Old and New Testament God, or Gods?

I don't know about you but I often converse with people who imply, if not outright claim, that the God of the New Testament and the God of the Old Testament were two different Gods. Or at least a God with two different dispositions, so vastly different that He appears to be bipolar. In the New Testament He is a loving cushy God, a Father who can be driven to tears about the actions of His children, which he cannot control. In the Old Testament He is a grumpy old  School master that wants to kill everybody and is always finding fault with His charges.

For this reason, and because people don't like how "unloving" the Old Testament God is, the Old Testament is frequently discounted and laid aside. Everything but the Ten Commandments of course, but only a very narrow of interpretation of these are allowed.

I've put in a fair amount of driving time and my father has been kind enough to provide me with listening material. This week the point that grabbed my attention had to do with the above mentioned issue. The verse below was the text used to deal with it. Although there are plenty of more direct ways of dealing with this topic, good ways, this method was what was recently presented to me and one I had never heard before. It's always exciting for me to make new connections regarding the scriptures.

Acts 17:11-12

"These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honorable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few."

The speaker pointed out that those who were being addressed only had the Old Testament to search, and that they were able to find out that Paul was speaking the truth by searching it alone. This simple fact proves three points

1.) That the Old Testament is not obsolete. It was used to test the veracity of New Testament preaching, and is still valid for teaching today.

2.) The God described in the Old Testament is in actuality enough alike to the God of the New Testament for the people being preached to recognize them as the same. We can see here that obviously there must be a clear continuity between the Old and New Testament material, and the God of both.

3.) If the gospel being preached from today's pulpits cannot be compared with the Old Testament teachings then it is likely not the gospel being preached.

Finally, the God of the Old Testament did not scare these people away "therefore many of them believed."

Today it seems we are so concerned with making God seeming loving and nice that we stop preaching the God of scriptures. We forget that it is only the God of scriptures Who can bring salvation, and He is mighty to save. Yes, He is a God of  righteous holiness, justice, and wrath, but this makes His gift of grace and mercy, Christ on the cross, all the more unbelievable.

 Furthermore we can never keep the message of Christ on the cross in the proper perspective unless we recognize God's concern for His holiness, which is set forth clearly in the Old Testament. Did Christ die on the cross because of love for us? Yes. But the primary reason in His mind was His Father's glory, as it always should be for Christians as well.

God had promised the death of the sinner at the fall "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  - Genesis 2:16-17 Now, it is true that on the day that Adam and Eve ate of the tree they began to die, but they did not immediately physically die. Also, God made it clear that they would have children, and as long as any one of their descendants lived on then Adam and Eve lived on as great, great, great, etc. grandparents and thus were not entirely "dead" in the sense that all they were would cease to exist.

God's infallible word was in question. He had said they would die, and yet they had not. Does God not keep His word? No, because of His mercy God delayed the death sentence for Adam and Eve. Yet He still had to fulfill what He swore to them, or be called a liar. We can see a hint of God's plan for redemption in verse fifteen of Genesis two when God tells the Serpent that the Seed of Eve would bruise (crush) his head.

Jesus came along of the Davidic line, of the Noahic line, of Seth's line, and finally of Adam's lineage. He was to die the physical death that had been promised to Adam. He was to take the old man of Adam's nature and upon Himself (not that He was sinful but He took our sin upon Himself) and at the cross fulfill God's promise of death to Adam. He died a complete physical death due to our sin, if we had not sinned, or if God had not chosen to have mercy upon us, Christ would never have needed to die. Who made the promise of a redeemer? Who had mercy on Adam delaying his death sentence until one who could fulfill God's oath and die in Adam's place came along, and yet give eternal life to Adam's seed? It was the God of the Old Testament that so many accuse of being unloving.

God promised Adam would die if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Christ came to fulfill that promise; first of all so that God's  name would not be impugned, but secondly so that we ourselves would not have to die. God could have chosen that Adam die immediately and thus have cleared His name without sacrificing His own Son. This would have shown that He was indeed a just God, yet it would have called the mercy of His character into question. So in order to preserve both the justice of His name and prove the mercy of His character God chose that His glory should be made known and His mercy shown in allowing us to live and sending a propitiatory lamb in our place.

Thus we can see God's character of mercy, justice, and love displayed in the Old Testament and the fulfillment of it in the New Testament. Not two different God's at all.