By Jon Zens
Jon Zens' Web Page 'Searching Together'

The Old Testament was the "Bible" of the first churches. How Christians are to use the O.T. is an important question. Obviously, we can with safety assert that the O.T. is Christ-centered: "they testify of Me" (John 5:39) However, given theoretical assent on this proposition, Christians still have radical disagreements about the use of the O.T.

Theological emphases tend to divert people from the Christ centeredness of the O.T. Dispensationalists see the O.T. as focused on God's earthly purpose for Israel. Some Covenant Theologians emphasize the "commandments" in the O.T. that Christians and magistrates are to obey. Many Bible-believers use the O.T. in a subjective-devotionaI manner, often falling back on the allegorical method.

The basic answer as to how we are to read and apply the O.T. is discovered by examining how the New Testament employs the Old. If this is done, it will be apparent that the "first Christians read it only from the perspective of the Jesus revelation." Even the "ethical" use of the O.T. (per 2 Tim.3:16) is permeated with a Christ-centered viewpoint.

There is no evidence that the N.T. uses the O.T in a "case-law" fashion. Abraham Kuyper, perhaps inconsistently with his total theology, made the following remarks .

Hence the O.T passages which refer to this service [Rom.9:4] have not the meaning for us which they had for them. Every feature of it had a binding force for them....And they who in the N.T. dispensation seek to introduce tithing, or to restore the kingdom and the judiciary of the days of the O.T., undertake, according to past experience, a hopeless task: their efforts show poor success, and their whole attitude proves that they do not enioy the full measure of the liberty of the children of God.

Not only does the N.T. not use the O.T. as a law-book, it is not concerned to "find" Christ in every goat's hair and spice mentioned in the O.T.

It is ironic to note that initially the O.T. provided unity for the churches as long as Christ was viewed as central in it. But as time elapsed, its misuse became a source of division in the churches as some sought to impose the Jewish way of life on Gentile converts (Acts 15:1,5).