How do people who believe the Bible to be inerrant reconcile the Old Testmament version of God with the New Testament’s version?
They don’t often try. Rather, they cherry pick. They tell the Noah story by focusing on God’s “saving” of Noah’s family, rather than firmly acknowledging God’s decision to commit cold senseless genocide regarding everyone else (even the plants and non-human animials). With that little move, the OT God does seem a bit more like kind and gentle Jesus, who they portray by downplaying the fact that Jesus invented hell. In the old days, when God was angry with you, you just died. Bang! That’s it. Since the NT, mere death isn’t sufficient punishment. You need to be tortured in hell forever. But enough of these undeniable conclusions based on a detached reading of the Bible!
Here’s a ribald cartoon [1] that teases out those subtle personality differences between the OT and NT Gods.
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