Characters in the Old Testament didnt! God spoke face to face with Adam , he didnt have to decide whether or not he believed in God’s existence. The Bible says it wasnt until 2 generations down from Adam, the lifetime of Seth’s son Enosh, that ” men began to call upon the name of the Lord” . what does that mean? that before then, they didn’t need to invoke Him? He was a more hands-on deity? Actually strolling around on Earth, like He had in Eden?
He spoke directly to Noah.
He spoke directly to, and appeared to, Abraham .
He proved Himself to Jacob at Bethel and by the miracle of the brindled cattle—and didnt hold it against tricky Jake that he auditioned another deity at the ford of Jabbuk.
He performed any number of magic tricks via Moses, even before the grand finale of the Red Sea.
After the Exodus, He threw a dinner for 70 Jewish Elders on Mt Sinai.
He had to prove himself to Gideon at least two nights in a row.
By David’s time, he has outsourced his pronouncements to his prophets: Samuel, Nathan, and their ilk. But that’s still only one remove.
Fast forward to the NEW Testament. He’s here, on Earth again! but people dont seem to get Him. They are puzzled by His parables, they ”marvel” at His pronouncements. in the New Testament, people DO need faith. It takes a leap of faith to believe this son of a carpenter is, Y’know, the Almighty! “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”, etc… Yes He did some miracles, but He wasnt the only miracle worker around at the tine: Simon Magus reputedly could fly! Not only that, He doesnt even seem to want everybody to ”get” Him: ”He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (And by implication , he that hath NOT ears can go to perdition..).
It’s just interestin’ (to me, anyway,j that the OT and the NT are so radically different.
If i hadda sum up the OT in one word, it’d be ”Obey”—
and the NT, ”Believe”.
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
Obey vs Believe- I had never thought about it that way before, but as usual, Hypatia, you are right. Brilliant 🙂
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Jesus did say that we only need faith the size of a mustard seed. In my experience, that is true.My parents taught me about God and brought me to Church. I didn’t think much about it until I turned 6 or 7, and when I did start thinking about it, I was skeptical, and very inclined to believe that my parents were engaged in wishful thinking. Gun to my head, I didn’t really believe in God, but I did believe that it would be wonderful if God did exist. Around the time I was 9 or 10, I decided to give serious prayer a try. I didn’t think it would really work, but had nothing to lose.
I was torn between friends in my elementary school, so I started praying in earnest for peace in that situation. I said a short prayer every night for two years, and for two years, nothing. Then, one day as I was eating lunch in the school cafeteria, I looked up and saw the words “God grant me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.” It was the first time in my entire life I had ever encountered the serenity prayer, and I knew that it was The answer to my prayers. It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but it was an answer.
Since then, I have had many spiritual dreams and experiences, and many prayers answered, but it all started with a little girl who was pretty much an atheist, but who was willing to give God a shot, because what the heck? Even now, I have very little faith-which is why I need all these spiritual dreams and experiences that God in His mercy grants to me. “Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”
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OT = Obey; Obedience out of reverence/fear matured into obedience founded in trust.
NT = Believe, See the Letter to the Hebrews: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
(Updated to add Scriptural reference.)
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Belief is required to be HARD TO DO in the NT. Paul sez somewhere that if it’s not true that Christ is God, “no men are greater fools”. And that’s what’s behind the “mustard seed” trope too: come on , just TRY, light one little candle…in the OT, it must’ve been maintaining skepticism that was hard, with God’s voice thundering in your ears , combusting things that had no business burning, making the sun stand still, to name just a few— oh and also, killing unbelievers (whose hearts He Himself had “hardened” ) in horrible ways.
Faith, as Paul said, is “the evidence of things NOT seen.” But by his time, monotheism had been well established for, what, 2 millennia? It’s like in the OT God had to try harder, He was jostling for position with a buncha other deities. He’s not so much saying that there AREN’T any other gods, as that HE is the most powerful. Strength through power! And in the NT, the motto might be Strength through humility! He deliberately and voluntarily abases Himself time after time and expects His followers to do likewise, to “become as a little child”. It’s like, in between the OT and the NT, He fired His PR firm and hired a new one that TOTES re-calibrated His image!
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Maybe more “revealed” than ‘recalibrated’, Hyp? LIKE, as always.
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So He was like the Wizard of Oz, really a softie all along?
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If St. John the Divine/Theologian has it right, He’s never been/never will be anything but LOVE/The Ground of all Being; as He told Moses at the Burning Bush, as well….
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Okay but you have to admit, He’s pretty bloodthirsty in the OT! The Flood, the 12 plagues of Egypt, the poisoned quail in the wilderness. The slaughter of every man, woman and child and animal of a Israel’s enemies….tough love I reckon😉
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He looks ‘bloodthirsty’, because that’s what was easily understood by ‘children under a guardian’. He came Himself because He wanted a spousal relationship, actually. 🙂
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A “spousal relationship” ?…..ok, I am theeeeees close to writing sump’n blasphemous. So I won’t. BAD Hypatia!
I know you mean along the lines of “Jesus Lover of my soul/Let me to Thy bosom fly!”,
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As a secular, I have always decided not to comment on religious topics because I think it wise to avoid subjects that members such as you, Jac, and Nanda know far more about than I. Who wants to look like an idiot?
But then, I thought about the term “faith.” It can venture beyond religion into capitalism. I have faith in the principles of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman and I believe they can encourage people to lead better lives- both financially and morally. I recently re-visited my favorite Leo DiCaprio movie “Wolf on Wall Street” and the fact that he broke all the rules of fair market trade proves me right.
He practiced fraud and deceit under the guise of capitalism. What a lie!
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Is there a difference between “faith”/and mere credulity?
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Yes.
I know better than to invest in fraudulence (credulity) so I follow the true principles of pure bottom line, demand for the product, and businesses that are transparent.
The SEC has done a good job and I have Mike Milliken and Ivan Boesky to thank for that!
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