mozzaok wrote on Apr 29
th, 2010 at 7:54pm:
OK, so we used to have a vengeful god, and a jealous god(sounds like a bit of a prick if you ask me) in the old testament, and then we got a more loving god, and a compassionate god at the start of the new testament(things are looking up, perhaps he has been in therapy) and then we got a a bit of a schizo god undergoing a severe identity crisis, I am the father son and holy ghost period(whoops, looks like it is back to therapy for you old son, or is that father, or perhaps ghost?) and finally we get the judgmental god who will be snatching people physically from their homes any day now for the big rap (ture) party, while condemning heathens like me to eternal torture( and now I am back to the start again, he is a prick)
To determine why God has such an identity crisis, you need to look at the origins of the Jewish religion in Zoroastrianism following the return from exile in Babylon of the Jewish aristocracy. The dominant religion of the Persian invaders then became the main influence for what was previously a polytheist religion, in which Jehovah was the God of War.
The New Testament transformation culminated in the establishment of the current collection of gospels following the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Up to that time, there was a considerable Gnostic influence in the new religion of Christianity in its various forms. During the Council of Nicea, most of the "plain silly" Gnostic texts were purged, but the influences remained.