Quote from: Martin on April 26, 2011, 15:21:07

The two pictures of God don't mix, they never have, and those who try to talk their way out of that just end up being dishonest about it.

So are you one of these folk, Martin - rather like carlos from Brazil (IIRC) on the old Xalt board - who believes that the NT God is a completely different entity to the God of the Old Testament?

It's not the right question to ask Andy, the God who is Love has been there right from the beginning, found whenever people show compassion, kindness, generosity, caring, forgiveness or mercy.  So you will find that God written about in parts of the Old Testament.  God is cast as merciful, compassionate and forgiving in quite a bit of what is written - it's harder to find stories of humans acting in ways we'd class as selflessly Loving, but there are some, for example there are stories of Love between people - like Ruth and Naomi or David and Jonathan, or stories of forgiveness, like Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers who had sold him into slavery.

So it's not as if a God of Love is non-existent in the OT, but that the picture is inconsistent - just as you'd expect it to be, since the Bible is a set of books written by a variety of people with a variety of inconsistent views about God.   It's the barmyness of the idea that the Bible is a consistent whole that has no real mileage and is the province of the dogma-bound liar.