Once again, I'd like to point out that I'm Agnostic, some days even Aethiest. I ain't a Christian, Pagan, Judaist, Mormon, or Luddite. Every Christian I have talked to, before now, ALWAYS uses the NT instead of the OT. Why? Because many parts of the OT are now illegal in our society. Slavery, killing people, ect. Christianity now adays is supposed to be loving and forgiving, traits found in the God of the NT, not the OT. In fact, whenever I'd bring up the OT in discussions with them, they'd shoot me down, telling me it isn't relevant in today's Christianity. While I agree that the OT is in Christianity, it is my belief that they try to "ignore" it, as it tends to go against what they want Christianity to be. Alex ----Original Message Follows---- From: "H. T." <electrictwilight at hotmail.com> *sigh* *smile* *sigh* Note: Snipping from two messages under same ‘topic’. >"Alex Nixon" wrote: >First, I believe the part of the Bible you're thinking of is the Old Testament, which largely becomes useless in Christian thinking after the arrival of the New Testament. I'm also not convinced that ALL religions calls for the harm of others. So your point, IMHO, is ignorant, prejudiced, and slightly offensive. > > >Caliann the Elf wrote: As for the rest, there are certainly lots of examples from the OT of a vengeful, bloodthirsty God. I suspect most people with a Christian bent prefer to ignore the OT. >> >> >>David Dyer-Bennet wrote: >>Hard to do, since the identification of Jesus as the Messiah depends >>entirely on OT prophecies.A number of the specific dietary rules from >>the OT, Christians are specifically exempted from in the NT; but >>then, the presence of that exemption shows that the authors of the NT >>believed that OT applied. So the *rest* of the OT, the parts not >>specifically voided by the NT, should still apply. Besides, the OT >>was included when the bible was put together. Clearly those people >>thought it still applied. What books of the Christian NT are you people reading? David is the only one that appears to have any sense or knowledge on this issue, and you people are Christians and he’s an Atheist (shame, shame) *holding out a ruler to slap some Christian knuckles*. With many years of Sunday school and Catholic mass, having a boyfriend that is an entirely different “type” of Christian than Catholicism, and one stupid theology course to complete some general education requirements even I know that Christians generally follow the OT. In fact, if I recall correctly (it has been several years since I have been to any Christian “event” other than holidays at my family’s house and then that is not because of religion at all) in Catholic mass at least, various parts of the OT are read. However, because my opinion means little to null here, I offer the following: “The authoritative sources of Christian ethics are essentially the Ten Commandments, which Moses is said to have received from God on Mount Saini (Exodus 20.2-17; Deuteronomy 5.6-21 [OT stuff])....The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue (“Ten Words,” or “Sayings”), articulate fundamental religious and social obligations and in the Bible are explicitly the word of God...The so-called “Sermon of the Mount” (Matthew 5-7 [NT stuff]) is crucial to *the entire foundation of Christianity*. Jesus begins by telling the crowd that *he has not come to abolish the Jewish law of Moses but to fulfill it*, and warns them that anyone who breaks the commandments or teaches others to do so will be “least in the kingdom of heaven”(Matthew 5.17-20)” [“Christianity” by Rosemary Drage Hale – The Illustrated Guide to World Religions – Michael D. Coogan, general editor (consequently the more interesting, though not as concise book out of the theology course I took)]. Clearly, the OT is considered in the NT, and since (in my opinion at least), if you are going to believe some of it, you have to (or at least should) believe all of it, you cannot consider the NT without considering the OT. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail