Posted: Apr 23, 2017 8:50 am
Seeing that Christianity is based on the idea of God the creator, and that Jesus is his son, of course the Old Testament is relevant.
However, as has been pointed out, Jesus fulfilled the law, therefore the old laws no longer apply, and only his laws of the Golden Rule, are all that are applicable.
Yet Christians use the neatly-packaged set of laws contained in the "Ten Commandments" as the basis of their "morality", thus making the Old Testament definitely relevant.
It is confusing for people who aren't raised as Christians, why they choose those particular rules, and not the rest of them contained in the laws of the Jewish people..
In my study of the Bible, and having not paid much attention to the little bit of Christianity I learnt in my mother's search for a sect that suited her, I was confused about the worship of Jesus "thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex 20:2). Then I learnt about the Trinity of gods in one, and became even more confused. Especially about other aspects of Christianity, given that for example, Jewish people have maintained the holiness of Saturday as the Sabbath, but Christians worship on Sunday.
I learnt about Constantine and his purported conversion, and his naming of Sunday as the day of worship within his army, which then became the law at the various Councils of the early church, so that was explained.
Still to answer the question, yes, Christianity does cherry-pick what parts of the Old Testament are relevant, but the basic belief system is based more on the Epistles and what the writers dictated in those, and less on the laws of the Old Testament, while devout Christians believe the history of the Jews is contained in the "history" of the Old Testament, and fundamentalist Christians believe the creation story in Genesis 1 & 2 are the "truth" about where humans came from.
In short.
However, as has been pointed out, Jesus fulfilled the law, therefore the old laws no longer apply, and only his laws of the Golden Rule, are all that are applicable.
Yet Christians use the neatly-packaged set of laws contained in the "Ten Commandments" as the basis of their "morality", thus making the Old Testament definitely relevant.
It is confusing for people who aren't raised as Christians, why they choose those particular rules, and not the rest of them contained in the laws of the Jewish people..
In my study of the Bible, and having not paid much attention to the little bit of Christianity I learnt in my mother's search for a sect that suited her, I was confused about the worship of Jesus "thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex 20:2). Then I learnt about the Trinity of gods in one, and became even more confused. Especially about other aspects of Christianity, given that for example, Jewish people have maintained the holiness of Saturday as the Sabbath, but Christians worship on Sunday.
I learnt about Constantine and his purported conversion, and his naming of Sunday as the day of worship within his army, which then became the law at the various Councils of the early church, so that was explained.
Still to answer the question, yes, Christianity does cherry-pick what parts of the Old Testament are relevant, but the basic belief system is based more on the Epistles and what the writers dictated in those, and less on the laws of the Old Testament, while devout Christians believe the history of the Jews is contained in the "history" of the Old Testament, and fundamentalist Christians believe the creation story in Genesis 1 & 2 are the "truth" about where humans came from.
In short.