Yahweh was thoroughly disreputable and had nearly all the most unattractive features of primitive uncivilised man. He was violent, sexist, racist, easily angered, power hungry, egotistical, inconsistent, jealous, homophobic and quite obviously not particularly bright. He allowed and even encouraged rape, even of children. He sanctioned war, murders, slavery and the unnecessary killing of animals. He passed judgement on people over the most trivial of issues and demanded the Jewish people worship him. He was a right old bastard.
Yahweh was similar to Islam’s god, Allah, was also jealous, violent, sexist and obsessed with snuffing out any competition. Yahweh and Allah were, in fact, the same hypothetical character. The ancient Jews had their prophets who 
were allegedly inspired to write the Old Testament, Islamists had Mohamed who was allegedly inspired to write the Koran, and they were both writing about the same god.
Yahweh was not all bad. Different authors portrayed him differently. There are some places where he was merciful or gracious or forgiving or loving or kind. If he had consistently behaved this well an argument could be made that belief in him was just a harmless delusion, but he didn’t. God showed his true colours too often.
Most Christians don’t read the Old Testament, or if they do, read only selected parts of it, so have no idea “their” God was so evil. Yet he has always been there, quietly lurking in the background, insidiously poisoning the Christian’s attitude to his fellow men, women and children.
One of the difficult problems that clergy and laity face today is the question of how the Old Testament can be best used in decision-making. They should just ignore it.
I don’t believe Yahweh ever existed. The authors of Scripture made it very clear he experienced emotions. Men experience emotions primarily as a result of new knowledge; for example the reader may have felt some emotion reading some of the previous sections. An omniscient Yahweh, however, never experienced new knowledge because nothing was hidden from him, nothing new could be revealed to him and he knew the future. We mere mortals experience anger and frustration when something is wrong, particularly if we can’t change it for the better. An omnipotent Yahweh could fix anything, so he would never have been angry, frustrated or annoyed. Men long for things they lack, but Yahweh lacked nothing. So how could Yahweh get happy, angry, sad, aggressive and jealous? It was impossible for a perfect God to experience these emotions! The truth about this is obvious. Man created God in his own likeness.
People engage in activities because they are pursuing perfection, because they want to be or do better. Yahweh, on the other hand, was supposed to be perfect. If god was perfect, he needed nothing from anyone, he was not lonely, there was nothing he desired, and nothing he wanted to do. He would have just existed in his own perfect world. Yet he allegedly created things and people, and those creations were less than perfect. A perfect god who did this makes no sense, another reason confirming the fact that men invented god.
Why then, did man create god? God handed men power over their subordinates. He kept wives subservient to their husbands, common men bowed down to priests and kings, and wayward adolescents obedient to their parents. Things haven’t changed, as Christians in governments, churches, schools and families are still using God to control others.
We should not be surprised by an expose of Yahweh. It is common sense that he was just a figment of ancient man’s imagination. We should however, be very concerned that some people today still think he is real.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtEsQT5M2IQ (highly recommended viewing)
Early man could not understand or control all that was or is, so he moved himself closer to the stars, the lightning, and all that he could not explain and he called it religion. He then realized that his stories moved minds of men, and marketed it and created man made idols and creatures to his fictional fairy tails to satisfy his greed and lusts. Now he uses all of it as an excuse to rape and pillage upon his own species. Religion has become the ultimate excuse – nothing more. It has started where it was founded. If you can’t find a factual and truthful reason to perform a specific action good or bad upon our species with compensation and a stern hand held out for that action, use religion.
John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
1. Is the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New Testament?
2. Is the God of the Old Testament angry and the God of the New Testament merciful?
3. Does the differences that we see between the God of the Old and New Testaments lead us to conclude that the Bible is inconstant and contradictory?
These questions are often asked of people who observe these contrasts in the Old and New Testaments and then have reason for pause in going further in their investigation of the Christian faith.
In fact, what we see are two important points that are being illustrated in both testaments that provide for us a complete view of the character of God and His requirements for fellowship with Him.
The Old Testament lays a foundation for the Holiness of God.
1. He is Perfect, Righteous, and cannot tolerate sin, which is a defect in His creation.
2. He loves people and wants to offer us an opportunity for fellowship with Him.
3. He must first remove our sin, then fellowship is possible.
How can God put away sin (moral defect) while preserving His Justice?
God said that the soul that sins will die, therefore He must do as He said. Those who sin must pay for their sin by eternal death, which is separation from God forever.
Ezekiel 18:4 “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.
Sin is a moral defect that prevents human beings from being able to live their lives in the manner to which God created us to live. We see examples of this everyday in our own lives. Selfishness, lust, pride, covetousness, idolatry, are but a few of the moral defects that effect every part of our lives. We were created by God to live free of the plague and suffering that sin causes.
One of the proofs for God that confronts us everyday of our life, is the description that God makes of sin and the way in which it robs us of the Life He intended we posses. Read today’s newspaper and compare it to what the Bible says about the behavior of human beings, and we see that they are virtually identical.
These things being true, God set out to make a way for us to understand who He is by establishing the most important facts of His character and nature in the Old Testament.
Moses established the law, not for man to keep, but so that mankind could understand the kind of moral behavior that God demands for fellowship with Him. Any honest person who looks at the ten commandments, will come away with one overwhelming conclusion; “I cannot do it”.
The purpose of the law of God was to be our teacher, our tutor, to lead us to the conclusion that what God requires is impossible for us.
Galatians 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
By observing the requirements of God’s law, we are driven to the conclusion that we cannot perform it. If we sincerely desire a relationship with God, we will then ask the question; “Is there any other way to God?”
We find that the Bible teaches that although God established His righteous requirements by bringing His law in the Old Testament, He also predicted by prophecy that One would come who would perfectly fulfill the law for us. When any person places all of their trust in this promised Messiah, God would account this faith, as righteousness.
1. The Messiah will bear the sins of the whole world.
2. He will remove sin completely, by taking the punishment for them.
3. Those who place themselves in the hands of the Messiah, have their sins removed.
Since the sins of those who rely on the sacrifice of the Messiah have been removed, they are now morally perfect, and are fit for fellowship with God.
This grace of God is intimated in the Old Testament, but not completely understood until we arrive at the New Testament.
The first verse in this article from John 1:17, speaks of the Law being established in the Old Testament by Moses, while grace and truth are established by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Both are necessary for our understanding of God.
The Law and our failure to keep this law, bringing our death. This fact is established by the books of the Old Testament.
The Grace of God, which is unmerited favor, being established by the coming of Jesus as the Messiah, in the New Testament.
The Law reveals the justice of God, in that He demands moral perfection, and a failure to do so will result in eternal death. The Grace of God reveals that God is also merciful to mankind by offering to put away our sins, by the death of His own Son, which removes our sin and make fellowship with God possible.
The mistake that many people often make is that they misunderstand God.
By the Old Testament they imagine God as angry and vengeful to punish sin
By the New Testament, they imagine God as so loving and merciful that He would never judge sin.
What we find to be true is that both are necessary to properly understand who God is, and what He requires:
Old Testament: God is just and will punish sin,
New Testament: God has punished sin, in His own Son.
Therefore, those who run to God’s Son for mercy for their sin and their inability to keep the law of God, have their sins removed and themselves being made righteous in the sight of God.
The God of the Old and New Testaments is exactly the same. He is Just, but He is also Merciful and Loving towards those who come to Him in humility and a willingness to turn from their sin, to Him for forgiveness.
The God of the universe takes very slow, careful, methodical, and calculated steps in teaching us about Himself. The Old Testament was necessary to establish His Holiness and hatred of what sin has done to His creation. The New Testament picks up these theme of anger towards sin and the surety of a future punishment of sin, and provides the solution to it, by the coming of His Messiah, the Savior of the entire world.
God punished His Son, for the sins of the world, because Jesus was willing, and freely offered His life for our sins, so that we would not suffer the penalty ourselves. By taking our sins upon Himself, Jesus paid the just requirement of God, and provided a way for those who would believe, to be forgiven and restored to a wonderful new relationship with the Living God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He (God the Father) made Him (God the Son) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we (all who believe) might become the righteousness of God in Him.
God took His perfect, eternal Son, who is Himself God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and placed upon Him all our our sins. Jesus died, was buried and then rose again three days later, to justify us all, if we would place all our trust in Him.
These facts are established first in the Old Testament, then fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament.
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He loves us, but He will not tolerate our sin. He has provided a way for those sins to be removed. If we chose to believe and accept His offer to make us perfect by Jesus Sacrifice, they we can have fellowship with Him. If we chose not to believe and reject this one way that God has provided, then we leave ourselves without any other means to be saved.
Rob Robinson
Hi Rob, thanks for your reply. I appreciate the effort. All these points you make are pretty much standard fare, and most people have heard them all many times before. What I have done on my website and book is take the conversation further by examining the social and political context in which the bible was written, and I have debunked all this dogma. I respect your right to disagree, and I’m happy for you to post here, but if you reply you will be truly engaging in the conversation only if you address the history and the facts rationally. Quoting the bible to to justify a premise doesn’t cut it, nor does making unsubstantiated claims. Have a read of my post on Paul about the new/old covenant….just maybe you will see it from a different angle. Please keep commenting. Regards, Mark
anything you haters say cant prove hes not real can it. that fact that you have NEVER experienced the holy spirit in your life and that you are decieved by satan to not accept there is a creator in intelligent design. theres something happening here that you atheisests dont see. you know it takes more faith to beleive theres is no god then there isn’t therefore you contradict yourselves and that athiesim is a religion becuase you belive in it!. the facts are out in the open, look at the way the flower blooms for you, it wants to show you its beauty god gave it. or the sunset rises and sets, or that they have found noahs ark on the mount ararat in TurkeY! or that in revelations of the bible how prophecy is coming to pass as reality. you guys should repent and not lean on your own understanding of this world and know this god is not from this world his ways is not our ways.. god help your souls.
Thankyou for your well reasoned and beautifully written comment. I bow to your superior intellect. Off to church I go…
Voltaire said “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.” An interesting comment even if he did get it wrong…Obviously to any clear thinking person if should have read ‘God did not exist so it was necessary to invent him”. You article raises many good points about mans use of religion as a carrot and stick to the masses but I still there is a bit more too it. Within humans is a desire to know and understand their world. It’s a survival instinct. Ancient man huddled in a cave seeing lightning would have had no understanding of the phenomena, only fear. To bring something so frightening into the known realm possibly involved looking at supernatural reasons. The moon, the stars and the sun were all mysteries. Same deal. These belief structures would have grown. Look at the plethora of Gods worshiped over the centuries. I think there is an element of cynical control that has been used by the religious hierarchy for eons but it also takes a believing fearful populace to accept the priests divinity. This is true even today, much to the disgust of those of us who dream of a world free from bronze age superstition still having an influence in the twenty first century. I look forwards to reading your book.
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Hi Mark, we share more than a name in common! I totally agree with you. Yes, man invented god, in part to explain his existence in the universe. I may not have said it as eloquently as you, but check out my “God in context” blog. Thanks for your feedback. Any comments before the book is published are very much appreciated. Regards, Mark
Mark and I are spot on… It’s that simple.
Oh yeah..thanks friend!
Sadly but true,old testament god Yahweh and god of Jesus – Heavenly Father, are two different beings,and only fools might say that old and new testament are complete and unified inside without any false.
I read old testament and was shocked when God – pure good and love only is giving advice to his people to do genocide at pagans and other human beings,so it’s not truly God,but god by small “g”.
No matter how people named this universal being,but god is life,and he is everywhere and in everything,it’ light side,the side of dark is that darkness is mother,it’s place where light/life was borne and it’s infinite and it’s giving wear to us,to all kind of life.Darkness wears us and every light/life in form/body. So it’s quite understandable when i say that light is life but God is darkness,because darkness has borne everything,even light.Those who don’t afraid of darkness are those who know themselves and they are strong and close to the God,because they may recognise illusion without fear,just by knowing and experiencing own pure nature.
Let God bless you all.
Ah…thanks for that Elven. Maybe if you tidied up the English a little I might better understand the points you are making?