The belief in two gods
@silenciobarnes (249)
United States
January 14, 2007 9:59pm CST
Some believe that there are actually two gods. The one true god and the one that Christians worship. They say that proof of this can be found in the differences in the demeanors of God in between the old and new testament of the bible.
The old testament has a God that is jealous and wrathful and to be feared more than loved.
The new testament has a God that is all loving and all forgiving.
I agree that there is a discrepancy between the two testaments but I want to know what others think.
I believe this view comes from a particular sect of gnostics.
1 person likes this
9 responses
@sunshinecup (7871)
•
15 Jan 07
Well just the comandment of "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" has always told me there must be more than one God. Acutally more than 2 since it is plural. I have thought this since I was a child and taught the commanments. If God didn't think there was no other Gods, then wouldn't it had been, "Thou shalt not have no fake God's before me?"
BTW I don't belong to any sect, I am a fly all alone Christain. No church for me, just my Bible and myself.
Good question, too thanks for posting it!
1 person likes this
@silenciobarnes (249)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I always assumed that was just a metaphor for idols and "things" that people tend to worship, not actual other "beings". But thank you for putting that idea out there for me, I like it.
And you may just be right.
@silenciobarnes (249)
• United States
19 Jan 07
Even so, I like the idea that sunshinecup put forth.
As for that whole Golden Calf thing...how do you know that it went down that way? That is to say, I'm not doubting you, but this is all news to me. I have never heard that particular story.
@SilverCrest (22)
• Canada
19 Jan 07
It's the selfsame God through out the entire Bible. God had rules sent in place that we were to follow. Because we were not good at keeping them, we could not be close to God. Jesus, the son of God, was sent to Earth in the New Testament to die and forgive us from our sins. We can not be saved and brought back to God through the law because we can not keep it. It is through the Grace of God we are saved!
@silenciobarnes (249)
• United States
28 Jan 07
So you are telling me that an all knowing, all powerful being couldn't decide for himself whether he should keep the things that he himself created, because he made them purposefully fallible, and they (by design mind you) couldn't follow the laws that he set in place. If so, then we were doomed from the start. But as they say, we cannot hope to fathom the mind of god.
@mcrowl (1050)
• New Zealand
19 Jan 07
I don't believe there are two gods. Christians don't believe that they worship a different God - they believe Jesus IS God.
People who see the OT God as different from the NT are usually people who haven't looked carefully at the Book. Yes, there are elements of wrath and fear in the OT, but far more there is a God who loves passionately, who cares enormously about his people and is deeply hurt when they turn away from him. It was the constant failure of the Israelites to maintain a loving relationship with God that caused much of the sense that God was more angry than loving.
Jesus shows this compassion and love and empathy with human beings on an even greater scale. He called the OT God, Father, and said on one memorable occasion: 'I and the Father are One." In other words, they were the same person.
On another occasion when his disciples asked Jesus to show them the Father, he said, Have you been with me all this time and still don't see that anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
Jesus, though somehow separate from the Father regarded himself as being the same. (Which is why we have the whole doctrine of the Trinity - an attempt to put into human terms something that is really beyond the comprehension of finite minds.)
@silenciobarnes (249)
• United States
28 Jan 07
That may be true...but what if Jesus was just a megalomaniac? And it seems somewhat sacrilegious to worship the Son as the God when the God is the God...understand? I guess that is why Jews don't like Christians so much. Not so much that they worship who they believe is the son of god, but because they have elevated him to equal status.
I understand what you are saying about the old testament god, but you gotta admit the OT god was extreme in his punishments, and extreme in his jealousy, and extreme in his methods. The new testament miracles are all understated, they are not so grand scale as the things that were going down in the OT.
@harleyinn2 (405)
• India
15 Jan 07
oops looks like i came to wrong place . sorry dude i dont believe in god.
@silenciobarnes (249)
• United States
16 Jan 07
That was uncalled for. You could at least have stated your opinion on the subject. Belief in god or lack of it does not mean that you cannot have an opinion.
Inane
Assinine
1 person likes this
@slazh_aja (15)
• Indonesia
15 Jan 07
i belive one GOD, Jesus.
the old testament has God is jealous and wrathful not a GOD, but EVIL.
@silenciobarnes (249)
• United States
19 Jan 07
You must be one of those Christians that believe that Jesus is in fact god...I thought he was the son of god, and even if you hold to the whole Holy Triumvirate thing, then Jesus still isn't god. He is still the Son.
And even jealous and wrathful...it still sounds like a god to me...or at least an obscenely powerful spirit.
@livewyre (2450)
•
19 Jan 07
I've never come across anyone that acepted the New testament, but rejected the Old before, how novel...
Jesus is part of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - sometimes called the Godhead. The Word (Jesus) was with God (the creator) and the Word was God.
Three sides of one being. have you heard the analogy with water, how water can be liquid, gas and solid ice while remaining water at all times? not the best analogy, but makes you think??
@SilverCrest (22)
• Canada
19 Jan 07
Ya true to that! Because Jesus had come down to be like us, a human, he was both fully God and fully man!
@steerpyke (396)
•
28 Jan 07
I think you need to take a historical and human stance to sort this out. the bible is a collection of writings that cover ideas formed over maybe two thousand years. The people who maintained the stories that make up the older parts of the bible,Enoch, Abraham and moses, are as far removed in time from the new testament as Jesus is from the modern age. Being that the bible was written by man his ideas will evolve over time.
The god of the early part of the old testament evolves from a hebrew storm diety and is all wrath and vengence and there is even mention of the Elohim, a collection of gods.
By the time of the new testament, not only has the world changed but the out look towards god has changed. The old hebrew jealous god has evolved into a more peaceful Christian god, better suited to the times and needs of the new direction that religion is taking.
1 person likes this
@arseniajoaquin (1732)
• Philippines
12 Feb 07
The Old Testament is the shadow of the things coming then - the New Testament. For us to learn and understand, God showed the physical things in the Old Testament. He showed Himself to be a wrathful God for us to fear so that we would obey Him because He could kill us as He pleases. He instantly killed the 2 sons of Aaron the high priest at that time. Aaron was the first high priest that God installed and the succeeding high priests would come from him and yet God killed them just for the mistake of using fire other than what was commanded by God. This is the exact picture of hell. If we do not obey Him, He would throw us into hell.
God has done everything in the Old Testament to teach us and so to make the Old Testament be fulfilled, He gave us the New Testament - the spiritual fulfilment of the Old Testament. God does no longer show physical punishment as that was finished in the Old Testament. God left us to decide for ourselves - whether we choose to go to heaven to live with Him forever or to be thrown to hell to suffer everlasting punishment with Satan or the devil with his angels.
If we choose to go to heaven, we must obey God. If we do not like to obey God, we will be thrown to hell and this is not the will of God for "God wills all men to be saved and to come into a full knowledge of the truth" [1 Timothy 2:4 quoted from THE WILL New Testament (Greek to English)].
@shiboleth (270)
• Canada
30 Jan 07
God is jealous and wrathful when he turn our faces away from Him. He is loving and forgiving when we come to Him with open hearts. Just as a father will punish a mis-behaving child, but still has love in his heart.
