Now that we have established that the Word that became Jesus of Nazareth was the God of the Old Testament, let us deter- mine through application of God’s method of Biblical study (Isa. 28:10,13) exactly what part the Old Testament plays in the life of the New Testament saint. Perhaps the best place to start is with the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5. Here Jesus made clear that the Old Testament laid the groundwork for the church that exists today. In verses 16 & 17 He spoke about the Law (10 Commandments), saying that as long as heaven and earth stood the Law–the foundation of the Old Testament–would not only be in force, but could not be altered in any way, that He had not come to destroy or do away with it, but rather to fulfill it (Gr.-pleroo–to fill to the fullest-to manifest). He went on in His message to the multitude to use the Law to teach several lessons, one being that in the Old Covenant they had been told “Thou shalt not steal.” He then added to that commandment the fact that they were forbidden to even lust for things. He did not say that the command- ment forbidding theft was to be done away with, but that a spiritual element had been added to it. If, as the church alleges, the commandment has been done away with, then it is alright to steal the item as long as one does not lust for it. Jesus uses the same illustration relative to adultery. So can one commit the act as long as one does not lust after the other person? If, as the Counterfeit Church alleges, the Old Testament–specifically the Law–is now passe’ and no longer in effect, the answer is “yes.” Question: why does she memorize the Law, hang it on her walls and raise a fuss when it it removed from court- house lawns if “all that Jewish stuff” was “nailed to the cross?”

The most telling evidence relative to the importance of the Old Testament in the life of the New Covenant Church is the fact that the Old Testament was used exclusively by the apostles when teaching the early church. In 2 Timothy 3:15,16 we find one of the most quoted and least understood passages in the New Testament. Here Paul states that ALL SCRIPTURE is inspired by God and is to be used for teaching, reproof, correction and training in RIGHTEOUSNESS unto SALVATION. What people do not realize is that the Scripture he was referring to was the Old Testament–THE NEW TESTAMENT DID NOT EXIST AT THAT TIME AND WOULD NOT EXIST FOR MANY YEARS AFTER THE LAST APOSTLE (JOHN) HAD DIED. The apostles were at that time writing what, long after their deaths, would become the New Testament. The same is true throughout the New Testament. In Acts 17:17 Paul preached “… the Word of God” in Berea, then later called the Bereans “noble” because they “… searched the Scriptures daily” to see if he was telling them the Truth. The Bereans consulted the only Scriptures they had available–the Old Testament–proving that Paul was using it as his basis of preaching some 30 years after the New Covenant Church was established. When Jesus asked the Father to SANCTIFY the apostles by His Truth, that Truth was the OLD TESTAMENT, which Jesus called TRUTH (Jn. 17:17). Further Truth concerning this subject is found in Ephesians 2:20 where Paul states that the New Covenant Church was founded on the (teachings of) the PROPHETS and the apostles, Jesus being the cornerstone of that foundation. There are some 185 Old Testament Scriptures quoted in the Book of Revelation alone.

I proved in the preceding posting that Jesus, the God of the Old Testament, spoke His gospel to people in Old Testament times. He later stated that that same gospel would be preached throughout the world as a witness until the end of the world (aion-age) (Mat. 24:14). “This gospel of the kingdom” is the same gospel whether found in the Old or New Testament. God does not change, neither does His foundational message. As was noted earlier (Heb. 4:2), the same gospel that was preached to the wilderness Israelites was preached to “US”–the New Covenant Church–their descendants. Another proof that the gospels are the same is found in 1 Corinthians 10:11–the Word spoken by the Old Testament prophets were recorded for “OUR INSTRUCTION.” Final proof is found recorded in 2 Peter 3:1,2 where the apostle told the church that the two testa- ments were equal in power and importance in that they were to remember “… the Words which were spoken before by the HOLY PROPHETS as well as those spoken by US,” meaning God’s apostles. Jesus Christ/the Word/the Scripture spoke the one unchangeable gospel to the “church in the (physical) wilderness” of Sinai (Acts 7:38) and speaks it today to the church in the spiritual wilderness that is professing Christendom. Unfortunately, neither church believes Him.