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There seems to be a growing undertone in modern Christianity, at least the American variety, that the OT is outdated and that it would be easier for the church to live winsomely and lovingly toward the world if we focused primarily on the New Testament.Certainly, I acknowledge that the NT contains direction and instruction for people living under the New Covenant, which we are, and that the OT contains a lot of direction and instruction for people living under the Old Covenant, which we are not.But when one considers the whole story that Scripture tells, I do wonder how anyone could come to the conclusion that the OT lacks value compared to the NT.Yesterday we began a new series called Summer in the Psalms, with a sermon on Ps. 1-2. Of course, Psalms is more than a collection of disconnected poems. It's a book that tells a story -- made up of five books that are intentional designed to mirror the five books of the Pentateuch. It was gathered together at a time when God's people were in exile, and needed to be reminded about His promise that He would come and gather them again. What are we, if we are not people living in exile, waiting for the coming of a King who will take us home?Psalms is a book that mirrors and unpacks the Torah. The wisdom literature and the prophets provide application of the Torah. The history books document the promises and warnings of the Torah coming true in the lives of God's people.But what about the New Testament? What are the gospels, if they do not document Christ the Messiah coming to fulfill the Torah? And the epistles, if they do not show how to understand and apply the Torah in the covenant of grace that Christ established? What is Revelation, if not the consummation of the Torah's promises of endless blessings for God's people and endless torment for those who rebel against Him?I read recently that in the entire New Testament, there are only 13 chapters that do not contain a direct reference to an Old Testament verse. For a few years now I have been meaning to work through The Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, an extraordinarily thick tome which meticulously examines the context of every NT reference. Jesus and the writers of the NT clearly thought there was significant value in the OT. Given that, I am not sure how anyone could come to view it as second-rate.

At the beginning of my Old Testament Survey class the instructor told the story of a Hindu man in India who was given a New Testament to read after a missionary had witnessed to him. The Hindu man opened the New Testament and read to the first page and begin reading Matthew 1:1(This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: - NIV). He stopped reading and asked the missionary, who are Abraham and David?In cannot know who Jesus is and why He came or understand what He taught without the context of the Old Testament. The title of the post contains truth, without the Old Testament Christianity is unhitch and unsupported.

I think the preponderance of this movement to ignore the OT comes from the fact that they believe that the instances of genocide, war, and other not so nice things that are in the OT can't be rationally explained to people who are skeptical of Christianity.They look at the OT and all they see is the so-called atrocious things they believe God did and say Why would I serve a God like that.I know one writer who believe that God never really told the Jewish nation to do all those things, they just thought he did. His reasoning is that God is like Jesus and Jesus would never have condoned those actions prescribed by God.Of course, these are the same ones who say, I follow Jesus and not the Bible.Go Figure.

Without the old how can you truly appreciate the new?Which testament did the apostles use?

Excellent point. I wonder how many of us could (as Paul often did) prove that Jesus is Christ and Messiah using only the OT. Matthew in particular goes to great lengths to prove that Jesus is the fulfillment of the OT prophets. I understand Matthew was dealing with a predominantly Jewish audience but the same principle applies.

My friend, you wrote a big handful there,WOW! THANKS! Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/