Christians: Old vs. New Testament?

Question

why don't Christians read the Old Testament?

and since most don't then why isn't it taken out of the Bible?

isn't it a waste to leave it in there if, you believe that you don't have to follow it?

is there a point of leaving it in there and skipping right over it, because you all don't have to follow it?

please leave your hate out of your answer!

i have many christians in my family who say that they don't have to follow it, and many here on Y!A that say that they don't have to follow it. ex: the diet restrictions they don't have to follow those, because something about god making a covenant w/ christians, so they don't ahve to follow the same laws as the jews do. so my question is what is the point of having it in there, if yo udon't have to follow it?

i am not saying that they shouldn't but i have asked christians many questions about why they do certain things, and they ALL have said that i was wrong, because certain things were said to the jews NOT them. and i don't get it, should it all be important, since it all is in the Bible? and i know many christians and i have been to church before, because my grandmother forced me to go w/ her and this is what they all do. and i know christians of many different denominations

Homeland Security, i agree w/ you, but i know christians who don't

med guru, everything that i asked is based on what i have been told by many different christians from many different denominations. and some of which are in my family, others are just people that i know who say they are religious, so i have no reason not to believe what they have to say. what am i supposed to think? if every pink person you met, for example, told you that long hair is bad in their religion then wouldn't you think that long hair is bad in their religion? i do, because i have no reason not to believe what they have to say, and i don't belong to the religion so how would i know if it isn't right?

Answer 1

they do. in fact they beat the rest of us over the head with genesis every gance they get. not to mention leviticus 18:22 for us gays.

But christians have given themselves permission to pick and choose parts of that old testament that they deem not relevant. They live by what is convenient and disregard the rest.

Answer 2

Many Christians definitely DO read the Old Testament. But there's a discontinuity between them. In the older part, Jews are mostly the good guys. In the newer part, they're mostly bad guys. This tends to suggest a Christian bias. To make both parts work, Christians do a lot of "interpreting" that their Jewish spiritual forebears just don't follow.

Actually, in the earliest days, Christians thought the Old Testament WAS the Bible. There wasn't any "New" Testament. Those books came later, after Christians became convinced that Jesus wouldn't come back before the new stuff was published.

They can't really get rid of the "Old" Testament because that's somebody ELSE's Bible, the Jews! Christians borrowed it, then started calling it "Old" to make it sound outdated and irrelevant. The "Old Testament" is properly called the Hebrew Bible" or "Tanakh". The rest is the "Christian Bible" or the "New Testament", which you can get all by itself if you like.

Answer 3

The Majority of the New Testament is made up of quotations from the Old Testament. In fact the OT is still good for us to know today. Anyone that says otherwise is not a wise person. For all scripture is given for our edification, both the Old and New Testament. Not reading it is a sign of Laziness not of it being invalid!

Answer 4

We don't because Jesus died for us. In the Old Testament (before Jesus) God's people had to regularly make sacrificial offering of blood by slautering blemish free animals i.e. a spotless lamb. It was the way to repent for sins. But when Jesus died for us on Calvary he was that Lamb and this changed everything. So now we follow the New Testament.
We still have the Old Testament for one, because it tells of extremely important events, like how God created life, the story of Moses, it tells of all the old covenants made between us and God and how we could not follow through with them, just to name a few. So we learn from it, also it helps further explain why things are the way they are in the New Testament.
Like for example, if we could of kept our end of the bargain of at least one of the covenants that God made with us in the Old Testament, then maybe Jesus would not have had to come to Earth, live the perfect life (that nobody had or could ever do again), suffer and die on the cross.
All the Bible is important to a Christian's education, and to the world's education for that matter.

Answer 5

There is no hate in a truthful answer.

Most folks who reject the OT do so out of ignorance, not understanding the proper place of all scripture in a believer's life. Indeed, Paul told his disicple the following:

2Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

The only scripture in existence at that time was what we call the Old Testament, which in reality should be called the Hebrew Scriptures. The date of this letter to Timothy would be quite some time after the ressurection and supposed dissolution of the Law by the sacrifice of Yeshua the Messiah. A thinking person would question just how the "chruches" came up with the idea that the "Old" Testament was not to be followed.....especially since Paul plainly tells Timothy that it contains the instructions for righteousness.

The arguement that the chruch is gentile and the Old testament was only for the Jews does not wash in the plain light of scripture:

1 Corinthians 7:17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.
18 Is any man called being circumcised (Jewish)? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision (Gentile)? let him not be circumcised.....

We see here, if we are honest and believe God, Paul talking to both Jew and Gentile. Does he give a separate charge (requirement) to each group?

.......19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

Keeping the Commandments of God, unlike what the chruches teach today, was a requriement for BOTH Jew and Gentile according to Paul. Hence, those who say that the Law is "done away" by Paul because of grace simply misunderstand the scriptures. The Messiah also taught that keeping God's Law necessary, please carefully and prayerfully read Matthew 5:17-20. Please really think about what our Savior is saying!

And, because of these false beliefs and teachings from most churches, most professing christians reject the validity "Old" Testament.

Edit: Java's post is mostly correct, but from a Biblical point of view, the Old Testament and the Torah are considered "milk" and the New Testament is considered "meat". This in no way takes away the necessity of the Torah in a believer's life.

1Corinthians 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able....... 9:7 Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

Hebrew 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God (See 2 Timothy 3:16); and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word (Again see 2 Timothy 3:16), that ye may grow thereby:

Answer 6

Most Christians read the entire Bible. I don't know where you get the idea that we read only the New Testament. The Old Testament scriptures continually refer to what is written in the New Testament scriptures, even tho they were written hundreds of years before! That's miraculous. It is good to start out with Genesis, on thru Noah, Abraham, Moses. All very important. Then in the New Testament on to Jesus and remission of sin. All important, Old and New.

Answer 7

The Old Testament is too violent for most Christians. They cannot accept laws that were set forth in it, so they choose to disregard it and claim it is not to be followed. Devout Christians do not want to lose followers or have followers lose faith because the Old Testament is so restrictive. They don't like many of the things in the Old Testament, so they made up the fact that it is only for reference and not for practice. For example, the Old Testament clearly states in Leviticus (I read it myself) that the hare, the ostrich, a pig, and one or two more creatures are not to be touched nor eaten. Yet the pork industry wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar industry if it were not for these Christians. The Old Testament would tarnish Christianity's man-made message of peace and love. I'm thoroughly surprised the authors of the Bible haven't changed some of the verses there yet, making them sound more peaceful and less restrictive so that they would not lose Christians! In my humble opinion, I believe that Christians choose not to follow the Old Testament--it is too much for them and they cannot afford to have their religion look violent, so they claim that it is not to be followed. What a joke. If I were Christian, I would follow both the Old and the New Testament. What, does the Old Testament prohibit drinking or something? Maybe that's why so many Christians disregard it: for their own convenience!

EDIT: Why would those foods be unclean at one point in time, and then clean and safe to consume later? God does not change his mind; that would indicate a flaw. He is omnipotent and perfect. He does not need to change his mind.With all due respect, I heard plenty of stories of why Christians can eat pork, why they can drink, etc. yet all really just sounded like desperate excuses to justify their actions, no offense.

Answer 8

Salam Aziz:
If I remember correctly a while ago you asked a question about is it right to change the bible? Am I correct? Now you are wondering why don't they take out half the bible? Might I ask where did you get your statistics from? what gave you the impression that Christians don't read the old testament?
BTW, thank you for your email. I admire the passion you have for such topics as politics and religion.

Answer 9

I do read the Old Testament all the time. I'm in the book of Ezekiel right now. I have to read through the Old Testament to get to the New Testament. Did you know that every apostle only had the Old Testament to read? Why should any Christian neglect to read it? There are important lessons to be learned from the Old Testament. Also, I don't think you can really understand the New Testament very well without a basic understanding of the Old Testament. That's the reason God gave the Old Testament to us first. We had to understand that first in order to understand the New Testament. And we do have to follow a lot of it. There are only certain parts that we don't have to follow, including the sacrificial laws because Jesus fulfilled them at the cross, and the laws that were designed specificly for the nation of Israel, like not mixing clothing materials, kosher food practices, genocide because that only applied to the land of Canaan, etc. The Canaanites, by the way, are symbolic of the flesh. The flesh, in the Bible, usually refers to our sinful tendencies. We are to give our flesh no quarter. We are to crucify it, destroy it, because if we don't, then it will hurt us. The Canaanites caused the nation of Israel to sin because the Israelites didn't completely destroy them like they were supposed to. God often allowed the Canaanites to oppress Israel because of Israel's disobedience. In the same sense, when we cater to our flesh, it gets us in trouble. Our sin puts us in bondage. It's not fun, except for a short season before the consequences come.

Answer 10

i read my old testament, to even begin to be able to understand all the new testament teaches, you have to study the old as well. i find it a very important part of our religion. the laws changed for us when jesus was born onto our earth and died on the cross, so we aren't held under the law but instead under grace, for salvation purposes, but those laws are still a very important part of the christian life. before jesus died on the cross, if someone broke one of the laws(sin) then they had to sacrifice an animal and go through the whole repentance rituals. now though, we don't have to do all of that for forgiveness of our sins, jesus was the ultimate sacrifical lamb, on the cross he declared "it is done" now all we must do is accept his gift and we are saved, ask forgiveness and we are forgiven, we are not held down by the laws, but they are still very important to christians in order to live a good christian life style, and to serve the lord and reflect him and his love for the people of the world.