Please help me understand -?

Question

Christians, I understand that there are a large number of sects in your religeon. What I am not understanding is this :
Do you follow the rules of the old testament or is it just history and only the new testment tells you what strictures to place on your life?

To me, an aethist, it seems that a large group of christians pick and choose from both the old and new testament, I cannot understand how that makes for a cohesive belief system. So, do you follow the whole bible ( so you'd be bound to eat kosher food/ etc) or the new testament ( can eat kosher food, and are not directed to do anything but love god, love your neighbor, and then yourself?)

why do you think a large group of christians would pick and choose from both sections?

Answer 1

I follow the whole Bible. In reference to kosher food, before the Gentiles were saved and given the Holy Spirit, God said that they were not under the old law (old testament) and the Jews were not to hold them (Gentiles) to the old law. This is in the New Testament. That is why we are not under the old law.

Answer 2

Hey - great question - infact I'm sitting here writing an essay on it - no really... I'm doing a post grad in theology at Oxford Uni training to be a vicar and I've just logged on to find your question... anyway hope this is some help.

You're totally right - Christians do pick and choose whatever they like to support their paticular polemic (but we all do this to some extent). Some are more aware of what they're doing than others but there's no getting around it - not all Christians are that intellegent.

However!!! There are some who have worked out how they think the Old Testement fits with the New. The basic idea is that Jesus embodies the highest ideas of the Old Testament (with out any of the compromises). So he says "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)

Matthew's Gospel spells it out (that's why it was written - to spell out to first century Jews that Jesus was the fulfilment of everything that it meant for them to be Jewish. So his body is the New Temple (God dwelling with his people - represented by eating the bread at Mass), he is the New Moses - he is called out of Egypt, he goes up a mountain to give a the new law (the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5-7 that takes the Jewish ideas of living a good life to a new level), he is the new sacrificial lamb from the Exodus story where God saved his people from slavery... I could go on but you get the idea. It's in all the gospels but it's spelled out in Matthew.

In terms of the how can we choose some OT laws to follow and not others... I don't know. Generally Christians make a big deal about the ones that Jesus made a big deal of and not the ones he didn't - so for example he let his disciples pick grain on the sabbath saying that "the sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath" so the point of the law is to help us love God and other people and if it doesn't do this then you're missing the point.

This is why Paul ditched things like circumcision and food laws for Gentile and Jewish Christians - it was just being divisive and instead of being something that marked people out as God's - it had become something that simply made people think they were better than other people who were in Christ too.

Hope that helps.
Good luck with your questions - alway good to be challenged enough to change if what you believe doesn't make sense, eh?

Answer 3

As Christians we are not bound by the Laws about kosher foods, but we are to follow the Ten Commandments. The two most important Commandments are to love God and love your neighbor. If you do this, you will already be following the other eight Commandments because they all tie into those two. That being said, we are directed to help the needy and the lost (which is an extension of the love your neighbor Commandment). That is why studies have shown that Christians give a higher percentage of their incomes to charity, and why there are so many Christian charities set up to help the homeless, starving nations, and children of the world. It's not a matter of picking and choosing, but of following Christ.

Answer 4

Christians basically believe the same main points, virgin birth of Jesus, Jesus is the son of God, and there is salvation in no other. There are many different denominations because the re are different styles of worship and some different interpretation of varies scripture. The people that lived in the old testament were in the law and since Jesus paid the price for our sins, we are under a different covenant. There was instant judgment in the old and more grace now. All the bible is important to learn about God, but we live under the new testament teachings now.Gods nature has not changed, if He hated something in the old, He still hates it.

Answer 5

First, when someone approaches the bible, they must do so prayerfully. To do so otherwise - academically for example - is a mistake. There are literary and historical and symbolic elements in the bible, but it is meant to teach and strengthen faith, not be read like a science book.

Understanding this, the key to reading the bible then, is to know that the entire book from Genesis to Revelation points to one person: Jesus Christ. This must be kept in mind when reading the scriptures.

As far as those Christians that pick and choose, they shouldn't be doing that.

Yes, the old testament 10 commandments do apply today. Jesus affirms this in the NT.

Answer 6

In the Old Testament God gave the Jews the Law(The 10 Commandments) in order for them to know what sin is. So they thought worship was about how good they could be and how close they could follow the Law Rather than Love God.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells us the most important thing is faith, and not works. So because Jesus died for us we no longer have to follow the law. We do it because we have faith in God and Love him. So its fair to say Christians pick and choose because alot of them do. The only thing that matters now is that you believe Jesus died for you sins and believe he is God.

Answer 7

as christians, we follow the new testament, becuase it supercedes the old testament. There is no longer a need for animal sacrifices, etc. because Jesus ransomed the world once and for all. WE are still judged by the law of Moses (10 commandments), but we are saved by the blood of Christ.

Answer 8

For non-Jewish believers, people are to obey every thing in the Bible except for the ceremonies and rituals that God gave to the Jewish people (and even they no longer need to do the sin sacrifice).

Answer 9

Good question, one of the many that led me out of religion.

You will never get a satisfactory answer why the OT is even in the Bible, I know I never got one.

Answer 10

I agree with you. it seems the christians pick and choose what works for them at that time. if you see something you know that wouldnt agree with the bible they come up with some gibberish answer.