Dude, That's so Old Testament

Over the past couple of weeks I've run into people and churches using "Old Testament" as a derogatory term and/or as a way to write off parts of the Bible they don't want to deal with.

A couple of guys from my church were talking about someone who hasn't been around for awhile and one of the guys said, "He's so Old Testament." My first reaction was, "What the heck does that mean?" The second was "You'd probably consider me Old Testament!" Of course, I didn't say either of those because a) I don't know them that well and b) I'm a coward.

I also ran into a church's web site that described large worship gatherings with singing, etc as relics of the Old Testament Temple service and should be avoided. They also said (and they weren't the first people I've heard this from) that since Jesus only endorsed two commandments (Love God and love your neighbor) the other 611 commandments in the Torah/Pentateuch/5 Books of Moses are inapplicable. Obviously to someone majoring in Jewish Studies and going on to Grad school studying Hebrew, to throw out the Torah is a bit. . . shall we say. . . troubling.

Ironically, the Talmud has a story that gives nearly the exact same teaching as Jesus did, from a forerunner to the rabbis who lived around the same time as Jesus. The story goes something like this: A Gentile came to Hillel and said, "I'll convert if you can teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot." Hillel agrees to the terms and says, "That which is hateful to you, do not do that to your neighbor (i.e. love your neighbor as yourself) The rest is commentary. Go and study." For the Rabbis (and I'd like to point out that the Pharisees of Jesus' time agreed with him according to the New Testament) this law was only the beginning not the end. I propose Jesus meant this very same thing, because he came "not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it."

I know the Torah is scary, there are parts that don't seem to make much sense to someone in the 21st century, but it is still there. And, at the risk of being labelled "Old Testament" there's more to the Old Testament than prophecies pointing to Jesus, pithy proverbs and psalms that Christians don't use because they're too busy singing about being "madly in love" with God. There. I'm finished. Thank you.