Greetings beautiful people! I have a delema that pains my heart...
I am a Christian because I follow the words of Christ. The Old Testament has no place in my life.
The first testament describes a vengeful God, (a God that would kill children) a God that is definitely not the God described by Christ.
So it makes me sad when my friends or even my Pastor quotes from the Old Testament, as I feel they are straying from Christ's teaching. I understand through impeccable Logic, that a Christian should only read the words of Christ. Because when an individual, be them Christian or not, reads or speaks the old testament at that moment they are being Jewish. The Old Testament is the Jewish Bible when you speak it your being Jewish, full stop, logical and rational fact. I am definitely not anti-Semitic as I follow Christ's words and I love my neighbour.
Can anyone provide me with a logical and rational argument that refutes my argument. Furthermore, let's pick any contentious issue: let's say gays or gay marriage. Did Christ say anything against gays? If not, and you quote Leviticus, then in quoting and believing Leviticus, you are being a Jew not being Christian.
I have used this example because it is so volitile, not because I approve personal of homosexuality. But as a True Christian I should have no issue with homosexuality. Please only rational replies, I actually want to be proved wrong, but fact is fact.
Old Testament,a vengeful God(not).
We all know that God will judge the whole world,and all that are lost will not be able to dwell with Him.
Whether Old or New,God will judge the same way,and is the same love,but in the Old He judged right on earth.
God puts down a thousand to save ten thousand.
If you were walking in the park with your dad,and a man ran up on you with a knife to stab you,and your dad put him down,would you say,gee dad you are cruel,or would you say,thanks dad for saving my life.
God is not cruel,people are cruel,as in the example of David,and his serious sin that affected Israel,and he was given a choice of whether man comes upon Israel,or God comes upon Israel,and David chose God for He has mercy,where people can lack mercy.
Jesus was coming through the nation of Israel that would give salvation to the world,the most important thing to ever attain.
God had to protect Israel from being perverted from the truth,and surviving,conquering their enemies,and would fight on the side of Israel to preserve them.
If God had not protected Israel from their enemies they would of been wiped out,and then where is salvation,and when they were astray for a certain amount of time,God allowed them to be punished to bring them back to the truth,which He will do it again in the future.
God said,I am the LORD,I change not,therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed,and if the sun,moon,and stars,the ordinances of heaven are still in place,His covenant is still in place with Israel,and God has not cast off His people He once foreknew,but when they have borne their shame they will then know the truth,which Jesus said their house is left unto them desolate until they say blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.
Also God had Israel put down people that were cruel for the safety of other people.
But mainly God had to protect Israel from being perverted from the truth,and from being wiped out,for if God had not done such the devil would of stirred up the nations to wipe her out.
God said concerning the Old that He winked at their ignorance,but now commands them to repent.
God tolerated much wickedness from people in the Old Testament,and if He did have Israel go against certain people,or it was Him going against people,it was all for the purpose of benefiting people to keep them in the truth,and to lessen the cruelty of nations in the Old Testament.
God gives the kingdom to whoever He wants,and when a kingdom got too cruel,and perverting His ways on earth that extend,and influence too many people,God would allow another kingdom to take them down,and when they too acted the same way,God would allow another kingdom to take over.
An example is Babylon,which king Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed throughout his kingdom to acknowledge the God of Israel,for He is the God of gods,but when he died,and his son took the throne,he knew what his father believed,but went against it,and God stripped the kingdom from them,and gave it to the Medes and Persians.
God was not a war monger,but it was the concern of people that was on His mind,for He is love.
God puts down a thousand to save ten thousand,and God is not cruel,but people are cruel,and as far as the children,God knew they would grow up with the same mentality as the adults,for He did not see that they could change in their environment.
The people God went against were above the average people,but they were excessively cruel,and perverted many people by their falsehood.
If God did go against people,and had Israel do such,or other nations against nations,it was not because He was a war monger,or cruel,but it was all for the benefit,and concern for people,for He was protecting people,and their prosperity.
It was all for the concern of people.
In the Old Testament God said He would come in the future as the Savior,and there was no other Savior,but Him,and Jesus is God manifest in the flesh,and Jesus said to Philip,if you have seen Me,you have seen the Father,the words that I speak are not of My own,but the Father that dwells in Me,He does the works.
And Jesus said,I am,and that He is Lord and Master,which He called God,Lord.Jesus is God and man,the only way we can see the invisible God.
No person has ever seen Jesus,and no person will ever see Jesus,and He dwells in the light which no person can approach unto,for He is God that showed a visible manifestation of Himself.
Jesus is the God of the Old Testament,and that is the love of the God of the Old Testament
We are a Christian,and a Jew.We are both.
We follow Christ,and His teachings,so that would label us as a Christian,but we are also a Jew,for it is not a Jew that is one outward,but a Jew that is one inward,and when a Gentile becomes a Christian they become part of the commonwealth of Israel,with the promises,which Jesus said,salvation is of the Jews,and they become a Jew inward.
Jesus took the physical ordinances of Israel,and nailed them to His cross taking them out of the way,for they were contrary to us because they had nothing to do with spiritual salvation,and in the New we go by the two greatest commandments,love God,and love people.
Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Rom 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Rom 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
As far as homosexuality.It not only goes against the spiritual realm,but it also goes against the natural realm,for God did not create the natural realm to operate that way,which the Bible says that even nature teaches that it is a shame for a man to have long hair,for then they are putting themselves in the position of a woman.