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... These Scriptures
also form the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Judaism does not accept the
inspiration of the New Testament or its account of the fulfillment of the Old
Testament prophecies.
There are many areas of agreement between the two faiths, for Christians also
accept the Old Testament and all its teachings as inspired. ...
Judaism, however, does not accept the central Christian teaching that Jesus
Christ is the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. This watershed point is
made throughout the New Testament and forcefully stated in Galatians 3:13-14,
"But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. ... " In
fact, the Old Testament is filled with hope, and the fulfillment of this hope is
wonderfully described in the New Testament. ... In Him the great promises of the
Old Testament become the inheritance of all who accept His salvation. ...
The following are definitions of the Old Testament given by various scholars. Do
any of these summarize your understanding of the Old Testament? ... down to the period of the Maccabean Revolution which broke out slightly
more than a century and a half before the Christian era" (Anderson,
Understanding the Old Testament, 3).
"The Old Testament as we possess it,. ... is a carefully selected library of
books, and its principle of selection was not mere literary excellence but the
fact that, in the words of Josephus, these books were rightly accredited or,
as one manuscript tradition says, rightly accredited as divine" (Davidson, The
Old Testament, 13).
"The Old Testament is first and foremost a collection of religious books,
created by faith and addressed to persons who share that faith. Its basic
premise is the reality of the living God of creation and history, and its
primary aim is to expose the active purpose of God at work within the world"
(West, Introduction to the Old Testament, 3).
Having provided a better understanding of what is contained in the Old
Testament, what are the values of studying its content? ...
The Western systems of law and social justice are rooted in Old Testament
tradition. ... The Old Testament provides the background for three world religions. (2)
In addition to being considered sacred to Jews and Christians, the Old Testament
is a source of information about four of Islams six prophets (Adam, Noah,
Abraham and Moses, Old Testament personalities, are combined with Jesus and
Muhammad-who is viewed as the last and greatest).
No one can understand the New Testament apart from the Old. Just one example
would be the message in Hebrews which compares the benefits of what Christ
offers with the heroes of the Old Testament. ...
The New Testament identification of Jesus as the Lamb of God and Lion of Judah
presuppose an understanding of the Old Testament message. ... The Old Testament makes an important contribution to the historical record. ... , the Old Testament amplifies our understanding of events in
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece. ... Therefore, while secular world rulers
contemporary to the Old Testament era may be mentioned, the servants of Gods
purpose are those receiving greatest attention. ... The Old Testament has great value in its devotional material. ... The Old Testament is one of the great sources of theological material. ... The doctrines of creation, the fall, and the nature of God and man
have been greatly influenced by Old Testament writers. ... The Old Testament could justifiably be studied as a source of ethics and
morality. ...
The Importance of the Old Testament
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Introduction
The Old Testament makes up almost three-quarters of the Bible and yet it remains
a closed book to many of us. ... How often do we read the Old Testament and end up
more confused than enlightened? Do we ignore the Old Testament and stay on the
familiar ground of the New Testament? Or worse still, has knowing that the
church is distinct from Israel (1 Cor 10:32) led some of us to wrongly conclude
that the Old Testament is less important than the New?
It might encourage us to keep in mind that when Paul wrote to tell Timothy that
"all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable" (2 Tim 3:16) he was referring
primarily to the Old Testament. ...
What then are some of the ways in which the Old Testament is important to us
today? ...
It is sometimes thought that the New Testament alone contains the gospel. Some
even seem to think that in Old Testament times people were saved by keeping the
Law. Paul dealt with these errors when writing the book of Romans in which he
assures us that salvation has always been on the basis of faith and he uses the
Old Testament to prove it. ... The gospel has always been the only way of salvation
and it was preached in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament (Heb
4:2).
How much poorer would our gospel efforts be without the Old Testament accounts
of people like Rahab, Ruth or Mephibosheth to illustrate the gospel message? ... And we read that the Jews at Berea
believed because they "examined the Scriptures [the Old Testament] daily, to see
whether these things were so" (Ac 17:11-12). ... " (Romans 15:4)
For believers the Old Testament is an important source of instruction. Even
though most of the Old Testament is written to Israel primarily there are at
least four ways that the Old Testament can instruct us today.
Firstly, the Old Testament reveals timeless truths to us. For instance, the Old
Testament reveals the character and nature of God to us. Since God is
unchangeable (Mal 3:6), all that we learn about His character in the Old
Testament is true today and will still be true in eternity.
Secondly, the Old Testament provides the basis for much of the New Testaments
teaching. ... Much of the error we hear today regarding the gift of
tongues flows from the fact that the Old Testament reference in 1 Corinthians 14
is usually completely ignored. Salvation, divorce, head coverings, the Lords
table, and countless other teachings could be listed which have their basis in
the Old Testament and which are either misunderstood or poorly understood
because that basis is generally ignored.
Approximate Word count = 4993
Approximate Pages = 20
(250 words per page double spaced)
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