Some Thoughts on the Old Testament

Over the past couple of years, I've been making my way through the Old Testament again.  It is a part of the Bible that most people never read.  There is a dangerous movement within the church which tells us that we don't need the Old Testament anymore.  "Jesus came and gave us the New Testament so we don't have to pay attention to the Old now."

Maybe it's because it scares people, pastors included.  There is a lot of stuff in there they don't know how to deal with.  Hey, I don't understand it all either.  I may never fully comprehend it all in this life but that's okay.

Despite all the excuses people come up with, Christians going down the path of dismissing the Old Testament can often be the first seed in a forest of basing truth off of your feelings and not off of what God actually said.  When there is an absence of an answer, people tend to come up with their own answer.  It's another very dangerous movement that is plaguing Christianity today.  The problem is that, well, there is an answer already.  People just don't like it so they come up with their own.  Maybe they're scared of what the answer is going to be and what it will mean to their life so they do their best to ignore it.  It's not a far stretch to see that these scenarios, this moral relativism can certainly happen when we only accept half of the Bible.

I don't know how you throw out the Old Testament when the New Testament is built upon it.  It's like removing the foundation of a house.  That's certainly not a house I want to live under.  It's only a matter of time before it comes crashing down...or blown away.  It's a shame really because you miss so much when you don't crack the Old Testament.  There is so much to be learned from it.  For me, it really helped build my faith.  Sure, there were a lot of questions and a lot of stuff to work through but my faith is stronger for it.

In the end, you shouldn't just dismiss it.  You shouldn't ignore it.  It's time to deal with it because when you ignore it, you're ignoring the Word of God and that's not a good place to be as a Christian...not in you're personal relationship with Christ and not in your church.  Without a good foundation, it's really easy to be shaken or knocked down.  At the same time, a foundation doesn't do much good if the house on top of it is non-existent, or poorly constructed and poorly kept.  We can't neglect either.  We need to pay attention to both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The New Testament is great but together with the Old Testament, it is so much more.  Both are so extremely important to our faith and our walk with Christ.  We mustn't ignore such importance.  We truly can't keep ignoring such importance.