In reality, reading the bible in full context will show you His true qualities: His nearly infinite patience, His love for what is good and His disdain for evil.  These qualities are consistent across the old and new testament.