AskHistorians

You're not looking for historians, you're looking for Biblical scholars, but you don't even need that.

The long and short of the Bible is, God created the world, but He was a jealous god, so he flooded the world after he got sick of sin. He decided that was maybe not the best course of action, so He instead sent His son to die for the sins of Man. That's pretty much it, with a lot of little details and contradictions (because, like the other comment says, humans wrote it).

But the answer to your question is, different managerial styles. In the Old Testament He tried to rule by fear; in the New, by love.

Capitalisations because that's how the people who wrote it pronoun God.

The bible isn't one book, does not have a single voice, and was written and edited by numerous groups of people over time to suit their own purposes.

If you want to pretend it's real, then the next question is "which god(s)" because the bible lists multiple ones.

Because the Old Testament was written as a code of law for an established elite which could enforce it on society; while the New Testament was written to appeal to the marginalized and outcasts.

Apparently YHWH changed who he favored.

Why did god go from laying down laws in the old testament to a pussy in the new?

because humans wrote the book.

Wrong time-scale "lens".

Anyone who thinks that the next 6-decades ( "tribulation" aka "armageddon" aka "The Great Filter" ) are going to be soft, is delusional.

Ever noticed that toddlers need a different kind of parenting than-do teenagers??

The people of past-times were MUCH less critical-reasoning trained than we, of today, are, with programming & science.

The kind of management-of-them that was appropriate was fundamentally different from what is required for current humankind's "bootcamp", which the next 6-decades are going to be.

It'll be experience-induced-understanding that the LAW is, if any of humanity survive The Great Filter.

Instinct, not rote-learning or commandments-posted-before-all.

Instinct-that-cannot-be-argued.

It'll be humankind embodying law, not reading-about it.

Think about the difference between a soft armchair-"soldier" vs one who's lived real war, for real years.

THAT is the kind of difference between humankind's past condition & what's required by context of humankind for the next 6-decades, & then you'll understand that the fundamental-nature of "religion" changes from book-orientation to LivingSpirit-orientation when LivingSpirit-orientation's the only way of surviving when outnumbered 9:1 ( or whatever it is ) as the civilrights-loyal/LivingSpirit-loyal ones are, against the ideologues/supremacists/fanatics.

No more "i hold my holy-book, which holds/possesses God", but instead "I'm living IN my God", if you understand the difference-in-meaning that those 2 kinds are being..

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