The Old Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Student Workbook, SW09

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T H E O L D T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

and desirability, many Christians testify that the OT is not an integral part of their spiritual journeys. What do you make of this situation, and how does the neglect of the OT play itself out in your experience?

Is the God of the OT the Same God as the God of the New?

In a day of tolerance, political correctness, and overall squeamish feelings about anything that smacks of judgment or punishment, the OT is a much maligned book. Admittedly, it is filled with many stories which cover all the dark shadows of human existence, and include graphic portrayals of murder, rape, violence, war, and tragedy. Examples of tough judgment are given in many of the stories, and those of certain beliefs and lifestyles are not only morally condemned, but in graphic detail we see them judged by the community and the Lord. The statements of God against a number of modern lifestyle choices makes the OT especially the lightning rod for much debate and discussion. Some liberal Christians have gone so far as to denounce the OT as the product of a primitive culture whose theological and moral ideas were more a reflection of their era and environment than what we as “reasoned and tolerant Christians” would find acceptable. What should we make of these modern attempts to drive a wedge between the God of the OT and the God of the NT, as revealed in the person of Jesus of Nazareth? What is the continuity between the two? Should we admit, even a little, that there might be a difference between the God of the OT and the God of the NT? Explain. When Jesus of Nazareth referred to the Bible or Scripture, his referent was our OT. Today, it is referred to in non-Christian circles as the “Hebrew Bible,” and the discussions are heated about the meaning of the OT. For most Christians, the highest and best authority on the meaning of the OT is the person of Jesus, who unequivocally in at least five different passages in the NT said that he himself was the theme of the Hebrew Bible (cf. Luke 24.25-27; 44-48; Matt. 5.17-18; John 5.39-40; 1.41ff.; Heb. 10.5-10 with Ps. 40.6-8). These texts give the sense that Jesus believed that the OT, the Hebrew Bible, was essentially a text that pointed to his person in terms of figure and prophecy, and that a correct reading of the OT had to, in some fundamental sense, find its meaning in his own person. This claim, by the way, lies at the heart of the constant controversy between Jesus and the teachers of the Bible of his own day; such a claim, that the entirety of the Scriptures found their Jesus and Meaning of the OT

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