Don’t ask me where I saw this or read this, because I didn’t write it down at the time and anyway, it wasn’t in just one place.
There is a suggestion, going back centuries, that Christians don’t need the Old Testament, all that crazy animal sacrifice, long-dead kings, and so much else that just ain’t happenin’ now. All right: the New Testament itself (see several chapters of Hebrews) explains why the animal sacrifices aren’t necessary anymore, given that Our Lord Jesus Christ has sacrificed Himself. In the Book of Acts, the apostles–men who’d known Jesus face to face–ruled that new Christians did not have to adopt Jewish dietary laws and customs (although they found no reason not to, if such was one’s desire to honor God).
But–!
Take out of the New Testament all quotations from the Psalms, all references to the prophets (especially Isaiah), and the word of Our Lord Himself, for whom the Old Testament was Scripture, and who used it in His teaching–remove all that, and you’re left with a pretty thin little book. In fact, there is no New Testament without the Old.
There are plenty of bent clergy types who very much want “Christianity”–they still use the label, and ought to be ashamed of doing so–to be severed from the Old Testament. They want a nice “spiritual” religion of nothing in particular: the Church of Nothing in Particular. All those irksome restrictions on our sex lives! And what harm does an idol do, anyway? It’s just an old-fashioned smart phone!
I think it’s risky to get out of bed without the whole Bible in your life.
