Explain-Away #1: It’s an Old Testament Problem, which the New Testament Puts Right
You’ll hear many people say that they don’t like the God of the Old Testament; he’s all wrathful and angry. The God of the New, revealed in Christ, is all peaceful and loving. Wright shows this is false because not only does the OT often speak of God as loving, compassionate, and willing to be merciful (e.g. Gen. 18; Ex. 34:6-7; Ps. 103:8-14; 145:9, 13, 17; Jer. 31:3, 20; Hos. 3:1), but the New Testament—Jesus especially—does not shy away from speaking of God’s judgment (e.g Matt. 10:15, 13:40-42, 18:34, 22:13, 25:41). Take this illustrative passage from Hebrews 10:26-31:
For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who has said, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
This argument of a change in God’s attitude from one testament to the next cannot hold water. Wright quotes bible scholar John Wenham who summarizes things well:
using the old testament vs new testament argument is very poor yet many use it