we serve and the kind of God we find revealed through Scripture.
You may find it surprising that it was actually the Old Testament that brought my Christian experience to life. The Old Testament God generally has a rather poor reputation, even in Christian circles. But it was indeed my study of the Old Testament which has forced me to reexamine my understanding of God and has led me to a much clearer grasp of how he would have me live and what he would have me believe about him.
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Throughout the book you will recognize an active dialogue with the New Testament, with traditional Christian positions, with modern scholarship and with Christian experience. The book is not really designed to be “scholarly,” but it does attempt to show how modern scholarship can often shed fresh light on biblical interpretation. I have discovered that taking a fresh look at Scripture in the light of modern scholarship can lead to very worthwhile gains in the understanding of Scripture, and thus for Christian experience.
Conservatives have often been quite hostile to modern scholarship; part of the reason for that hostility no doubt stems from the rough treatment that their approach has sometimes received at the hands of biblical scholars. In any event, more heat than light has often been generated, and that has been most unfortunate. My own serious exposure to modern biblical scholarship came from the faculty of New College at the University of Edinburgh, under the direction of men who were extremely helpful even though they did not always share my convictions. They asked the questions that I needed to face, questions that conservatives have often avoided. The experience forced me to confront God and his word in a way that ultimately has led to this book.
Fundamental to the approach I have taken is the position that “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). That means Old Testament as well as New. Furthermore, I am convinced that we should never let Christian tradition or even another passage of Scripture rob us of the opportunity of coming afresh to each passage of Scripture as God’s word to us. The Bible is normative, but we must not impose upon it a false unity which would have the practical effect of denying canonical status to certain parts of Scripture. Conservatives have often overlooked that canonical principle, if not in theory, at least in practice, for we have often assumed that the New Testament must always have the last word even in the interpretation of Old Testament passages. I develop this argument in the first chapter, probably the most crucial one in the book, though others may be more helpful in other ways.
The discovery that I want to share above all else is that the Scriptures of the Old Testament can remain alive and can lead us to a fresh appreciation of all that God has done for us. That really is what the gospel is all about.
Alden Thompson Walla Walla College College Place, WA 99324 1988
1
Don’t let your New Testament get in the way of your Old Testament
In many and various ways God spoke of old by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son (Hebrews 1:1-2).
“Some day I am going to write a book about all the unchristian sayings in the New Testament!” Thus, in a tone at least partially serious, a well-known Old Testament scholar revealed his unhappiness with the sometimes less-than-subtle claim of his New Testament colleagues that theirs was the superior Testament. According to the common generalization, the New Testament is the source of all that is good, kind, and loving, embodied most of all in the person of Jesus Christ who reveals the friendly face of God. As the story goes, however, the Old Testament is at best a mixed bag. The occasional flash of brilliance may lighten the path of the believer, but on the whole, the angry, the vindictive, the bloodthirsty, is far more prominent.
Now I suspect that there is at least a grain of truth in this common view of the two parts of our Christian Bible. At least I have never heard a Christian contrast the beauty and attractiveness of the Old Testament with the horrors of the New. No, Christians have always found refuge in the New Testament when the problems of the Old Testament have threatened to engulf them. In fact, some Christians even go so far as to claim with emphasis that they are New Testament Christians for whom the Old Testament is no longer authoritative.
Even if the problems with the Old Testament should stem from some monumental misunderstanding, the fact that such a misunderstanding is so common is something we must reckon with. But perhaps at the outset I should remind you of some of the likely candidates for my friend’s book on the so-called unchristian aspects of the New Testament. Wasn’t it Jesus who suggested that certain people deserved to have a millstone fastened round their necks and to be drowned in the depths of the sea (Matt. 18:6)? And didn’t he openly call some people blind hypocrites, comparing them to an old burial ground, full of dead men’s bones (Matt. 23:27-28)? And then there was Peter. For all practical purposes he told Ananias and Sapphira to drop dead (Acts 5:1-11). To add to the stories, Paul told the church at Corinth to deliver one of their brothers to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor. 5:5), and to drive out the wicked person from among them (1 Cor. 5:13). Finally, we must not forget the book of Revelation: blood, dragons, pits of fire, and even a God who spews people out of his mouth (Rev. 3:16).
You could rightly accuse me of greatly distorting the faith by bringing that particular collection of sayings and events together without regard for context or the author’s apparent intention. But that is precisely what happens to the Old Testament. Having grown up in the Christian community, I know the basic Old Testament “list” quite well. Pride of place goes to poor Uzzah who was only trying to be helpful when stumbling oxen endangered the ark of God, yet God struck him dead (2 Sam. 6:6-9); two angry bears mauled forty-two “innocent” children who were disrespectful to their elders (2 Kings 2:23-25). If you are so bold as to complain about the way God is doing things, then he will send serpents to bite you (Num. 21:4-9) or he will command the earth to swallow you alive (Num. 16:21-35). If you wish, you may add to the list the Genesis flood and the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, for these, too, have often been cited as part of the evidence for a heavyhanded Old Testament God who flies into a destructive rage the moment someone crosses his will or breaks one of his commands.
Now I hope that you will pardon the way in which I have listed the above horror stories. If it is not already too late, I should perhaps even make a special plea right here for you not to toss aside such an irreverent book as this. I have several good friends who think it highly inappropriate ever to say anything that even hints at the slightest deficiency in God’s style of leadership (perhaps taking their cue from Romans 9:20), and they are quick to caution me about the dangers of doubt. I am sensitive to those who feel that way, for I, too, am deeply concerned about the damage that doubt can cause. In this world, none of us is ever “safe” from doubt, but as I put these words on paper, I must say that my convictions about the goodness of God are deeper and stronger because I have looked squarely at my “small” doubts and have found answers which have brought genuine blessing.
When I say “small” doubts, I am alluding to the fact that my experience has always been within the Christian community. I am the product of a careful and devout Christian home—a home for which I am immensely thankful. At the same time, the Old Testament stories (and the New Testament ones) of the type listed above can leave scars when mishandled and applied wrongly, even by well-meaning Christians. I know that I am not alone in having had at least “small” doubts as a result of biblical material misunderstood and misapplied. Small doubts can easily mushroom into large ones and become extremely destructive. Indeed, even small doubts are no fun. But what is perhaps most significant for this book is that the very material which previously had been the cause of doubt has now become the source of great blessing.
So I intend to speak quite frankly about some of the “problems” of the Old Testament. I really hope that those who have struggled with these same problems will also be able to transform their doubts into cornerstones of faith. From my own experience, I am convinced
