by D.P. Brooks
Most church members find a large part of the Bible a closed book. The Bible is a book of history, the story of God and man in dialogue with each other. God's revelation is not primarily a disclosure of principles and ideals. Rather, God reveals himself in concrete historical conditions by his redemptive actions. Therefore, the Bible is not a book of philosophy, of ethics, or of law, though these are not alien to the concerns of biblical writers.
God is known by his actions [as are we, Proverbs 23:7]. He called Abraham and made a covenant with him; he delivered the Israelites from slavery and established his covenant with the nation; he punished Judah by allowing the nation to be swallowed up by the pagans; he restored his chosen people to their native land; he sent John the Baptist to proclaim the coming of a Messiah; he came in his Son to live and die and rise again; he came in the Holy Spirit to empower the church for its mission. Whenever God has broken into man's selfish little world and acted for man's redemption, it is an event to be treasured and pondered. The passing of time does not affect its validity; it is a timeless event which partakes of eternity.
"Why bother with the Old Testament when we have the New?" This question reflects the tendency of American Christians to downgrade these thirty-nine books. Such an attitude is inevitable in a society like ours. We look at the buggies and carriages of a former age and compare them with our powerful new automobiles and jet planes. We look at the primitive machinery of previous generations and then contrast it with our sophisticated versions of automated and computerized models. We tend to see everything in this pattern. We are on an escalator in which we constantly move from lower to higher models in almost everything.
The doctrine of inevitable progress early took hold of the American mind and dominated our thinking for much of the first half of this century [the 20th]. Two world wars and two other limited wars, plus a major worldwide depression and numerous political and social upheavals have shattered this belief in inevitable progress in social and political areas. This century has seen regression as well as progress. But still the idea lingers that the new models have all the best of the old in them. The new automobile has the best of the earlier models plus the improvements dreamed up by inventors and engineers.
Now transfer this mentality to the Bible and you can see why we so easily fall for the idea that everything good in the Old Testament has been caught up and carried forward in the New. Indeed, the New Testament itself claims to be the fulfillment of the Old. But it is a serious mistake to assume on this basis that the ancient Scriptures are no longer valid or valuable. Jesus took the Old Testament seriously and treated it as the Word of God. These writings were the Bible of the early Christians...
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