K Neill Foster

Welcome to Classic Christianity

First published by Christian Publications, Inc., 3825 Hartzdale Drive,Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17011 Republished by www.kneillfoster.com in 2005. K. Neill Foster, Publisher. Paul L. King, Editor. A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, Editorial Voice.


WELCOME TO:
CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/THE E-ZINE
ISSUE 26

THEME: “THE OLD TESTAMENT AND NEW”

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Published by K. Neill Foster

K. Neill Foster, Publisher www.kneillfoster.com

Paul L. King, Editor
A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, Editorial Voice

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE:
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the
International Bible Society. Scripture labeled KJV is from the King James
Version.

Note: Some of the language may be updated, paraphrased for clearer understanding or condensed for space.

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CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/THE INDEX
THEME: THE OLD TESTAMENT AND NEW

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1) THE PUBLISHER ON “LINKING THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS”

2) THE EDITOR ON “NO DICHOTOMY BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW”

3) A.W. TOZER ON “THE ONE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT GOD”

4) A.W. TOZER ON “THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS OLD AND NEW”

5) A.W. TOZER ON “GRACE AND LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND NEW”

6) A.W. TOZER ON “THE AGE OF GOD’S GRACE AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS”

7) THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH ON “THE PROPHETS AND THE GOSPELS”

8) IGNATIUS ON “THE GOSPEL AS THE CONSUMMATION OF THE OLD”

9) JUSTIN MARTYR ON “MY SPIRIT WAS SET ON FIRE”

10) IRENAEUS ON “THE ORDER AND CONNECTION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS”

11) ATHENAGORAS ON “THE PROPHETS LIFTED ABOVE THEIR WAYS OF THINKING”

12) AUGUSTINE ON “THE OLD TESTAMENT CONCEALED, THE NEW TESTAMENT REVEALED”

13) MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546) ON “THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL”

14) CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892) ON “THE DEVIL DOESN’T LIKE DEUTERONOMY”

15) CHARLES H. SPURGEON ON “THE OLD TESTAMENT AS SACRED AS THE NEW”

16) A.B. SIMPSON ON “THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST FROM THE GOSPEL OF MOSES”

17) SAMUEL CHADWICK ON “PENTECOST THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT”


1) THE PUBLISHER ON “LINKING THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS”

There is a symbiotic relationship between Old Testament believers and New Testament believers. Exactly what that connection is I intend to explore here—though not exhaustively of course.

As we know, the Old Testament anticipates and prefigures the New. The New Testament, on the other hand, fulfills and elaborates on the Old.

These brief comments are scripturally based, focusing on Romans 15:4: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The assumptions derived from this text are several:

1) It connects the New with the Old.

2) In addition, the Old establishes relevance from the Old to the New.

3) This text elevates endurance in the Old to the New.

4) This text also encourages and facilitates a connection from the New to the Old.

5.This text offers hope to the New from the Old.

I will go so far as to say this: all major New Testament truths are anticipated and prefigured in the Old Testament. We should look askance at any new idea that fails to connect with the Old Testament.


2) THE EDITOR ON “NO DICHOTOMY BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW”

Some people try to make a dichotomy between the Old and New Testament, saying we are New Testament Christians, not Old. But Jesus did not make such a dichotomy. The early heretic Marcion tried to make the Old Testament inferior to the New and the God of the Old Testament opposed to the God of the New. The Church Fathers affirmed the inspiration and the equality of both Testaments.

We sometimes forget that the Old Testament was the only Bible of the New Testament church for the first two decades of its existence. The New Testament had not yet been written. Those who argue from silence that New Testament worship did not use musical instruments do not realize that the psalms, which include exhortations to play instruments, were the handbook of worship for the earliest church. Those who claim, again from silence, that such principles as tithing are not taught in the New Testament, forget that such Old Testament exhortations were the guidebook of the New Testament Church. The Old Testament provides examples, instructions and warnings relevant to New Testament Church life (1 Corinthians 10:6, 11).

We cannot fully understand the New Testament without the Old, nor can we fully understand the Old Testament without the lens of the New Testament. They are a two-volume set meant to be read as a whole. To summarize Augustine, “The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.”


3) A.W. TOZER (1897-1963) ON “THE ONE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT GOD”

Now, let me remind you that we are not just noting the willingness of an Old Testament Deity to reveal Himself to individuals in a dispensation past. It is a great and tragic mistake when Christians are led to believe that there is an Old Testament God, heavy-browed, stern of heart, always condemning, while God the Son, revealed in the New Testament, is tender-hearted, loving, forgiving.

Both the Old and New Testaments teach that the essence of true faith and true worship is the love of God. We are assured that however He manifests Himself, He is always the same God. It is rank error to suppose that the God of Abraham, Moses, Elijah and Isaiah was not the God who fills the pages of the New Testament. This concept would divide the substance of the Deity, contrary to the Scriptures and contrary to all Christian theology.

I hold fast to the opinion that our God is ever trying to reveal Himself to us. There is no way for us sinful men and women to find our way into God’s presence unless He reveals Himself and appears to us.

A.W. Tozer, MEN WHO MET GOD (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1986), 122.


4) A.W. TOZER ON “THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS OLD AND NEW”

Thought and prayer and a spiritual understanding of the Scriptures will reveal the unity of all things. What appear to be a million separate and unrelated phenomena are actually but different phases of a single whole. Everything is related to everything else. . . .

Everything that God is accords with all else that He is. Every thought He entertains is one with every other thought. . . . The notion that the Old Testament differs radically from the New is erroneous. God wrote both and in them revealed certain spiritual laws which underlie all His creative and redemptive acts. These laws are one wherever they operate, in heaven or earth or hell. The Bible reveals God acting like Himself as He touches His creation; and an unchanging God is there seen acting according to moral and spiritual principles that can never change nor pass away. . . .

The concept of the unity of all things runs throughout the Sacred Scriptures. It is strongly emphasized in devotional theology and appears frequently in Christian hymnody.

A.W. Tozer, BORN AFTER MIDNIGHT, (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1989), 116.

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5) A.W. TOZER ON “GRACE AND LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND NEW”

It is a typical and accepted teaching in Christian churches today that Moses and the Old Testament knew only God’s law, and that Christ and the New Testament know only God’s grace.

I repeat: that is the “accepted” teaching of the hour— but I also hasten to add that it is a mistaken concept, and that it was never the concept held and taught by the early Christian church fathers.

God has always been the God of all grace, and He does not change. Immutability is an attribute of God; therefore God at all times and in all of history must act like Himself! He is the God of all grace; therefore the grace of God does not ebb and flow like the ocean tides. There has always been the fullness of grace in the heart of God. There is no more grace now than there was previously and there will never be any more grace than there is now!

The flow of God’s grace did not begin when Christ came to die for us. It was part of God’s ancient plan of redemption and was manifested in the blood and tears and pain and death at Calvary’s cross!

A.W. Tozer, RENEWED EVERY DAY, (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1980), Vol. 1, June 1.


6) A.W. TOZER ON “THE AGE OF GOD’S GRACE AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS”

Because we live in a period known as the age of God’s grace, it has become a popular thing to declare that the Ten Commandments are no longer valid, no longer relevant in our society. With that context, it has become apparent that Christian churches are not paying attention to the Ten Commandments.

But Dwight L. Moody preached often in the commandments. John Wesley said he preached the commands of the Law to prepare the way for the gospel. R. A. Torrey told ministers if they did not preach the Law they would have no response to the preaching of the gospel. It is the Law that shows us our need for the gospel of salvation and forgiveness!

It is accurate to say that our binding obligation is not to the Old Testament Law. As sincere Christians we are under Christ’s higher law—that which is represented in His love and grace. But everything that is morally commanded in the Ten Commandments still comprises the moral principles that are the will of God for His people. God’s basic moral will for His people has not changed!

A.W. Tozer, RENEWED EVERY DAY, (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1980), Vol. 1, June 14.


7) THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH (c. 115-c. 181) ON “THE PROPHETS AND THE GOSPELS”

Because the Prophets and the Gospels were bearers of the one and only Spirit of God, they both spoke out through the Holy Spirit with equal emphasis for that justice which the Law demands.

Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus III.12.


8) IGNATIUS (30-107) ON “THE GOSPEL AS THE CONSUMMATION OF THE OLD”

“[Jesus Christ] is the Door to the Father through which alone enter Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the prophets, and the apostles and the Church. . . . The beloved prophets pointed to Him in their prophecies, but the Gospel is the consummation of incorruption.”

Ignatius, “Letter to the Philadelphians,” 8-9.


9) JUSTIN MARTYR (110-165) ON “MY SPIRIT WAS SET ON FIRE”

“What teacher,” I asked the old man, “shall one turn to, and what system of philosophy can be of use if the truth is not to be found even in the systems of Plato and Pythagoras?”

“A long time ago,” he answered me, “long before all these so-called philosophers, there lived men who were happy, just, and loved God, who spoke in the Spirit of God, foretelling the future and all the events which are now actually taking place. We call these men prophets. It is they alone who have seen the truth and proclaimed it to men without fearing or flattering them or thirsting for personal glory. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they expressed only that which they heard and saw. . . . They are concerned with the origin and end of things, and with anything at all which is a necessary part of a philosopher’s basic knowledge. . . . Pray that above all the gates of light may be open to you! For none can perceive and understand unless God and His Christ grant him the grace of comprehension.”

My spirit was immediately set on fire, and a love for the prophets and for those who are friends of Christ took possession of me.

Justin Martyr, “Dialogue with Trypho the Jew,” 3.1; 4.1; 7.1-3; 8.1.


10) IRENAEUS (120-202) ON “THE ORDER AND CONNECTION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS”

To use a common proverb, [Gnostics] strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavor with an air of probability to adapt to their own peculiar assertions to the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles. This is in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions. . . . In like manner do these persons patch together old wives’ fables, from their proper connection, words, expressions, and parables whenever found, to adapt the oracles of God to their baseless fictions. (1)

The entire Scriptures, the prophets, and the Gospels, can be clearly, unambiguously, and harmoniously understood by all. (2)

(1) Irenaeus, “Against Heresies,” Chapter 8.

(2) Irenaeus, “Against Heresies,” Chapter 27.


11) ATHENAGORAS (c. 177) ON “THE PROPHETS LIFTED ABOVE THEIR WAYS OF THINKING”

The statements of the prophets confirm our arguments. You, with your intellectual curiosity and great learning, will have heard of the sayings of men like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets. Lifted in ecstasy above their own ways of thinking by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, they prophesied the things they were prompted to say. The Spirit used them in this way just as a flute player blows the flute. Let us hear, then, what they say.”

Athenagoras, “A Plea Regarding Christians,” 9.


12) AUGUSTINE (354-430) ON “THE OLD TESTAMENT CONCEALED, THE NEW TESTAMENT REVEALED”

What is concealed in [the Old Testament] under the veil of earthly promises is clearly revealed in the preaching of the New Testament. Our Lord Himself briefly demonstrated and defined the use of the Old Testament writings, when He said that it was necessary that what had been written concerning Himself in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, should be fulfilled, and that this was that Christ must suffer, and rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. In agreement with this is that

statement of Peter which I have already quoted, how that all the prophets bear witness to Christ, that at His hands every one that believes in Him receives remission of his sins.

Augustine, “On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants,” Book 1, Chapter 53, “The Utility of the Books of the Old Testament.”


13) MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546) ON “THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL”

The Law teaches what we are to do and not to do; the Gospel teaches what God has done, and still does, for our salvation. The Law shows us our sin and the wrath of God; the Gospel shows us our Savior and the grace of God. The Law must be preached to all men, especially impenitent sinners; the Gospel must be preached to sinners who are troubled in their minds because of their sins.

Martin Luther, DR. MARTIN LUTHER’S SMALL CATECHISM (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1943), 43.


14) CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892) ON “THE DEVIL DOESN’T LIKE DEUTERONOMY”

It is noteworthy that all the passages quoted by our Lord [during His temptation] are from the Book of Deuteronomy, which book has been so grievously assailed by the destructive critics. Thus did our Lord put special honor upon that part of the Old Testament which he foresaw would be most attacked. The past few years have proved that the devil does not like Deuteronomy: he would fain avenge himself for the wounds it caused him on this most memorable occasion. . . .

The Old Testament ended with a curse; the New Testament opens with a blessing.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Chapter 4, Matthew 4:1-11, Matthew 4:12-25, THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM: A POPULAR EXPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 37.


15) CHARLES H. SPURGEON ON “THE OLD TESTAMENT AS SACRED AS THE NEW”

The Old Testament stands in all its parts, both as to “the late and the prophets.” The Lord Jesus knew nothing of “destructive criticism.” He establishes in its deepest sense all that is written in Holy Scripture, and puts a new fullness into it. This he says before he proceeds to make remarks upon the sayings of men of old time. He is himself the fulfillment and substance of the types, and prophecies, and commands of the law. . . . Not a syllable is to become effete. Even to the smallest letters, the dot of every “i”, and the crossing of every “t”, the law will outlast the creation. The Old Testament is as sacredly guarded as the New.

Charles H. Spurgeon, Matthew 5:17-20, THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM: A POPULAR EXPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 49.


16) A.B. SIMPSON (1843-1919) ON “THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST FROM THE GOSPEL OF MOSES”

The Gospel according to Moses is as real as the Gospel according to John. . . . The story of creation is full of Christ. He was the WORD which God spoke when He SAID, Let there be light. The creation of man in the image of God was a foreshadowing of the Incarnation, and the breathing of life into the breathless clay was a type of regeneration. . . . The Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life all have their counterpart in the finished Redemption and Paradise restored. . . .

What was there in the antediluvian age to point to Christ? The sacrifice of Abel pointed to His cross. The ark of Noah foreshadowed His salvation. The life of Enoch was the type of His holy example.

And where is Christ in the dark times of the postdiluvian age? In the sacrifice of Noah, in the rainbow covenant, in the priestly and kingly offices of Melchizedek, and in the Redeemer of Job, we see again the foreshadowing of the Cross of Calvary and the King of Peace.

A.B. Simpson, CHRIST IN THE BIBLE COMMENTARY (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1992), 1:4, 6.


17) SAMUEL CHADWICK (1860-1932) ON “PENTECOST THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT”

Pentecost gave me the key to the Scriptures. It has kept my feet in all the slippery places of all sorts of criticism. The things that are stumbling blocks to so many are stepping stones to me. The inexplicable becomes plain when we recognize the presence and law of the Spirit. . . . Indeed, learning without the Holy Ghost blinds men to the realities of divine truth.

Samuel Chadwick, quoted in “Understanding the Scriptures,” THE ALLIANCE WEEKLY, December 7, 1940, 771.