Is God loving, merciful, kind, etc.?

YYHWH

(NUM 25:4) God commands Moses to hang the leaders in the sun to calm God's anger

(DEUT 4:24) God is a consuming fire, a jealous God

(I SAM 6:19) God strikes 50,070 dead for a sin with no compassion

(I SAM 15:2,3) God commands utter destruction of a nation of people for one man's sin,

(II SAM 21:1) God causes a three year famine because of the doings of one man's house.

(I CHRON 16:34) God is good and merciful

(Psalm 25:8) God is good and upright

(Psalm 145:8-9) God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, merciful, and good to all

(JER 13:14) God will not pity, not spare, not show mercy, but destroy them

(JER 17:4) God will be angry at Judah forever

(EZEK 18:32) God finds no pleasure in death

(JAMES 5:11) God is very compassionate and merciful

(1 JOHN 4:16) God is love

What Is The Answer?

Elsewhere

He is like a JW: Bound by an arbitrary set of rules that he reluctantly follows without thinking.

"As every one knows, there are mistakes in the Bible" - The Watchtower, April 15, 1928, p. 126
Believe in yourself, not mythology.
<x ><

Billygoat

I've struggled myself with what seems to be the split personality of God from the Old Testament compared to the New Testament. Here are a few of my thoughts...

When I look back at the OT, I try to remember that the writers are pretty much products of a barbaric, uncivilized society that only understands anger, war, and honor by killing. So that is probably how they pictured God to be. I think their accounts were accurate in their minds.

The NT God is totally different. One that is loving, compassionate, patient, and kind. In my heart of hearts I believe that God is better represented in the NT. It was written by products of a more civilized society, but also because the account of Christ is a life led in love. He didn't have to love, but he did. He also said he was there to replace the old covenant.

Yes, there are mistakes in the bible. Imperfect man wrote it. But the message of the NT is pretty clear. Love God. Love man. If you can do those two things, you are on the right track.

I'm still learning though...

Andi

Elsewhere

Reminds me of a saying:

God is created in the image of the worshiper.

"As every one knows, there are mistakes in the Bible" - The Watchtower, April 15, 1928, p. 126
Believe in yourself, not mythology.
<x ><

William Penwell

I have wondered about this question myself. The God of Israel is not the same God that is taught by Christ. In Elaine Pagels book "The Gnostic Gospels" she explains how the early Gnostic Christians thought of what God was:

"What this secret tradition reveals is that the one whom most Christians naively worship as creator, God, and Father is, in reality, only the image of the true God. According to Valentinus, what Clement and Ignatius mistakenly ascribe to God actually applies only to the creator. Valentinus, following Plato, uses the Greek term for "creator" (demiurgos), suggesting that he is a lesser divine being who serves as the instrument of the higher powers. It is not God, he explains, but the demiurge who reigns as king and lord, who acts as a military commander, who gives the law and judges those who violate it - in short he is the "God of Israel."

"Though the initiation Valentinus offers, the candidate learns to reject the creator's authority and all his demands as foolishness. What Gnostics know is that the creator makes false claims to power (" I am God, and there is no other") that derive from his own ignorance. Achieving gnosis involves coming to recognize the true source of divine power - namely, "the depth" of all being. Whoever has come to know that source simultaneously comes to know himself and discovers his spiritual origin: he has come to know his true Father and Mother."

"Whoever comes to this gnosis - this insight - is ready to receive the secret sacrament called the redemption (apolytrosis; literally, "release"). Before gaining gnosis, the candidate worshiped the demiurge, mistaking him for their true God: now, through the sacrament of redemption, the candidate indicates that he has been released from the demiurge's power. In this ritual he addresses the demiurge, declaring his independence, serving notice that he no longer belongs to the demiurge's sphere of authority and judgement, but to what transcends it:
I am son from the Father - the Father who is preexistent....I derive being from Him who is preexistent, and I come again to my own place whence I came forth."

Will

"I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's."
Mark Twain

ISP

God is.......whatever you want to say he is...to suit whatever you want to do. No wonder it changes!

ISP

wonderwoman77

I struggled with this for a long time when I was also struggling to be a christian. I however do not consider myself a christian anymore, so I do not struggle with all the contradictions in the bible. Now I am more about connecting with my inner spirit and getting peace that way and about the good ness that is created. SO I guess I do not have an exact answer....

SYN

God? Merciful? AHAHAHA! You obviously haven't read the Bible yet, have you? Perhaps a better label for the tribal God portrayed so well in the Bible would be 'SCHIZOPHRENIC'. Would you want your God to be a 'Glorious Man of War'? *LOL* Ah, Christianity...

It really is such an amazingly beautiful series of interlocking systems that comprise what a human is. It's too bad we're working backwards from the object code, everything would be simpler with the source and a comment or three thrown in.

GWEEDO

God is schizophrenic

Is God loving, merciful, kind, etc.?

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