I was gonna drop this because its just one of those subjects. But here we go again. Whenever someone points out a dichotomy in the bible, someone says ," Why can't it all be....". Because it makes no sense. God kills whomever ticks him off then all of a sudden he stops?
Its because the Old testament and New testament were written by One group of people with two different beliefs. The Old testament is the Jews Bible(Torah). The only reason there's a new testament is because the Jews who believed Jesus was the son of God decided to write their own version of the bible and the Jews who didn't believe Jesus was the son stuck with the Torah or Old testament. Because Jesus believed in loving and turning the other cheek, stories about God killing all stopped. So its not that God changed, its the people who wrote the new testament changed their belief. Because how can a God who willing to kill a city for having orgies parties but will stands by, or look down, and lets/watch Roman soldiers hang the one son he will ever have up on a cross to suffer like a dog? Makes no sense.
If you look at the Torah you will see all kinds of examples of God's love. What Jesus said about living God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and loving your neighbor as yourself came directly out of Deuteronomy. Gods warnings to Israel were often paused in the middle of a sentence to say " but if you change and turn from your sin I will forgive you and relent". God doesn't change, only how we perceive him. There is a lot of killing in the Old Testament, but sometimes drastic measures are necessary to preserve people and cultures.
There are consequences to every action, and God knew that we would screw things up. The only person who could live life right was God himself, so he came to earth in the form of a man to take the punishment upon himself in order to make things right.
Of you think that this world is all there is and when it's over, it's over, then it doesn't make since. But if you believe there is life after death then things start to fall into place and you understand the logic in all of it.
Just trying to clarify, not trying to force any beliefs on anyone. Believe what you want.
Kmart sux. So does Walmart. And Orion.