Why does God in the OT seem like a wrathful jerk?

[tinytherese]

I know that some things might simply be allegorical and may never have actually happened, but let's pretend that some stories actually occurred. God flooded most of the world's population because it was filled with evil people, killed the people Sodom and Gomorra, and Onan. He looks like a wrathful jerk. "Follow me or I'll kill you." That doesn't paint God in a positive light.

I've been told that those people were beyond conversion, so with that logic, why didn't God just do that to everyone like that in the Old Testament or even after that all the way up to today? 

[AccountDeleted]

I know that some things might simply be allegorical and may never have actually happened, but let's pretend that some stories actually occurred. God flooded most of the world's population because it was filled with evil people, killed the people Sodom and Gomorra, and Onan. He looks like a wrathful jerk. "Follow me or I'll kill you." That doesn't paint God in a positive light.

I've been told that those people were beyond conversion, so with that logic, why didn't God just do that to everyone like that in the Old Testament or even after that all the way up to today? 

I'm with you here. Why doesn't God just get rid of all the evil people and keep the good ones? Well, who knows? Who but God can tell who's truly evil or good? And God has His own way of doing things. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the impression of God in the Old Testament because once Jesus came, everything changed. No longer was it 'an eye for an eye...' but it became 'love your neighbor as yourself'. Jesus is God's love for us in human form. With that in mind, what happened before was all just preface to the Incarnation, He who showed us that God is loving and forgiving. 

 

[Gabriela]

Your own reasoning (i.e., "I've been told that those people were beyond conversion, so with that logic, why didn't God just do that to everyone like that in the Old Testament or even after that all the way up to today?") suggests that He doesn't do it today, or in other ancient cases, because the large majority of people aren't and weren't beyond conversion. Pre-diluvian society, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Onan must have been exceptionally bad if they were so beyond conversion that God just snuffed them out. That should give us hope, because it means that people today, despite what we may often think, are NOT beyond conversion. And that places a great responsibility (of evangelization!) on us.

When I have questions like this, I remember God's response to Job when Job questioned His actions (and perhaps also, implicitly, His goodness). Basically, He said: "Little man, who are YOU to question ME? What do YOU know about anything?"

[MarysLittleFlower]

A lot of has to do with Mercy and Justice I think. I think if we saw how much sin offends God, we would die. We only have mercy through the Cross.

[Seven77]

This is how I like to look at it:

God warned those living at the time of flood, he warned the people of Sodom and Gomorrah,  in ways unknown to us… remember, in those days God It was said to speak audibly to people. Perhaps he said, "listen, you know that I want the best for you--- but the way you're living now will end up destroying you.  I want you to repent and come back to living as you should. There's this flood coming… I don't want you to be destroyed in it. Please repent and you will be saved, you and your families.”  The people chose not to listen to God, even though they actually *heard* him, and so what happened? They perished. It was their fault.  God didn't "kill them."  I think this can be applied to most of these incidents of the Old Testament.

 We are culpable for what we know, and for what we knowingly do or don't do. God spoke to the people of the Old Testament differently… but he still speaks to us today.  And if we choose not to listen... he holds out an arm pierced with a nail, in mercy, saying "even now, I'm ready to take you back, turn your heart to me." And, if we choose to die resisting that? Well, we brought it upon ourselves... and the self inflicted punishment will be even greater, because we had so so many chances to change and graces available to us to make it happen that we chose not to cooperate with. 

Hope this helps a little. 

[dominicansoul]

You are thinking like men, not like God.  God destroyed EVIL.  That means these people were way beyond conversion that they became evil incarnate in this world.  Think of the most vile human beings in the history of humanity and all the destruction and chaos they accomplished.  Wars are fought to bring them down and stop them....What seems like cruel and unusual punishment in the OT was God's way of self-defense, stopping evil in its tracks.  The Jewish Nation was an infant, and like infants, need to be protected from poison and diseases to survive.  He wanted to keep his people pure and free from stain of mortal sin and the chaos that deathly sin brings into communities.  The very fact that He sentenced death to these irreconcilable sinners should make us a little more alert in our own nightly examinations of conscience, reflecting on what we have done in the day God has given to us, where we failed and where we need to improve.  Sin is not something to take lightly, even when society arounds us certainly does, even fighting for the right to sin...and to be proud in sin...  God is teaching us SIN DESERVES DEATH, which will be our fate, an eternal death, if we choose sin over God... this teaching remains in the New Testament as well (for God in the OT is the same in the NT,) you commit a mortal sin, you will not live but die.  Sin=death.  But the Son of God takes upon sin on His own and destroys death, and thus Hope and Mercy prevail.  But only if you accept It.  

[Theoketos]

I know that some things might simply be allegorical and may never have actually happened, but let's pretend that some stories actually occurred. God flooded most of the world's population because it was filled with evil people, killed the people Sodom and Gomorra, and Onan. He looks like a wrathful jerk. "Follow me or I'll kill you." That doesn't paint God in a positive light.

I've been told that those people were beyond conversion, so with that logic, why didn't God just do that to everyone like that in the Old Testament or even after that all the way up to today? 

 

The flood story is hard. The theological truths are still true. What exactly they are cannot contradict what is right by natural law and in light of Christ. Also, don't get "drunk and uncover your father's nakedness"

[Benedictus]

I know that some things might simply be allegorical and may never have actually happened, but let's pretend that some stories actually occurred. God flooded most of the world's population because it was filled with evil people, killed the people Sodom and Gomorra, and Onan. He looks like a wrathful jerk. "Follow me or I'll kill you." That doesn't paint God in a positive light.

I've been told that those people were beyond conversion, so with that logic, why didn't God just do that to everyone like that in the Old Testament or even after that all the way up to today? 

The focus of the narratives are about a people on a long journey of discovering God. It's also about the mentality and capacity of the writers themselves, along with the people, to discern and follow God. God, it could be said, natures them like a child with lots of rules and discipline until they are ready for harder and deeper spiritual realities. The Jews were to be the elect, or chosen, to bring the light to the world. It was a sacrificial selection, a beacon to the nations.   This goes onward as God corrects and unfolds his nature more and more over time to a wider array of people. The light of God gets brighter until we see the fullness of Gods love unfold in Jesus Christ. The ripples of this continue at the heart of the Church today in the midst of the world