If God never changes then why did he seem to punish people more in the Old Testament times than in the New Testament?

Answer

You have to think in terms of the convenant that God established in the Hebrew scriptures. There were laws in place for the Israelites to follow, they were his possesion his chosen nation. They needed to obey and maintain all his regulations. Now since such convenant was no longer in effect in the Greek scriptures is no reason to believe that God had changed. A simple example is if you make a contract with someone concerning some services they may need to render you but in the contract you enlist that if they don't abide by the services listed the contract would have to be terminated. Thus after such contract is terminated you make another contract with someone else and in this contract you make different rules, does that mean that you as a person changed or was it the actual contract? God had made a convenant with Israel and they chose to disobey him and thus they even went to the point to put his Son to death. When that happened that convenant was no longer in effect but God establish a new convenant and so gave his son as an example for all to follow his steps closely (1 Peter 2:21). You can be confident that God is still purposing the same thing for human kind as he did from the start and that is for all to attain perfection and to live forever in a paradise earth.(Gen 1:28;Isaiah 55:8-11)

answer

God doesn't change. It might appear He punished sin/infractions more frequently in the Bible ("Old Testament") because it stretched over hundreds of years, even thousands of years, but the short New Testament reveals Yeshua warning the nation of Judah they were going to fall to Rome and get slaughtered and the Temple destroyed - all of which happened. It also revealed two were struck dead for lying to God (husband and wife) in the Book of Acts and the Jewish sorcerer was struck mute., etc.

The Bible also says there's a time and a place, and God was stressing the seriousness of sin before and in the New Testament was emphasizing repentance and forgiveness, although God mercifully forgave King David and others giving glimpses of His grace even then.

Again, I would say it appears God punished more frequently in the OT because there were more examples stretching over many more years and was to prove a point about the seriousness of sin.

Answer

Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not;

Does God repents? see link on left...

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Actually, it is too premature to decide on a quantitative measurement of how much God punished in each of the times. This is because we are IN the New Testament times and we cannot yet look back and see it as a whole. What we do know is that God is staying his hand in this age with regard to ultimate judgment in order to give people ample opportunity for turning to Him.

2 Peter 3 v9 - The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us - not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Punishment is a penalty that people choose to receive depending on the choices we make. What may be perceived as being punishment by God often has involved a prior choice by an individual or nation to deny his ways.

Answer

The Old Testament is about the Hebrew God. The New Testament is about Jesus. Who knows, If Jesus was not executed early, he may hae equaled those that were killed in the Bible

Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Jesus and God are the same person... To answer your question, I believe that it may seem that God punishes those in the ot more than in the nt because the nt is more about jesus coming to save us. It is somewhat a pralell to what happens in the ot, in many ways.

First answer by G1saname. Last edit by Aischapuppy. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 22 [recommend question]