Most churchgoers grew up on a steady diet of stories from the Old Testament.  At that time, pastors and parents didn’t blink at the sordid details being shared with children in the character studies of Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon.  Today, churches and Christians who’ve distanced themselves from the Old Testament would contend that modern sensibilities lack the palate for child sacrifice, polygamy, murder, adultery, and genocide.  They see the “Old” as legalistic, God as wrathful, and the context as irrelevant – preferring the grace, love, and applicability of the “New”.

However, I suspect their real issue with the Old Testament is less virtuous.  Our consumer culture and attractional churches don’t want to be held to the high standard it sets for obedience.  “Slight” deviations from the Lord’s commands brought severe consequences, even death.  Contemporary church growth models commend members for any small act of (partial) obedience.  Joining a church committee or volunteering in any capacity are considered apt replacements for evangelism, discipleship, or compassion.  Referencing the Old Testament’s high (behavioral) standards would alienate members not accustomed to that level of accountability.

No matter the reason or excuse, the trend is real.  Yet Proclamations, Parallels, and Prophecies make it unconscionable for churches and Christians to distance, dismiss, or dispose of the Old Testament.

Proclamations

How can we accept Jesus if we can’t accept what He said?  Jesus directly quoted the Old Testament 78 times in the Gospels.  They were frequently preceded by, “It is written” or “Have you not read?”.  His teachings included over 300 Old Testament references.  Some estimate nearly one-tenth of Jesus’ recorded words were from Old Testament.  Jesus truly “came not to abolish (the law and the prophets) but to fulfill them”.  We don’t have space here to record all of Jesus’ direct Old Testament quotes, but here is a small sample of familiar verses…

• “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46 from Psalm 22:1)
• “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” (Matthew 21:42 from Psalm 118:22)
• “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Matthew 22:31-32 from Exodus 3:6)
• “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” (Matthew 21:13 from Jeremiah 7:11)
• “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” (Matthew 15:7-9 from Isaiah 29:13)
• “Man shall not live by bread alone…” (Matthew 4:4 from Deuteronomy 8:3)
• “You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.” (Matthew 4:10 from Deuteronomy 6:13)
• “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor…” (Luke 4:17-19 from Isaiah 61:1-2)
• “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth….'” (Matthew 5:38 from Leviticus 24:19-20)
• “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” (Matthew 9:13 from Hosea 6:6)

Jesus is the embodiment of New Testament theology but routinely cited the Old Testament to make that case.  We can’t outpreach Jesus.  For churches and Christians to demonstrate that Jesus is the Gospel (good news) personified, we’ll need to follow His example and share the bad news – that sin exists and we’re accountable for it.

Parallels

Divorcing the Old from the New Testament ignores the perfect symmetry between them.  The New Testament closes the loop seamlessly on stories told by its predecessor, much like a novel that drops early, subtle clues that later become the keys to the mystery’s resolution.  The flawless circularity of God’s providence and provision across multiple centuries of human history proves His inspiration of Scripture.

I’d venture to guess that few readers have heard about these inextricable connections in Scripture, not due to a lack of interest but inadequate education by America’s churches.  Unequivocable evidence of the Old Testament’s authority and timelessness forces its principles and demands on a culture unprepared to clear such a high bar.  Again, we don’t have room here to list all the little-known parallels between the Old and New Testament, but here are a few remarkable examples…

• Jesus was crucified at Golgatha (which is short for “Goliath of Gath” or “Place of the Skull”) where Goliath’s head was buried.  David defeated Goliath (who represented evil and the arrogance of mankind) and brought the head back to Jerusalem.  However, the skull had to be buried outside the city because a Philistine’s remains were considered unclean in a holy city.  Executions had to take place outside the city as well – so Jesus’ crucifixion (where He defeated sin/evil once and for all) took place literally on top of Goliath’s skull!
• In Exodus 32, at the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), Moses came down Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments, representing the 1^st covenant, and found the Israelites worshipping a golden calf.  Their disobedience (of the Law) resulted in judgment and the deaths of 3,000 that day.  In Acts 2, also at the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), Peter preached the first Gospel sermon, representing the 2^nd covenant, and the people’s faithfulness (by God’s grace) resulted in repentance and salvation of the same number of people (3,000) that day!
• A study by Carnegie Mellon University mapped 63,779 cross references in the King James Bible across its 1,189 chapters.  This interconnectedness and consistency of 66 books written over roughly 1,500 years by nearly 40 authors in several languages argues for divine origin.  The study depicts those cross references as thousands of arcs bridging the expanse from Old to New Testament.  The visual above illustrates the overriding theme spanning every book from Genesis to Revelation – the problem (sin) and solution (Jesus).

Biblical scholars devote an entire field of study to the discovery and analysis of parallels between the Old and New Testaments – called typology.  Nothing in the Old Testament is wasted – every story and character points to what is to come in Christ.

Prophecies

Every book in the Old Testament references Jesus directly or alludes to Him indirectly.  There are over 300 Messianic prophecies, and the odds of 8 prophecies being fulfilled by one person is 10 to the 17^th power or 1 in 100 quadrillion (according to former MIT mathematics professor Peter Stoner).  For 48 of those prophecies to be fulfilled, the odds plummet to 1 in 10 to the 157^th power.  The entire Old Testament pointed directly to Jesus, not just a Messiah.  Jesus understood what the Old Testament said about Him…

• “And beginning with Moses and the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scripture the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:26–27).
• “Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44)

However, it was the Father who made the prophecies about Jesus come to pass throughout His birth, life, and death.  Below are a few of the most extraordinary, yet rarely discussed in churches, Old Testament predictions pointing directly to Jesus…

• Exact Year of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry – Daniel 9:25 explicitly states, “From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven sevens, and sixty-two sevens.”  That math miraculously forecasted the timing of Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem (on Palm Sunday) 476 (solar) years after the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt (in 445 BC)!
• Proof Jesus Rose from the Dead – In Psalm 16:10 David writes, “Because you will not…let your Faithful One see decay.”  Few Christians are aware the widely publicized announcement in 1988 that the Shroud of Turin dates to the twelfth century has been debunked.  Scientists recently used cutting-edge techniques to date the shroud to around 2,000 years ago, place its origin near Jerusalem, and determine the image on cloth (of the exact wounds Jesus suffered) cannot be reproduced by any modern method (34 quadrillion watts of energy hitting the body within the Shroud for 1/40,000,000,000 of a second)!
• Jesus’ Advent and Childhood – The Old Testament prophesied Jesus’ virgin birth, birthplace, lineage, upbringing in Nazareth, and his family’s exile to Egypt (when Herod ordered the killing of newborns near Bethlehem) hundreds of years before those all (uncontrollable) events occurred exactly as predicted!

Every church and Christ-follower should see the Old Testament as indispensable because it precisely details the future birth, death, and resurrection of their Savior.

It’s Your Turn…

Please share this blog post with any believer who doesn’t see the Old and New Testament as a unified, overarching, and cohesive story that is incomplete without the other – interconnected seamlessly by proclamations, parallels, and prophecies.