FAQ

The Old Testament does indeed speak of a covenant established by God with the people of Israel, since no one apart from this nation desired to hear the voice of God in that era. Within it, due to its limitations, there is much that is human. However, the call to "kill and plunder all other peoples" in the Old Testament sounds like an evident dissonance; ideas of this sort are tendentiously presented by people as Divine Revelation. Incidentally, the Old Testament is not unique in this; throughout Christian history, inhumane actions have repeatedly been justified by a false appeal to God. Yet, it is neither national exclusivity nor human cruelty that are of significance in the Old Testament, but rather what God reveals about Himself within it. Christians from the very beginning have known and revered the continuity between the Old and New Testaments primarily in what matters most: the revelation of God's purposes. The Ten Commandments and the narrative of the creation of the world, the prophecies, and the books of Job and Ecclesiastes—these are the reasons why we have preserved the Old Testament as Holy Scripture, and certainly not for a "call to plunder and kill." Concerning national exclusivity, the Old Testament speaks predominantly about the prophets' struggle against the nationalistic ideas of the Israelites, advocating for prophetic universalism. In short, alongside the human element, the Old Testament contains the word of the very same God Who revealed Himself in fullness in Jesus Christ. The New Testament of Christ does not negate, but surpasses the Old; it does not abolish it, but fulfills it to the magnitude of the Kingdom of Heaven.