Before we leave the Old Testament, here is one last summary look at these 39 books. Stories in the Old Testament have turned many individuals away from God. Here was Mark Twain’s opinion of God, based largely on the Old Testament stories:
“It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand”
“The two Testaments are interesting, each in its own way. The Old one gives us a picture of these people’s Deity as he was before he got religion, the other one gives us a picture of him as he appeared afterward”
“Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness…It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light and leading by contrast”
“If there is a God, he is a malign thug”
“God, so atrocious in the Old Testament, so attractive in the New – – the Jekyl and Hyde of sacred romance”
“There has been only one Christian. They caught him and crucified him – – early”
This talk is a discussion of some of those difficult Old Testament stories. Eternal life is to know God, and my opinion is that we should not throw out the Old Testament in our quest to know God. Rather, we should see the Old Testament through the lens of Jesus Christ as He died on Calvary.
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