December 24th, 2006 | 
Author: 
chopchopchops asked:
There are some things in the Old Testament, like homosexuality being a sin, that I hear Christians saying are true, and there are other things, like stoning disobedient children and not eating shellfish, that I see many Christians ignoring. According to most Christians, is the Old Testament valid or not? If only parts are valid, how are those parts determined, and why did the other parts become invalid? Or is this one of the things that varies among denominations?
Rod Fabeck
There are some things in the Old Testament, like homosexuality being a sin, that I hear Christians saying are true, and there are other things, like stoning disobedient children and not eating shellfish, that I see many Christians ignoring. According to most Christians, is the Old Testament valid or not? If only parts are valid, how are those parts determined, and why did the other parts become invalid? Or is this one of the things that varies among denominations?
Rod Fabeck
Posted in Religion & Spirituality | 
Tags: Christians, Denominations, Disobedient Children, Homosexuality, Old Testament
Selective cherry picking.
According to the Christians, only Genesis, the Ten Commandments, and the parts of the Old Testament telling them to **** homosexuals are valid.
Love God, and Love your neighbors….all else will fall into place.
Let God deal with the rest.
Hon, the OT was written for God’s first chosen people – the Hebrews
In the NT, God’s chosen people are His Christians – whether Jew or Gentile
Gentiles were NEVER under OT law!
Only by studying both testaments can we fully understand God’s plan of redemption for mankind!
For the umpteenth millionth time….
This problem of following Jewish laws came up with the circumcision of Gentiles. The Apostles, through the Holy Spirit, decided that Gentiles did not need to become Jews before becoming Christians, hence they did not need to be circumcised.
Also, Paul stated, since Christians now did not have to follow Jewish laws, that Gentiles could eat anything except for meat from strangled animals, meat that was offered to other gods or blood (Acts 15:20). Therefore Christians can eat pork and shrimp.
Jesus said it is not what goes into the body that defiles it, but what comes out….(Matthew 15:11, Mark 7:20)
However, homosexuality was still considered a sin in the New Testament:
Romans 1:24-28
“Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies. The exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for thier perversity. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.
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The Old Testament tells us that we need Jesus. It promises Jesus. God offers eternal life.
M?t´thew 5:17-20 (Chr?st Fulfills the Law) 17 ¶ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the proph´ets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Ph?r´?-see?, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
I don’t know, it’s pretty messed up picking and choosing. I thought that Christians would believe all of it, as it is the Bible.
Pretty sure it was also just influenced by culture and the style of living and quality of life and that kind of thing eventually. Nothing happens in a vacuum.
The Old Testament especially the law of Moses is invalid already and some of the Psalms, Proverbs, Prophets, and poetry with their predictions is still valid today. Everything that did not mention in New Testament is invalid especially the animal sacrifices. The Law of Moses is fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. The animal sacrifices for sin is long gone because of what Jesus done on the cross. This included the dietary food. All the sexual sins, adultery, homosexual, lies, killing someone and more are still in New Testament. Read the book of Romans and Hebrews so by doing this you could understand the whole OT and NT.
Christians are called to accept the entire Bible. Jesus did not come to contradict the Scripture but to full fill it.In fact after jesus”s baptism He spent 40 days and 40 nights at the dessert with satan, and every time the devil tryed to tempt Jesus, Jesus answers were all based in the Old Testament. It is written that you must not…….
There are many things that come into plate here,
1 The Bible is the word of God,
2 No one will ever understand it in its totality because we are humans and the Bible was revealed in a divine language.
Christians shoul not **** unbelievers for we are call to practice love and not to judge.
You have to understand the whole bible and the plan of God .
Man was with God in the garden , and then sinned . Then because of sin in mans heart , mans heart had become like a wild animal , with no Desire for God .
So man left God , just like a dog , whould go into the wild and become a wild dog again .
So God found a man , Abraham , who reversed what Eve did , which was not believe the Word of God .
Abraham believed God , and this started the beginning of a long walk for man to come back to God .
Since man had become wild in his heart , God had to teach man what sin is , that was what moses did with the law and the 10 commandment , in which most of our laws we have today are from .
But since no one kept all the law , but all sinned , because of mans heart is messed up by sin , God sent his son , Jesus , who by his blood the sin and defects of our heart is coved by his blood .
And since the Spirit of truth , who comes into a man , once he is born again , and repent of sin , and ask Christ in his heart , the law or truth of God the lives in a man ,and slowly trys to teach the man and correct the defects of the heart .
So Paul said because of this , (the spirit of God in us ) we are no longer under the law , but grace , which is the blood of Christ covering our sins , and the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Truth that teaches us the truth , if we walk in the Spirit and not in the oldness of our heart , which is the flesh .
But we have to try to walk in this new way , not being under the law , but under Grace which is faith in the blood of the lamb , which was what was aplyed to the door post , and saved the jew in egypt .
So since the blood of the lamb is applyed to our heart , we are no longer under the law , but under grace , having the Holy Spirit in us and teaching the law to us in our hearts .
So we walk in this new law of the heart , not under the law of the old testement .
Many of the laws in the Old Testament were done away with when
Jesus came to earth, but any sin that God called an “abomination”
is still a sin today. But we’re allowed to still eat pork & stuff like that.
It can be a little confusing.
Christ, the originator of Christianity said about the Old Testament: “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and Earth disappear, not the smallest letter of, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until every thing is accomplished. 19 Any one who breaks one of the least of theses commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven”.(Matthew 5:17-20).
So, no true Christian will ignore the OT. Forget the crazy things you see them happening in the West. That is not Christianity but WESTIANITY.
The Old & New Testament is a narrative that features Creator and Creature in a cyclical time line. “I am that I am.” I am the first and the last, the Beginning and the Ending. I am Alpha and Omega.” Religions, like Judaism focuses on the Old Testament only. Protestants through denominations have built traditions that place emphasis on different teachings of Scripture. Some Protestant religions view Scripture as literature, others, fundamental truth. The premise that the whole body of work is “The Word” is debatable.
Some people are mis-educated, others are ignorant. At the risk of waxing philosophical it takes a lifetime to breathe in the biblical narrative and understand it’s existence in our lives. Perfection is the desired state. However, it is the language of religion as you reference is frozen in the ice of indifference. The practice of beliefs, the knowledge of those beliefs and the acts that we wear in our day to day living that say who we are, are often a contradiction and will continue to be until we meet a perfected state.
Your question does not take into consideration political correct behavior. The Bible is not politically correct. Today’s christian would rather be a Joel Olsteen than a prophet like Jeremiah. What you ask, is just not that important. Unfortunately, being consistent and true take a back seat to political correctness. My last thoughts are this. It was true then and it is true today, their is the Church gathered and the Church scattered, two totally different organizations. The Church gathered is the physical building, the Institution, it is the District, the Office of Pope, it is the pillars and columns of ornate architecture that reminds us of the history of the Church.
Then their are the church scattered. Those who do not identify to a structural hierarchy an unidentified unorganized body of believers. They are the remnant of the early church. The one’s whose ears heard “Go ye therefore” they are the Paul styled believer that accepts all of the bible in their life. They do not have the bible and it’s “contradictions” and or political incorrectness figured out, but they believe. There are some us who believe.
Which ‘old testament;’ Satan’s or God’s?
Satan’s; Genesis-Malachi
God’s; the law of Moses (starts Ex. 20).
I agree with Malaika.
I’m not sure what is the consensus. I think that the Old Testament tells the story of God’s dealings with the Israelites, and His commands were meant for them. However, there are lessons to be learned even if we don’t see those commands about shellfish and homosexuality, etc as being specifically aimed at us.
The Bible is not a set of rules to follow. The Bible points us to God.
I don’t use the OT as proof text against homosexuality but I do see through the incidents in the OT how dangerous such a practice is for a society.