Re: [asa] The Old Testament God is ..

The God of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges and to a lesser degree the =
books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles fits fairly well Dawkins' =
characterization if judged by contemporary standards of political =
correctness. The God of the prophets was in several respects closer
to =
the God of the NT. The response of the na=EFve Christian is, "Who has =
the right to challenge God?" =20

Jesus (unfortunately IMO) seemed driven by his culture to accept a =
fairly literal interpretation of all OT scriptures and--according to
the =
gospels--claimed everlasting torture was to be the penalty for all =
unrepentant offenders. So God continues to be something of a =
small-minded monster if he inflicts infinite torture for finite, =
relatively petty crimes. Any human raised in the West who would =
publicly suggest in our day that such punishment was appropriate would =
be vigorously scorned. (So, as they say, people today are morally =
superior to God.) =20

I deal with these issues by asserting that God hasn't changed but
people =
have. It was necessary for God to separate out a nation from among
the =
idolaters. The law was God's way of imposing a special identity on
this =
chosen nation, and the genocidal wars had their place in keeping his =
people separate. Few of us today, I think, can understand how =
attractive the foreign gods were. Without extreme measures (including =
especially the Babylonian captivity) the Jews would have lost their =
identity as surely as the citizens of the Northern Kingdom did. =20

Ultimately the measures worked, and Jews have retained much of their =
identity as God's people to this day. But in taking these extreme =
measures I think God presented a wholly inaccurate picture of
himself. =
Such measures were necessary at the time because of the way people
were =
at the time--but they give a very poor idea of who God really is. =20

Don

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Received on Thu Oct 5 23:03:13 2006