Inconsistency?

One of the most common and recent attacks on Christianity is the claim that the Old Testament is outdated and inconsistent with the New Testament.  Even Mr. Obama himself claimed in a speech a few years back that Leviticus tells us to never eat shellfish and take up slaves.  It frustrates me when people who clearly have never read the Bible front to back try to interpret the small amount of they have seen.  

You see, the Bible is not random or out of order; but, if you pick it up and read random bits here and there... it will never make sense.  Quite simply, the whole book is about God's plan to redeem his people through the ultimate sacrifice of His son.    

So, lets start with a brief discussion of the Old Testament Laws.  We are talking about a very very different time in our history.  Because God is perfect and Holy in every way, He cannot be in the presence of our sin.  Unfortunately, at this time in history, Salvation had not yet entered the world.  Therefore, the Old Testament takes up much time describing what should be done to be "clean enough" to approach a Holy God.  The people in the Old Testament had to atone for their sin through sacrificial systems.      

Taking this even further... lets think about what is going on in the early New Testament.  The Exodus  out of Egypt has taken place and the Hebrews are wondering around the desert.  These Hebrews, God's chosen people or not, have known nothing but slavery and the Egyptian ways for many generations.  They doubted him, they worshiped other gods, and they were probably not always "clean."  Don't get me wrong, I think there were many of them that were very faithful people... but they were out of touch.  So God gives them the Ten Commandments.  These Commandments dealt mainly with how we should morally live.  Then God created the Old Testament Law.  These laws are the "clean" laws that are constantly quoted from Leviticus.  These Laws defined how to live, how to worship and how to atone sin in order to approach a Holy God.  If broken, some of these laws were punishable by death.  Why?  because once again... times were different.  God's people were part of a nation-state where sin was a huge deal.  Let's be clear... all sins had civil penalties, be it death or something else.  So the point of all this... to make it Chrystal Clear that we NEED Purification.. we NEED Redemption and Salvation. 

Fast Forward to the books of the Gospel and Jesus begins to paint a different story.  Throughout Jesus' ministry he begins to overturn the sacrificial laws of the New Testament.  When Jesus dies on the Cross, the veil in the temple is torn literally symbolizing the end of the sacrificial laws and the beginning of redemption through a savior.  Because of Jesus' death... AND resurrection... we no longer need clean laws.  We no longer need to atone for our sin or offer burnt sacrifices in the temple.  The Law has been fufilled.

So this is where things become blurry for people.

If the Law was overturned then why do we continue to follow some laws in the Old Testament... why can't we completely ignore them all?  Because Jesus didn't didn't change how we live... but how we worship and how we receive atonement for our sins.  

What Laws are still in play?  Laws of morality and sexual laws are still laws we should live by and are backed up by the New Testament and Jesus' ministry.  Moral Laws define God's character and the character he created us to live up to.  

Why can we ignore the laws that tell us to execute sinners in the Old Testament?  We no longer need to punish people personally for "sins" by death because we no longer live in a nation-state with God as the figurehead.  God's people live across the world in many different churches and many different governments.  Sins continue to be sins... but the penalties change.  

When read from cover to cover... The Bible makes sense and is completely consistent.  People, however, are not.  Lets not charge God's written word with inconsistency!

To sum up... A blog article I read recently put this all into a great new perspective.  As Christians, when we refuse to to follow the moral law God set in place... we deny His very character, His plan and everything He created us to be.  Likewise...  following the ceremonial sacrificial clean laws of the Old Testament would deny the power of Jesus' death on the Cross, meaning you reject his gift of salvation.  Therefore, the Moral Laws must be followed and the Clean Laws must be ignored. 

-Morgan