Is the New Testament Really “Nicer” than the Old Testament?
Or does it ratify it and make matters even worse?
When presented with a problematic quote from the Bible, how often do we hear a Christian declare “Oh, but that was in the Old Testament — Jesus and the New Testament changed all of that”?
A reasonable case can be made regarding eating requirements and a few rituals, but beyond that, what the New Testament says about the Old not only backs it up, but in fact, is more horrendous and harsher by many orders of magnitude.
Numerous people, like myself, were brainwashed as small children into believing the Bible was 100% true and inspired by God. We were warned of being sent to hell if we did not believe it. Later, most of us — including many current Christians — came to realize the grotesque nature of the Old Testament.
While investigating these concerns, we nevertheless fell prey to the illusion that the New Testament somehow corrected or improved upon it. The reality is that the New Testament not only ratifies the Old, but it adds concepts that are far more disturbing and problematic.
In my opinion, having read the Bible from cover to cover over a dozen times, it is just not possible that a perfect or good god could have inspired it. To those who are struggling to try to fit all these pieces together, it is my hope that the following observations will make this part of your endeavor easier.
I realize that my attitude towards the Bible and religion in general might come across as a bit harsh… maybe even very harsh to some. But it is hard for me not to feel that way when it has consumed so many years of my life that I can never get back. I do not want other people to suffer like I did. I don’t mean to be flippant; I am just trying to express my conclusions in as clear a matter as I know how.
While the New Testament genuinely says nice things such as “love your neighbor” and “God so loved the world…”, just how is it defining the word love? Is it really love if someone claims to love you, but will have you tortured for an endless eternity if you do not believe it?
Psychotherapist Lenore Walker developed the concept of battered woman syndrome in the late 1970s. Is the Bible’s definition of “love” any different than the man who tells his wife or girlfriend that he loves her, but then kills her if she tries to leave him? Evangelical preacher R. C. Sproul teaches that Jesus taught more about hell than He did about heaven and that He describes it more vividly, even though the Old Testament never suggested anything like what we see in the New Testament.
But there is so much more.
The New Testament doesn’t address the problems of the Old
Wouldn’t you think that maybe the New Testament should have rebuked Lot for offering his two daughters to a gang of sex seeking men by telling them in Genesis 19:8 “ Now look, I have two daughters who have not had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shelter of my roof.” He later impregnated them both, but the New Testament apparently accepted the Old Testament’s declaration that it was really the girls who conspired to get him drunk so that they could rape him while he slept. Instead of rebuke, the New Testament honors him in 2Peter chapter 2 by not only saying he was a righteous man but also a godly one.
How about David, who killed a man because he wanted to steal his wife before he learned that he had already impregnated her? Instead of complying with the law of Moses and killing him, God chose instead to kill his newborn baby (after seven days of suffering) and to shame him by having his wives raped in public. 2Samuel 12:11 explains: This is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I am going to raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. Just before that, God told David that if he had only asked, He would have given him more wives (over and above the eight that he already had.)
So, what does the New Testament say about him? Here it is, word for word. Acts 13:22 “After He had removed him (Saul), He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.” Folks, that verse is in the New Testament, not the Old, written a thousand years after those events were said to have occurred.
Jesus believed that Adam and Eve were real people (See Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6). So did Paul. He used that story to teach many crazy things: that wives are inferior to husbands; that women should not be allowed to teach men or even speak in church; and the doctrine of “original sin.” Simply stated, he teaches that because Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, each person that is ever born of a woman (that is all of us) inherits her sinful nature and thus is condemned to an eternal hell unless they become saved. That is still a major doctrine of many Christian denominations.
Several years ago, a bomb-shell article was published by the evangelical magazine “Christianity Today” that explained why a literal interpretation of Adam and Eve can no longer be defended.
In the Noah story, God drowned millions of people that obviously would have included thousands of babies, children, pregnant women, innocent people with special needs, the lame and blind, and of course all the puppy dogs, kittens, and bunny rabbits. The New Testament views this not only as historical fact, but also as the right thing for Him to do. (See Matthew 24:37 and Luke 17:26)
We can go on and on and notice that the New Testament also accepted as historical truth the Old Testament’s stories about 2,500,000 people outrunning the horses and chariots of the Egyptian military. Likewise, it regarded the many acts of genocides, the practice of permitting the captives to become their slaves, and young girls forced into marriage and raped, as proper. (Here are a couple from the many to choose from: Deuteronomy 21:10–13, 22:28–29 and Exodus 21:1–6.) The leaders of those events are repeatedly honored and praised in the New Testament without one word of rebuke. The fact that it is not possible to separate the New Testament from the Old becomes even more evident when we count the number of times that the key characters in the Old Testaments are mentioned in the New.
Moses….79
Abraham….70
David….54
Adam and/or Eve….10
Noah….8
Let’s not forget that the Bible also has this to say about Jesus and His relationship to the Old Testament: That He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8); that He and the Father are one (John 10:30); that He was actually the creator of the world (John 1:3); that He was the rock in the wilderness (1Corinthians 12:4); and Numbers 23:19 says this about God, which of course, is also Jesus, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent (change His mind); has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Since Jesus is said to be present and continually active in the events of the Old Testament and never changes, is it reasonable to accept the common teaching that He is only about love and grace — when scripture teaches He created and was in control in the first place?
If you thought the Old Testament was bad…
We must realize that despite the horrendous and inhumane events in the Old Testament, nobody was threatened with eternal torture after death. Lots of drowning, butchering with swords, rapes, slavery, famines, and plagues, but never any torment after death! That threat was never made until the New Testament arrived.
Considering how much trouble the Old Testament prophets had in keeping the people away from other gods and foreign women, and given how freely they handed out warnings of outrageous threats and cruel punishments, surely, they would have included the threat of eternal torture in a heartbeat if they had thought of it. It took the New Testament writers to think of it.
Had this doctrine of hell been true, why were the people in the Old Testament never warned of it?
Now I ask, are the following words (attributed to Jesus) the words of love and grace? Or are they not harsher by orders of magnitude than what we read in the Old Testament?
Matthew 24:51 “and he will cut him in two and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 5:27–30 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now if your right eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand is causing you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”
Matthew 6:15 “But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
Matthew 25:41–46 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Revelation 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
Revelation 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Matthew 13:42 and 50 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Vs. 50 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Note that Jesus repeats the same words.)
Matthew 7:14 “For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
These verses sum up the New Testament. The majority of all human beings who ever lived and who are said to be loved by God are doomed. In the Old Testament you would just be killed, usually with a quick death, and then you were left alone in a dark and painless grave. But not in the New.
There are dozens of other similar passages throughout the New Testament. You can cherry-pick all you want, and admire Jesus for the positive stories about him; but if a person lives a kind and moral life for 50 years and then kills his children, is he still a kind and moral person, or is he a murderer? Did the kindness of Hitler toward his friends make him a kind person?
But there is good news!
We can all cheer up because none of what is written in the Bible was ever inspired by a good and perfect God. The Bible is not true and there is no hell to fear. How can there be, when the Bible teaches that the sun stood still; that man existed before animals and plants; that the earth was formed before any stars; and that rain and snow are released through windows in the sky?
An all-knowing and perfect God would never have instructed one to cure leprosy by sprinkling the blood of birds on the walls of your house. There are hundreds of contradictions and so many absurd scientific, geological, and historical errors that a perfect and all-knowing God could never have inspired it. If a perfect God does exist, I think He or She would consider it slanderous for anyone to accuse Him or Her of inspiring such nonsense. There are so many immoral laws and events that a good God would never have tolerated any of them.
Most all non-believers, including myself, wish that there were a good God who loved and protected all children. Yes, who loved and protected all the little children of the world. Red, and yellow, black, and white… and who would also undo the cruelty of the food-chain, where animals are required to eat each other if they have any desire to live and to feed their newborns.
Since it is clearly the case that the Bible is not inspired by a higher power, there is no need to worry that the threats of hell are real. Hell is just another example of mythology designed to scare and control people.
If you recognize the issues with the Old Testament, maybe now you will see that the New Testament is not an improvement, but actually makes the problem worse. I hope this knowledge will empower you to set aside Christianity and the Bible once and for all so you can spend your time thinking about ideas that actually bring peace and joy to your life.
