Understanding Islam — Page 210
IS THE HOLY QURAN MORE VIOLENT THAN THE BIBLE? 208 Christian known as Marcion that he started a sect that believed in 2 Gods - a God of the Old Testament and a God of the New Testament. He could not reconcile the actions of the Old Testament God and those of what he believed to be the God of the New Testament. At the very least, this position is more consistent in light of Christian differentiation of violence in the Old Testament as compared to the New Testament. Anyhow, this is not the case with most Christians today. They believe that Jesus is the same as the God of the Old Testament, as God is actually a Trinity or a Triune God - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son is Jesus Christ as , which means that all of the Old Testament violence, whether ordered directly (as in Deut. 20:16-18) or ignored completely (as in Gen. 35), was sanctioned by Jesus as himself as he is the co-eternal, co-equal partner of God, according to Christian doctrine. As a result, the distinction between Old Testament and New Testament teachings in relation to violence is simply unwarranted and invented by the Church. According to the Christian concept of God, Jesus as was the one who ordered the violence of the Old Testament. In fact, Jesus as himself says