WHY THE OLD TESTAMENT?
A popular and influential pastor of a church the size of a small town wants his congregation and all the pastors who come to his training sessions to be like him: separate themselves from the O. T. (!) The basis for his burning obsession is this claim: “The early Christians, including the Apostles didn’t have a Bible for 400 years and they turned the world upside down without one.”
It’s true that they turned the ancient world upside down but it’s fable that they and the Apostles didn’t have a Bible. He goes on to say that when they did have a Bible, it was “hastily cobbled together.”
The rejection of the O. T. began early in church history:
This is especially true of Marcionism, with its distaste for an angry God, its optimism about human improvement, and its eagerness to set aside the Bible Jesus read.
“Who was Marcion and why is he important?
“Marcion was born in what is now Turkey) on the coast of the Black Sea. Marcion, the son of a bishop, he was an intelligent, capable, hard, unbending, vain, rich, ambitious man. He made his way to Rome sometime between AD 135 and 139 and was accepted as a Christian into the church there. He even gave a large gift to the congregation—200,000 sesterces (worth more than a hundred year’s wages for a laborer). His stint in the church at Rome did not last long. He was formally excommunicated in AD 144 and his lavish gift promptly returned.
“Marcion was one of the most successful heretics in the early church. He was opposed by everyone who was anyone. For nearly a century after his death, he was the arch-heretic, opposed by Polycarp (who called him the firstborn of Satan), Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Origen. He was one of the few heretics that the Greek and Latin Christians united in condemning.”
DID THE APOSTLES AND THE EARLY CHURCH HAVE A BIBLE?
Let’s examine the question, “Did the early church and the Apostles have a Bible?” Answer, of course they did! It wasn’t the complete Bible we have today. Revelation was progressively given. They had 39 books, Gen. – Malachi. That’s a lot of Bible.
We start way, way back to Moses, who, during the 40-year wilderness wanderings of Israel, was moved along by the Holy Spirit to write Genesis – Deuteronomy.
When Moses finished Deuteronomy, Israel had the first 5 books of the Bible. It was the Bible at the time Moses wrote it. It didn’t have to wait to be “approved.” Over time, the Holy Spirit moved David, Solomon, the prophets, Major and Minor, among others like Joshua to inscribe God’s Word.
We have a fascinating during the reign of King Josiah of their finding the Bible in the Temple as recorded in II Kings 22:1-13. King Josiah was stunned by the discovery. What King Josiah said is important for us today: “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” Not only did they find it, not only could they read it (literacy) but they also were convicted and it resulted in a revival in Israel.
This revival reminds us of Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God [which includes the OT] is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Isaiah 55:11: “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
If you wanted to study the most complete and in-depth explanation of the Atonement, what N. T. text would you turn to? You wouldn’t. When Isaiah finished his majestic work, we have in Is. 53 the most complete and in-depth explanation of the Atonement in the entire Bible. The Apostles used that chapter to explain what happened from noon to 3 PM on the cross.
THE APOSTLES DEPENDED ON THE O. T. TO PROVE JESUS WAS THE MESSIAH
In the very first evangelistic sermon in the Church Age, Peter uses the O. T. to prove his point when he quotes Joel 2:14-21. Then in Acts 2:25-28, he quotes David in 2:30-31. And again in 2:34. In Acts 4:11, Peter, speaking to the religious authorities said, “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone, quoting Ps. 118 which he told them Jesus fulfilled makes no sense at all without the OT. In I Peter 1:16, he draws on the OT to say, “Because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” In Acts 4:15, Peter points out that what David wrote was by the Holy Spirit: “who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage,” quoting Ps. 2.
From that we move to II Tim. 3:16: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;” so, since that is true, that means the Major and Minor prophets, Isaiah and Obadiah, and Habakkuk are profitable and inspired.
What did the resurrected Christ do with those 2 men traveling to Emaus? Luke 24:27, 44: “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures [the OT]. “. . . These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” In Jn. 5:31, Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures [the Old Testament] because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.” He also said that “Scripture [the OT} cannot be broken."
GETTING DOWN TO BASICS
Without the OT, we would have no idea what “Messiah” means. Does it mean some “anointed one” or is THE MESSIAH predicted in the OT more than that? Then, to stay basic, and you can’t get more basic than the gospel, we read, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
SO WHAT?
We see that we can’t understand the words and works of Jesus
without the OT as we see from Luke 4: 16-21. And consider this: we have no idea
what John the Baptist or Jesus and the Apostles were talking about when they
said, “Behold the Kingdom of God is at hand?” Without the OT, we would have to
ask, “What kingdom are you talking about? They didn't need to define it; the Jews knew, knowing the OT
Failing to declare ‘the whole counsel of God’ is a serious matter. To instruct people to annul, subvert; to do away with; to deprive people of authority if the OT is to annul, subvert; to do away with; to deprive of authority, is to do away with 60% of God’s Word. 60%! That’s over half the Bible!
Paul said to the Ephesian elders, “I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” The “whole counsel of God” refers to the entirety of God’s purposes in salvation-history as revealed in Scripture. Had the apostle failed to make known the Lord’s redemptive plan of blessing overcoming curse in the person of Jesus, he would have stood accountable before God. The whole council of God includes Gen.-Revelation.
The Old Testament, while not written to Christians, was still written for us.
With the NT, the Scripture is complete, and we now have in whole “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). This “faith,” however, is only understood rightly within the framework of “the whole counsel of God.”
We are to be students of the Word. Bible is much more than 27 books.
