recently i am reading the Holy Bible. what is the main idea of the old testment and the new testment? i have read part of the new testment. it seems that it is about the life of Jesus. what about the old testment? another question is :is the Lord God (mentioned in the old testment)and Jesus(mentioned in the new testment) the same one?
thanks!!!!
The entire Bible is the revelation of God's character. The Old Testament is the record of God's experiences with the Hebrews - His Chosen People. It begins with the origins of creation, and moves into the history of the people He called to be His own. Much of the Old Testament deals with the relationship between God and the Hebrews - generally, they are unfaithful to Him, and their on-again, off-again relationship with Him plays out over hundreds of years. There are history books, wisdom books, prophetic books contained in the Old Testament. Jews do not call the OT the OT, because the New Testament is not seen as being valid because they do not acknowledge that Christ was the Messiah - it is Christians who refer to the OT as the OT. The New Testament is called so because the incarnation of Christ (the 4 gospels that begin the NT) changed God's relationship to humanity and offered a new way to reconcile the sinner with God; Christs substitutionary death paved the way for all humanity (not just Jews) to be reconciled with God and receive the gift of eternal life for accepting Jesus Christ as their savior. After the gospels, much of the NT was written by the Apostle Paul, who outlined much of what we now call Christian theology.
As far as your second question, that may receive a number of different answers. Generally, the Bible supports the idea of what is known as a "triune" God - or a trinity; I cannot ravel out all the details about that, but many commentators do feel that the "Lord" of the OT is the person of Jesus.
Hope that was helpful. Enjoy your reading - it is the greatest book in the world.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis
i really appreciate your help!thank you
Where i can find incarnation of God in the NT, and also trinity?
Originally Posted by Shield&Sword
I believe the first is referenced in John ch.1 and the second in the same as well as the reference to "make man in our image" in Genesis ch.1. There's more, but I'm pulling these off the top of my head.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis
I didnt find "incarnation" in John 1. Does the word exist in bible perhaps if Jesus him self said it will be more sure. "Make man in our image" if you mean incarnation then i think the verse must be: "we made our sleves in image of man", the verse in genesis is clear that God made something "like him" then there will be 2: God and the something he made, when you say i made an image of something no one can understand that the original thing of which you made the image was trasformes to another form, its impossible to understand such thing. Beside incarnation will be more like"something which took the shape of something else". Beside if we mean incarnation by this verse then all humanity is God because God takl about all men. And the last thing is : if God made something in his shape will be that something also God?
What about trinity?
I believe the trinity refers to The Father Son and Holy Spirit. But The Bible is full if trinities, or things that come in 3's. In the original text of the Bible(which no one has read by the way) The Torah God is plural. That doesn't necessarily support the Trinity claim, but many believe it refers to when IT or THEY created the world. I could be wrong but I have heard these assumptions.
The plural form of God in Hebrew is "Iloheem", this word in english bible are translated to "God" not "gods" if its plural they should translate it to gods, beside no one jew understand plural in number from this word they all will say its our language, why we dont read the bible from a jews point of view and not from greek point of view. For respect in french language we use the plural form of you "the form used to talk with more than one person" to talk with one person, it doesnt mean that this person is more than one its simply the language, when i talk about this form i takl from a french point of view not from my own point of view that use plural form only to refer to numbers more than one.
There are several languages that use the plural form of you as a matter of respect when talking to an elder. Ghaidhlig uses the form 'sibh' when the speaker is addressing an older person rather than 'thu' which is for a peer. Rather oddly the Ghaidhlig Bible uses the singular form 'Thu' for God. This may seem anomalous but can be seen as a means of being on closer terms. Several other expressions are also used for God in that Bible (which is a translation from the original languages) but the impression created is that the naming of God does not conform to usual language patterns of number or gender or animated being. I expect that some other languages would also show this pattern (or lack of it). By the way Ghaidhlig plurals start after two.
By what I can discern from studying the Bible I would not be inclined to regard God as a trinity. I understand the three manisfestations of God Father Son and Holy Spirit to be God's way of fulfilling our need of Him in a way we are able to absorb and understand Him. The Bible teaches that no man may look upon the face of God and live. If we as humans were to speak face to face to a deadly form of bacteria we would surely perish. God in His wisdom took upon Himself our form so that He could speak to us face to face without any harmful affect to us. He then took all of our sin upon His human form in order to free us from the result of that sin. The body or human life that He used for a specific time and purpose He then Ressurected and made immortal as He intends to do for every human body that chooses to respect and serve Him. I believe that the Human body that He created and lived in Yashuah (Jesus) has explained this all to anyones satisfaction who will take the time to read and study the words that He spoke. I have not heard him speak those words but I am willing to believe the men who claim to be hearers of those words. I believe those men Mathew, Mark, Luke and John because they gave their lives to prove that their testimony is true. I do not see anything that they could have gained by such action if their testimony were a lie. I am ready to believe your testimony if it sounds reasonable and you are ready and willing to vouch for it with your own life. Does that sound reasonable to you?
Good questions. Most people, myself included, are more than willing to explain it all to you. I recommend you instead pick up "Who Wrote The Bible" by Richard Elliott Friedman. It attempts to describe the social and political environments in which the various parts of the Bible were written. It helps to know what the authors were responding to. Friedman's isn't the only such book, but it's good for a start.recently i am reading the Holy Bible. what is the main idea of the old testment and the new testment? i have read part of the new testment. it seems that it is about the life of Jesus. what about the old testment? another question is :is the Lord God (mentioned in the old testment)and Jesus(mentioned in the new testment) the same one?
thanks!!!!
EV
Last edited by El Viejo; 11-14-2009 at 03:34 PM. Reason: Added quote
The OT is the history of the Jewish people. It contains their story of creation (which is also the Christian idea) and then the stories of the Earthfathers (is that right in English?) Abraham, Jacob etc. It also contains the laws starting with the Ten Commandments given to Moses straight from God/Jahweh. The laws are further detailed in Leviticus (?). Then there are the books of Chronicles and Kings (one and two) further about the history of the Jews. There are prophets too that foretell the comming of the Messiah. Essentially, in various forms, the OT is the veritable history of the Jewish people. Or a least an early work of that.
The NT is about Jesus and what happened after (The Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of Paul to various early Christian groups around Europe and the East) and Revelation which is a vision of the End (Last the Judgment) by a man called John. Whether this John is the Evangelist, the apostle or another is not sure.
Essentially, the NT 'proves' what the OT foretold, if you want to believe that. The Jews do not believe it (they are still waiting for the Mesiah), nor do the Muslims who put Jesus with the profets (they believe that Mohammed gave them the true religion. He is not really the Messiah, if I am not mistaken, but he gave the word of God to the people. The Koran was writte by him dictated by Allah, although Mohammed could not write). I am not sure what the Jews have done with Jesus...
The fact that Jesus would be God's son is often put into the Gospel. It is no problem to find it. Just look it up on the internet, and you'll find tons of sites that occupy themselves with that. The Trinity is a more complicated matter that was not really invented, but rather thought out by the Church/Theologians to explain certain verses together.
If Jesus is God's son and occasionally He (Jesus) is called 'God' himself, how is that to be explained? Also the Holy Ghost, same problem. So, they attempted to explain that problem by having a 'three-unity': God-Son-Holy Ghost are apart, yet one.
On wikipedia is an entry about it (referenced). There are also numerous sites who attempt to 'prove' the Trinity to Jehova's Witnesses who do not believe in the Trinity. Nothing against them. Though there are Evangelical Christians who occupy themselves with this trivial matter. They provide combinations of verses you are looking for in connectin with the Trinity. It is nowhere mentioned explicitly that there is such a Trinity, but it is the only logical explanation.
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
Hey Claudia! The old Testament tells us about God's original covenant with man, both when He made Adam and Eve and when he and Abraham promised to each other that God would care for Abraham and all his descendants and make them His people, and that Abraham and co. would always follow God and keep to his ways, which he later gave them vis Moses and the 10 Commandments.
The New Testament is about God's New Covenant. His people no longer had to follow the laws but trusted in Jesus's one sacrifice.
I don't want this to turn into a sermon so I'll leave it there and you can ask again if I left anything out
There are lots of different opinions on God and how He is different so Ill just give you my opinion;
I don't know if you've heard of the Trinity but it is made up of God the father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit
I find it useful to think of them like the sun, Looking at the sun in the sky hurts your eyes because its just so bright, its too hot and brilliant for us to get near, and this is like God the Father, because He is perfect, and we arent we can't even look at Him, he is too good for us to get near
the light from the sun is like Jesus, it comes down to us in a way that we can interact with and shows us the way it reveals the sun to us, just as Jesus reveals to us who God is.
The Holy Spirit is like the warmth from the sun, it comes inside us and keeps us going,
So in the Old Testament all three persons existed in one substance, the prophets spoke about a Messiah who was to come and they were talking about Jesus, in the New Testament Jesus comes down and reveals God and His mercy to us, and then He sends the Holy Spirit to guide us and sustain us... sorry about some technical words but don't know how to put in other words! Hope this helps a little bit!
Kirsty
sorry.. other posts didnt appear til I posted mine.. didnt realise it had all already been said!
Hello Claudia!
The Old Testament and the New Testament represent a cohesive picture of Gods relationship with Man, his creation. It is often thought that the two are at odds with each other, however when looked at through the eyes of the culture that created them (Jews) they can be recognized as complimentary. Many people forget that at the time the New Testament was written they were no "Christians", only Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah and Jews who believed otherwise.
The entire first church were entirely Jewish as was every new testament author with the possible exception of Luke who was probably a gentile convert to Judaism and thus a Jew also.
Many also believe that the New Testament does away with the Law of the Old Testament but what must be remembered is that the New Covenant gave access to God to gentiles without the requirement that they become Jews.
The Law was not given to gentiles, so they are not legally required to uphold it. Jesus also brought a true interpretation of the Law rather than a replacement of it.
I hope this helps!
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