Vol.II No.VI Pg.4
July 1965

Use Your Bible . . . . . .

Robert F. Turner

JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT, "PACKAGE DEAL" Skeptics are ever with us, and they dwell "among us" more than we like to admit. Attacks on the Old Testament are more frequent than on the New-- perhaps because its antiquity and language makes it more susceptible, and perhaps their N.T. ties are closer and warmer. Also, we have some "traditional" interpretations of O.T. passages that are error.

But Jesus made such use of the O.T. as to make faith in the Christ, and faith in many O.T. records a "package deal." One can not accept the veracity of Christ, and deny accounts He told as factual.

CREATION OF MAN (Gen.2:7, 18, 21-25) Was it a folk-tale, a legend from antiquity, non-historical? Jesus bases teaching upon these scriptures... Matt.19:4-6 NOAH AND THE FLOOD (Gen.6: 7: 8:) Imaginative story from the oft-flooded Euphrates valley? Jesus used it for a lesson concerning His coming... Matt.24:36-39 FIREY SERPENT ON A POLE (Num.21:4-9) Unreasonable, illogical superstition of old? Accept with same faith that accepts Jesus Christ... Jn.3:14-16 JONAH AND THE GREAT FISH (Jonah 1:17 2:1-10) Surely Christianity doesn't depend upon accepting this? The ONE SURE SIGN of Death, Burial, Resurrection... Matt.12:38-41 NAAMAN CLEANSED OF LEPROSY (2 Kings 5:1-14) Unlikely place, means, and element for such cleansing. Yes, that exactly what Naaman "thought". (Read record carefully.) Jesus uses this to illustrate world-wide salvation... Lu.4:24-27

JESUS SAID, "BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, I AM!" JN.8:56-58 Jesus saw past and future as easily as we see present-- for He is not "time bound." How foolish of us to think we can accept any portion of Christ's eternal existance without accepting all of Him.