Many people think the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are two different Gods. (or maybe a strong case of good cop-bad cop going on) Some think the God of the Old Testament was mean and distant while the God of the New Testament was nice and loving. This is a simplistic approach but very misleading. There is more mercy in the Old Testament than we could imagine and more judgement in the New Testament than we would like to admit. There is only one God and we need both the New and Old Testaments to understand Him.