<\/p>\n
Recently I was asked a question that sounded so ridiculous that I thought at first it must be a joke.\u00a0 But then I heard it again – and again – and realized there really ARE a lot of “Christians” who are serious when they ask it:<\/p>\n
“WHAT?\u00a0 Why (oh, why) do you teach from the OLD Testament?”<\/p>\n
As if it no longer matters, now that we have something “new”.\u00a0 And as if the very foundations upon which ALL of Scripture rests don’t matter any more either!<\/p>\n
But the more I thought about the question, and realized just how many self-professed “Christians” seem to think that it’s ever-so-reasonable to ASK, the more I realized what “<\/i>be<\/em> ready always to <\/i>give<\/em> an answer to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that is in you<\/i>“<\/i> really meant.\u00a0\u00a0 (I Peter 3:15)\u00a0 Shouldn’t we able to do that?\u00a0 As it turns out, it’s not only easy, but so obvious that it is impossible to deny.\u00a0 And it’s incredibly important, as well.<\/p>\n After all, “If the <\/i>foundations<\/i> be <\/i>destroyed<\/i>, what can the <\/i>righteous<\/i> <\/i>do<\/i>?<\/i>”\u00a0 (Psalm 11:3; old – but still True)\u00a0 And didn’t the Messiah Himself say that we should build not upon sand<\/i>, but upon the rock<\/i>?\u00a0 How can anyone who professes to believe Him, and His Word, think that He would come “in the flesh<\/i>” just to do AWAY with everything He Wrote, and all of the very teachings which establish Who He Is?\u00a0 Just ask any mathematician how credible he would be trying to “prove” some theorem by denying all of the foundational postulates that SUPPORT the proof!\u00a0 Would you buy a product from a salesman who denies his own product halfway through the sales pitch?<\/p>\n Do we really think the Creator of the Universe and Author of Scripture can’t do at LEAST as well?<\/p>\n So, yes, we SHOULD be able to make a very clear case for His Truth, from Scripture, because that is EXACTLY what His Written Word does for us!\u00a0 If it is NOT True, and not consistent, then why would ANYONE “believe?”\u00a0 But that is also exactly what some in the so-called “New Testament Churches” try to push.\u00a0 If the “God of the Bible” cannot be trusted to tell the Truth until the Book of Matthew, or — worse still — not until John 1:1, then what did Paul mean by “let God be True, but every man a liar<\/i>“?<\/p>\n The simple fact is that Scripture IS consistent, and that His word IS True, from “Genesis to Maps.”\u00a0 How can anyone believe that He is the “same, yesterday, today, and forever<\/i>” (Hebrews 13:8) but deny that YHVH told the prophet Malachi the same thing in the “old” testament?\u00a0 And, of course, it is the very ESSENCE of what He proved to Moses!<\/p>\n Most people seeking to regain a “first century understanding” of what the Messiah did will remember what He said in His first “public address”, in Matthew 5:17, that He did NOT come to “destroy the torah or the prophets<\/i>,” and would not change “one yod or tiddle<\/i>” of it (ie, even the smallest part of His Word — which, at that time, was obviously ONLY the “old” testament!) so long as heaven and earth still existed.\u00a0 But there is FAR more, just to prove the obvious point.\u00a0\u00a0 Why would Yahushua quote those same texts literally dozens of times, saying, “It is Written,” if He didn’t mean that was important?\u00a0 And how would Peter, or anyone else, have known Who He was, if not for the witness of the “old” Scriptures that they already knew?<\/p>\n The apostle Shaul, or Paul, wrote in his second letter to Timothy\u00a0 (II Tim 3:16) that “All<\/i><\/b> <\/i><\/b>scripture<\/i><\/b> <\/i>is<\/em> given by inspiration of God, and <\/i>is<\/em> profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for <\/i>instruction<\/i> in righteousness;<\/i>”\u00a0 but too many new-testament-ONLY types conveniently overlook the glaring inconsistency of their folly:\u00a0\u00a0 Paul was talking about what THEY knew “from childhood” to be the ONLY Scriptures they had when he wrote that letter!\u00a0 And even if he might have known that SOMEDAY some of his own letters would be called that as well, was he lying then, or only later, if all that “old” stuff is now no LONGER “given by inspiration of God<\/i>,” and is no longer worthwhile for “doctrine, reproof, correction, or instruction?<\/i>”<\/p>\n And when that same man wrote to convince others of what he knew to be true — that the promised Messiah had come in the flesh, and fulfilled the promises of that “old” testament; when he said “let us reason together,” what text was he reasoning FROM?\u00a0 Every proof, every evidence, every argument that he, and every other witness, made to that effect was based directly and specifically on the “torah, writings, and the prophets” that constitute that “old” Testament.<\/p>\n Those who claim that “Jesus” somehow “did away with the law” may have a good reason for denying that the “old testament” still matters:\u00a0 it reveals their lie.\u00a0 Take a look at Deuteronomy chapter 13, and the warnings against false prophets.\u00a0 Had He done anything of\u00a0 the sort, then He could NOT have been Who He WAS!\u00a0 Furthermore,\u00a0 Yahushua certainly understood His own Word better than those who claim that it has now been “replaced”.\u00a0 In John 5:31, He makes that clear:<\/p>\n “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.<\/i>”<\/p>\n Instead, He turned to other witnesses, and — most importantly — to “the Father Himself,\u00a0 Who sent me, and has borne witness of me<\/i>.<\/i>”\u00a0 …ALL of which was confirmed because “It was Written” in Scripture – in the “old testament”.<\/p>\n Those who would claim that all of that “old” stuff is “done away with,” no longer relevant, and should not be taught, are performing the logical equivalent of taking aim at their own foot, and pulling the trigger.\u00a0 They shoot out their own legs, and then wonder why they fall over.<\/p>\n What did John confirm that Yahushua advised, then?\u00a0 “Search the scriptures;\u00a0 for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.<\/i>“<\/i>\u00a0 And if THAT wasn’t clear enough, He continued, looking directly to the “Torah of Moses:” Why do we teach from the “old” testament?\u00a0 Why do we begin – as He did – in the Beginning?\u00a0 Because His Truth has not changed.\u00a0 Because His Word — ALL of it, FROM the Beginning — is the foundation<\/b>: Indeed, as the “new” testament simply confirms, His torah, His INSTRUCTION, is how we know Who <\/b>He Is, and what <\/b>“righteousness<\/i>” is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why bother with the OLD testament? Because, “when the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Continue reading
\n“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.”<\/i><\/p>\n
\n“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”<\/i><\/p>\n