Is the God of the Old Testament the Same as the God of the New Testament?

Introduction
The God of the Old Testament has been viewed by scholars as something different from that of the New Testament. This mischaracterization is often produced by placing emphasis in the Old Testament on the God’s insistence that infidels be dealt with in a bloody manner (Deuteronomy 9:4-5), whereas God in the New Testament appears to preach mercy and charity and turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-40). Yet what the scholars fail to appreciate is that God in the New Testament is just as insistent on due respect being shown to God: after all it is Christ who literally whips the money changers out of the Temple because they are disrespecting the sanctity of the place (John 2:15). It is therefore inaccurate to suppose that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament is just as merciful and insistent upon charity as is the God of the New Testament.[footnoteRef:2] The Psalms are filled with a sense of God’s love and mercy and protective nature. The story of Ruth and the story of Jonah sent to preach to the Ninevites are both examples of God showing a divine interest in supporting those who are not of the “chosen” people. This paper will further explain how God is the same God in both the Old and the New Testament. It will first provide contextual information, presenting arguments from both sides of the argument. Then it will look at the metaphysical attributes of God, the moral attributes of God, and provide an exegesis of Exodus 3:14-15 with particular focus on God being “I am Who am” and thus showing that God’s nature is unchanging and eternal. The findings of this research will show that God’s character has never changed from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelations: it is complete but complex.[footnoteRef:3] God is love and has created the world because of this, but He also demands submission to His will and does not force His grace upon those who reject Him and His ways. Whether it is Job’s friends questioning God’s reasons for sending suffering to the good Job, or whether it is the Jews questioning Christ about His divinity—those who reject Him are always the same: full of self-love and pride. [2: Baker, David L. Two Testaments, One Bible: The Theological Relationship between the Old and New Testaments. InterVarsity Press, 2010.] [3: Mathewson, Dave. \\\"Reading Heb 6: 4-6 in light of the Old Testament.\\\" Westminster theological journal 61, no. 2 (1999): 209-226. ]
Background
The argument of the scholars who claim that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament tend to argue that the Old Testament God is violent, wrathful, uncharitable, and persecuting.[footnoteRef:4] Wright contends, for instance, that the God of the Old Testament is embittered against His enemies and that the language used to describe Him reflects an adversarial tone common among the literature of the times.[footnoteRef:5] In other words, the writers of the Old Testament were not so much representing the character of God as they were their own animosity towards other tribes—such as is Wright’s argument. [4: Eric A. Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior: Troubling Old Testament Images of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009), 213.] [5: Christopher J.H. Wright, The God I Don’t Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 88.]
The other side of the argument is that the skeptics are not realizing what God demands of humankind, which is respect, love and adoration. He is not a sappy, sentimental God. He is not a God of new age love and spirituality. God is realistic and knows full well the evil in the world, which is why Christ gave the example of fasting and praying in the desert as a means of resisting evil temptations. Paul Copan argues that those who see God’s attitude towards the Canaanites as problematic likely fail to see how they themselves might resemble the Canaanites in their attitude towards God.[footnoteRef:6] Craig likewise argues that God’s actions are always dictated by His love, no matter how harsh or cold they may seem to some.[footnoteRef:7] In short, it is not always given to man to know the mind of God; rather, man should trust that God has his best interests at heart, and moments of suffering or seeming cruelty can be a test of man’s faithfulness rather than a demonstration of God’s lack of love.[footnoteRef:8] [6: Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011), 160.] [7: William Lane Craig “#16 Slaughter of the Canaanites,” Reasonable Faith with William Lane Craig (blog), August 6, 2007, https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/slaughter-of-the-canaanites.] [8: Baah-Odoom, Dinah, and FrimpongWiafe. \\\"The Importance Of The Old Testament To The Christian Spirituality.\\\" The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention, Vol. 3.7, 2016]
Why the God of the Old Testament is the Same God of the New Testament
The best way to understand that the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament is to look at God’s unchanging metaphysical attributes and moral attributes. One can see that in both the Old and the New Testament, God’s metaphysical and moral attributes are the same. This section will explain how this is so, taking each one a step at a time.
The Metaphysical Attributes of God
God is Eternal. First of all, God is eternal and that is made clear from Genesis on through to Revelations, in which John lays out the things that are to come at the end of time. Prior to recorded history (which did not begin until after man’s fall from grace), God existed outside of any time framework. He always was and always will be—and that is shown in Genesis, wherein mankind is told how God brought the world into existence out of nothing. Or, rather, the world was created out of God’s own loving, creative nature. Creation was an act of love. The fall of man was an act of rebellion against God. The ultimate expression of love was God’s desire to give man free will, i.e., the opportunity to love Him back or to choose himself. God then went on to show that He Himself would pay the ultimate price to redeem man and bring him back to Himself—and this would be the Incarnation and crucifixion in the New Testament. It is the same God who runs through the one to the other. God never changes but stays eternally the same. Beginning with Genesis and proceeding to the Fall, the Christian reader can see how the Incarnation serves as the answer to the problem posed in the Old Testament stories.[footnoteRef:9] [9: Marilyn McCord Adams and Robert Merrihew Adams, The Problem of Evil (Oxford University Press, 1990), 218.]
In the Old Testament it is stated, “The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27). He commands His people and His enemies alike: He is Lord over all. Man cannot fathom His eternality, as stated in Job 36:26: “Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; The number of His years is unsearchable.” In Psalm 102:12 it is the same: “But You, O Lord, abide forever,
And Your name to all generations.”
This same sense of the eternal God is also in the New Testament: “For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you” (1 Peter 1:20); and again in Romans 1:20: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Here one can see that in both the Old and New Testaments there was never any question of God’s eternal power.
God is Omnipotent. But what of that power? In the Old Testament, His critics argue that He uses power differently than He does in the New Testament; He is more violent and ready to kill the enemies of Israel than He is in the New Testament.[footnoteRef:10] But this is not true.[footnoteRef:11] God has always been more than patient with His own people as with His enemies. Considering that He sustains all of existence by His very will, one should not wonder at the strangeness of punishment and suffering but rather at the fact that calamities and destructive “acts of God” do not happen more often. [10: Eric A. Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior: Troubling Old Testament Images of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009), 212.] [11: Copan, Is God a Moral Monster?, 159.]
The omnipotence of God is seen in the Old Testament in ways that produce positive awe, and this can be seen from story to story, whether it is in the life of Abraham, the life of Ruth, the life of Job or Jonah or David. David’s victory of Goliath was not the work of his own hands but rather an outcome God allowed because He saw David’s trust in Him as the source of all strength.
It is the same in the New Testament: when Peter finally is filled with the Holy Ghost, he heals in the name of Christ and sets about converting the world; whereas prior to this Peter had been afraid to be identified as one of the followers of Christ when the Lord was under arrest. God’s power over death is seen in the story of Lazarus and in His own resurrection. God’s omnipotence was kept in check when Pontius Pilate sentenced Him to death because He was offering His life up to God as the New Paschal Lamb, the new sacrifice. God could have wiped out Adam and Eve when they first broke His commandment: the fact that He even at the beginning held His power in check shows that His omnipotence is equal to His all-loving nature.
God is Omnipresent. Another metaphysical attribute of God in both the Old and the New Testament is the fact of His omnipresence. He is everywhere, sees everything, aids all who seek Him in their distress.[footnoteRef:12] Jeremiah 23:24 states: “‘Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ declares the Lord.” And again in Proverbs 15:3 it is found: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Watching the evil and the good.” 1 Kings 8:27 states: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!” Indeed, the Old Testament is filled with awareness that God is everywhere and cannot be contained by heaven or earth. He is everywhere. [12: Walter C. Kaiser, The Messiah in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zandorvan, 1995),144 . ]
This same sense of God being all-present is reiterated in the New Testament as well: “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24). And Matthew 18:20 states: “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” And again Matthew 6:6 shows that God is never deceived or hidden from, for He sees everything even into every nook and cranny and into every heart and mind: “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” God is literally everywhere, and that mystery is accepted in both the Old and the New Testaments.
God is Omniscient. God is also all-knowing. His omniscience is never in doubt by those who believe and trust in Him; though His critics never stop doubting it. This fact is the same in the Old Testament as in the New. The Old Testament skeptics include the Egyptian rulers who refused to free the Hebrews even after it is shown that the omniscient God knows what they are up to. The unbelievers simply refuse to accept that fact and they destroyed by the waters that God has allowed Moses to part to ensure the escape of the Hebrews.
In the New Testament it is no different. God’s omniscience is seen as Christ time and time again reads the thoughts of His persecutors. 1 John 3:20 states: “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” Likewise in the Old Testament it is seen that God knows all things: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).
The Moral Attributes of God
God’s Trustworthiness and Faithfulness. But what of God’s moral attributes? For it is these that His critics seem to focus on when they argue that God is different in the Old Testament than He is in the New Testament—and yet if one simply looks at Scripture one can see how wrong that argument is. God is trustworthy and faithful to those who trust and have faith in Him. Those who resist Him are punished. God will not allow His enemies to have victory over Him. Just as Satan is ejected from Heaven for refusing to submit to the will of God, so too is the Jews’ perceived victory over Christ short-lived and short-sighted, for Christ rises from the dead to be with those who followed Him. No one in the Old Testament speaks more reverently of God’s faithfulness than David, who experienced it directly and quite often. Psalm 33:4 states: “For the word of the Lord is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness.” And Psalm 18:30 states: “As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tried;
He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.” Psalm 19:7 states: “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” Indeed, one could read the Psalms from beginning to end and come away with a superb sense of God’s trustworthiness and faithfulness. But this same sense can be obtained from reading the New Testament as well. 1 Timothy 1:15 states: “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” And 1 Thessalonians 5:24 states: “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” The critics of God tend to cherry-pick their data and focus on moments wherein God punishes those who resist Him—but they gloss over those moments wherein His trustworthiness and faithfulness are on full display.[footnoteRef:13] [13: Sedlacek, David, \\\"Comforting God\\\" (2017). Faculty Publications. 769.]
God’s Righteousness. What His critics often miss as well is the fact that it is righteousness rather than maliciousness that prompts God to judge and punish His enemies. If God allowed His enemies to prevail, He would not be just or righteous in the least. No one would have cause to follow Him. Thus, when He condemns the Canaanites, who have refused Him, He is righteous in doing so. The historical record appears to bear this out as much as Scripture does.[footnoteRef:14] The Old Testament is clear on this matter: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7). So too is the New Testament: “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He?” (Romans 3:5). St. Paul insists that God’s judgment is always righteous. This cannot be doubted by anyone who reads the life of Christ or the Acts of the Apostles with a good will. [14: Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003), 310.]
God’s Goodness. And it does take a good will to see God’s goodness. Those who have bad hearts allow only jealousy and envy to rule their thoughts. Again it is St. Paul who states to the unbelievers who rejected Christ, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). Christ often lamented that those who turned to Him did so with hard hearts, unwilling to fully receive Him into their souls: “And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?” (Mark 8:17). To perceive God’s goodness, the Gospel explains that one must be of good will—for when one lacks a good will, one is troubled by everything and has no peace nor rest in God’s spirit. To understand God, one must see that God does not change: He is eternal; His character is set; His definition is not susceptible to alteration. He can no more contradict His own nature than a rock could turn itself into air. God cannot be a god of malice; so if His actions seem cruel, perhaps that interpretation says more about the interpreter than about the subject. What may seem subjectively cruel or unkind to one can easily be perceived as righteous and just by another. It is wrong to mischaracterize God based on subjective analysis.
Exegesis of Exodus 3:14-15
God’s “I am” statement in Exodus 3:14-15 is echoed in the New Testament. Christ has several “I am” statements that link Him with the God Who reveals Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14. The delivery of the Hebrews from captivity in Egypt is the historical context. The revelation given to Moses is meant to serve as the establishment of God’s identity among men: they should know that He is the Lord of all from all time. They must first know Him and that He exists before they can love and serve Him. The service parameters will come in the form of the 10 Commandments in the Old Testament and then in the form of the New Covenant when Christ replaces the old paschal lamb with Himself as the new sacrifice. “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
At the same time, Exodus 3:14-15 echoes other parts of the Old Testament: “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6). It also echoes the God of Apocalypse: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). Just as God was doing with Moses, distinguishing Himself from the false gods of the Egyptians, so too does God do in the New Testament. As Towns points out, Christ distinguishes Himself from the false hearts of the Pharisees, by showing the distinction between “His reality and genuineness from that which is false.”[footnoteRef:15] The I AM statements of the New Testament show that God is the same as the God of the Old Testament as revealed to Moses, for He is the same God as the patriarchs: “I am the true vine” (John 15:1); the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6), the Bread of Life (John 6:35), the Light of the World (John 8:12), the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). The God of Exodus shepherds the Hebrews out of Egypt and out of danger; He guides them through the desert to their promised land and in the end fulfills that promise. The Shepherd of the New Testament is no different: He pilots His followers through the perils that lie in wait for them and fulfills His promises to them by rising from the dead and sending them the Holy Spirit that they might not be without the spirit of God. [15: Towns, E. (2002). The Gospel of John: Believe and live. Canada: Scofield Ministries, 150.]
Exodus 3:14-15 explains that the God of the Old Testament is one God and that He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. There is no other God, and if there is no other God there cannot be a new God in the New Testament. It is the same God. The God of Exodus is the God Who cares for His people and wants them to live righteous lives; He punishes them even after delivering them because they revert back to worshiping false gods. This is one reason He gives the 10 Commandments, making the first commandment explicit in this regard: I am the Lord Thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Exodus 3:14-15 is about establishing the identity of God in such a way that there can be no doubt as to Who He is and what His moral and metaphysical nature is.
Exodus 3:14-15 thus shows why it is important for men to humble themselves before they approach God and dare to judge Him. He was there before any men was ever born. It was out of God’s own love that man was created at all. Who then can honestly say that he is in a position to explain who God is? God Himself says all that needs to be said, when He tells Moses: “I am Who am.” He is the God of all things: all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, eternal; all-faithful and trustworthy; all righteous; all good. There is none like unto Him.
Conclusion
The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament, of that there can be no doubt. As Lamb notes, God can be seen in different ways by those who approach Him with different things in their heart.[footnoteRef:16] That is one reason God can seem cruel or unjust in the Old Testament and kind and loving in the New Testament. But man should be careful about how he goes about judging God, for he is not in any position to cast any such judgment. If one wants to be objective and seek to understand God’s nature, that is an altogether different matter. One can look at the Old and New Testaments objectively and see that God’s nature does not change from one to the other. Those who think it does are either not looking at God’s works from the perspective of God in His complete metaphysical and moral nature; or they are looking at God from hardened hearts. [16: Lamb, David T. God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist?.InterVarsity Press, 2011.]
In God, one finds the source of all love and mercy—and this is seen in the Old Testament, from the way God forgives (though He also punishes) Adam and Eve, promising them that a redeemer will come, i.e., that they will not be exiled forever. This is a just God—a God Who is both righteous and merciful. He will not suffer forever the stubborn pride of the infidel. But He will also respond to those who seek His support. This is evident in the life of David and in the life of Christ in the New Testament. Seeing how God brings the Hebrews out of Egypt and declares Himself as “I am Who am” and seeing how Christ uses this same language to explain in more earthly terms what that should mean, it becomes clear: the God of the Old Testament is the same God as of the New Testament.
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