IS CHRISTIANITY PRIMITIVE AND TRIBAL?

Many try to disparage the Christian faith and the Bible by quoting OT passages they know are found unacceptable by today’s culture. Here is one way to counter this attack. This is what I had written to several skeptics:

“While we regard the entire Bible as inspired, we also regard Mosaic Law as temporary, symbolic, and entirely fulfilled by Jesus’ death on the Cross.

Therefore, Christians are no longer under the Mosaic Law but the New Covenant:

·       In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:13)

The NT claims that everything that had been promised in the OT has been fulfilled in Christ:

·       For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Therefore, we must no longer judge those who do not follow the OT Law:

·       Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)

So much of the Mosaic Law had been symbolic and didn’t represent enduring moral principles, like those embodied within the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. Now that the Substance (Messiah – the Savior) has come, we no longer need the symbols of His coming. (Admittedly, much of the symbolism we no longer understand.)

·       For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4)

I hope that this has been helpful. I also hope that you see that those who try to disparage the Christian faith by citing OT passages are really off-the-mark.”