Monday, March 14, 2011
The OT
Tyler Kenney writes at Desiring God in concern about and praise for the Old Testament:
We neglect the theology of the Old Testament at our peril. The God we worship today is the same God - of the same character - that destroyed all life on the planet save what He set aside in the ark. He is the same God - of the same character - that decimated Sodom and Gomorrah. He is the same God - of the same character - that led the Israelites into battle and commanded them to completely destroy their opponents.
The New Testament, without the Old gives us a very incomplete understanding of the God we worship. He is a God of love, but one whose love also can demand harsh action. He does not desire to take such action, but He can and He has, and we would do well to be very cognizant of that fact.
What am I getting at? I am concerned that evangelicals, by and large, approach the OT with an unbiblical dependency on the NT. Since the NT is newer revelation and offers a more developed view of God's redeeming purposes, it becomes the key by which we "unlock" the meaning of what has come before it. There is no overt discrimination against the OT, just a lack of deep engagement with it as meaningful, relevant revelation in its own right.I agree with Kenney as far as he goes, but I do not think he goes far enoguh. Consider this:
[...]
Again, don’t make the prophets punt to the apostles. Read them for their own strong messianic and gospel hope, and let that set the stage in revelation history and in your heart for Jesus to come and prove the Father right and gloriously fulfill all of his great and precious promises.
But we want more from Scripture than just a systematic theology, don't we? There's a reason we don't settle for catechisms and dissertations in our devotional lives. We want faith and hope and encouragement and love, not merely a catalogue of things we ought to believe. And how do we get those things?This seems to day that while useful, the OT is not a theological document. I disagree entirely. After all, dod not Christ come to "complete the Law?" I do not think the New Testament can be understood theologically without the Old.
We neglect the theology of the Old Testament at our peril. The God we worship today is the same God - of the same character - that destroyed all life on the planet save what He set aside in the ark. He is the same God - of the same character - that decimated Sodom and Gomorrah. He is the same God - of the same character - that led the Israelites into battle and commanded them to completely destroy their opponents.
The New Testament, without the Old gives us a very incomplete understanding of the God we worship. He is a God of love, but one whose love also can demand harsh action. He does not desire to take such action, but He can and He has, and we would do well to be very cognizant of that fact.
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