The authority of the Old Testament
This post is intended as a counter-balance to some recent posts in this community that directly assault the authority of scripture, in particular that of the OT. This post is not a defense of sola scriptura or literalism. Nor does it in any way represent an assertion that New Covenant disciples must somehow be obedient to OT law.
It is not even meant to convince those who, for whatever reasons, have made a personal decision to attempt to follow the Christ while denying the authority of the same scriptures through which He is revealed and which He Himself embraced in their totality. If someone wants to spend some time dawdling along that vastly inferior and poorly marked path, they are free to do so. One can merely hope and pray that they will soon see that it is not the path their Redeemer and His apostolic Church have blazed for them.
Instead, this post is intended as an encouragement for those who have come to know and love the revelation of Christ and His Kingdom in the Hebrew scriptures - as well as some very public instruction to those who may be on the fence about the meaning and purpose of the OT, and who would therefore benefit from a voice that speaks clearly and unequivocally about the authority that extends across every word on every page from Genesis to Malachi.
So, then, here are three points to consider:
1) Jesus and the apostles testify in favor of OT authority
It’s very hard to get around this. In the case of Paul, one would have to do much more than squirm out of II Timothy 3:16 (“All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine…” etc.). One basically would have to throw out the entirety of every argument he makes in his epistles. Go to a site like www.biblegateway.com, for example, and run a search on the word “scripture” in the epistles. You will see 21 critical citations there alone by Paul, James, and Peter. This is not an exhaustive list, because the word “scripture” is not always used in citations of scripture. So you can do another search on a word like “written” and find many more.
The same, of course, is true of Jesus. Jesus even mocks the Pharisees by citing OT scripture. For example, in Matthew 21:42, He says “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone…?’” He also says to them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!”
This is particularly amusing, because many of those who assault OT authority believe that by doing so they are somehow making an assault on Phariseeism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The OT scriptures in fact represent one of the most potent weapons we possess against Phariseeism and Satan. That’s how Jesus uses them time and again. So those who attempt to follow the Christ without the OT are essentially ceding territory to the enemies of the Cross. I prefer not to do this. I prefer to use the OT for its divinely intended purpose - which is to utterly crush both the work of Satan and that of his agents, the Pharisees.
I would also add that the erroneous notion that OT scriptures somehow contradict the Christ - which is the exact error those assaulting OT authority in the name of Christ make - is fully and explicitly itself Pharisaical.
2) The OT reveals Christ
Jesus Himself says in John 5:46 that “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.” In John 3:14, the crucifixion is linked directly to the raising of the bronze serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21). So one’s understanding of the Cross is diminished in some specific way if one does not embrace the Torah of Moses.
Note also the encounter between Jesus and two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24). Jesus, incognito, explains to them - “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets” - Himself. Discussing this experience afterwards, one disciple says to the other: “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (verse 32). There is thus a “burning in the heart” uniquely associated with the revelation of the Christ in the words of the Hebrew scriptures. This particularly glorious inner flame is one that rejecters of Hebrew scripture can never experience.
3) The OT is instructive in all aspects of the overcoming life
It is especially amusing to me when an OT-basher discounts particular books from the OT. Joshua is probably the funniest. The name of the book itself is actually “Jesus.” And to trash the book by asserting that it is about anti-Canaanite genocide is to entirely miss the point. I will, for the sake of brevity, not get into all the specifics about what God was doing in the nation of Israel at the time, why the notion of human life having inherent value apart from God is purely pagan, or how the failure to utterly destroy an enemy simply ensures that that enemy will later kill you and your entire family.
Instead, I will simply assert that this book is uniquely instructive to the disciples of the Christ about how spiritual warfare is conducted. From the preparation of food for the first time after the forty years of manna, to the method in which the Jordan was crossed, to the battle plan for victory at Jericho, to the defeat at Ai, the book of Joshua/Jesus teaches us how to possess the Land promised to us by God. This Promised Land, for the believer, is none other than Jesus Himself. But few believers enter into this land, because they do not understand spiritual warfare/violence. They don’t know how to defeat giants or take walled cities. And so, like the Israelites who perished in the wilderness, they remain outside the fullness of the promise because they are “like grasshoppers in [their] own sight (Numbers 13:33).”
Speaking of giants, how does the account of David and Goliath instruct the disciple? What important understandings can one glean from the relationship between Elijah and Elisha? Who was Jehosaphat and why was he victorious? Again, OT-deniers have no answers here - and they are far, far poorer for it.
OK, I think I’m done ranting for now. Let me just conclude with this. There is no advantage to denying the OT. None. I understand that people have difficulties with some of the things it contains. I understand that there are certain sensibilities that especially balk at certain themes that on the surface seem to contradict the teachings of the Christ. But these problems are not inherent in the scriptures. The problems are in our understanding. With the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - and a little help from the kind of teaching ministry alluded to in I Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11 - these problems can be readily overcome.
I also lovingly caution those who are not merely satisfied to personally reject OT authority, but who take the further step of encouraging others to join them in this error. Be very, very careful about the influence you seek to exert on others. Jesus drew no one away from belief in the writings of Moses and the prophets. On the contrary, He used those writings to minister eternal life. It might be wise for you to follow His example - rather than your own understanding or lack of it.
It is not even meant to convince those who, for whatever reasons, have made a personal decision to attempt to follow the Christ while denying the authority of the same scriptures through which He is revealed and which He Himself embraced in their totality. If someone wants to spend some time dawdling along that vastly inferior and poorly marked path, they are free to do so. One can merely hope and pray that they will soon see that it is not the path their Redeemer and His apostolic Church have blazed for them.
Instead, this post is intended as an encouragement for those who have come to know and love the revelation of Christ and His Kingdom in the Hebrew scriptures - as well as some very public instruction to those who may be on the fence about the meaning and purpose of the OT, and who would therefore benefit from a voice that speaks clearly and unequivocally about the authority that extends across every word on every page from Genesis to Malachi.
So, then, here are three points to consider:
1) Jesus and the apostles testify in favor of OT authority
It’s very hard to get around this. In the case of Paul, one would have to do much more than squirm out of II Timothy 3:16 (“All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine…” etc.). One basically would have to throw out the entirety of every argument he makes in his epistles. Go to a site like www.biblegateway.com, for example, and run a search on the word “scripture” in the epistles. You will see 21 critical citations there alone by Paul, James, and Peter. This is not an exhaustive list, because the word “scripture” is not always used in citations of scripture. So you can do another search on a word like “written” and find many more.
The same, of course, is true of Jesus. Jesus even mocks the Pharisees by citing OT scripture. For example, in Matthew 21:42, He says “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone…?’” He also says to them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!”
This is particularly amusing, because many of those who assault OT authority believe that by doing so they are somehow making an assault on Phariseeism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The OT scriptures in fact represent one of the most potent weapons we possess against Phariseeism and Satan. That’s how Jesus uses them time and again. So those who attempt to follow the Christ without the OT are essentially ceding territory to the enemies of the Cross. I prefer not to do this. I prefer to use the OT for its divinely intended purpose - which is to utterly crush both the work of Satan and that of his agents, the Pharisees.
I would also add that the erroneous notion that OT scriptures somehow contradict the Christ - which is the exact error those assaulting OT authority in the name of Christ make - is fully and explicitly itself Pharisaical.
2) The OT reveals Christ
Jesus Himself says in John 5:46 that “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.” In John 3:14, the crucifixion is linked directly to the raising of the bronze serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21). So one’s understanding of the Cross is diminished in some specific way if one does not embrace the Torah of Moses.
Note also the encounter between Jesus and two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24). Jesus, incognito, explains to them - “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets” - Himself. Discussing this experience afterwards, one disciple says to the other: “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (verse 32). There is thus a “burning in the heart” uniquely associated with the revelation of the Christ in the words of the Hebrew scriptures. This particularly glorious inner flame is one that rejecters of Hebrew scripture can never experience.
3) The OT is instructive in all aspects of the overcoming life
It is especially amusing to me when an OT-basher discounts particular books from the OT. Joshua is probably the funniest. The name of the book itself is actually “Jesus.” And to trash the book by asserting that it is about anti-Canaanite genocide is to entirely miss the point. I will, for the sake of brevity, not get into all the specifics about what God was doing in the nation of Israel at the time, why the notion of human life having inherent value apart from God is purely pagan, or how the failure to utterly destroy an enemy simply ensures that that enemy will later kill you and your entire family.
Instead, I will simply assert that this book is uniquely instructive to the disciples of the Christ about how spiritual warfare is conducted. From the preparation of food for the first time after the forty years of manna, to the method in which the Jordan was crossed, to the battle plan for victory at Jericho, to the defeat at Ai, the book of Joshua/Jesus teaches us how to possess the Land promised to us by God. This Promised Land, for the believer, is none other than Jesus Himself. But few believers enter into this land, because they do not understand spiritual warfare/violence. They don’t know how to defeat giants or take walled cities. And so, like the Israelites who perished in the wilderness, they remain outside the fullness of the promise because they are “like grasshoppers in [their] own sight (Numbers 13:33).”
Speaking of giants, how does the account of David and Goliath instruct the disciple? What important understandings can one glean from the relationship between Elijah and Elisha? Who was Jehosaphat and why was he victorious? Again, OT-deniers have no answers here - and they are far, far poorer for it.
OK, I think I’m done ranting for now. Let me just conclude with this. There is no advantage to denying the OT. None. I understand that people have difficulties with some of the things it contains. I understand that there are certain sensibilities that especially balk at certain themes that on the surface seem to contradict the teachings of the Christ. But these problems are not inherent in the scriptures. The problems are in our understanding. With the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - and a little help from the kind of teaching ministry alluded to in I Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11 - these problems can be readily overcome.
I also lovingly caution those who are not merely satisfied to personally reject OT authority, but who take the further step of encouraging others to join them in this error. Be very, very careful about the influence you seek to exert on others. Jesus drew no one away from belief in the writings of Moses and the prophets. On the contrary, He used those writings to minister eternal life. It might be wise for you to follow His example - rather than your own understanding or lack of it.