You’ve probably heard the common criticism that the Bible has a split personality, that the Old Testament is all “judgment and vengeance” and the New Testament is “forgiveness and love”. I’d like to challenge that notion. Sure, the Old Testament contains the story of man’s fall, Noah’s flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and let’s not forget the prophets with their pronouncements of a doom and gloom future. But keep in mind the Old Testament covers a period of roughly 3,000 years; by contrast the New Testament covers about 50 years (not including the prophecies about the end times).

The amount of history covered explains a lot about why people think the two halves of the Bible are so different. Of course there will be a record of more tragedy and correction over so a large swath of history, but let’s not forget the vast amounts of grace presented in the Old Testament as well.

Grace is often extended to individuals and families. The author of Hebrews mentions Noah’s salvation from the flood and Abraham having Isaac in his elder years as examples of God’s grace. In this vein, we can also mention the grace extended to Jacob and the increase of his flocks and marriage to his true love, Isaac’s miraculous finding of Rebecca, Jonah’s being rescued from the mouth of the great fish, Ruth finding a family among foreigners and living happily ever after, and hundreds more.

But there is also the concept of grace being extended to nations. Grace was shown to Egypt, for example, by God’s sending of Joseph who built massive grain silos to store food and save much of the known world from a massive famine. Jonah was sent to Nineveh to get them to repent, which they did, rather than suffer God’s wrath. Nineveh could have ended up just like Sodom or Gomorrah but for God’s grace. These are but two examples of how Israel became a blessing to the Gentile nations, just as God had promised. The greatest example of God’s grace being bestowed to a nation, however, has to be the leading of the people of Israel out of Egyptian slavery.

Generally speaking, the New Testament covers about 50 years of history but focuses on Jesus’ ministry and the start of the early church, so about a decade really. That is one exciting decade, though, covering the sacrifice of Jesus and the expansion of the faith throughout the Near and Middle East. Even so, if you want judgment and destruction in the New Testament look no further than the Book of Revelation (okay, so you can’t actually look further since it’s the last book of the Bible, but you get my point).

Start in chapter six with the opening of the seven seals. The four horsemen do terrible things, but none more so than Death:

So I looked and here came a pale green horse! The name of the one who rode it was Death, and Hades followed right behind. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill its population with the sword, famine, and disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.

Then there are the seven trumpets starting in chapter eight, which sees the burning of a third of the planet, then a third of the seas are destroyed, then a third of the fresh water supply is poisoned… it goes on from there. What may be even more frightening is that rather than these judgments being ushered forth by God the Father, who for some reason the world pictures as an angry old man, these judgments come from Jesus himself, the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah. How many more misconceptions can we correct today?

The point is, by reversing our focus and looking for grace in the Old Testament and judgment in the New I’m hoping to show that there is balance between the two halves of the Bible. While judgment is a major theme of the Bible as a whole, it’s necessary in order to understand salvation. We must understand what we are being saved from. The next time someone complains about how judgey the Old Testament is and how lovey the New is, you can confidently (and respectfully) tell them they don’t know what they are talking about.