The ditheism was sometimes veiled by
the conception that the second God had been created by the first, and was
ultimately subordinate to Him. In the theology of Marcion, which filled a large
place in the Christianity of both the second and the third centuries, ditheism
was presented as the only solution of this and all the other contrasts of which
the world is full, and of which that of Law and Grace is the most typical
example. The New Testament was the revelation of the good God, the God of love;
the Old Testament was that of the just God, the God of wrath. Redemption was
the victory of forgiveness over punishment, of the God who was revealed by
Jesus Christ over the God who was manifested in the Law.[1]
The God of the Old Testament is arguably
the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty,
unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser;
a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.[2]
The book “Is God
a Moral Monster” by P. Copan is a great starting place for anyone seeking to understand
the stupidity of accusations against God in the Old Testament. The gum-flapping
vitriol of Dawkins says more about him than about God. “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do
abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.”[3]
Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we
share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith
that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain intruders have
stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation
as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our
only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you are
fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved a people out of the land
of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the
angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he
has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great
day. Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the
same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust,
serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same
way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the
glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and
disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of
slander against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are
destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct.[4]
A word of caution for all of us who believe that God is supreme,
loving and just; we don’t need to defend God, he is more than able to take care
of himself. What we do have to undertake is a review of the Old Testament
scriptures as they relate to God’s nature and dealing with humans. It is
important to consider charges brought against God, not to convince godless
Atheists they are wrong, but to reaffirm our own faith. Copan deals with a number of questions raised by
Atheists, I will look at the scriptural evidence that there is and has only
ever been one God.
In Deuteronomy
Moses prepared the people to cross the Jordan River to enter the promised land
by reiterating the commandments given by God. “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD
is one!”[5]
These words are the beginning to the Jewish Shema, the most important prayer of
Judaism. When asked by a scribe, which was the greatest commandment Jesus
quoted Deuteronomy, “Hear, O
Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;”[6] To this the scribe responded, “You are right, Teacher; you have
truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'…”[7]
What I find interesting is that Jesus used the quotation from Moses in
answering the scribe’s question. Moses was speaking of the Old Testament God,
Jesus was speaking of his present day God with the same exact words. To the
people of Jesus’ time and specifically to the religious scribe there was but
one God. The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are one
and the same, The Old Testament God was the same God who sent Jesus into world;
the God of the Shema never changed:
It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that
the LORD set his heart on you and chose you--for you were the fewest of all
peoples. It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to
your ancestors, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and
redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.[8]
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.[9]
Paul wrote, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our
instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the
scriptures we might have hope.”[10]
And, “These things happened
to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on
whom the ends of the ages have come.”[11] It
is ridiculous to conceive of there being different Gods governing different
times, in different ways. The division between Hebrew Scriptures and New
Testament Scriptures is purely human meddling. The scriptures in total are a
library of books and letters written over hundreds of years by different people
in different circumstances. Together they provide a story of God’s relationship
with his creation. That story culminates in the redemption of man through Jesus’
sacrifice. I firmly believe that it is impossible to understand the New
Testament without having a grounding in the Old Testament.
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the
prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he
appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is
the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he
sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for
sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,[12]
The author of Hebrews obviously recognized only one God, and
he did not make any distinguishing remarks concerning God before and God at his
time.
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of
our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and
rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him.
Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own
people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. And it will
be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out
of the people.' And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and
those after him, also predicted these days. You are the descendants of the
prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to
Abraham, 'And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be
blessed.' When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless
you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.[13]
The God of the past was their God of present and the God of
their future. It is absolutely impossible to separate the God of the Old
Testament from Jesus his Son. “Now
the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say,
"And to offsprings," as of many; but it says, "And to your
offspring," that is, to one person, who is Christ.”[14] “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law,”[15]
You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and
darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice
whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. (For
they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches
the mountain, it shall be stoned to death." Indeed, so terrifying was the
sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear.") But you have come to
Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn
who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of
the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and
to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See
that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when
they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if
we reject the one who warns from heaven! At that time his voice shook the
earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the
earth but also the heaven." This phrase, "Yet once more,"
indicates the removal of what is shaken--that is, created things--so that what
cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that
cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable
worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.[16]
This a comparison if not contrast of the first time God
connected with people as his kingdom, and the second time God provided a kingdom
through Jesus. “…if they did
not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less
will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!” The author
has a stern warning for people who reject the kingdom over which Christ is
king. People who believe that the God of the Old Testament was violent and
angry should pay attention, because the writer says that as bad as the
punishment for rejecting the Law of Moses was, rejecting Jesus will bring
greater violence –“our God
is a consuming fire”.
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of
our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus,[17]
The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus,[18]
I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down
according to the law or written in the prophets.[19]
The people who wrote, and were of the New Testament era
recognized the same God as ancient servants of God.
…yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and
for whom we exist,[20]
...one God and Father of all, who is above all and
through all and in all.[21]
For there is one God;[22]
There is only one God, if you have a problem with how God
acted in the Old Testament you’d better get over it, because the punishment for
rejecting Jesus comes from the same God and will be worse that that suffered by
those who rejected Moses.
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like
the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was
their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within
them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each
other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of
them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and
remember their sin no more.[23]
But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that
degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through
better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would
have been no need to look for a second one. God finds fault with them when he
says: "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the
covenant that I made with their ancestors, on the day when I took them by the
hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my
covenant, and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord. This is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I
will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people.[24]
God promised a new covenant hundreds of years before Jesus,
the new covenant was given by the same God in Jesus. There is only one God. Those
people who don’t like the God of the Old Testament need to wake up and recognize
there is only God. You cannot worship God if you can’t accept he is One.
[1]
The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church, by Edwin
Hatch (1891) pp. 227, 228
[2]
The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, p.31 (The fool who in time will learn of his
folly)
[3]
Psa 14:1
[4]
Jud 1:3-10
[5]
Deut 6:4
[6]
Mar 12:29
[7]
Mar 12:32
[8]
Deut 7:7
[9]
Joh 3:16
[10]
Rom 15:4
[11]
1Co 10:11
[12]
Heb 1:1-3
[13]
Act 3:13, 22-26
[14]
Gal 3:16
[15]
Gal 4:4
[16]
Heb 12:18-29
[17]
Act 3:13
[18]
Act 5:30
[19]
Act 24:14
[20]
1Co 8:6
[21]
Eph 4:6
[22]
1Ti 2:5
[23]
Jer 31:31-34
[24]
Heb 8:6-10
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