Do I have to believe that the Old Testament is the Infallable truth of God?

[TEPO]

In the Old Testament God says that He is a “jealous” God… He says that He forbids us from worshipping “other gods” – as if there are any “other” gods…?.?.?

As a Christian, do I have to accept God as a proud and jealous being, since afterall Jesus told us not to be that way…? Is everything in the Old Teastament really true…?

 

[rwoehmke]

In those early times almost every country had its own gods or god. Even some households were that way. Even Rome had a pantheon of gods. The God of Israel did not want his people, Israel, following any of these other gods whether they actually existed or not.

As a mundane example of jealousy, lets say that a young fellow had a painting of a beautiful women who did not actually exist, but was just an idealized picture. It represented to him how his ideal woman should look. say he has a wife, who while not unattractive, does not quite reach in his mind that ideal. If she resented this comparison and she could be said to be jealous of that idealized non-existent woman.

All that being said, be very careful in discerning what is attributed to God in the Old Testament. Its plain meaning in todays language may be far different than the message intended to be passed on by the human authors. What is taught is said to be inerrant. The term infallible is usually not applied to Sacred Scripture. Read the Vatican 2 document “Dei Verbum” which can be found in the front lead-in to most Catholic Bibles printed today. It is quite informative witgh regard to these situations.

 

[Joe_5859]

As a Catholic, “…the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings (5) for the sake of salvation” ( 11Dei Verbum).

In other words, Scripture is divinely inspired (God is a true author, along with the human authors) and inerrant (it does not err on matters pertaining to our salvation).

Now, we have to be careful in reading Scripture, particularly the OT. We must interpret Scripture in the literal sense, but that does not mean we interpret it literalistically.

Here’s an analogy. Say someone uses the phrase “It’s raining cats and dogs.” The literal sense of that phrase (i.e. the meaning that the author intends to convey) is that it is raining heavily. The literalistic interpretation would be that cats and dogs are falling from the sky at an alarming rate.

When the OT uses such descriptive phrases as calling God “jealous”, we must take care not to interpret this literalistically. It’s a figure of speech employed as the inspired author(s) attempt to convey spiritual truths about the infinite God.

I recommend taking a look at the Catechism: CCC 101-141

 

[dgdough]

The entire King James Bible is God breathed, inspired from God writings. There are no errors, you will find no contradictions. Using any other false doctrine and tradition is not only calling God a liar, it’s blasphemous. All of the newer bibles are a disgrace, the NIV even calls the Devil the morning star while also quoting Jesus calling himself the morning star. It’s quite pathetic.

 

[Bobby_Jim]

It helps to have someone knowledgeable in the Old Testament to talk to or study with. It’s really quite rich and beautiful. People get stuck in this “Old Testament God / New Testament God” mindset wherein they think there’s this vast difference. Really there’s a lot of continuity. The New Testament really comes alive when read in the light of the Old.

To give an example… I get a bit uncomfortable at the Easter Vigil when we hear the reading from Exodus about how God cast Pharaoh’s army and charioteers into the sea, and not a single one survived, and the Israelites from the shore sing a hymn of praise. But if you view it in the context of the story of salvation as a whole, it makes sense. God does one “mighty deed” after another to save his people. But still they turn away from him again and again and again (they keep going after these pesky other “gods”, no matter that they aren’t real). Finally God does the mightiest deed of all - he becomes man, suffers and dies, and rises again on the third day. In a way, all of the Old Testament is leading up to that.

 

[speight]

i thought it was the word of moses and the prophets?