Christians tend to ignore the Old Testament, dismissing it as too harsh, bloody, boring, and even hokey. They pay lip service to it but don't really try to live by it.
How could God have a hand in anything preposterous as the Old Testament? If God is a loving God, then why does he seem so harsh and vengeful in the Old Testament?
According to progressive revelation, God purposely limited how much of his nature and characteristics he displayed to the Israelites, probably because they weren't "ready" for it. However, this explanation seems like a ham-fisted way to go about things. He could have MADE them ready.
Progressive revelation doesn't work. The idea that God would mislead the Israelites with a distorted understanding of himself and his designs seems unlikely and unfair. Moreover, this faulty perception would be amended when Jesus showed up, but by then, the Jews would be lost. In essence, God would have set them up to reject Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
Final revelation is redundant, and progressive revelation doesn't match the Old Testament text. Believers go to such lengths to prop up scripture, ignoring the obvious truth that the Bible is just the words of men. So much is riding on scripture being God's word to us because we know that God's not speaking clearly to us in any other way.
God does not reveal himself except through the universe he has blanketed around us. Scientific evidence becomes our scripture, and there is no supernatural realm where God lives and hordes his secrets. Whatever God was, he is utterly natural. He is the ultimate non-reality.
The Old Testament is bunk, and the New Testament is every bit as unreliable as the Old Testament, just in a different way. Believers must learn to accept that the Bible is merely a product of human imagination and not divine revelation.
How could God have a hand in anything preposterous as the Old Testament? If God is a loving God, then why does he seem so harsh and vengeful in the Old Testament?
According to progressive revelation, God purposely limited how much of his nature and characteristics he displayed to the Israelites, probably because they weren't "ready" for it. However, this explanation seems like a ham-fisted way to go about things. He could have MADE them ready.
Progressive revelation doesn't work. The idea that God would mislead the Israelites with a distorted understanding of himself and his designs seems unlikely and unfair. Moreover, this faulty perception would be amended when Jesus showed up, but by then, the Jews would be lost. In essence, God would have set them up to reject Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
Final revelation is redundant, and progressive revelation doesn't match the Old Testament text. Believers go to such lengths to prop up scripture, ignoring the obvious truth that the Bible is just the words of men. So much is riding on scripture being God's word to us because we know that God's not speaking clearly to us in any other way.
God does not reveal himself except through the universe he has blanketed around us. Scientific evidence becomes our scripture, and there is no supernatural realm where God lives and hordes his secrets. Whatever God was, he is utterly natural. He is the ultimate non-reality.
The Old Testament is bunk, and the New Testament is every bit as unreliable as the Old Testament, just in a different way. Believers must learn to accept that the Bible is merely a product of human imagination and not divine revelation.
