{"id":1530,"date":"2018-10-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/prophets-philosophers-can-i-trust-the-old-testament-2\/"},"modified":"2022-04-15T21:26:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-16T01:26:54","slug":"prophets-philosophers-can-i-trust-the-old-testament","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/prophets-philosophers-can-i-trust-the-old-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Trust the Old Testament?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Old Testament presents us with difficult sayings, laws, stories, and customs. Can it still be trusted as God\u2019s Word? The quick answer is: Yes!<\/p>\n<p>Here are some powerful reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The OT was the Bible for the first-century Jews, for Jesus and the disciples, and for the early church. It\u2019s the foundation for the New Testament.<\/li>\n<li>Prophets, rulers, shepherds, priests, and scribes wrote the OT over roughly a thousand-year period from their own perspectives, within their own historical situations, and to their own audiences. And yet the OT isn\u2019t just a human book of fables, superstitions, and wishful thinking. As the NT says, the OT is inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:20-21) and \u201cinspired by God\u201d (2 Tim. 3:16).<\/li>\n<li>The OT is not just about God. Its major purpose is to point to Jesus as the promised Messiah through stories, prophecies, foreshadowing, allegories, the sacrificial system, and other literary hints and pictures. For example, the story in Genesis 22 of Abraham being told to sacrifice his son Isaac (and then being stopped from doing so) is a wonderful picture of what God would one day do in sacrificing his Son (although that sacrifice would not be stopped).<\/li>\n<li>The OT directs us to worship the promised Messiah, the Son of Man and Savior of the world (Daniel 7:13-14).<\/li>\n<li>Jesus didn\u2019t come to abolish the OT, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). He based his spiritual and ethical teachings on it and quoted from it extensively.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus never bad-mouthed the OT, but held it in highest esteem as God\u2019s authoritative Word (Matt. 5:17-20).<\/li>\n<li>Like the ancient prophets of Israel, Jesus amplified and intensified the OT\u2019s message (see Matt. 5-7).<\/li>\n<li>Jesus called the God of the OT \u201cMy Father\u201d (Matt. 7:21), \u201cour Father\u201d (Matt. 6:9), and \u201cyour heavenly Father\u201d (Matt. 5:48). His whole ministry was devoted to teaching us to trust this God.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus\u2019 life, miracles, death on the cross, and resurrection \u2014 as well as the signs, miracles, and wonders done in His name by the early church \u2014 fulfilled OT prophecies, proving the OT is God\u2019s Word.<\/li>\n<li>The OT is not just about Jesus (see Luke 24:25:27; John 5:39,46); in a very real sense, its author is Jesus! We know this because John\u2019s Gospel calls Jesus Christ \u201cthe Word\u201d who was in the beginning (see Gen. 1:1) \u201cwith God,\u201d who \u201cwas God,\u201d through whom everything came to existence, and who at a certain time in history became a human being (John 1:1-3,14).<\/li>\n<li>Israel\u2019s scribes carefully preserved and transmitted the message and the words of the OT \u2014 the Holy Scriptures \u2014 to later generations. They made sure God\u2019s words to people back then would be available for us today.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In other words, Jesus Christ (God the Son) is the uncreated, eternal Word of God through whom God the Father spoke the universe into existence. Jesus also is the uncreated, eternal Word of God guaranteeing the truth and authority of the written Word of God, both the OT and NT.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, we can put our confidence in the OT because Jesus Christ is not just its main subject. He, along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, is its source and inspiration.<\/p>\n<p><em>This post is an excerpt from the\u00a0<\/em>Apologetics Study Bible for Students<em>\u00a0by Holman Bible Publishers. It is used with permission. You can purchase this resource in its entirety\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bhpublishinggroup.com\/products\/csb-apologetics-study-bible-for-students-trade-paper\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Old Testament presents us with difficult sayings, laws, stories, and customs. Can it still be &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/prophets-philosophers-can-i-trust-the-old-testament\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Can I Trust the Old Testament?<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2353,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"channels":[],"topics":[9,13],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-1530","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-article","topics-apologetics","topics-bible"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.0 (Yoast SEO v24.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can I Trust the Old Testament? - Apologetics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/prophets-philosophers-can-i-trust-the-old-testament\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can I Trust the Old Testament?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Old Testament presents us with difficult sayings, laws, stories, and customs. 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