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Voice Of Prophecy

Shawn Boonstra

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Every so often I meet people who tell me they are New Testament Christians and they talk as if the Old Testament is practically irrelevant.

The big question of course is why they even bother to buy Bibles that have both testaments.

So today on the Voice of Prophecy we'll ask the question, is the Old Testament irrelevant for New Testament Christians?

Welcome to another edition of the Voice of Prophecy.

I'm your host, my name is Sean Boonstra, and today I'm going to talk about these people out there who claim they are New Testament Christians.

And of course, if you take that to mean people who believe in the New Testament, well then I'm also a New Testament Christian because I happen to believe every single word of it.

But that's not quite what I'm talking about.

What I'm really getting at today is this whole idea that somehow the New Testament replaces the old.

That somehow the Old Testament has now become irrelevant in the New Testament era.

I remember back in the fifth grade, there was this well-known organization.

And they used to come to our school and give out pocket New Testaments.

At least before the days that everybody decided that handing out Bibles is somehow offensive and dangerous to children.

But back in the old days, people didn't seem to mind.

Even if you didn't happen to be a Christian, you could politely refuse and nobody would push it.

It was just an organization that gave them out.

And to this day, somewhere in this big pile of boxes in my basement, I still have that New Testament they gave me in the fifth grade.

And I guess at the time, because I was 10 years old, it didn't occur to me.

But it occurs to me now that it's just a New Testament.

And honestly, if I was introducing someone to the Bible for the first time, I'd probably start them in the New Testament.

I'd probably start them in the Gospel accounts, maybe the book of Matthew or John.

But you know, the fact that we print so many New Testaments, stand-alone New Testaments, it's made me wonder over the years when exactly it was that we decided that the Old Testament was no longer important.

At what point did we decide that the New Testament is now somehow more authoritative than the Old?

Because even if you happen to have a complete copy of the Bible, there's still this unspoken feeling in modern Christianity that the Old Testament is just there for historical reference.

Unless, of course, someone suddenly wants to take the 10 Commandments out of a courthouse here in America.

Well, then everybody gets all bent out of shape and the Old Testament suddenly is very, very important.

But you know, other than those rare occasions, we as Christians have this tendency to treat the Old Testament like a second-class citizen.

It's nice to have, but not really necessary.

In fact, We sometimes even use the Old Testament to accuse each other as Christians of legalism.

If you tell another Christian that he or she is an Old Testament Christian, you're basically calling them a legalist.

What you're really trying to say is that that person is trying to earn his or her salvation through obedience.

New Testament Christians, they say, are people who are saved by grace.

But we have this unspoken assumption that anyone who goes by the Old Testament is trying to live in the Age of Law.

We have this assumption that the believers who lived in Old Testament times, the characters in the Old Testament, they were somehow different than us.

They had a less desirable and inferior path to heaven, 1 that was based on works and achievement.

But really, the only way you can come to that conclusion is to fail to read the whole Bible.

If you go back and read the New Testament and you really pay attention, you'll notice something interesting.

A huge portion of the New Testament is made up of quotes from the Old.

And that's because back in the first century, the Old Testament was the only Bible the Christian Church had.

By the middle of the first century, the Christians had some of Paul's letters, But the books of the New Testament were not really finished until almost 100 AD.

And that means, when you see a reference to Scripture in the New Testament, if they talk about Scripture, they're actually talking about the Old Testament, which was the Bible that Jesus used.

When Jesus tells people to search the scriptures, he's talking about the Old Testament.

Jesus says, you search the scriptures, For in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me." And here's what it says a few verses later in verse 46.

Jesus says, For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

When Jesus was trying to explain his ministry, when he was trying to show his critics that he was Messiah, he pointed them to the words of the Old Testament.

If Jesus had intended To wipe away the Old Testament, abolish it, diminish its importance, you would expect him to say people could just ignore it.

He points his whole audience to the Old Testament, which was, of course, the only Bible of the day.

The Old Testament is not in conflict with the teachings of Jesus.

Everything the Old Testament writers wrote was pointing forward to Christ.

All of the Old Testament sacrifices, the sacrificial lambs, it all points to Jesus.

The ceremonies and festivals were prophetic messages pointing forward to the work of Christ at the cross.

And still, some people seem to think that Jesus tossed out the Old Testament.

But if He actually did that, it would mean that the early Church had no Bible for the first few critical decades of its existence.

The Church was clearly born out of the words of the Old Testament.

The authors of the New Testament base all their arguments for the divinity of Christ completely on the authority of Old Testament prophets.

I mean, listen to what Paul writes to young Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3.

Listen to this, it's verse 14 of chapter 3.

But you, he's speaking to Timothy, but you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures." Now which scriptures would those be?

Which Bible would Timothy know from his childhood?

Now listen to what Paul says as he continues his appeal.

He says that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, that's the Old Testament, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture, verse 16, and again this is the Old Testament he's talking about, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." I want you to pay attention carefully.

There is no hint anywhere in the New Testament that God intended to demote the Old Testament, or remove it, or somehow discount what it says.

Now, I'm about to go and take a short break because we have to, and I want you to hear about our Discover Bible School.

But when we come back, I want to show you how things went wrong over the years.

I want to show you why it is that we now seem to think that the Old Testament is an inferior product to the new.

So I want you to hang tight for a moment and I'll be right back.

Do you feel as if you have more questions than answers in your life?

And is there any hope for our chaotic world?

Are you searching for answers to these and other of life's biggest questions?

Well, the Discover Bible Guides will help you find the answers that you're looking for.

Visit us at Biblestudies.com or give us a call at 888-456-7933 for your free Discover Bible Guides.

You can choose to study in the format that's most convenient for you.

You may either do the lessons completely Okay, we are back from the break.

You are listening to the Voice of Prophecy.

My name is Sean Boonstra and today I'm talking about Old Testament versus New Testament and why it is that some people seem to think that the Old Testament has been discounted or devalued in the New Testament era.

And I guess what it all boils down to is this whole idea that something radically changed at the cross of Christ.

That somehow the terms of human salvation completely changed when Jesus died on the cross.

Let me give you an example of the kind of thinking I'm talking about.

I'm going to read you something that comes from a popular handbook on Bible prophecy and it's a book that sold a lot of copies when it came out.

And for the most part, I don't have any quibble with the book, with the author, because I happen to know that the author really is a born-again, Bible- believing Christian.

When it comes to how a person is reconciled with God and forgiven for his or her sins, I think the author is right on target except for 1 little detail.

The author seems to suggest at 1 point, and remember this was a really popular book, He suggests that in the Old Testament era, people were saved on different terms than believers in the New Testament era.

I'll read you a paragraph and then I want to analyze it biblically with you.

And the reason I'm doing this is not to pick on the author, but just because this kind of thinking is so prevalent and it's not biblical.

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