Cath\u00e9drale Notre-Dame de Paris (Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many people \u2014 seekers, believing Christians, even some Latter-day Saints \u2014 have problems with the portrayal of God in the Old Testament.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Probably even more people just have problems with the Old Testament itself, because they find it hard to follow.\u00a0 This is, I think, very unfortunate, both because the Old Testament is at the foundation of all Judeo-Christian faith and because, among other things, it\u2019s a rich treasure house of history, moral lessons, inspirational stories, and literature.\u00a0 But that\u2019s a topic for another day.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re bothered because, sometimes, the Old Testament God seems to be arrogant, petty, \u201cjealous,\u201d harsh, and violent.\u00a0 The Old Testament seems to tolerate or even endorse slavery, the oppression of women, and mass murder (effectively, ethnic cleansing).<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The problem is that, for Christian believers (unless, perhaps, they follow the ancient heretic Marcion), the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New.\u00a0 How can the loving Jesus be reconciled with the often vengeful and fierce Jehovah? \u00a0(For Latter-day Saints, Jesus is<\/em> Jehovah.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is a big and serious topic, much beyond the scope of a simple blog post.\u00a0 I will say, though, that I believe the contrast to be seriously overdrawn.\u00a0 There is a great deal of love and mercy in the Old Testament.\u00a0 And, frankly, the Jesus who carefully braids a whip to drive the moneychangers from his Father\u2019s house isn\u2019t quite the proto-Gandhi or first-century flower child that some portray.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t resolve all concerns here \u2014 and, probably, not anywhere.\u00a0 But I do want to recommend a book that might help.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul Copan is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, and a prominent Evangelical apologist.\u00a0 (I know him slightly, having participated, with him, in a formal Mormon-Evangelical debate a number of years ago during an academic conference in Denver.\u00a0 He is a bright and decent man.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2011, I believe, he published Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God<\/em> (Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 2011).<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In twenty chapters bearing such titles as \u201cThe Bible\u2019s Ubiquitous Weirdness? Kosher Foods, Kooky Laws?\u201d and \u201cChild Abuse and Bullying? God\u2019s Ways and the Binding of Isaac,\u201d and \u201cMisogynistic? Women in Israel,\u201d and \u201cIndiscriminate Massacre and Ethnic Cleansing? The Killing of the Canaanites,\u201d Dr. Copan forthrightly addresses the most troubling stories and passages in the Old Testament, comparing them with their ancient Near Eastern environment and subjecting them to careful analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Professor Copan has plainly been driven to defend the biblical texts against attacks from such \u201cnew atheists\u201d as Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens.\u00a0 His first two chapters, \u201cWho Are the New Atheists?\u201d and \u201cThe New Atheists and the Old Testament God,\u201d make this explicit, and a later chapter, \u201cThe Root of All Evil? Does Religion Cause Violence?\u201d takes on one of their principal accusations.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is God a Moral Monster?<\/em> probably contains quite a bit more in-depth analysis than most readers will care to follow.\u00a0 But those who have been seriously bothered by elements of the Old Testament\u2019s depiction of God will, I think, find it helpful at many points.\u00a0 Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals differ substantially on a number of theological issues and Latter-day Saints aren\u2019t biblical inerrantists, but we tend to take a high view of the historicity of the Bible, including the pre-Christian part, and there is little if anything in Professor Copan\u2019s analysis and argument that will pose any difficulties for the typical Latter-day Saint.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Paris, France<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Many people \u2014 seekers, believing Christians, even some Latter-day Saints \u2014 have problems with the portrayal of God in the Old Testament. \u00a0 Probably even more people just have problems with the Old Testament itself, because they find it hard to follow.\u00a0 This is, I think, very unfortunate, both because the Old Testament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>