God - No Longer Active?

[HisChildForever]

In the Old Testament, we see God as a very active and very personal God - with Noah, Moses, David, Solomon, etc. God would severely punish idol-worshippers, usually with death. There were prophets, etc.

How come, today, God seems so quiet? Mary has made appearances, but God has not spoken to anyone, the way He has before with all the Old Testament heroes. And we have tons of false religions out there, why isn't God slaying them (not that I want this to happen!) like how He did back in OT times?

I also don't understand how God could seem so evil. He just killed people who didn't worship Him. What ever happened to Free Will?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Many people have noticed that it seems God is no longer active in our world, but I suspect this is because we often aren't looking in the right direction. Naturally, the Old Testament is all about God, and so it's going to appear from reading it that God was involved actively in every little detail back then, but that He's not so involved today. However, one has to keep in mind that while God was doing so many things among the Hebrews, there were millions of other people throughout the world who did not know God and who might have asked just as much then, "why is God not active?"

I would venture to guess that God is actually very actively involved in the day-to-day life of every person on the planet, constantly working for their good, especially for their salvation, but He's only very direct with a few people, making Himself particularly clear to them. It's not that He doesn't want to be clear with us, but it's only natural that those who devote their lives to God are going to have a better relationship with Him. If those people, whom we call saints, wrote new books to the Bible and we all read those, I think we would see how much more active God probably is now than He was in the Old Testament (of course, this is a bit speculative). God is very involved today, He's just not as easily noticed (which makes sense, because we have way more people and way more distractions than they had during Old Testament times).

As for God's cruelty, a careful reading of the Old Testament will show that God never killed anyone in cold blood. Those who were struck down by God always had that punishment come as a way for God to defend His people or Himself (we can't harm God, of course, but we can harm His glory, that is, we can insult Him, and for our good, He can't allow us to do so, because if we see Him for less than He is, we won't be seeing Him as God). Ultimately, anytime death comes from God in the Old Testament, it is for the good of His people. We human beings can't kill people, even if it's for a good cause (unless it's something like self-defense), but it's very important to remember that God is the giver and sustainer of life. It is His to give and His to take away. He only gives it and takes it away for the sake of goodness, though, and that is something always to keep in mind.

I realize this probably is not a sufficient answer; these questions often aren't resolved in one sitting.

God bless,

Raphael