Can I use this at Church (if I dare)?
I, of course, totally disagree but I still love it!
Feel free. Although I can’t be held responsible for lighting strikes or locust plagues. 
I’ve been thinking in the same lines, I couldn’t help it while reading the OT, and was repeatedly surprised by God’s morals. I read Answer to Job by CG Jung, which is an very interesting reflection on this matter. I took the question of a changing God to a priest I happened to meet, but he didn’t seem to understand it at all. “That’d a strange God”, was his only answer, smiling fatherly.
It is certainly easier to understand from an anthropological point of view than from a theological point of view.
Simply put, assuming that god-stories are created by people to explain the nature of reality, it is small wonder that God appears alternatively awesome and awful; the world is sometimes a great place, and sometimes a really horrible place.
The difficulty arises when one expects this creation to be the work of a nice god, or one at least that comports with human notions of morality. This requires considerably more mental gymnastics.
I’m with Tom on this. Jesus has been misinterpreted & misadvertised a great deal.
The OT God might punish you in this life, or let other forces mess with you (as he did with Job).
But it’s Christianity that introduced the idea of a God that appears not even to exist in this physical life, then hits you with unending torment if you get on his wrong side–and his wrong side is invisible. That’s far far more cruel. Someone who manifested himself with plagues was more decent.
And then of course, what Jesus actually meant & how later churchmen interpreted it may be verrry different. But even so, Jesus was a prophet of wrath. We forget that, because he failed to return & smite all the wicked in a timely manner.
That’s a bit harsh. He only hurts us because he loves us. And if we’d quit mouthing off and worshipping golden calves and eating pork, then he wouldn’t be forced to show his love by occasionally giving us a black eye or two…
There’s also the idea that it is our understanding, our maturity as a race, that is changing rather than God. God has remained constant but our understanding of God has not.
God may not have changed, but mankind’s perception of Him may be said to have changed a great deal over the millennia.
Except for that time he killed almost the entire population of mankind…not to mention every kitten on earth.
I’m still trying to figure out why God required such a massive amount of collateral damage and needless death to “send a message”. Can’t a God who created the universe just as easily make all the bad people have heart attacks? Or even create a targeted plague? Or something else that only kills the wicked and not…everything?
And if the rest of humanity truely was beyond saving and was better off dead, doesn’t that imply a massive failure on God’s part for allowing the rot to take root and fester in the system that long, so that genocide is the only option?
Sorry that you are confused by my post. I am serious. I have a 0200 appointment with God in the prayer room tonight. I will not have any problem with subject material tonight for sure.
As for this “Poe’s Law”, i am ignorant about that and looked at your link. The reference to Fred Phelps is an interesting reminder of how far I have come in my faith over the years.
Some time back, 10>< years ago I was excited by Fred’s ministry and was ready and willing to join into it as I was so full of hate in those days. That is not me today. Just this past week I was helping a fellow Christian that is labeled as a sex offender. He has confessed his sins and accepted our Savior Jesus into his life. Who am I to look down on this man now? I do pray for the victim(s), and also for him.
There is only one God that could cause me to change from Hate to Love and that is our Heavenly Father.
I sure hope you are clear on what I am now Sir.
Greg
I’m not sure that’s necessarily so, or rather, that perhaps it doesn’t cover the whole issue. If it was purely a difference of our understanding, then certainly that would explain a gradual change over time not only in our perceptions of God but also writings, those being coloured by our perceptions. Us as believers in military triumphalism lead to us celebrating and selecting those times when God kills a bunch of enemies of the people to record, while us as believers in mercy and forgiveness of sins leads to us recording those points that show God to be those things. However, while the selection and view of such events may be affected simply by our perceptions, the events themselves are less so. The Bible may contain verses on God’s more wrathful actions because we liked a good bit of wrath, but that doesn’t mean those events didn’t happen (there’s other reasons for that, of course ;)).
So i’d say that while we should be careful not to assume perceptions haven’t been changing, it’s also not entirely reasonable to completely handwave any apparent changes at all, at least based on that alone.
I’m not sure I’m following you. I’m talking about a speculative theological position {what other kind is there} that God is eternal and changeless. If that is true then the only thing that could change is us and our perception. That change in our maturity is reflected in how the balance shifts on what is perceived , taught, and prioritized.
RE the whole Flood Thing tarnishing God’s record. He did give us rainbows to make up for it.
There weren’t too many people living back then, I reckon. Let’s say, for sake of argument there was half a billion.
Well, today there’s nearly 7 billion, and according to Revelation a third of them are going to die (if I recall correctly.) That’s probably a lot more than who died with the flood.
Therefore, NT God is just as much, or perhaps more of a wrathful god as the OT.
He also sacrificed his son on a cross - That’s pretty frickin’ mean. He almost did the same thing with Abraham’s son, Isaac in the OT, but let him live - that’s a little bit nicer I think.
I am not convinced there is more validity. I think one of the many things that Christ’s life became, was a test of the Jewish government. They failed.
I think wrathful is on a case by case basis, to see what people will REALLY do.
Now I’m confused. Helping a fellow Christian sex offender.
What if this sex offender decided to accept Allah or Abraham or L Ron Hubbard
as his personal savior? I hope that’s a yes, or you may be proving that christianity
is all for separation.
One thing-- you call the cops? Or was this in prison where
Jesus is most popular?
Reply, IMHO, most Dopers have already-- somewhat inadvertently-- have
given you the answer: Mankind. Men, especially. This is a story entirely created
by men, told by men then women, then embellished by men and women
to this very moment. Just today, I met someone who said that god has a spaceship and when the bible was written, we just didn’t know what a spaceship was and the further we travel in space, we will find that ship and simply board. I asked if preboarding was necessary and got a fun glance.
This story is and was passed using our favorite game of all time: telephone line.
'Cept now, we can post about it. " I read somewhere…"
Check out children’s illustrated bibles. We see a god that looks
a hell of a lot like Santa. A Jesus like Justin Timberlake sans
the violent stories.
Now imagine kids hearing a similar story in early Greece
of how Zeus was born and his life story.
What all this means? The OT god and NT god are just the
same vapid TV show, different seasons, different cast, same story.
Shit, it’s EASTENDERS! Or worse… Knightrider…
I was not critizising God’s behavior. I was just saying that “wrathful” is definitely a word you could use to describe his persona. Even going on a righteous killing spree and killing, say, 50 people, would be enough for me to use the word wrathful.
He has, He serves God! (Allah)
The sex offender has served the sentence given by the court. The Savior he has accepted is Jesus!
The reason I can forgive this fellow sinner(We all sin) is there are so many other sex offenders in our society’s that have not been found and labeled as this man has been.
Do not get me wrong, I hate the sin, but i can forgive the sinner. Trust is earned Forgiveness gives all of us peace.
Praise The Lord!
First of all, evolution is not “just a theory.”
Second of all, whooooosh!
Would you let him babysit your kids for a weekend? What if you prayed really hard that wouldn’t molest them, would you trust God to keep your kids safe?