Given that Muslims and Jews use the OT as well, we must be on the same sheet of music? Yet, two out of three OT readers reject Christ! If Christ is "all over" the OT, as you say, they sure missed Him!
It DOES teach faith in the correct God.
I guess then Christians, Muslims and Jews all believe the same thing...I don't think so.
Only somthing vague and incomplete would lead people to such different conclusions.
You can't throw out the OT because it's not the NT.
I never advocated that. I am just saying that its value is different from the Gospels. The OT puts things in perspective, how this whole religious thing developed, what the early (pre-Law) patriarchs believed, what the prophets wrote after the Law, how the Jews abandoned God on so many occasions, how they came back to Him after the Babylonian/Persian domination, how the Jews became messianic people, how they formed different messianic doctrines (Sadducees, Samaritans, Essenes, Pharisees, etc.) and political parties around them, etc. It tells us that Satan was not a "bad" angel, but a loyal servant of God in Judaism, the heavnely prosecutor general, the accuser, etc.
The OT also gives us examples of people realizing that repentance is the only way to God, and the repentant speak of God in terms as we know Christ, a loving, merciful God, so there is foreshadowing, announcing, that we can come to God but only in repenatnce, and not just by following the law, as the parable in the NT reminds us with the Pahrisee and the atx collector in the synagoue.
The Gospels reveal God that we can grasp and see. It is more than God who covered Himself with flesh; it's something completely unexpected, unprecedented: it is God actually becoming flesh, lowering Himself, out of love for mankind, to our level and suffering and dying for our sins.
The truths of the Gospels, as a narrative of Jesus' ministry, holds true withor without the OT. Otherwise, Christ's work is insufficient. The Gospels by themsleves are sufficient for Christianity, but the other books in the NT and those in the OT put it in perspective.
“The Gospels reveal God that we can grasp and see. It is more than God who covered Himself with flesh; it’s something completely unexpected, unprecedented: it is God actually becoming flesh, lowering Himself, out of love for mankind, to our level and suffering and dying for our sins.”
Pure, unadulterated Orthodoxy!
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It's rare to see such an eloquent post. Thank you.
Yes, they sure did miss Him. Should that tell us that the OT is wrong or that they are wrong? I don't think we can measure the truth of something by how many people DON'T get it. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that NO ONE will get any of it unless he has been given eyes to see and ears to hear by God.
The Gospels reveal God that we can grasp and see. It is more than God who covered Himself with flesh; it's something completely unexpected, unprecedented: it is God actually becoming flesh, lowering Himself, out of love for mankind, to our level and suffering and dying for our sins.
Yes, and the OT tells us about this:
Isa 52:13-53:12 : 13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness — 15 so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see,and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days,and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
IMO this OT passage perfectly describes what you are talking about. (And as an aside, note verse 10! :)
The truths of the Gospels, as a narrative of Jesus' ministry, holds true with or without the OT. Otherwise, Christ's work is insufficient. The Gospels by themselves are sufficient for Christianity, but the other books in the NT and those in the OT put it in perspective.
Ah, but since hundreds of millions of Christians read the Gospels very faithfully and see no need for the rulership of the Orthodox Church in them, then I suppose that your Church would be unneeded for Christianity, like the OT? :)