How many Christians believe in the Old Testament as a guide equal to the New?

Question

Do you follow it? All of it? Have you read it? Did not Jesus come to sort of negate it as a moral book?
Trying to understand....

I know its needed for understanding some of the refrences from the New....but is is a moral guide, I mean its full of hatred, murder of innocents etc Jesus did not seem to like this and the ten commandments say not to kill...I am wondering how this all works out for folks logically...or day to day...yah know?

I have read it back to front and then some....

Answer 1

Every word written is God breathed. Jesus didn't "negate" the law, he fulfilled it. The law says for forgiveness we must repent and atone with blood. He is our sacrifice once and forever.

Answer 2

The whole bible is to be used for instruction, etc. yes, I have read it many times and I do follow it, all of it. No, Jesus did not come to negate it as even He quoted from the Old Testament. They did not have the New Testament when Jesus was here but it was written years later. He quoted from the Old Testament from the book of Deuteronomy whenever a severe test of Satan came. The only thing that was taken away was the sacrificial system when He died on the cross. If you read any of the things that many will say is Jewish based, you will find they deal with health, which I am sure is still considered good to have good health, and the Ten Commandments, which the only one anyone claims is done away with is the only one that begins with REMEMBER. It is not a Jewish day but God's day that it speaks about. Check it out and show me where there was any Jew when the world was created and God blessed the Sabbath day and made it Holy. Show me where there was a Jew when Noah gathered the animals in the ark and knew the clean from the unclean. If you want the truth, go to the bible and let it interpret itself. Check out the site below and do the studies on it and you will get the bible without the garbage that most will give you.

Answer 3

Yah, I think that's sort of the idea. The old testament is for the Jews, and the New Testament is for the Christians. As Lewis Black put it "It's not their book!"

Just ignore whatever went on in the Old Testament. Assume that Jesus came down to say "Hey, the Jews have been wrong for a really long time, so, just ignore everything I said BEFORE and pay attention to what I'm saying now. Indeed."

Answer 4

I'm reading the OT now. It is a guide, yes, but I wouldn't say it has equal authority to the NT. To say that would be to deny Jesus' teaching and ministry. The two are both from God, so it isn't efficacious to try to put one against the other.
Jesus did not come to negate the Law, but to fulfill it. That's why we Christians are no longer under the Law, i.e., condemned. Jesus paid the price that the Law demands of us as sinners. The New Testament is the record of the New Covenant with God, in Christ's blood.
Hope this helps--Blessings to you!

Answer 5

FAQ: Why different testaments and books in the Word?


"As regards the Word particularly, it has existed in every age, though not the Word we possess at the present day. Another Word existed in the Most Ancient Church before the Flood, and yet another Word in the Ancient Church after the Flood. Then came the Word written through Moses and the Prophets in the Jewish Church, and finally the Word written through the Evangelists in the new Church. The reason why the Word has existed in every age is that by means of the Word there is a communication between heaven and earth, and also that the Word deals with goodness and truth, by which a person is enabled to live in eternal happiness. In the internal sense therefore the Lord alone is the subject, for all goodness and truth are derived from Him" (Arcana Coelestia n. 2895).

Answer 6

Good for you for trying to suss it out! :) I was once a Christian and am now a practicing Wicca.

But to get deeper knowledge of what you believe, sometimes you have to look further than the literature written by those who want you to believe and sometimes the answers are there in your Christian literature, but just aren't taught to the masses.

Let me explain. I was born and rasied Christian. I went to a Christian school and attended a Christian college. I had no other input in my belief system. It was only after I decided to try to understand WHY I believed what I believed, that some real answers came. When you're a Christian, you're taught to believe almost everything on faith and because you're taught that, it's easy to accept that "God is mysterious and that's just the way it is". Did you know that there are over 15 different world and Old religions that are/were built on a God having a Son who dies for the sins of Man? Christianity is merely the latest in a long line. This is something they just don't teach in the pulpit and honestly, I don't know how many preachers even know because they don't look outside of their box.

JesusChrist, having noted the faith and righteousness of a Romancenturion, a Pagan, proclaimed:

"Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west,and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outerdarkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew
8:10-12)

If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is
clear that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hellwill contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, JesusChrist sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to judge others:

But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by
their own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them Satan-
worshippers are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity.

Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it
should. In the Bible we find the following:

"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, `Men of
Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as
I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23)
The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the same God that Christians do.

Christians are taught that we worship the creations of God and not the Creator and this simply isn't true. We believe that everything on earth is made to help and benefit us in some way and should be respected and used. Remember, 300 years ago, you would go to the town wise woman to get an "herbal potion" made from willow bark tea to relieve your headache. It was magic! Now, a company has put that herbal remedy into a pill and stamped "Tylenol" on it and it's science. Magic is only magic until it's explained.

My point is, the question isn't trying to reconcile the Old and New Testaments. It's trying to reconcile thousands of years of different belief systems and coming to understand that just as we all like different tastes, music, colors, our beliefs are just as varied and so are the ways we experience God. And that, in the end, it doesn't matter what you have faith in, just that you faith

Answer 7

No, He did not come to negate the Old Testament, He came to fulfill it. Gods love- Jesus is the bridge from God to Man.
The O/T has the Ten commandments- and I try to follow them. The O/T also points to why man needed a Saviour so desparately.

Answer 8

I read it, all of it and it is the beginning, it shows what sin is and what we deserve for committing each one.. without it we wouldnt have any idea. Then the book continues, it doesnt end there. Jesus comes and shows what mercy is, which doesn't make justice wrong but is better than justice is the person is remorseful for their actions. Everyone seems to forget that the Bible is begginning, middle and end. You cannot just live in the middle or end or beginning, you have to live the whole thing. I commit this sin... I deserve this punishment... but if I repent and I can be shown mercy. It's not that hard a concept.

Answer 9

The old testament is where everything began and you have to have a beginning and and end . You have to read the promise that give to Noah, why he would not end the world by flood anymore, The promise of moses he provided a promises land etc. sometimes you may read certain text in the new testament and you have to go back to the old to understand what happen for god to do such and such.

Answer 10

The Hebrew (Old) Testament is the foundation for the New Testament. Without it, much of what Jesus shares and Paul explains would lose it's potency.