Posted by Yong TM (202.156.2.219) on February 08, 2003 at 19:08:49:
In Reply to: Reconciliation of our perception of God in the New and Old testament posted by Yew Weng on February 06, 2003 at 20:01:32:
There are a few principles that need to be remembered relating to this issue:
1. The concept of progressive revelation: - Here, the understanding is that God in His wisdom, progressively revealed His nature and will throughout history, i.e. He makes Himself known to us step at a time in history. Therefore, the Old Testament in itself is incomplete without the New Testament.
2. Sufficiency and Consistency of Scripture: Because of point 1, the New Testament completes God's total revelation. The Old Testament is to be interpreted via the light of the New Testament. In this, there are no other revelations after the last book of the Bible. Via the New Testament, we are able to have a complete picture of why the Old Testament says what it said. One needs to remember therefore, that the starting point is that Scripture is consistent and move from there; and NOT first assume that OT and NT are inconsistent, and then poke holes here and there.
3. In this, the words of Christ are of special significance. Dr Tong believes that the direct words of Christ (as opposed to the writings of the apostles) should carry more weight since it is the articulation of the WORD itself (this is why some Bible has in red words spoken by Christ). In relation to the question you posed then, the words of Christ are especially illuminating when He completes the revelation of the Old Testament.
The book of Hebrews in particular, emphasizes a 'better' way over the Old Testament. This does not mean that the OT was wrong; but that those purposes have passed their relevance now that Christ came to show a new way. This is why OT laws are applicable to the people of that age, but not applicable to us (e.g. circumcision), because Christ came to complete the picture. But the principle of OT laws does not depart from us at all, like the 10 commandments are still very much relevant today as it was back then.
The foundation and principles of God's laws will never change for all eternity. In the case you cited, my understanding is that the principle of justice demands judgement and payback (propitiation). In the New Testament, it is not that propitiation is no longer needed (thereby rendering the OT false). It is still needed as per OT principles, but Christ became the propitiation for us all. Therefore the higher calling is not vengeance, but forgiveness. Therefore, a Christian can still argue that propitiation requires a murderer to pay with his life the life that he has taken; but still understand that one should not delight in capital punishment to satisfy blood lust (of course many Christians also disagree on capital punishment).
I always thought that a good example of this principle (the very ones you cited) would be the behaviour of the USA in the 2nd World War. There was active resistance against the Nazis and the Japaneses, and brutal war was waged against the aggression of both countries. Yet after the war, both countries were assisted to be rebuilt to the state where they became fierce competitors to the USA today. Many would concur that this is a result of the Judeo-Christian influence on American decision makers of those days. I believe this is a good example of understanding both OT principle of justice, and NT principle of forgiveness, both at play at the same time.