A man called Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese military soldier who was deployed in December 1944, during the second world war, to defend a small island in the Philippines where he remained on standby for the following 30 years unaware that the war finished in September 1945. Although he was decorated and honoured when he finally returned to Japan in 1974, the fact is that he lost 3 decades of his life fighting in vain.
Sadly, this unusual but true story illustrates what happens when Christians get stuck in Old Testament times without moving into the New Testament era, they become outdated and even turn into modern day Pharisees unable to follow their own rules.
We must read and follow the entire Scripture, understanding that it contains the “Creation, the Fall, the Redemption and the Consummation”, but realising that we are in the “Redemption” times. The Bible itself reveals that the Old Testament law was insufficient to bring about redemption. It is in the New Testament that we discover that redemption is only found in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for humanity.
Actually, the Old Testament points to a Messiah that would come and the New Testament points to the Messiah who came. Jesus Christ is the Messiah who came to become the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”.
In the Sermon of the Mount in the New Testament, Jesus mentioned several times “…you have heard what it was said…but I tell you that…” He gave a new interpretation for the eternal truths previously revealed and summarised the law by saying: “first and foremost love God, and secondly love your neighbour as yourself.”
The world is experiencing too much hatred, it is time for true Christians to move from the Old to the New Testament to follow the Master and live a meaningful life.
- Which Old Testament understandings should you abandon?
- Which New Testament understandings should you embrace?
(Jesus’s superiority over the law – Hebrews 9:13-14 / Jesus’s assessment of the Pharisees -Matthew 23:13)
Commissioner Torben Eliason is the Territorial Commander of the Southern Africa Territory.