I wish more Christians would take an interest in learning the Jewish foundations of their faith. Too many of my Christian brothers and sisters wave off the Old Testament except for a few stories from Genesis and Exodus, the book of Psalms, and, recently among some streams in the church, some out-of-context texts about blood moons. The default setting for many believers is “Now that Jesus came, we don’t need to worry about the Law anymore.” For some, “the Law” translates to “Pretty much the entire Old Testament”.
This issue certainly is related to the general rise in Biblical illiteracy in the church. But it is also a problem of bad theology on the part of many of those doing the leading, teaching, and discipling. When entire Old Testament is treated as if it’s a long, rambling introduction to the New Testament, the Church is vulnerable to a 57 different strains of heresy as well as the noxious institutionalization of anti-Semitism. Please note – I’m not saying that heresy has flourished solely because of the disconnect between the Old Testament and the New. The roots of heresy are planted in our hearts determined to echo the lie of the enemy in the garden of Eden: “Did God really say…?” But we are far more vulnerable to wrong belief and wrong practice when we are not fully immersed in the whole Story. [Read more]
