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Should We Use the
OLD
TESTAMENT?
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
Jesus commanded: "Man shall live by every word of God." How can we prove that he
included the Old Testament in that command?- that he meant all the Bible?
D
ID YOU
ever observe
people going to Sun–
day school or church
on a Sunday morning?
And did you ever notice what
a large portion of them- if they
carry any Scriptures with them
at all-have merely a New Tes–
tament?
A young man who had been a
student in a Bible college for a cou–
ple of years once carne to me and
confessed: "l'm all mixed up–
frustrated! After all my Bible
study,
I
suddenly woke up to real–
ize that J'm not
sure
that the Jesus
of Nazareth, who lived 1,900 years
ago, really
was
the CHRIST!
" J've heard you say over the air
that we must PROVE all things–
even what we have thought that we
believed. Suddenly
1
woke up," be
confessed, "to realize tbat
1
never
actually PROVEO that Jesus was the
promised Messiah! That realization
FLOORS me. I' m totalJy FRUS–
TRATED.
"Tell me," he said earnest ly,
" How can
1
prove it?-How can
1
KNOW?
How
can 1 BE SURE?"
Was This Your Experience, Too?
That young man had not studied
the ÜLD Testament of his Bible
very much. l opened his Bible to
certain ÜLD Testament scriptures,
and OUT OF THEM he found
posi–
tive, satisfying
PROOF that Jesus is
September / October 1982
the Messiah-the SAVIOR of the
world! l'm going to show you now,
a part of what I opened up to him
in his Bible.
Many have gained the idea that
Christians should never read the
Old Testament at all. Many seem
to believe THAT part of the Bible
was DONE AWAY- that it was only
for the J ewish people of long ago-–
tbat its message is DEAD today!
Let' s Examine This Question!
Certainly the Church-the TRUE
Church of God- is a N EW Testa–
ment Church! lt certainly is not
under the Old Testament but the
New. But there's a great difference
between tbe Old Covenant that set
Israel up as a nation and those
scriptures we call by the name
"Old Testament."
The Old Covenant- meaning
the agreement between God and
Israel, made at Mt. Sinai- is
replaced by the preaching of the
NEW!
But most certainly the NEw
Testament scriptures
show very
plainly that those scriptu res we call
"The Old Testament"
are NOT
done away,
for we read in
l
Peter
1:25, "the word of the Lord endur–
etb for ever"!
Do you know that for approxi–
mately six years after the crucifixi.on
and resurrection of J esus Christ and
the founding of the NEw Testament
Church, that this New Testament
Church had and used
ONLYthe
Old
Testament scriptures?
Christ preached the
Cospel of
the Kingdom- the
same Gospel he
commanded every ministe r to
preach. Yet do you k now he
preached
altogether out of the 0/d
Testament scriptures?
Church Built on Old Testament
Scriptures
1
wonder if you fully realize that
the Church was built upon the
writings of the
0/d Testament
PROPHETS,
as
welJ
as
On the APOS–
TLES? Notice Ephesians 2:19-20,
"Now therefore ye . .. are built
upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, J esus Christ himself
being the chief corner stone." No
prophets in the New T estament
were used to write scripture. The
prophets who did write were tbe
Old Testament prophets.
Notice Jesus' own example:
While J esus was sent from God as
the Messenger of the New Cove–
nant-yet he preached that mes–
sage out of the Old T estament
scriptures. He said, as recorded in
John 5:39, "Search the scriptures;
for in them ye think ye have eterna!
life: and they are they which testify
of me."
Y
es, they testify of Christ. And
do you also know that you could
n.ot prove Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ, the Messiah, the Son of
God- your Savior and mine–
without the Old Testament scrip–
tures?
If
we are definitely to establish
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