Sermon Tone Analysis

What About the Old Testament?

Reproof: Elagmos (Greek): Refuting Error, proving something is wrong.

Leviticus 19:

On one side we have “Christian” people tell us to cover up out tattoos, cut our hair, put on a suit and tie and you can be a Christian.

Thankfully most all scholars agree that this verse is part of God’s command to the covenant people of Isreal to avoid the religious practices of the people they were living around.

To be kept separate.

As soon as we conclude however that this verse doesn’t apply to followers of Christ, we get mocked from non-believers.

insert OT Meme

There are other verses in the OT that are even more problematic:

We will talk about why this doesn’t apply today in a minute, but first lets take apart how this verse is used in arguments against the God.

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Richard Dawkins

Moral Argument For God

Old Testament Law: Civil, Ceremonial, Moral

“We must attend to the well-known division which distributes the whole law of God, as promulgated by Moses, into the moral, the Ceremonial, and the judicial law.”

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Moral Laws: laws based on God’s character and his design for his creation in this world.

Civil Law: No longer enforced after Israel’s Theocracy was taken over.

Within the Civil Law we can see God’s moral law against:

Murder

Striking or cursing a parent

Kidnapping

Witchcraft

Incest

Human sacrifice

Adultery

Homosexual acts

Blasphemy

Perjury

Ceremonial Laws: Instructions to have a right standing with God, regulations to distinguish the Israelites from their pagan neighbors, and signs of the coming Messiah

Leviticus 9:

For example in God gave specific examples of how Aaron was to sacrifice animals for his sins and the sins of the Israelites.

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New Construction Bilboard

Matthew 22: