Did Jesus dismiss Yahweh?

[marco]

I have just read Danmark's list of atrocities attributed to Yahweh through the OT, including this Psalm:

Psalm 137:8-9 New American Standard Bible



" O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,
How blessed will be the one who repays you
With the recompense with which you have repaid us.


How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones
Against the rock "


The God depicted is brutal and violent - there are umpteen passages to show this. But let us turn to Christ, the Lamb, the giver of love and mercy.

Did Christ dismiss Yahweh as cruel or as a fiction?
If not, how can we reconcile Christ's message of "love one another as I have loved you" with the apparently psychopathic god of the OT?

[Elijah John]

[Replying to post 59 by marco]

Also, I have heard that argument before, especially from Catholics. That the name which Jesus hallowed in the Lord's prayer was a new name for God, "Father".

A few problems with that theory.

-"Father" is a title, not a name. Jesus taught "hallowed be thy name."
-The designation "Father" for God can be found in the "Old" Testament too, so it is not new. (many Jewish prayers are directed to "Avinu" (sp?) our Father)
-Jesus was a good Jewish man, so the name that he hallows would likely be the very same name that King David constantly praises, extols, exalts in the Psalms, namely, "YHVH" or the euphemism "LORD" (in translation as the stand-in for the Tetragrammaton).

[marco]

They claim that Paul was inspired and infallible, but Fundamentalist female preachers are not uncommon. Paul frowned on such notions.

And now we frown on Paul in an age where women have almost achieved equality, except of course under Islam where burka and hijab declare male superiority. Paul is the Uriah Heep of the Bible, wallowing in his pretended unworthiness while directing operations.

Perhaps Jesus was drawing attention to Paul in his warning against false prophets. If so, Christianity has moved many miles from Jesus, just as Jesus moved many miles from the OT.

[Elijah John]

They claim that Paul was inspired and infallible, but Fundamentalist female preachers are not uncommon. Paul frowned on such notions.

And now we frown on Paul in an age where women have almost achieved equality, except of course under Islam where burka and hijab declare male superiority. Paul is the Uriah Heep of the Bible, wallowing in his pretended unworthiness while directing operations.

Perhaps Jesus was drawing attention to Paul in his warning against false prophets. If so, Christianity has moved many miles from Jesus, just as Jesus moved many miles from the OT.

Not sure about the "many miles" increment, but I would say that Jesus built on, and advanced revelation and instruction beyond the "Old" Testament. That is advancement....Paul? I see his contributions mostly as regression.

The Prophets, John the Baptist and Jesus preached against the notion of blood sacrifice. Advanced and enlightened. Paul, by contrast, replaced animal sacrifice with human sacrifice. (at least one-off human sacrifice in the person of Jesus) That is regression to pre-Judaic Paganism, it seems to me.

[marco]

The Prophets, John the Baptist and Jesus preached against the notion of blood sacrifice.

Matthew 8:4 would suggest that Jesus did not preach against blood sacrifice as strenuously as he might have.

"Then Jesus told him, "See to it that you don't speak to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and then offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded as proof to the authorities."

An alternative might have been: "Thank God you are cured but offer no sacrifice, please." That would be preaching against.

[Elijah John]

The Prophets, John the Baptist and Jesus preached against the notion of blood sacrifice.

Matthew 8:4 would suggest that Jesus did not preach against blood sacrifice as strenuously as he might have.

"Then Jesus told him, "See to it that you don't speak to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and then offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded as proof to the authorities."

An alternative might have been: "Thank God you are cured but offer no sacrifice, please." That would be preaching against.

Yes, there is that. But the bulk of Jesus teaching seems to have been an alternative to Temple based, blood sacrifice.

Including his quoting Hosea, "I desire mercy not sacrifice", and no mention at all of the need for blood in the Lord's prayer, the Beattitudes and the Parables.

Just repentance, humility and the willingness to forgive others.

Jesus preached the merciful Father, not a bloodthirsty judge. The two conflicting roles for the Almighty are difficult to reconcile. After all, what good Father demands blood of their child in order to forgive?

And remember, the anti-sacrifice verse that Jesus quotes is from the "OT" Yahweh, through Hosea.