Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

The contradiction between the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament is not nearly so easily resolved, from a literary perspective. One of my favorite classes at BYU was in the English Department, the Bible as Literature, and if there was a unifying theme to the class, this was it. I liked that we never really left the class with pat answers the way you might in a Religion class.

Even two different chapters in Genesis concerning the creation offer very different perspectives on the quality of God. Contradiction is a common Hebrew literary device, I think. I left the class with the conclusion that God is arbitrary and not someone to ethically emulate, but I don't think there's only one right answer.

Personally I don't see a difference. It seems to me that when people talk about an angry God in the Old Testament they selectively pick certain passages and ignore most of the Old Testament. God is really loving and understanding and forgiving in the Old Testament. When they think about the loving, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament they ignore the stern warnings, the uncompromising justice, the no nonsense Jesus.

God is definitely not arbitrary, and is infinitely worthy of our emulation. You just have to learn to understand Him better.