The God of the Old Testament Is the Same as the God of the New

 

It always pains me to hear some well-intentioned Saint raise their hand in Sunday school and mention how they find how God is portrayed so differently in the New Testament than the Old. They seem to fall into the same stereotype that God is a vengeful and harsh being in the Old Testament, but a loving Father in the New.

This is, frankly, a false image constructed by a lack of understanding of both the Old and New Testaments and their portrayals of God.

As the biblical scholar Tremper Longman III observes,

We must beware of falsely stereotyping both the God of the Old Testament and the Jesus who is presented in the New. The God of the Old Testament is not an arbitrary and purely dark figure, and Jesus is not all flowers and light and soft goodness. Yahweh never capriciously nor arbitrarily punished anyone. On the contrary, the witness of the Old Testament is consistent that he is a “merciful and gracious God … slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6).He punished only after repeated rebellion and insistent warnings. And he always had a heart for the salvation of his people even when they grossly offended him.

Perhaps the most powerful passage in this regard is presented by the prophet Hosea. In view of Israel’s repeated sins, God determines that the time has come to follow through on his repeated threats to punish them. But as he does so, his heart is rent: “Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah and Zeboiim? My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows. No, I will not punish you as much as my burning anger tells me to. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy” (Hos. 11:8–9). In light of this speech it is hard to maintain that the God of the Old Testament is a heartless despot. The decision to punish his people tore him apart emotionally. We have a difficult time comprehending this passage in part because we often forget  that our God is a God of intense passions [although, I might add, Latter-day Saints have little trouble with this conception of God, as it is central to our entire theology]. Of course, he cannot be swept away by the power of his emotions, nut he is an emotional being. Though Israel deserves eradication, his compassion simply will not allow him to follow through. Indeed, this intense love for his human creatures provides the bridge to the greatest sacrifice of all time: the death of Christ on the cross.

[Note that while Longman III calls us “human creatures,” the restored gospel maintains that we are more than creations and creatures, but literal sons and daughters of God.]

As the God of the Old Testament is not a monolithic bully, so Jesus Christ is not totally passive or pacifist. In fact, his clearing of the temple connects him to the Old Testament picture of divine judgement. When Jesus saw that God’s house had been devoted to illegitimate commerce, he was totally outraged. Taking a whip, he forcibly drove the malefactors out.The scene inspired the Gospel writer to quote the psalmist’s declaration, “Passion for God’s house burns within me” (John 2:17, quoting Ps. 69:9).

Thus, it is erroneous to make a distinct contrast between the Old and New Testament views of God… The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New.[1]

As Longman III shows throughout the remainder of the chapter from which the above citation comes, the authors of the New Testament are careful to depict Jesus as performing the same divine roles that God performs in the Old Testament. A simplistic reading of the Bible clearly cannot lead one to a complete understanding of the nature, attributes, and characteristics of God.

---

[1] Tremper Longman III, Making Sense of the Old Testament: Three Crucial Questions (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1998), 57–58.