Have You Read the Bible?

I have a question to all the believers out there...

Have you read the Bible?

If you have, how can you possibly believe that god is good? The god of the Old Testament is angry, vengeful, jealous, ruthless, genocidal, etc. If someone gathered sticks on the Sabbath day, they were to be put to death. If a neighboring nation was full of unbelievers, it was okay to invade that country, in god's name, and kill every breathing thing.

I'm not going to waste my time thumbing through the OT to find every offensive passage. That is my challenge to you, believers. If you so strongly profess to believe in the Bible, don't you think you should actually read it? I'm not talking about random verses here and there... I'm talking about cover to cover.

Then the New Testament rolls around and this dictator of a god suddenly goes from genocide, murder, and rape to gentle, meek, and mild.

It sounds like two completely different gods! In the OT you could die for breaking the Sabbath day. Then Jesus turns around and justifies his own breaking of the Sabbath.

But isn't Jesus supposed to be the god of the OT? If he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why such radical changes in views of the Sabbath and the change from the 'iron-fist' god to the 'meek-and-mild' god?

I would so much like to hear a believers response to this question/challenge. Why do the two books describe such different gods? Why would the god of the OT have sinners guts torn from their bodies and then Jesus turns around and eats with the sinners?

Then Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites for simply living the commandments of the OT.

Can't god make up his goddamn mind?

Believers, if you haven't read the Bible, maybe you'd better not! You'll probably lose your faith!