Post Author: Bill Pratt 

Skeptics of Christianity love to point out all the difficult passages in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. By noting these difficult passages, skeptics explicitly or implicitly imply that Christians are foolish (or even deranged) for worshiping the God described in the Old Testament.

My problem with this implication is that the number of difficult passages are dwarfed by the number of passages that clearly describe the greatness of God. These passages come in a wide variety and they are found all over the Old Testament. The skeptic’s approach is, therefore, totally unbalanced – it does not take into consideration the totality of Scripture.

So, to the skeptics who question why I worship the God described in the Old Testament, it’s not only his wisdom, his majesty, his beauty, his holiness, and his moral perfection, but his truthfulness.

The Old Testament affirms in many places that God is truthful.  According to Norman Geisler in his Systematic Theology, Volume Two: God, Creation, “The term ‘truth,’ as used in Scripture, means that which, because it corresponds to reality (the facts, the original), is reliable, faithful, and stable. Used of words, truth is telling it like it is. True statements are those that correspond to reality and, hence, are dependable.”

How does the Old Testament connect God with truthfulness?

God Is Truth

“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deut. 32:4).

“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Num. 23:19).

“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind” (1 Sam. 15:29).

“Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth” (Ps. 31:5).

“For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does” (Ps. 33:4).