Why does the Church of Christ not believe in the Old Testament?

Answer 1

CULT!

Answer 2

We do believe in the Old Testament!

We believe the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the Word of God.

We also believe that we must "rightly divide" the word.(2 Timothy 2:15)

The Old Testament is God's law to the Israelites. It's purpose was to bring God's people to Christ. (Gal. 3:24-25) After the people of God were brought to Christ, then the Old Law had fulfilled its purpose. We are now under the Law of Christ. (Romans 7, Hebrews 9)

Why do we not follow the laws of the Old Testament? Again we rightly divide the Bible.

The Old law was given to the Israelites. The New Testament was given to Christians.

Why do we not build an ark out of gopher wood? That was a command from God. We do not follow that command because it was not given to us. That was a command given to Noah.

If we follow any command of the Old Law, we are "debtor to keep the whole law." (Gal. 5:3) "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." (James 2:10)

Do you worship on the Sabbath (the 7th day of the week), (or do you worship on Sunday)? Do you offer animal sacrifices? Do the men in your religion make yearly trips to Jerusalem? Do you put blood on your door post each year at passover? If you don't keep each of these, then you also recognize a division between the Old Testament and the New Testament!

The Church of Christ studies the Old Testament. It was written for our learning! "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15:4)

It is through a study of the Old Testament that we learn of the nature of God. We see the prophecies of Christ. We see foreshadowing of the New Testament church. We cannot fully understand the New Testament without the Old!

But the laws of the Old Testament were for another dispensation of people. Many of the laws in the Old Testament still apply to us because they were repeated in the New Testament, so we follow them, not because we are subject to the Old, but because we are subject to the New!

We now have a better covenant! (Hebrews 8:6)

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant..." (Jeremiah 31:31)

*****EDIT****

By the way, I visited a near-by Church of Christ yesterday (Sunday) and almost the entire sermon was from the Old Testament.

Answer 3

I am a member of the church of Christ and all the people I know at the congregation I attend believe as well as study the Old Testament and the new. Paul tells us that the OT was writtenf as a schoolmaster to Jesus.

We would not be able to comprehend what Jesus did fully without also understanding how the world was created and how sin came into the same world. From Abraham on we see a bloodline leading us to Jesus. David spoke of the Messiah as di many of the prophets.

I believe every detail and every story of the OT was real. The OT taught us about animal sacrifice for sin which showed us how Jesus beacme the perfect sacrifice for sins.

But after Jesus came and began to teach us more understandably what His Father's will was, the message of the OT was not as important because Jesus the perfect sacrifice took the place of the animal sacrifices the Jews were commanded to do. If you recall in Acts where Peter was told to rise and kill some unclean animals and eat them. Each time Peter refused but later the Lord showed him the reason for the vision and that The Gentiles were now to be preached to and taught the Gospel. After the Gentiles(non-Jews) became Christians, many Jews thought they should follow the Jewish laws and traditions but the apostles met and decided that to follow the Jewish laws were no longer necessary. I happen to be a Gentile myself and I am sure most people are non-jews in here. I don't follow the rules for eating such as pork etc.

But I do follow Christ who Himself became the perfect covenant making animal sacrifices no longer necessary.
So in conclusion to say we don't believe in The OT is a false statement because we certainly do. Perhaps you should be asking why we no longer follow all of the rules and sacrifices of the OT.

God Bless
saved2seek

Answer 4

I am a member of a Church of Christ. I will say that ALL Christians BELIEVE in the Old Testament. Hopefully, anyway. Christians, however, should NOT FOLLOW the OT laws. Christians do not follow the old covenant; we should in practice follow the new covenant. What is the purpose of Jesus' death if we follow the old law? He has freed us from it - and besides, only ancient Israelites are under an obligation to follow all the many laws of Exodus and Leviticus. Some ppl do not understand the large time gap between OT and the NT... and that Christians are not called to, for example, not eat unclean animals, such as ordered in the OT law. Perhaps some churches throw out the OT all together. Mine does not, and no Christians should. We should belive in its authenticity, although some of it (the law part) does not apply. As said, we do not and COULD not follow OT law. We should believe the events of the OT occured as well. I hope this has helped. Thank you for listening to this aspiring Christian apologist.

Answer 5

Are you speaking of the denomination "Church of Christ", or the Christian faith as a whole...

I cannot answer for the denomination...

As a follower of Christ, I do believe in the Old Testament....every word.

We must be careful, however, to understand the context of some of the stories...don't let people pull out specific texts and try to support that God is not holy and just.

Answer 6

It DOES, but IN ITS CONTEXT...

Romans 15:4 Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. The Scriptures give us strength to go on. They cheer us up and give us hope.

Jesus said he didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. (Matt 5:17) The effect was the same. Once fulfilled it was no longer in effect. The very next verse, Matthew 5:18, LOOKS FORWARD to the time when the law WOULD BE SET ASIDE. "...Not even the smallest stroke of a pen will disappear from the Law UNTIL EVERYTHING IS COMPLETED." This “UNTIL” clause REINFORCES THE TEMPORARY NATURE OF THE LAW. It ONLY makes sense when we understand that it was intended FROM THE BEGINNING to be SET ASIDE.

This is completely in line with Paul's teaching a few years later...

Ephesians 2:15 Through his body on the cross, Christ put an END to the LAW WITH ALL ITS COMMANDS AND RULES. He wanted to create one new group of people out of the two. He wanted to make peace between them.

Colossians 2:14, 16, &21 (excerpts) He wiped out the written Law with its rules. The Law was against us. It opposed us. He took it away and nailed it to the cross… No one can be made right with God by obeying the law.... What if a person could become right with God by obeying the law? Then Christ died for nothing!

Answer 7

Because the purpose of Christianity (new testament) is to revise Judaism (the old testament) in to something more people would want to follow (forgiveness for sin, and a much more loving, warm'n'fuzzy god is found in the new testament)

Answer 8

I am a Christian and I believe in the OT. Christianity has always accepted the entire Bible.

Answer 9

I wish I knew.

Pastor Art

Answer 10

Because they have a brain?

Love and blessings Don