The God of the Old Testament vs the God of the New

Something I've been thinking about lately is the sharp contrast between the law of Moses and the doctrines and teachings of Jesus Christ.

In reading the Old and New Testaments it's clear that the descriptions of and the commandments from God in the Old Testament sometimes seem kind of... well how to I put this--ruthless and unloving.   Whereas the teachings of Jesus are loving, compassionate, and merciful, yet also just.

Let's look at a few examples:

Leviticus 20

 9 ¶For every one that ^acurseth his ^bfather or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his ^cblood shall be upon him.

(Oh how many teenagers would not survive this law in today's world.)

 10 ¶And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his ^aneighbour’s wife, the ^badulterer and the ^cadulteress shall surely be put to ^ddeath.

(Yet, Jesus did not condemn the adulteress to death--neither did he condone her sin, yet he was merciful)

 17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her ^anakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a ^bwicked thing; and they shall be ^ccut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

(Um,did this not apply in the days of Adam and Eve....)

 18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

(Not sure if I'm reading this one right, but it sure seems to be a heavy penalty for making love with your wife when she's having a period)

And of course this chapter is also famous with the Wesboro Baptist Church (I don't even want to try to understand what motivates those guys) for condemning homosexuals to death.

Then there are the countless examples where God commands 'His' people to go out and slaughter thousands of people in other nations.

I have a hard time seeing how these things all mesh with the teachings of Jesus--Here's why--because they don't!

I came to realize that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same God.  Why the difference then?

It's simple the people of the Old Testament simply didn't know God very well for the most part, and the people of the New Testament that wrote at least knew God much better because he was with them.

The 12 tribes in the Old Testament were composed mainly of wicked people and they refused to keep the original commandments that Moses delivered them from God.  So Moses had to give them a lesser law--a carnal law--even a somewhat devilish law.  In other words the people were really wicked and they refused to live God's commandments so God gave them commandments that would help them be less wicked (wicked still yes because their hearts were not right, but less wicked).  God was helping them improve so they could gradually get to the point that they could actually live his law.  He was asking them to be less idolatrous, less murderous, less thieving, etc. than they were at present. 

With this in mind I think we need to realize that the aim of much of the law as outlined in the Old Testament was to help the people be less wicked.  That should not be our goal today.  Today we know Christ through the New Testament and also the Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants.  We have so many witnesses of his teachings.  We can learn of his goodness, love, long-suffering, mercy, justice, compassion and atonement.  There is no need to attempt to live a lesser law that does not match up to the statutes of God when we have free access to God's higher law.

I am not saying that we should ever use love as an accuse to accept sin (we should not), but we should never use scripture as an excuse to spread doctrines of hate.  We need to take things in their proper context.