Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
‘American pastor Andy Stanley stated in a 2018 sermon, “Peter, James, [and] Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.”
He’s not the only one with this opinion. Many believers today think the Old Testament is obsolete, and all that matters now is the New Testament.
But how can you love the New Testament and the gospel message if you don’t know the Hebrew Scriptures on which the Good News is built? The authors of the New Testament loved God’s Word too. But until they wrote their Gospels and Epistles, the only Scripture they had ever received from God came in the books of law, prophecy, and writings of the Tanakh—the Jewish Bible.
Many churches today struggle to appreciate the divine truths God has spoken to us through the Old Testament. A 2019 Pew Research study of U.S. churches found that evangelicals hear from the New Testament in 93 percent of sermons, while Old Testament Scripture appears in only 66 percent of sermons—a discouraging 27-percent gap, despite the fact that the Old Testament is more than three times longer than the New.
These churches may preach on the value of Paul’s teaching from 2 Timothy 3:16–17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” But such teaching rings hollow if the Old Testament is pushed aside on Sunday mornings and in personal study.
Like those who read Scripture thousands of years ago, we have the great privilege of knowing our unchanging, holy God through the pages of the Tanakh. Without the lens of the Old Testament and its Jewish context, we miss so much of the beauty of New Testament Scripture God has made plain to those who study the Bible faithfully.’https://israelmyglory.org/article/from-the-editor-jul-aug-2023/
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