Religion & Spirituality: How do you personally reconcile a God of love ( NT ) with a God of violence ( OT ) in your religious philosophy?

Malachi 3

3 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. 2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers'soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. 4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. 5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. 6 *****For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.*****

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yesmar

For I am the Lord, I change not] Rather: For I, the Lord, change not: therefore (lit. and) ye, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. (destroyed)

The unchangeableness of Him, whose name, Jehovah, “I am,” is the exponent of His nature, is appealed to as the ground (“for”) of His dealings with Israel. He changes not in His promises and purposes of grace (Romans 11:29 states ~> ***For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.***; therefore, in spite of their rebellions and provocations, the sons of Jacob are still preserved. It is the same argument that is expanded in Psalm 89:28-37.

the sons of Jacob are still preserved.

<<<<<He changes not in His promises and purposes of grace (Romans 11:29 states ~> ***For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.*** <<< this is important for us to realize.>>>>

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Whenever I have walked through the chapters of the OT Scriptures, what I'v observed is that God never broke the Faith. It was always mankind; beginning with Adam and Eve who broke Faith with God then proceeded to break faith with each other through blame. The message is to return to God, for His promises of Restoration, Providence, Rest everlasting!

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Without deep study we can't heart beyond the first *****hearing**** or see or feel the depth of God's heart; nor can we comprehend the mind and intent of God's Faithfulness towards us ...that is why Jesus invited us to learn of Him. The more we understand and discern the more we come into agreements and relationship with God and one another.... Without mercy there is a departure from the Faith of those principles. So I don't condemn God, for my lack of knowledge; nor do I jump into that ring of fire.

Your question kinda reminds me of Jesus who asked Peter.... "Who do you say I am?" ((as a man thinketh)).

Jesus said... ***Come learn of me!*** (how do we learn of God without all of Jesus helping us?)

How I reconcile this ..... well for me I see daybreak... >~~~ "God didn't break the Faith, it was always us."

God hasn't changed, it was us all along who got lost.

God is the same, then, there, here and now; above and below... God the Father of All Lights above, Jesus Christ Son of God below!!

Seldom do I see people on yahoo looking for deeper answers these days. It's like there is a darkness that prevents the fullness of the Light to be seen.

You're attempting to read the mind of God rather than and resolving your answers in life with substance. By assuming that "God was violent or performed criminal acts" , you're using only the resources mankind has allowed you, rather than using you Spiritual Mind for resolve and answers.

You do not even know that God views his power as Criminal or violent and yet you choose to separate the OT from the NT.

The chapter's in the Bible are made up mankind's occurrences unless God intervenes with thought. If you were close enough to God , you would already know that.

Case in point: Sacrifices- mankind developed this method of burning of animals, incense and laying of precious items at the alter of sacrifice.

Old Testament: Sacrifices- Psalms 51:17 My sacrifice {the sacrifices acceptable to God}, IS A BROKEN SPIRIT.

No more and no less . God even goes on to explain in other versus that, " man did not understand HIS meaning of sacrifices and evidence of that was where we find men of the OT using their weakest, sickly, and dying animals as sacrifice. Wouldn't that be comparable to us knowing God expects us to sacrifice more time with and for HIM and we "explain it away" with excuses. Then we are surprised when we see our lives are taking us into dark corners of our lives.

...let the tsunami of apologetics begin

I don't I see that yet another person applied selective texts to describe God like that. God is violent in the New Testament, and God is loving in the Old Testament. But since some people selectively read from those books in the Bible, they fail to see the opposite is also true. God is violent and loving in the Old Testament and New Testament. A person who wants to can find that out. God is the same. There are reasons why he is violent at times and loving at times.

Christers don't reconcile the contradiction and ludicrous tripe that makes up their buybull. They ignore it....they excuse it....they overlook it..... AND most important of all....they pretend it was written in a secret code only their cult handlers can correctly interpret. Rolls eyes

"A God of love"

but not

"A God of unconditional, universal love"

The Bible does not teach "God loves all, and God loves all unconditionally"

Also: the "I do not change" thing is certainly limited in scope.

Think about it.

If God does not EVER change in ANY way, then he also would not change from speaking the word "I" to speaking the word "do" to speaking the word "not" to speaking the word "change".

The "I do not change" teaching logically MUST be limited in scope.

FATHER, SON and HOLY GHOST

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jehovah did a loving thing by destroying those mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. They practiced religions that included human, child sacrifice and temple prostitution. By their destruction the nation of Israel was protected from their bad influence.

One thing most people who complain about what was done is that the ignore the fact that before the destruction came the people were warned and given time to repent. So, in reality, those people chose to die.

Noah warned the people of his day. Moses warned the Egyptians. The Moabites, the Amorites, and Canaanites all had warnings.

God is a momma bear robbed of her cubs.

You're either stolen property that hates being a slave to sin.... or you LOVE being a slave and God will not help you because you like being depraved.

Satan comes only to kill, steal and destroy. He is king over all the arrogant. Because you give yourself undeserved compliments, you can't even DETECT your sin, let alone hate it.

You think God has changed?

Wait for Judgment Day. He has not changed. He'll deal with you then unless you repent and beg for His forgiveness. He's just been patient with you up until now.

I have a couple of thoughts.

First is my own which is an analogy. A parent wants their children to be safe and healthy. They are living on a small piece of property near a busy street. The parent instructs the children to stay in the house. They then move to a rural area. The parent instructs the children to play outside in the fresh air. It seems like the two instructions are opposite but both are for the well-being of the children, in different places. The parent has not changed, though the circumstances and instructions have.

And along with this, Publius once phrased it like this: Harsh people, harsh law. Gentle people, gentle gospel.

It's a bigger subject than can be addressed here, but those are some ideas that provide a bit of insight, perhaps.

The Lion and the Lamb