If the old testament doesn't mean anything, they why is it still part of the bible?

Question

everytime something comes up in the old testament that shows what god's true colors are. People say, "it's the old testament, don't believe anything it says. Only the new testament matters... blah blah blah."

Get rid of the old testament then!

Answer 1

The Old Testament does matter, Christ says that all things shall pass away, but not a letter from anything that He says, and good Theologians know that Christ is the Word of God, mainly that all of Scripture, Old and New Testaments alike, point to Christ. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law (Old Testament) but to fulfill it.

When read in a correct way, with the correct teaching, the Old Testament forms into perfect accord with what is in the New Testament, unfortunately, in the U.S. the OT is not often taught in Churches, leaving people to believe that it is no longer relevant. However, the OT is relevant because Jesus himself quotes from it all the time, not to mention the Apostles in the Epistles of the NT.

The OT is not irrelevant, if nothing else, it points to Christ more strongly than even the New Testament does, you just have to sit down and read it in light of the coming of Christ. Christians must understand that the Old Testament points to the need for grace and a savior, which is what Christ is.

Answer 2

The Old Testament is just that an accounting of how times were back then. The New Testament is an account of the times post Old Testament. Like I said, both are accounting's of the times in which they were written.

Do they apply to modern day? Many will say yes, and that is why they still worship the words written there in. However do they truly understand the words or do they take bits and pieces to fit what they want them to say?

So to simply say, "Get rid of the old testament then!" Would make it difficult for some to understand the New Testament. Sometimes people need the beginning to understand the reason for the end.

Answer 3

Actually, the Old Testament contains to a certain degree the history of the Jewish people. There's also a lot of wisdom and other histories contained within its pages, not to mention the Ten Commandments. Much of the children's biblical lessons also come from the Old Testament (for example, the story of Joseph, David, Abraham, Esther, Ruth and other biblical heroes.) Also, there are parts of the New Testament Revelation that only come to light when put in context with the Old Testament. Lastly, what would any bible of any religion be if it doesn't contain any clue as to the origins of man?

I know that the Old Testament does seem harsh to most people. I find it very barbaric at times (especially when God commands the Israelites to kill people just to get the land.) But I really have a hunch that there will come a time when we will understand why certain things happened the way they happened. Against the backdrop of eternity, our human lives are just a tiny dot along the line. We will have lots and lots of time to finally understand a very misunderstood Old Testament.

Answer 4

Nobody says anything like that except some sects of Christians, and then not very many of them go to that length. Obviously only Christians would say that the New Testament matters at all, so the majority of the world could make the argument for getting rid of the New Testament! The entire religion of Judaism is based completely on the Old Testament, so how on earth would you go about getting rid of it?

Answer 5

The bible as we know it was assembled at the council of Nicea in approx 325AD. Prior to that, Christianity was much like many of the eastern religions/philosophies as there were merely a bunch of books and manuscripts floating around which gave accounts of the faith and examples of teachings and such.
It was assembled by unenlightened folks, who were inspired, though still fallible.
The book of Genesis, Proverbs and Psalms were all excellent additions to the collection...while the rest of the old testament remains suspect. With the new testament, the book of Revelation was included (written by a different John than the Apostle John), which is also suspect.
Curiously the Gospel of Thomas was not included in the bible then either.

Anyhow, having explained the historical context:
The old testament is still in the bible for several reasons:
1)tradition. As incongruent with Christ's teachings as most of it may seem, it has been part of the religion for over 1500 years. It's a difficult idea to wrestle after so long.

2)nobody wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are sparks of brilliance scattered throughout the old testament though most of it is not so enlightening. By throwing out the negative parts, one also risks eliminating the context for the brilliant parts...so for now we just bear with it...taking the bad for the sake of the good.

-Rob

Answer 6

I think the testaments - like statistics - can be used to illustrate any point, even conflicting ones. Any time someone tells you the old testament isn't right you will find someone who tells you it is. It's funny to me, because I thought anyone who believed in the old testament was Jewish and the Christians believed only in the new - but I get more old testament quotes from Fundamentalist Christians than anyone else. Go figure.

Peace!

Answer 7

The Bible was assembled in a canonization period, covering about 150 years. So it is quite humane in the assembling period.
The old testament still have its goodness, in seeing how The Almighty planned his program to save humanity.
I based my faith upon solely The New Testament, but use also valuable teaching from the Old Testament

Answer 8

The old testament gives us an historical context to understand the work of redemption. Second, it rounds out and gives us a complete vision of the person of God. And third, it actually gives us a fully developed picture of Jesus which is not seen if he is only observed through the New Testament.

Answer 9

We have to keep the old testament so as to know what happened in the past and then we can see how helpful the new testament is.

Answer 10

The creation story is contained in the Old Testament. A creation story is central to most religions and will never be omitted from Christianity. Also, the Ten Commandments, God's Law, is vital dogma.