"You obviously don't believe that the Gospel message is found in the OT, if you did we would not be having this conversation."
Hi Bob,
Your right, Bob, I know that the Gospel message is not found in the Old Testament, only the hope of that message in the prophecies. The Gospel message is a finished fact in the Crucified and Resurrected Christ, the hope was a future event. The Old Testament saints received the hope by an Abraham-like faith and it was counted to them for righteouness. After the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the hope had become a reality and can no longer be preached as a hope but only as a reality. They could not be Born Again and filled with the Holy Spirit by the hope, but with the reality came and new birth, Pentecost and the fulfillment of "I will pour out my Spirit". There is a fundamental difference between the Old Testament assembly and the New Testament Body of Christ. The Old Testament saints will have to wait for the Resurrection to claim the promises of their hope. The New Testament saints become new creatures when they are Born Again and filled with the Holy Spirit. The promises of the new covenant are infinitely greater than the promises of the old because the old was but a shadow and the new a reality.
The Gospel message is: Jesus Christ the son of God was Crucified and Raised from the dead for the sins of mankind--not Jesus Christ will be Crucified and Raised.
The hope of that promise was contained in the Old Testament but not the fulfilled promise. The fulfilled promise is the Gospel message, and it is not found in the Old Testament. Only the hope and prophecy of the Gospel message is found in the Old Testament. The Old Testament saints looked towards the promise and the hope of the Gospel message, and through an Abraham-like faith, they were counted righteous.
The Gospel message is not found in the Old Testament, only the hope of the promise. You are saying that men can still be saved by the hope of a promised Messiah without preaching the New Testament reality that has already come. It is simply not true.
---------
"I think you better do some more research into the OT before you make this standpoint."
I think my knowledge of the Old Testament is more than sufficient to refute the simple falsehood of a new theology that states that 'the New Testament is no longer needed to preach the Gospel to the Jews as it has been in the last 2000 years.'
In fact, I think a simple reading of the book of Acts could refute your claim. Here were the greatest and holiest evangelist of our faith, the first Apostles and disciples, proclaiming the Gospel to the Jews using the New Tesatament information. Some of those Jews were pretty offended by their style of preaching the Gospel. Stephen was murdered and Peter arrested.
We see Phhilip using the technique one on one with the Ethiopian Eunuch. We see Peter confronting a crowd of Jews boldly proclaiming the fact that they had Crucified the Son of God and using the New Testament information and the power of the Cross to convert them. We see Stephen boldly confronting a very hostile crowd of Jews and preaching the Gospel from the oral New Testament and showing that it fulfilled the Old. Finally we see Paul using the oral New Testament to preach to the Jews throughout the Romans Empire.
The technique was always the same. They used the words and facts from the oral New TEstament(the life of Jesus) to show that the Old Testament had been fulfilled. Tens of thousand of Jews were converted by this New Testament method of preaching the Gospels in the first century.
On top of all this, millions of Jews have been saved in the last 2000 years by having the New Testament Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them. In my own lifetime, I have read about and personally experienced many Jews saved by the preaching of the New Tesatment.
The New Testament Word of God is the norm in evangelizing everyone, including those who call themselves Jews today.
If the Holy Spirit has prepared their hearts, the word of God found in the New Testament will find fertile ground. It is not by words of human wisdom but by the power of the Cross.
Your success with Steve is admirable, holy and to be respected.
But when you try to use that incident to develop a new unbilbical and false theology that says "one does not need the New Testament to preach the Gospel, you should be corrected.
This new theology that that the New Testament is not needed to preach the Gospel is simply false.
This teaching is false, unbilical and dangerous. Again, God gave us the inspired New Testament and the Old as a holy instruments of faith and evangelization.
May the Lord give us his Wisdom, his love and his truth, and may we always defend his Word--the Old and New Testaments.
In the love of Christ
Emile |
