Modern Christians: how to reconcile Old Testament with New?

[Cartooniverse]

I come from a long line of Jews. How long? My tribe predates the 12 Tribes of Israel by over 2,000 years. So, pretty far back.

I’ve come to feel rather strongly that the O.T. God is the god of anger, wrath, punishment, disappointment and retribution. Disappoint me on a very small scale? Lose innocence and lead a life of humiliation and shame and lack of all innocence.

Disappoint me on a grand scale? I will drown you all at once.
Lots of other more intensely personal reasons why I’ve not felt like I was a follower of Judaism for many years now. I’ll be an ethnic Jew forever, and that’s just fine by me. I yam what I yam.

The N.T. God? Not so much with the rage, humiliation, etc. As a recently ( 3 + years ago ) baptized Episcopalian, I embrace a more loving and accepting and tolerant way of relating to a higher power.

Also, being intensely protective of all other methods of faith or NO faith at all, I defend Hindu gods as much as the OT God and NT God and any other God. Believe what you want. Just don’t jam a gun against my temple and tell me to believe it too or else.

Reconcile O.T. God with N.T. God? They are one God. What’s to reconcile? It’s all how you deal with the person to your left and the person to your right.
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[DesertDog]

@Trinopus

Well… It’s a little too authoritarian for my tastes. The story of the guy who was put to death for gathering firewood always gives me the creeps.

It was the part about you should dash your enemy’s children’s brains out against a wall that did it for me. Old Testament God was kinda blood-thirsty.

Question: Why do Christians pay any attention at all to the OT? Is it the “well, it’s in both testaments so it must be double good” meme? How much bible study is of the OT?

[Thudlow_Boink]

@DesertDog

It was the part about you should dash your enemy’s children’s brains out against a wall that did it for me.

Think of it as a Pitting.

[Voyager]

@DesertDog

It was the part about you should dash your enemy’s children’s brains out against a wall that did it for me. Old Testament God was kinda blood-thirsty.

Question: Why do Christians pay any attention at all to the OT? Is it the “well, it’s in both testaments so it must be double good” meme? How much bible study is of the OT?

And according to traditional Christian teaching, if you don’t jump through the right hoops you suffer eternal torment. Nice God.

I’ll take dying early from not being written into the book of life for the next year instead of that, thanks.

[Voyager]

@BigT

Yep. There’s a reason Christians call it the Old Testament, or Old Covenant. The idea is that the covenant with Jesus overrides the old covenant. The laws back then were established for Israel only, and required a functioning Temple. This no longer exists, and God has “grafted in” the Gentiles.

Just to note that a functioning Temple did exist at the time of Jesus.

[Voyager]

@aceplace57

I recall studying (several taped lectures and books) why the Jewish Priests and The Pharisees rejected Jesus as the Messiah. It’s far to lengthy for a casual post.

This article covers some of the material I’ve read over the years. It’s a good starting point.
Who Were the Religious Leaders of Jesus's Day? — The Thorncrown Journal

TheJewish religious leaders had developed a complex and rigid methodology for recognizing the Messiah. It was based on generations of theological study. The Jewish people have waited for the Messiah for a long time. There are inconsistencies in the Old and New Testaments. They lead to Jesus’ betrayal and death at the hands of the Romans.

The rejection of Jesus is a warning against any church’s entrenched theology. Sometimes, it can blind them to new ideas.

The Messianic prophecies are not all that complex. They may seem that way to a Christian because the Tanakh has been quoted mined, as it were for anything that could be force fitted into a prophecy that Jesus actually met.
The Messiah would be the successful king - not someone who called himself king with very few followers. Which is why the Romans executed him, of course. It is not like they cared about Messiahs, who were a shekel a dozen back then.
The concept that Jews rejected Jesus out of hard heartedness (not because he didn’t meet the prophecy) has led to lots of persecution over the centuries.

[Voyager]

@Northern_Piper

Peter also grappled with this issue, until he had his vision of God telling him that the dietary laws had been done away with by Jesus.

So Christians do not believe that the Mosaic dietary and other laws (mixing fabrics etc) continue to have any validity, because of the New Covenant.

Did Jesus reject the dietary laws? And why would God change his mind after so long?
Is that more plausible than the explanation that makes sense to me and is in context - that the dietary laws were not something gentiles wanted to follow.
The Roman soldier was dubious about signing up, so Paul had a convenient dream and the next day came back and said “tell ya what I’m gonna do.”

He would have made a great used car salesman.

[Trinopus]

@DesertDog

. . . Question: Why do Christians pay any attention at all to the OT? Is it the “well, it’s in both testaments so it must be double good” meme? How much bible study is of the OT?

Christianity depends on the OT for its legitimacy. It’s sort of like showing your birth certificate to get a passport. Christianity must define God the Father as “the same” as God the Creator.

(In exactly the same way Islam must define Allah as “the same” as Judeo-Christianity’s God.)

Christian Bible study spends a LOT of time on the OT. They use this often to “prefigure” Christ, making parallels such as Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, and how this reflects God’s sacrifice of Jesus. Listen to any Christian radio station, and the OT is a major part of their content.