Is the God of the Old Testament the Same as the New Testament?

I know that when many people think about the Old Testament, the only things that come to mind are killings, judgment, and chaos. I was once one of those people. But now I know better — and the difference is not in what the Old Testament says, but in how we read it.

The Dawkins Challenge: Is God Really That Bad?

The question of God’s consistency across both testaments was brought into sharp popular focus by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion (2006). His description of the Old Testament God is now widely quoted:

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynist, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

That is a remarkable claim. But does it actually hold up when we read the text carefully? And more importantly — is Dawkins actually describing God’s character, or is he describing events in Scripture and attributing them all to God?

All Scripture Is God-Breathed — But Not Every Action in Scripture Is God’s

This distinction is critical and is often missed. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God — profitable for doctrine, correction, and instruction in righteousness. But notice what the text says: the word “inspiration” comes from the Greek theopneūstos (θεοπνευστος), meaning “God-breathed.” God breathed out the Scriptures through human writers (2 Peter 1:21) — but this does not mean that every action recorded in Scripture was performed by God or approved by God.

The Bible records the actions of men, the work of Satan, the operation of the Law, and the direct acts of God. These are not the same thing. The entire purpose of Scripture, from Genesis to Malachi, is to point humanity toward Christ (John 5:45; Ephesians 1:4; Titus 1:2). When we read it as though every act narrated equals God’s nature, we make a fundamental interpretive error.

God Has Never Been Fully Seen — Until Christ

John 1:18 (AMPC) says clearly: “No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” God is invisible (1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:16). What humanity encountered in the Old Testament were partial revelations — theophanies, the pillar of cloud, a voice, an angel. The full character of God was only disclosed when Jesus walked the earth. As Paul writes in Colossians 1:15, Jesus is “the image of the invisible God.”

This is the interpretive lens the entire New Testament operates with. Jesus himself said in John 14:9: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” So to understand what God is actually like, we look at Jesus — not at every action described in the historical narratives of the Old Testament.

The Elijah Principle: Servant Power Is Not God’s Character

Let us take a concrete example. In 2 Kings 1:9–15, the prophet Elijah calls down fire from heaven and 102 soldiers die. We read that and immediately attribute it to God because Elijah is God’s servant. But then Jesus appears — and when His disciples James and John ask whether they should call down fire like Elijah did, Jesus rebukes them sharply: “You do not know what spirit you are of” (Luke 9:51–56).

This is striking. Jesus is not contradicting God. He is clarifying the distinction between the power God delegates to believers and God’s own character and will. God’s will is that all men be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). What Elijah did at that moment was an expression of zeal and power — not an expression of God’s heart. The same can be said of Elisha calling bears on the children who mocked him (2 Kings 2:23–24). These men were genuinely God’s servants. They were also flawed human beings exercising spiritual authority in ways that went beyond God’s revealed nature in Christ.

As believers, God has given us authority and power — and we will give an account for how we use it. This principle applies equally to prophets in the Old Testament.

The Law as Judge — Not God as Executioner

Many deaths in the Old Testament were not God directly executing people — they were the Law executing its own sentence. The children of Israel were given the Mosaic Law, and the Law itself contained built-in penalties for violations.

Consider Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6:6–7 and 1 Chronicles 13:9–10. When the ark began to slip and Uzzah reached out to steady it, he died instantly. Most people read this as God killing Uzzah for trying to help. But according to the Law (Numbers 4:15), only the consecrated Levite priests were permitted to handle the ark — and even they were not to touch it directly. Uzzah was not a Kohathite priest. He died because the Law judged him, not because God acted arbitrarily.

The analogy is this: if a man murders someone and a judge sentences him to death by hanging, who killed him? Not the judge — the law did. The judge may be deeply compassionate and would prefer mercy, but in the face of the law he must pronounce judgment. This is precisely why Paul writes in Romans that no one was justified by the Law — because the Law could only expose sin and execute its penalties, not transform the heart.

Interestingly, when the Philistines captured the ark (1 Samuel 4:11), they were not killed for touching it — because they were not under the Mosaic covenant. However, the judgment of God did come upon them through afflictions. The distinction matters: covenant law operated differently for those inside it versus those outside it.

God’s Judgment: Withdrawal, Not Violence

When Israel was repeatedly conquered by surrounding nations, it was most often when they had abandoned God and He withdrew His protection — not because He raised armies against them. As Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 10:10, many of the Israelites “were destroyed by the Destroyer” — referring to Satan, not God. God’s judgment in the Old Testament is frequently permissive: He removes His mercy and allows the consequences of unbelief to run their course.

God Does Not Change — But Our Revelation of Him Did

The Bible states plainly in Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8 that God does not change. The God who desired all humanity to have eternal life before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4; Titus 1:2) is the same God who sent His Son to accomplish that purpose. The character was always the same — patient, loving, just. What changed was the clarity of our revelation. Through the Law and the prophets we saw partial glimpses. In Jesus we see the full picture.

So when reading the Old Testament, the task is not to decide whether God is harsh or loving. The task is to distinguish: Was this God acting? Was this the Law operating? Was this the free will of a servant of God? Was this Satan at work? When you make those distinctions, the “contradictions” largely dissolve — and the God of both testaments stands consistent, revealed in full in the person of Jesus Christ.