I am a new member. I am Jewish and this appear to be a safe and easy place to explore Christian beliefs. I do have a question. The God of the Old Testament appears to be very different than the God of the New Testament. Would somebody like to comment on that.
Welcome aboard, Larry.
In regards to your question, it might be easier to answer if you provide us with a specific seeming difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. As others here have already rightly stated, they are one and the same.
In the meantime, the prophet Jeremiah did foretell of a New Testament or a New Covenant when he said:
Jeremiah chapter 31
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31]
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
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32] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
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33] But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
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34] And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
This "new covenant" or "new testament" was instituted by Jesus' blood.
In relation to "testaments", the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews said the following:
Hebrews chapter 9
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13] For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
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14] How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
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15] And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
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16]
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
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17]
For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
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18]
Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
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19] For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
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20] Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
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21] Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
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22] And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
If you were to write your "last will and testament", then it wouldn't go into effect until the time that you, the testator, died.
And so it is with both the Old Testament and New Testament.
Under the Old Testament, animal sacrifices were made in order to put that testament into effect, but those sacrifices foreshadowed a greater sacrifice which was yet to come...the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
THIS is the "new covenant" of which the prophet Jeremiah foretold.
Anyhow, please feel free to ask as many questions as you might have. The more specific the questions, the more specific the answers can be.
Again, welcome aboard.