How God Comes to Humans
Saturday, March 8th, 2008God manifests Himself according to the mind and culture of each individual and each society. The times of the Old Testament were characterized by warfare and fighting. Therefore God appeared to this culture as a warrior God. He appeared to this warrior culture as a warrior God so that He would be understood. We see things differently today (hopefully). We value peace and toleration of differences, So we need to interpret the warrior God of the Old Testament in historical context. There are beautiful messages about peace and compassion throughout the prophets and in other places in the Old Testament. And anyone who is on a spiritual path knows that inner warfare is something seekers undergo. In this way, we can preserve the sanctity of the Old Testament witness without accepting the problematic picture of God painted by the warrior society of 1,000 BCE.