RELIGIOUS HYPOCRITES
All movements and sects within Judaism and Christianity are off track. They have been off track ever since they began interpreting the Bible literally and branding themselves as unique religious movements. They may be different in terms of doctrines, liturgies, clothing, and worship styles, but when you get behind the form of each one, they are all religions.

The reason these well-known religions are off track is that they are based on the literal words of the Bible and not on the spoken word of God. Jews focus on the literal words of the Old Testament and Christians on the literal words of the New Testament.

For many Christians, the New Testament is the only part of the Bible worth reading. Of course they like some of the Old Testament stories and characters, they have their favorite Psalms or Proverbs, they value the prophecies about Jesus’ birth and death, they will defend “creationism,”  and they will claim faithfulness to the Ten Commandments, but beyond those scriptures for which they have some affection, modern Christians don’t have much time for anything “Old”.

Perhaps the most egregious evidence of this tendency to discount the “Old Testament” is found in the practice of packaging only the “New Testament” books in a so-called Bible. These are often package this way and sold cheaply so they can be given away as a gift to new converts. This practice says, in effect, that the Old Testament is irrelevant and unworthy of study. This practice says that everything needed to be known about God can be found in the New Testament. It is a blatant example of subtracting from the word of God!

The irony of it all is that most Christians will agree that God did write the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. And if you asked any one of them if they thought that the whole Bible is the inerrant word of God, they would say it is. If you  asked any one of them if the entire Bible was relevant to their life, they would say “yes” without hesitation.

But when you get right down to it, Christians do not really mean it.  This is hypocrisy at its worst. Christians may seriously try to live according to the Ten Commandments, but personal application of Old/First Covenant scriptures is not really on their spiritual radar — except perhaps for the basics of the Ten Commandments. They agree that all scripture is God-breathed, and useful for training in righteousness, but effectively ignore that it can have any application to their lives. This is hypocrisy.

Christians work their way around this hypocrisy by adopting spiritual-sounding, pseudo doctrines (e.g. “we are under grace and not under the law”) that excuse them from observing the First Covenant commandments or making any sense out of Leviticus or the prophets. But the only reason they can entertain and adopt those doctrines is that they do not understand the either the First/Old Covenant or the New Covenant.

When distinguishing between law and grace, Christians strongly imply that the Old Testament is irrelevant because the books of the Old Testament are so closely identified with the law which they do not consider themselves to be under because they have Jesus. Not having read much of the Old Testament, they do not understand that the concept of grace does in fact exist in the Old Testament. Thus, in ignorance, they effectively deny approximately three-fourths of the Bible which they claim to trust in its entirety. This is hypocrisy. What they say with their mouths does not agree with what they believe.

That is the bad news. The good news is that this situation can be remedied by studying the entire Bible while listening to God’s spoken voice to explain the mysteries hidden in it symbolism. This will not happen, however, unless the Old Testament is considered to be as relevant as the New Testament. In fact, it is impossible to understand the New Testament without understanding the Old Testament. If there is any doubt about this statement, consider the following scriptures:

Romans 15:3-9 For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. 8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name”;

2-Timothy 3:14-17 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

John 5:37-39 KJV: And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent , him ye believe not. 39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

Luke 24:27: 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Acts 13:27:  The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath

Despite these affirmations of Old Testament scriptures, Christians still devalue and ignore the Old Testament. This confirms that the parts they do read they do not understand or take to heart. In common practice, the New is relevant and the Old is either not relevant at all, or is much less relevant. They do not see the Bible as a contiguous whole in which all parts are relevant to other parts. This is hypocrisy.

Anyone who doubts the truth of this statement, would do well to look at the official doctrinal statement of denominations with which they are familiar. They should observe carefully how many articles of the statement are based on Old Testament scriptures compared to New Testament scriptures. Or, consider sermons they have heard. How often do they hear a sermon based on any one of the first five books of the Old Testament? Or, when was the last time they personally read anything in Leviticus or Numbers? Failure to study or teach from these parts of the Bible is the equivalent of subtracting from God’s word. This is hypocrisy: They say they believe that the entire Bible is God’s word while discounting most of it.