Church people are told repeatedly from pulpit and podium that the Old Testament was done away with at the death of Jesus Christ, that God’s Law–Genesis to Malachi–was “nailed to the cross, including the Ten Commandment summation of the Law. So why did the Lord preserve the Old Testament for those of us living on earth at the end of the age– those “upon whom the end of the world has come?” To answer this question, let us return to a statement Moses made to the nation of Israel concerning THEIR FUTURE DESCENDANTS and the ONE Who would come to earth to lead THOSE DESCENDANTS in the way of righteousness: “The Lord your God will raise up to you a Prophet from the midst of you of your brethren like unto me, HIM YOU WILL HEAR” (Deut. 18:15). Obviously, “you” referred to their descendants who would be living after the Word (Jn. 1:1-4,14) would come to earth as Jesus of Nazareth. Out of the future descendants of those Israelites would rise up a “remnant” of true saints who would indeed hear, believe and obey this One (Jesus Christ). It is this “Him,” this “One” Who spoke His Father’s gospel to the Old Testament prophets and the New Covenant apostles who recorded the words He had spoken to them. Those words are called the Holy Bible. As the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:20, the WORDS OF BOTH THE PROPHETS AND THE APOSTLES constitute the foundation of God’s New Covenant Church in these end times.

In Deuteronomy 30:14-16,19,20 we find Moses again speaking to Israel concerning the words of God that would be preserved in writing for all future generations. Here he tells them that they have the Word of God, that he is setting that Word before them, and that It reveals righteousness and life, sin and death. In verse 16 he reminds them that to be righteous and live they must love the Lord their God and walk in His ways by obeying His commandments, statutes and judgments. For the Israelites of that day the Lord had condensed His entire Law into the form of the Ten Commandments which He had written in stone with His own finger. Later, through the prophets and apostles, He would arrange to have His entire Law, including the Ten Commandments, written in ink and preserved for the entirety of mankind to study, believe and obey unto salvation. In Deuteronomy 28 Moses, speaking under the power of the Holy Spirit, had graphically informed Israel of God’s program of blessings and curses which were based entirely on their reaction to His Words. Moses would later repeat those words in Leviticus 26. In Deuteronomy 30:19,20 Moses lays before Israel life and death, blessing and cursing. The choice of life or death was totally theirs. He admonishes them to “… choose life.” To do so meant that they must love God and obey His words, including the Old Testament (Eph. 2:20/2 Pet. 1:21/1 Cor. 10:11/2 Tim. 3:16). Note that for the Israelites of that day, as well as their descendants in these modern times, the choice belongs to man. Our fate is in our hands. God has given us the choice of righteousness and sin, blessing and cursing, life and death. As Moses told the people of his day and their descendants today, “… CHOOSE LIFE.”

In the Garden of Eden, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, at the Jordan River and wherever we are today, a life or death choice must be made by each one of us individually on a continuous basis. We must choose between God’s Word, life and blessing, or Satan’s word, death and cursing. We must choose between the words of God’s ministers and Satan’s ministers, between God’s Word and church doctrine, between eternal life and eternal death. There is no other option. L.J.