Is the God of the OT and the NT the same God?

[DanielR]

no the Christian god is the true one

 

[pearl]

They just dont worship the same God.

This is not true. Christian prayer and worship is offered to God, through, in the name of, Christ.

 

[buzzardwhiskey]

He's the same God in that generic frightened men created him. But societies do change so difference are bound to pop up.

 

[Polymath257]

Do Protestants and Catholics worship the same God? Do Muslims and Christians? How about Orthodox and Catholic Christians? Nestorian Christians (who don't believe in the trinity) and Baptists?

No two people worship the same God. Everyone chooses the image of God that they like to worship.

 

[pearl]

Worship is usually thought of as formal, a fixed liturgy or order of. Off hand I am not aware of any Christian liturgy that worships Christ in place of God of Israel.

 

[Evie]

I'm trying to read the Bible and as I was reading, this question popped into my head. Is the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament the same God? Or are they different?

Edit: And could you please state how?

It is my belief there is only One God. The One God of both OT. And NT.

 

[Polymath257]

It is my belief there is only One God. The One God of both OT. And NT.

And Islam? How about Hinduism?

 

[Aussiescribbler]

I've just been reading the Old Testament for the first time and just finished the Book of Job. So far, it seems to me that the God of Moses was an evil being (I assume imaginary) who tried to control people by appealing to their greed (promising to hand over to them lands which belonged to other people and produce raised by other people) and fear (threatening to curse them) and demanding the wasteful slaughter of animals for his own appeasement. I see no goodness in this being at all. Sure there is the Ten Commandments, but they are rules to maintain social cohesion within the group. This God does not ask for them to be applied outside the group to those who do not worship him. He orders even the infants of such people to be slaughtered.

The God of Jesus, however, seems to me to be synonymous with love and nature. Jesus didn't promise to reward people for acts of violence by handing over to them the property of others and he didn't threaten to curse people. Rather he lifted curses. He warned that bad things could happen to those who departed from an honest way of life, but he did not behave in a vindictive way or present God as vindictive.

I think an argument could be made that the God of the Old Testament was actually Satan, in the metaphorical sense of an embodiment of the evil side of humans, of our hostile, greedy, arrogant tribalism. He comes across to me much like a supernatural equivalent of Genghis Khan.

 

[hughwatt]

No, they are not the same.

Oh yes they are.

 

[Theweirdtophat]

I always thought they were different, due to the different messages they had. Perhaps the NT god was someone different and everyone thought it was the same God as the OT, but was actually a different entity. I think Yahweh, Jesus and Allah are all different entities.

 

[Rival]

Oh yes they are.

This could go on all night, buddy. To you your belief, to me mine.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

I'm trying to read the Bible and as I was reading, this question popped into my head. Is the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament the same God? Or are they different?

Edit: And could you please state how?

All gods of revealed religions are manufactured, so not only are all revealed gods different, they also change according to the whims and theological necessities of their varied parade of authors/editors.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Is the Batman that's written by Frank Miller the same Batman that's written by Alan Moore?

Bingo.

 

[shunyadragon]

I'm trying to read the Bible and as I was reading, this question popped into my head. Is the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament the same God? Or are they different?

Edit: And could you please state how?

The God of the Bible evolves from a polytheistic Gods to Hierarchical polytheism to the Monotheistic God of the later Hebrews. The God of the New Testament becomes controversial in my perspective, because it becomes Trinitarian under Roman/Hellenist influence, which has no real basis in the OT, and i consider Tritheism. Statues and images proliferate in violation of Old Testament Law.

 

[redpolk]

I'm trying to read the Bible and as I was reading, this question popped into my head. Is the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament the same God? Or are they different?

Edit: And could you please state how?

You might want look back to early Xian history.Some early Xians saw a clear difference between the rather blood-thirsty OT God and His NT counterpart and developed theologies differentiating the two.It actually made IMO more sense than mainstream Xian efforts to explain how a God who called for rape and genocide (for starters) later called for turning the other cheek.You have hit on one of the most most fundamental contradictions in Xian theology.Don't give up on your pursuit of answers.Some honest Xians will admit there is no good answer and one must simply believe.

 

[redpolk]

No you can't because since you left Jesus you were never a true Christian and you didn't have faith or Jesus would have clarified all the contradictions for you.

So Jesus is the God of circular reasoning?

 

[redpolk]

Same. Jesus was a jew and points to the same god as the jews. His messiahsip doesnt change he believed in the same father. The Church changed it to worshiping christ given they feel since christ has the same divinity god, he must be god. Thats not true. I think jews are disagreeing with mainsteam christianity. Mainsteam doesnt define the bible. The bible and jesus (ans the creator) didnt teach he/jesus is god so why would the creator be different in the NT than the old?

Put in another way: If both religions are from abraham, why would we assume that there is more than one creator?

Jesus worshiped the same god as moses and abraham.

How is it there be different gods when in both religions moses and jesus say there is only one creator?

Yes Jesus was a Jew who wanted to reform Judaism.It was Paul who created what is now called Xianity.

 

[MysticPhD]

The God is the same because there is only one, but the beliefs about Him are very different. They were derived in primitive and barbaric ignorance and superstition in the OT. Jesus revealed the true nature of God and was soundly rejected, scourged and crucified for it.

 

[redpolk]

They are absolutely one and the same. (I kind of wish you'd included a poll on this thread.)

Certainly mainstream Xians think so but that doesn't make it true.(They basically ignore the blatant contradictions.)

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

The God of Jesus, however, seems to me to be synonymous with love and nature. Jesus didn't promise to reward people for acts of violence by handing over to them the property of others and he didn't threaten to curse people. Rather he lifted curses. He warned that bad things could happen to those who departed from an honest way of life, but he did not behave in a vindictive way or present God as vindictive.

Depends on the author, though. John's God and Paul's God can be WAY more vindictive than, say, Mark's or James'. The God of the former will blast you to hell for all eternity because you didn't buy the WWJD bumper sticker. It's all about group identity for them, the most shallow of all possible reasons to worship a deity.

Recall as well that after the Flood, God is like, "My bad. That was overkill." He RELISHES killing off billions in Revelation without so much as a thought as to why that is even necessary.