PAUL COPAN answers "Is the God of the Old Testament a Vindictive Bully?"

The world’s most outspoken atheist, Richard Dawkins, wrote in his book, The God Delusion, 

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

No wonder there are some Christians today who want to distance themselves from that God and focus solely on the God of the New Testament and Jesus Christ. It’s easier to think simplistically that Jesus changed all that, and that the vindictive bully of the Old Testament has been replaced by the loving, forgiving, sacrificial God of the New Testament.

Our guest is Christian philosopher and apologist Paul Copan, author of Is God a Vindictive Bully?: Reconciling Portrayals of God in the Old and New Testaments (Baker, 2022), winner of the Christianity Today 2023 Award of Merit in the category of Apologetics & Evangelism.

In this book, Dr. Copan takes on some of the most difficult Old Testament challenges and places them in their larger historical and theological contexts. He explores the kindness, patience, and compassion of God in the Old Testament and shows how Jesus in the New Testament reveals both God’s divine kindness and also God’s divine severity. The God of the Old Testament is definitely fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, but it turns out to be the same God.

Dr. Paul Copan (Ph.D., Philosophy, Marquette University) is a Christian theologian, analytic philosopher, apologist, and author. He is a professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University (Florida) where he is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics.

He is the author or editor of over forty books. He recently edited War, Peace, and Violence: Four Christian Views (IVP, 2022) and wrote Loving Wisdom: A Guide to Philosophy and Christian Faith (Eerdmans, 2020). Among his previous published works, we find Is God a Moral Monster: Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Baker, 2011).

Purchase these books from independent booksellers Byron and Beth Borger at Hearts & Minds Bookstore. You can order online through their secure server or call 717-246-333. Mention that you heard about this book on the Reintegrate Podcast and get 20% off!

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Music provided by Brian Donahue.