How do Christians choose what to follow in the old testament?

Question

For instance I think it says in something like "a man shall not lie with another man as he would a women" (anti-gay obviously) but then it also says just after that how "man shall not wear clothing of 2 different fabrics, eat shell fish or plant a field of 2 different types of seeds etc...". Again how do Christians choose which to follow...if any

Answer 1

Well, these days, whatever Jesus said DON'T do.

Answer 2

Christians dont follow the old testament at all.. the old testament ended when Christ died ... we follow the NEW TESTAMENT ... I use the Old Testament for examples of the past and how God dealt with the people then vs after Christ died.. and it has some really good stories... Maybe this example will help.. like in our Government, we follow the Constitution of the US but we study our history to understand where it came from.. so do we follow the law that was in tact before the constitution? No for when the Constitution became effective the old law was out.. now there may have old laws that were included in the new but that dont mean we are following the old law... I hope that helped some

Answer 3

Jews were under Mosaic law. For Christians it is our history. We do not follow Mosaic Law. Knowing what is in the Old Testament is necessary to understand the meaning of the New Testament. So while we need to study the OT, we do not follow the laws. Think of it this way. The new testament tells us of a Savior who gave his own life to save us. He did this because he loves us. If we truly love him, it makes sense that we would want to learn more about him. Most everything in the NT has a parallel in the OT.
Homosexuality is called sinful in both.

Answer 4

It's called the Holy Spirit...and btw, as it has already been pointed out the whole issue of homosexuality is re-iterated in the New Testament.

Read the book of Romans. (**That's a hint as to where it's found)

That's really what this question is about, is it not?

Besides, anyone knows that some things in the Bible are meant to be taken LITERALLY, and some NOT...

that's where the Holy Spirit comes into it.

Answer 5

If the new testament says something to the contrary they follow the new testament. It's just personal choice really.

I'd say Christ's example of love trumps all laws. Silly little social codes of millinia ago are no longer relavant and certainly they're merely relative to the situation and that situation has long since passed.

Answer 6

The question has been beat to death, but it's still fun. The bottom line is: because Christianity is based on the Bible, it's an "a la carte" religion (if you will).

A Christian can pretty much pick and choose who they want to hate and who they want to embrace by twisting and turning the passages of the Bible.

It's a great faith to have if you've got a lot of hang-ups with various groups, factions, races, religions, etc. because it allows you to hate them without taking responsibility for your bigotry. You can simply say, "I don't hate you, God does" or something to that effect. That way you can act like a rancid bigot and still sleep at night.

Of course some Christians don't use and abuse the Bible in this fashion. They simply follow the teachings of Christ without using their holy book to judge others. These are my favorite kind of Christians :)

Answer 7

A false Christian, will not follow anything in the old Testament

Answer 8

Well, read the whole Bible. Homosexuality is listed in verses listing sins in 2 Corinthians, Revelations, and other books of the New Testament. Whereas there are foods marked "unclean" in Leviticus, not to be eaten, but God tells the apostle Paul that because of Jesus' death and ressurection, all foods are now made clean (we can eat bacon!). It does get very confusing if you're not looking at the whole picture. Kudos!

Answer 9

In the Old Testament, God set many rules for people to follow. In this time, that was the way people chose to honor and obey him. Some of these things may seem silly to us now, but were very important then.
Since Jesus came and saved us we no longer need to "obey" God in this way because Jesus did that for us perfectly. Scince he took our place we do not need to worry about "wearing different types of fabric" or whatever.
However there are many things in the OT, like con gay marriages, that Christians still follow today.

Answer 10

It's a matter of context.

The first example that you gave is a matter of morality. That law does not change.

The other examples are not about morals, rather about contexts for submission. There are still contexts of submission in the New Testament, but our contexts are different than people who lived 3000 years ago. Although the context changes the need for submission to God's authority does not.

Answer 11

Man toughest question ive tried to answer... grats.

The way i look at my christian faith is this. Follow Gods comandments and know that the way to heaven is threw Jesus. also these other statements your making from the old testament how are they worded.. it what context you cant just have small excerpts from it like that because usually the meaning of these things are explained.

Also we all sin. it is not anti christain to sin. But being christian means that we know when asking sincerely for forgiveness our sins are washed clean.