Holding it Together: Pete Enns

Pete Enns probes an issue many Bible readers sense, and some answers to the retributive violence of God in the Old Testament simply won’t do.

Of course, for both the Old and New Testaments, there are other examples we could look at. But the point remains: If Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30), how can we hold all this together? How can these two views of God be reconciled? Are they even supposed to be reconciled?

One answer will not do, and we need to nip it in the bud: “God can do whatever he wants to, and that includes mercilessly punishing sinners among his own people by killing them.” That misses the entire point. The issue here is how God himself is portrayed differently in the Old Testament and then in the New.

The larger question here is: “What is the relationship between how God is portrayed in Israel’s story vis-a-vis the Gospel?” God’s retributive violent judgment on his own people is simply one window into exploring the larger question.

And a very practical dimension of all this: Which of these portraits of God are we most drawn to and how is that worked out in our daily interactions with others? How do our actions toward others reflect our theology?  Do we want to get even? Is tit-for-tat our rule to live by, or turn the other cheek?