000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Introduction xv
Preachers and congregations who are aware of the content of the Old
Testament can appreciate the theological guidance in its own right, and
can read the New Testament in full resonance with the Old Testament. In
this way of thinking the Old Testament is a part of the Christian family
album and reading it helps us understand our identity. Those who are
unaware of the content of the Old Testament are cut off from a vital source
of theological insight and can even misread the New Testament because
of their lack of familiarity with how the New Testament writers presumed
the Old. Indeed, congregations that do not know the Old Testament are
theological orphans.
Problems in the Church’s Use of the Old Testament
Despite the foundational importance of the Old Testament, the church
has often misused or neglected it. Preachers misuse the Old Testament in
two main ways. We summarize these problems and then explore how they
sometimes come to expression in the way a preacher uses texts assigned
by the Revised Common Lectionary. 5
One common misperception is for preachers to regard the Old Testament
merely as prologue to the New Testament. In this way of thinking,
the Old Testament has little value in and of itself but functions to point
the way to Christ and the church. The Old Testament is prophecy, preview,
shadow, or antitype. Christians sometimes picture people who lived
in the Old Testament period as empty, hungry, and longing for the coming
of Christ. Christ is said to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament
and human longing.
This view is undermined by two major facts. (1) The birth, life, death,
and resurrection of Christ have not finally and fully brought God’s purposes
to completion. For example, Isaiah looked forward to a time when all people
and even the elements of nature will live together in peace (e.g., Isa.
11:1–9). Christ did not fulfill that hope. War still ravages the earth. Indeed,
the earliest followers of Jesus acknowledged that God’s purposes are incomplete
when they began to expect the second coming of Jesus. Judaism and
Christianity are similar in continuing to hope for a time when God’s purposes
will shape every person, relationship, and event. Many recent Christian
theologians reinterpret the notion of fulfillment to mean that God’s
work in Jesus Christ is a means whereby Gentiles are grafted into a community
that witnesses to God’s desire to bless all peoples. (2) Few biblical
scholars in the historic Christian denominations in North America think
that the authors of the Old Testament specifically intended to predict