Do I believe the Old Testament is Dying?
Often times churches view the Old Testament as dead and do not think its conversation or language is relevant for today. So, in seminary why should we study the Old Testament? We should study the Old Testament, because it explains the world around us. For example, Genesis chapter one, John chapter one, and the last book of Revelation informs us that God is the creator and sustainer of all life. In addition, we need to study the Old Testament, because the information we gleam from the text will give us a deeper understanding of knowledge we learn from the New Testament. For example, Joel in 2:28 prophesied what would happen in the last days. Today, we are living in the last days and we know what to expect. According to Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17 women and men will be preaching. This was a game changer for me, because the Holy Spirit used these scriptures to confirm my calling to preach.
As I travel to different churches, I get tired of hearing surface teaching. I would say about ninety percent of the sermons I’ve listened to focused on topics only found in the New Testament. Preachers seem to listen to pod casts and repeat what others have to say rather than studying scriptures and listening to the Holy Spirit. It is true that many people believe the Old Testament is dead. It’s true, because the majority of churches are not teaching the Old Testament. However, Galatians 3:24-26 informs us that the Old Testament is the schoolmaster and Jesus himself said he came to fulfill the law in Matthew 5:17-22. Perhaps, Christians ignore this portion of scripture, because they are afraid of it. Not many lay members of the church are good researches and sometimes many people don’t want to put the work into studying. Also, many believe it’s all about the law and we are under grace. As students of the word we need to consider God’s entire instruction book.
All languages change according to the culture in which it was intended to lead. Many dictionaries change, because the way the people use the language is different. Social media has changed and continues to shape the English language. Some languages die, because people quit speaking them and sometimes they die, because the people die off. Just because languages change and even die does not mean that ideas and concepts have to die. For example, the information in the Old Testament will not die as long as God’s people are following His direction and are continuing to read and study it.
We can not manipulate scriptures to promote our own agendas. When we do this we create our own pidgins and creoles in the language. For example, New Atheists know enough of the Old Testament to twist it for their goals. They take portions of the scriptures and use it to represent it as the whole concept. Happiologists love the prosperity gospel. The prosperity teacher will take small elements of scriptures and make huge accusations. Oftentimes, happiologists will develop their own creoles. Finally, Marcionites don’t want to submit to the God of the Old Testament. They do not want to admit that we only have one God of the Bible. Marcionites simply avoid the Old Testament like a plague. If we want to effectively study scripture we have to use the school master and the New Testament. We must reason with one another from both sections of the Bible. (Isaiah 1:18 and Hebrews 10:24) We must teach the next generation the Old Testament! The language of the Bile will not go out void (Isaiah 55:11) and it changes lives for the better.
