9 March 2010 View Comments

Is God Bipolar? Part 1

Is God Bipolar? Part 1

Several years ago The Onion (known for their no holds barred satire) released a news statement entitled: “God Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder”. I don’t endorse The Onion or anything written in that article for that matter, but for the past few months I’ve been reading through the Old Testament, and at times, I’ve been wondering the same thing. There are certain books in the Old Testament I absolutely love, like Genesis & Exodus for example, where we read the stories of Noah, Abraham, Joseph & Moses and how they lived all out for God, displaying unfathomable faith. But then I get to Leviticus and Numbers and it gets more and more difficult to read with each passing chapter. All I see is a list of rules and guidelines and laws that make absolutely no sense at times, like Deuteronomy 23:1

No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

To be honest, I’ve always avoided certain books like this because I simply don’t understand them, nor do I understand God’s nature revealed through them. It’s as if I’m reading about a completely different God in the Old Testament compared to the God in the New Testament. I mean no disrespect or irreverence at all, but reading certain books in the Old Testament, makes God seem bipolar to me.

I’ve been struggling with these books for the last few weeks — and I’m not going to lie — I’ve been speed-reading through the last few chapters just trying to get back to something that I can understand again. I know I’m being ridiculous here, but I seriously wonder why He chose to leave certain things in there. What was the point? He knew we’d be reading them thousands of years later with hearts and minds full of questions. Was it an accident? Were parts of Leviticus and Numbers supposed to be part of the Apocrypha and St. Bartholomew didn’t get the memo? These are the things I think about as I’m reading these books. And with as much Bible training as I have, I know if I’m struggling through some of these chapters, others probably are too.

God answered some of my nagging questions tonight, so I’m making this a two part post and I’ll share them later because I’d really like to hear from you!

What books do you have a hard time reading and why?

If God’s not bipolar, how do you explain the God of the New Testament vs. the God of the Old Testament?

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  • Reading through the Pentateuch does make me wonder about the JEDP theory, that is the books are written by 5 different people. I generally hold that Moses is the originator of these books, but they paint a very different picture of God.

    Of course I look at my life and in 30 short years I have dramatically changed how I perceive God, so I guess I can cut Moses a little slack on his own moody approach to God.

    I think that is the real issue, by the way. God is never changing. He is eternal and steadfast, but we change constantly and rapidly. God used people to write the Bible and so the perceived God is the God that is shown through the writings. God seems to be vastly different, even within the same book, because people change. Of course it would seem as if the God of the OT is someone different than the God of the NT because there are hundreds of years difference in those writings. We are talking about an essentially different culture. The interesting part is the common threads that are there for those who look. God has been painting a story of compassion, love, and redemption through out history and this shows up so clearly in the Bible.

    At least that is my take on the seeming changing God.