God is loving, merciful and gracious.
God is also jealous, wrathful and protects His holiness.
I see and understand both sets of attributes of God. You wish to ignore the second.
God is also jealous, wrathful and protects His holiness.
I see and understand both sets of attributes of God. You wish to ignore the second.
It is not a matter of ignoring the second, but rather of understanding where being and truth reside. The early Fathers of the church applied the term skia (shadow) to the Old Testament. Truth and reality reside in that which casts the shadow, not in the shadow itself.
If someone is walking toward you from the east at sunrise, his shadow reaches you before he does. The role of the shadow is to herald the approach of your friend. But who would you rather grasp ahold of, the shadow or the person? And does the shadow give a true image of the person?
That is the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.
I am not ignoring anything. First of all, God is "passionate". Jealousy is a sin and a mistranslation. God's wrath is shown by allowing men to continue in their sin, giving them what they desire. And of course God protects His holiness. That is why NO ONE shall enter heaven unclean.
Regards