Has God Changed The Way He Deals With Sin?

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Critics of the Bible point to a vengeful Old Testament God who demands genocide, contrasted with the gentler, kinder God of the New Testament.

This has led some to wonder, can we still worship the smitey Almighty now that God's judgments appear to be delayed, some ask, is God more tolerant than He used to be? Today, a probing look at some tough questions. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win, with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Now, with more about the eclipse of God, here is Pastor Lutzer, along with Pastor Larry McCarthy. Hi, this is Pastor Lutzer. I want to welcome you to this very special broadcast of Running to Win. With me here in the studio is Pastor Larry McCarthy.

He's on the pastoral staff here at the Moody Church, responsible for Compassion Ministries. He has a lot of issues on his agenda. But we're here to talk about my new book entitled, The Eclipse of God. And I want to alert you that next time, we are going to be talking about this question. All over the country, I have parents and grandparents who say to me, you know, we sent our child to university, maybe a boy, maybe a girl. And when they come back, they think differently than we do.

Yes, many of them do think differently than we do, don't they? We're going to be talking about why. It's going to be an opportunity for us to take a look at the way in which truth is being viewed in our modern culture.

I hope that a lot of young people are listening. But also, those of you who struggle with the contemporary issue of truth, be sure to join us next time. But today, we're tackling a very difficult question.

The question has to do with a relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And in a moment, Larry's going to be reading the title of the next chapter that we'll be talking about. And we're actually going to be talking about two chapters. I'll be introducing that other chapter even as we continue to dialogue. But I want to tell you this that there are many people who say, oh, I believe the Bible from cover to cover. Well, good for you.

I do too. I believe the Bible from cover to cover. But then having said that, they think of the Bible as a cafeteria where you can walk through and choose only the chocolates or some other delicacies. And so you love verses about the love of God and the presence of God. And we should love verses just like that.

And we should believe them. But what about some of the difficulties of the Old Testament? How do we handle that? Is God a bully, as many atheists would say when they read the Old Testament? So Larry, let's get right into it. What's the title of the chapter? Should we still be worshiping the Smitey Almighty of the Old Testament, coming to grips with the violent God of Moses and the prophets? Now that's an ambitious title. You got to tell me what is Smitey Almighty and where'd you come up with that?

Well, thank you so much for asking. That actually is part of the article I referred to last time that occurred in The Economist when it says, nobody believes in the Smitey Almighty of the Old Testament, the God who smote the Egyptians, the God who smote Sodom and Gomorrah. Nobody believes in that God. So this title asks, should we still believe in the Smitey Almighty of the Old Testament?

That's where this title originated. Why is it so difficult for people to accept that? That, you know, the catastrophic judgments like the flood and wiping out the Canaanites and, I mean, they were utterly destroyed and was this genocide?

Was it ethnic? Well, let's talk about the flood for just a moment before we get to your question about the killing of the Canaanites and God says that they should be basically exterminated if we might use very blunt language. When it comes to the flood, I was introduced to the liberal view of this a number of years ago when there was a program where the interviewers, the panel said that the Bible is not a revelation from God. It is rather what people thought about God. So the flood didn't happen. God would never do this and it actually likened God onto a child who builds a sand castle and then gets angry and destroys it. So what we need to do is to understand that God hates sin. We also have to understand that even as the flood was coming, the rain was coming down, there's no doubt that as people cried to God, they could be forgiven.

In this chapter, I eventually list a lot of verses that have to do with the loving kindness and the patience of God. So we must be willing to accept these judgments but to your point, the Canaanites, that has been a problem for many, many people and for me included. You know, I read that and God tells Joshua, show them no mercy and we say to ourselves, how can that be? And you ask the question, is this ethnic cleansing? I don't think so for a couple of different reasons.

Let's look at this in a larger context. For one thing, the harlot Rahab, she was a Canaanite and she came to saving faith and actually ended up in the 11th chapter of Hebrews as a hero of faith. So it wasn't ethnic cleansing and I must say also that she heard about Israel's God and she said we heard about the miracles that God did.

In other words, she was saying where in the world have you been? If she knew, then certainly all the leaders of the tribes of the Canaanites, they knew that God was going to judge them. The other thing is God was very patient.

He waited 400 years, right? The other thing about ethnic cleansing is, believe it or not, there's a verse in actually the book of Ezekiel that says to Israel, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite, which means you come from the very same origin. So it's not that Israel was better. God did show compassion to Israel but also severely judged Israel severely. I mean, if you look at the captivity and what Nebuchadnezzar did when he captured Jerusalem, you can see here that God, and then you think of Achan, you know, he was an Israelite, he stole something, he gets stoned. So when we look at the harshness of God, which to us seems like harshness, we have to put this in context. Now, in my book, I quote an apologist by the name of Clay Jones, who's done a lot of study on evil and how evil movements begin.

But here's a quote. Could it be that because our culture today commits the same Canaanite sins, we are inoculated against the seriousness of these sins so that we think that God's judgment is unfair? In short, most of our problems regarding God's ordering the destruction of the Canaanites comes from the fact that God hates sin and we don't.

Wow, that takes your breath away. Larry, as I've thought about this, of course we're all troubled by some of these harsh judgments, especially regarding the Canaanites, but we have to remember that only once did God punish a truly innocent person, and that was when Jesus died on the cross. The innocent died for the guilty. So whatever problems we have with the Old Testament, we have to always remember and balance it with all of the statements in Scripture that have to do with his mercy and his grace. You're inviting the listener to accept the judgments of God, but what about a harsh judgment like stoning? Very good question. As a matter of fact, you could be stoned for a number of different infractions in the Old Testament, and that's also difficult to deal with. Now, here's what's interesting, that historically, very few people were stoned.

Very few. Why? Because in the book of Numbers, we learn that there is a ransom that could be given, and what the text says is this, that only for murder can there be no ransom.

In other words, there could be a substitute. And so what we must do is recognize that in the midst of all of this, God had some harsh judgments. And now I want to transition to the next chapter, Larry, because I think that it will be answered as we move forward, especially as we talk about whether or not all of these judgments were actually indications of grace, of all things.

That's where we're going to go. And that's why the next chapter, which actually is in the book, it's chapter 6, it's entitled Is God More Tolerant Than He Used to Be? And I think the subtitle, and I'm doing this by memory, I think, Larry, the subtitle is, Are the Abominations of the Old Testament Still Abominable? This is, in my opinion, one of the meatier chapters. You have so much to say in all the other chapters, but this one, I really read it twice.

I had to go through it a couple of times. There's a quote that's here that kind of becomes a thread throughout the rest of the book, and you say, We must interpret the culture through the lens of Scripture, not Scripture, through the lens of contemporary culture. Hmm. It begs the question, Pastor, so if God changes the way he deals with us, hasn't he changed with the way he looks at sin? Well, that's a good way to put it, an interesting way to put it. The fact is, as you well know, the Scripture says, I am the Lord and I change not.

Yes. And this is one of the longest chapters in the book where I argue not only for the consistency of God, but I do explain, I think, to the best of my ability, the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, Old Testament harsh judgments, New Testament love and grace. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So there are many Christians out there who think it's safer to sin today than it was in Old Testament times, obviously. You mentioned law, though.

Can we go back just a step? Because in the book, you talk about three different kinds of law. Can you just emphasize that for me?

Yeah. This is very helpful to understand and answers the question whether or not the abominations of the Old Testament are still abominable. Three kinds of law. First of all, there is civil law. That has to do with what do you do if your donkey goes across to the neighbor's pasture, et cetera. That can't apply to us. There's ceremonial law, all the sacrifices and so forth, and that can't be relevant for us because Jesus died and therefore these sacrifices would be sacrilegious.

Yes. Now, the third kind, though, is moral. And the reason that we know that the moral judgments continue is, first of all, because God doesn't change his standard of morality for us, but the other reason has to do with the fact that many of these judgments and many of these sins, I should say, are mentioned in the New Testament as being sinful.

If we had time, I'd turn to 1 Timothy, chapter 1, where the apostle Paul says the law has been given for people who are lawbreakers and then he lists a whole catalog of sins. And Paul does the very same thing in Romans, as we'll discuss in a future time together. So, we must emphasize that the abominations, when it comes to moral issues, the abominations of the Old Testament are still abominable. But very quickly, somebody's out there asking, well then, Pastor Lutzer, why don't we see the same thing in the New Testament as the Old?

What about Nadab and Abihu? After all, they were seminary students doing an experiment and they offered strange fire and they were struck dead. That sure doesn't happen today.

Uzzah touches the ark and is struck dead. We don't see that today, do we? So, what I do is I help people to understand that there are three changes that are very important. And once again, I wish I had time.

I don't. But in the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews, we find an answer. And the answer shows us three changes of God's administration. Not any changes in the nature of God, but how he administrates things.

I'll give them very quickly. Number one, it talks about the earthly versus the heavenly. It speaks about Mount Sinai, stay away, because Mount Sinai is God coming without a mediator and without a sacrifice.

Stay back. Mount Zion, come. Today, we can enter into the Holy of Holies, the most holy place through the blood of Jesus. So, it talks about coming to the heavenly Jerusalem. First change. Second change, Old Covenant versus New Covenant.

So important for us to realize something. In the Old Testament, it was a theocracy, right? God spoke through the nation, through the prophets and so forth, let them know his will. In the New Testament, clearly a change, and Jesus underscores that. When he says, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. New Testament, the church now is scattered throughout all the nations of the earth, for the most part living in pagan governments. So we have to navigate that. It is no longer a theocracy.

It is the people of God scattered living in pagan governments. And now, we get to the biggie. And that is in the Old Testament, the great emphasis was on that which is physical. You know, you're committed adultery, you could be stoned.

As I mentioned, that was very seldom carried out because of the reasons we referred to. New Testament, we don't have a right as a church to kill people. The government is to do that. It bears the sword. But here's the point, and I'm going to share my heart now, and I want everyone who is listening to ask themselves the question, am I ready to meet God? Wherever there is grace, there is greater judgment for refusing it.

Let me make sure I got that. The greater the grace, the greater the judgment for refusing it. Exactly. And there is a verse, you know, in Ecclesiastes that says that because the sentence for an evildoer is not carried out immediately, people think it's okay to do evil. So, people interpret the grace and the apparent, I say apparent leniency of God, as the tolerance of God.

Huge mistake. What I want to do in the next few moments is to speak to everyone who is listening, as I've already emphasized from my heart. When you read the New Testament, you discover that there are judgments of the New Testament, found in the New Testament, that are far more terrifying than the old. When I was younger, I memorized Scripture, and last night I reviewed a passage that I learned when I was a boy. So, I'm going to try to quote it here, Larry. Now, if I can't get through it, you're going to have to help me. It comes from the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation.

But I want everyone to listen. But even before I do that, in Ephesians, where I just wish we had time to read, it emphasizes the fact that if they did not escape in the Old Testament era, what about the New? In fact, I'm actually going to go back just a bit here to the previous chapter, to chapter 10, I should say. And it says, anyone who set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse judgment do you suppose will come to him? And it goes on to say that those who have experienced grace, their judgment is much more severe. So, God is not more tolerant than he used to be. But back to the passage of Scripture, I'm going to see if I can quote it.

I think I can, as I mentioned. I reviewed it last night. And I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, before whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I found the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead which were in it.

Death and Hades delivered up the dead which were in them. And all those who were not found, whose names were not in the Lamb's book of life, were thrown into the lake of fire. There's no judgment in the Old Testament that I know about that is worse than that. The greater the grace, the greater the judgment for refusing it. You know, the Bible says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God because it says in Hebrews, our God is a consuming fire. You know, years ago, when people were on a homestead, they feared prairie fires because, you know, the fire could come and burn their buildings, et cetera.

And so, what they would do when the weather was favorable, this was called a control burn, they would burn around the homestead, and then when the fire came, they knew that they were safe because they were living where the fire had already been. Oh, my friend today, hurry to Christ. He is the only one who can shield us from the wrath to come. If you've never savingly believed on him, do it now.

You need to be shielded from the wrath of God because you have the opportunity to believe on him. And I urge you to do that right now. In fact, I'm going to pray, Father, I ask that you'll overcome the darkness, the rebellion of people, help them to see that they need a Savior who actually saves them from their sins and saves them from eternal wrath. Cause them to believe, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I want to thank the many of you who have listened today. We appreciate so much your prayers. Without your prayers and without your involvement in this ministry, we cannot continue. But I need to emphasize what you already know, that our heart is for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed with clarity, with power, and with the unction of the Spirit. All the material that Larry and I have dialogued about today and we're doing in this series is found in my new book entitled The Eclipse of God, Our Nation's Disastrous Search for a More Inclusive Deity. Here's what you can do. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Running to win? Heard in 50 different countries in seven different languages because of people just like you. Pastor Erwin Lutzer, along with Pastor Larry McCarthy, with the third of five interviews on Erwin Lutzer's book, The Eclipse of God, Our Nation's Disastrous Search for a More Inclusive Deity. Now, a preview of what's ahead next time on Running to Win. Returning to the God of truth, not truthiness. I love the title, truthiness. What does it mean? Where did it come from?

Why is it important? We have to get to this. The truth actually is rooted in God. There was a young man who was asked, what would you say to God if God were to say to you, why should I let you into heaven or if God were to judge you? Notice carefully his response. He said, I would tell him he has no right to judge me because I did not acknowledge him.

In other words, even in eternity, I am in charge. This is the last week we can make The Eclipse of God book available. It's our thank you for your gift of any amount to support Running to Win. Call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. Online, go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. Or write to Running to Win, Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.