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the crushing weight of rule by the Old Testament.

Rip Van Winkle! Is that YOU posting as Woofer???

You've been asleep a LOoooOOOOoong time. Christ (you know, the title of the fellow we Christians follow) has implemented a NEW testament, as the OLD one was merely to point us toward Him.

NIV Galatians 4:21-31
21. Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
22. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
24. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
25. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
26. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27. For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."
28. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
30. But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."
31. Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

NIV Hebrews 7:18-20
18. The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless
19. (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

NIV Hebrews 8:6-13
6. But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.
7. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.
8. But God found fault with the people and said : "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
9. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
10. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
11. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
12. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
13. By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

NIV Hebrews 9:1-4
1. Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.
2. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place.
3. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place,
4. which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

I know that there is a body of people out there who feel the way you do about the Old Testament of the Bible. I respectfully disagree.

There is a part of the Old Testament that did die with Christ on the cross. That portion was the ceremonial portion dealing with sacrificial services which pointed to a future sacrifice of the Lamb of God. When Christ died on the cross the most holy place in the temple was opened by an unseen hand, wrending the curtain from the top to the bottom. This signified that "the sacrifice" had been fulfilled.

The covenant that you keep refering too was the convenant (agreement) between God and man that He would purchase our souls back from Satan. Christ, by living a perfect life, then dying on the cross did just that. Thus the convenant was fulfilled. Sacrificial ceremonies were therefore no longer needed.

God says that He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Why would he nullify the accounts of creation, the Sabbath, the rest of the Ten Commandments and countless other important aspects of the Old Testament?

If I'm not mistaken, the Old and New Testament titles were probably a fabrication of the Biblical schollars during the King James era. Perhaps you can point to a different derivitave. But it's my opinion that when you start chopping up the Bible, respecting some parts and dismissing others, you've made a grave mistake.

You quoted:

NIV Hebrews 8:6-13
6. But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.
7. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.

Are you going to sit there and tell me you take this literally? This is a metaphor. Of course the ministry of Jesus is better than anything that came before. But reading more into this is state that you accept that God made a mistake with the first covenant. The God I serve doesn't make mistakes.