Skip to main content

Old Testament...

             The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3)

 

            Some claim that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God as the God of the New Testament. “The Father”  is demanding, grumpy, and even cruel, while “The Son” is loving, tolerant, and compassionate. Anyone who has studied either testament, or both, can only shake his head at such a foolish claim.

            When you give a speech about a problem, you generally begin with an exploration of the problem. After that, you might move into a historical exploration of the problem's consequences and the efforts made to deal with it. Only after you’ve shown how big the problem is and how past attempts to solve the problem have failed is it likely to be useful to present a new and radical solution.

            The Old Testament explains and explores the problem, showing that the solutions attempted haven’t worked. Such discussions of problems often sound harsh. If you’re Conservative, consider how harsh the Liberals sound about all the problems in America right now, and how you are the cause of them all. If you’re Liberal, just change the perspectives to the other order.

          The New Testament is the new solution and its application. It’s not that the God of one is any different from the God of the other. It’s the stage of the discussion. God is the solution. He always was. He always will be. He doesn’t change. He’s provided the solution but if we reject it, we still face the problem that we have been unable to solve. Blaming God for our failings and our rejections of Him has been the norm since Eden, but it gets us nowhere

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more