The Fulfillment of the Old Testament

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The promises and ritual of the Old Testament point toward Jesus' life and work.

God's covenant and promises with Israel were fulfilled in the final form when his only son Jesus took on human flesh. The Old Testament points toward the final victory of Jesus.

The continuity between the Old and New Testament is that the Old Testament finds its ultimate significance in the person and work of Jesus. Often the discontinuity of the testaments is exaggerated.

In reality the Old Testament is in complete continuity with the New. It is unclear how easily much of the prophecy in the Old Testament would have been understood.

Liberal scholars often attempt to make a case that since the prophecy in the Old Testament might have at times been misunderstood by its readers the prophecy could not be about Jesus. It is of course a fallacious argument of the worst type. The misunderstanding of a text does not make the misunderstanding the valid reading of a text.

The Old Testament points to Jesus. The final covenant between God and mankind commenced when God sent his only son Jesus to fulfill all righteousness on our behalf.

Prophecy as Apologetic

The Old Testament is full of imagery of Jesus. Much of the temple imagery is based upon what would later be fulfilled by Jesus.

All through the Old Testament the bible is filled with prophecy of Jesus.

I have heard some people say that the most powerful apologetic for Christianity is explaining the Old Testament prophecy related to Jesus. I agree with this point.

It is often a far more helpful apologetic to unfold the Old Testament prophecy regarding the coming Messiah than to argue solely by reason. You see reason is heavily influenced by emotion. We often only accept what pleases us.

The Old Testament prophecy regarding the Messiah is more powerful for various reasons. First it bypasses human reason in the sense that we meet something we cannot explain by human reason. We meet God telling us what will happen if we have ears to hear.

Also we meet in the bible an appealing reason to accept God. If we truly understand who God is then we will desire to accept him.

Liberalism a False "Christianity"

This is a much longer post than usual for me, but I feel it is important. If it is to long feel free to skip it.

To me the importance is knowing what liberalism is so if we find ourselves in a church with these beliefs we will realize this church is not base on true Christianity.

What is "Liberalism?" Liberalism is a belief system that is parasitic on traditional Christianity, but is not Christianity.

It tries to pass itself off as Christianity by using the traditional language of the bible, but it is non-salvific and non-redemptive in nature.

Liberalism rejects the inspiration of scripture and thus rejects the bibles claims about itself. It also rejects Jesus' claims about the bible and the early churches' witness the the claims made by the apostles about scripture.

Liberalism rejects prophecy because it rejects inspiration, which is an error on the same grounds.

Liberalism redacts scriptural elements which it does not like. Liberalism thus stands over and not under the teaching of God.

Liberalism desupernaturalizes the world. Often a person is a material object and the spiritual nature of the world as witnessed by the bible is gone.

Liberalism rejects traditional salvation principles. These are the principles laid out in the Gospels and other NT books about how faith in Jesus' work of salvation in the cross alone brings salvation.

Liberalism rejects that the bible has a coherent story leading to the cross. It thus rejects the teaching of Jesus, the bible and the early church.

Liberalism replaces faith with a moralism and is a set of teaching and functions as a social club rather than a place to seek salvation.

Liberalism rejects missions since salvation is no longer a part of their agenda. Again in opposition to the teachings of the religion the pretend to hold.

Liberalism is dishonest in that it seeks unity at all costs even if it bends the truth and the creeds of it's churches.

No church is perfect but if we find ourselves in one with these features we may need to seriously question if the church is truly seeking to be faithful to God.