These sentiments penned by Alfred Tennyson represent not only a call to a new year but also a new perspective on life. For example, in the first stanza he implores:
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
For many evangelicals, these sentiments apply to the Old and New Testaments. For them the teachings of the Old Testament represent an outdated, if not misguided, view of and approach to God embraced in a previous era. It is the book of legalism and judgment.
Christianity, among other things, represents a repudiation of that view of God and approach to Him. It is a book of grace. They see the performance demanded by the law and the ensuing judgment for failure as having been replaced by unconditional acceptance.
From this perspective, the only legitimate function of the Old Testament is that it serves as a good example of bad religion. The only legitimate response is to ring out the old and ring in the new.
This perspective of the Old Testament offers little reason for contemporary evangelicals to read it. In fact, a relatively small segment does. I have had many of my evangelical friends tell me, “I just have never read much of the Old Testament. I guess I should get acquainted with it some day, but I just can’t seem to get into it.”
The Apostle Paul had a different take on the Old Testament. In 1 Corinthians 10:6, while using an Old Testament incident to instruct the church at Corinth, he notes: “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” A few verses later he teaches “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11)
Though it is true that through the death of Christ and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit we enjoy a different relationship with God than did the Old Testament believers, yet as Paul taught, God intends us to glean instruction from Genesis through Malachi. This is evident not only in Paul’s assertions, but also by the frequent quotes from and allusions to the Old Testament in the New Testament.
In fact, let me suggest that the Old Testament provides the essential foundation for the New Testament. It is impossible to develop an accurate understanding of the message of the New Testament without a grasp of the Old Testament. As Francis Schaeffer taught, we cannot understand Mount Calvary unless we approach it by way of Mount Sinai.
The ignoring of the Old Testament by contemporary evangelicals has contributed significantly to the current evangelical errors. For example, the Old Testament incident referenced by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:6 for our learning was God’s judgment of the rebellious Israelites in the wilderness: “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.” (1 Corinthians 10:5)
A study of this story and others in the Old Testament could help dispel the contemporary evangelical myth of God’s unconditional acceptance and help initiate an evangelical reformation.
Sure, we’re safe. We can feel secure for any number of reasons.
We have the technology. Whatever threat that may come our way, we can deal with it with our planes and bombs and troops on the ground brandishing superior equipment. And we have not even begun to unleash our nuclear capabilities.
We have shorelines that have served as barriers of protection for many years. Even though we must be able to ward off attacks from the air and sea, we have a distinct natural advantage possessed by no other nation that has served us quite well.
We have history. Sure, we have lost a few skirmishes such as Vietnam, ones we have gone into with mixed feelings, but we have always won the big ones, even the cold war, with all of its military, political, and economic dimensions.
We have the assurance of experience. It has been a couple of centuries since an enemy has established a beachhead on our shores. The tragedy of 9/11 may have given a temporary sense of vulnerability, but the Eagle has soared, stomping the life out of Al-Qaeda, and it has not been able to mount a successful attack against us since. No living American has ever seen an enemy posing a real threat marching across our borders.
But perhaps the greatest assurance of safety is spiritual. There is good reason to believe that America was, and still is, a city set on a hill by God. We may have our faults, but we are still more spiritual than any other place on earth. Just look at the statistics for church attendance, missions, etc.
In fact, all of the other assurances of safety above may be viewed as manifestations of this spiritual one. God has provided us with protection because of the unique role to which He has called us. Therefore, we can count on His continued defense of our shores.
The factors listed above tend to make Americans feel invincible. There is little worry about Al-Qaeda making a second successful strike. Iran’s nuclear threat may be a problem for Israel, but it can’t reach us. Likewise, with North Korea. China’s recent saber-rattling has aroused virtually no worry for Americans.
Of course, this is a false sense of security. Our experience of invincibility, our pride, and our sense of spiritual superiority have lulled us into a stupor, setting us up for a very rude awakening.
We close our eyes to our economic house of cards, our cultural demise, and our military limitations, especially in the face of a world that seems to hate us almost universally.
Our spiritual security is especially unfounded. Israel, millennia before us, possessed the same delusions. The temple of God is here. Certainly God will not allow the enemy to destroy His temple. After all, He has protected it for hundreds of years. Beside, we are the repository of the Word of God. What would happen to it if we were defeated. And even though we might have our faults, we are not as bad as those pagans threatening to destroy us. Therefore, a just God will protect us.
But Jerusalem was taken and the temple destroyed. In fact, it happened twice.
We can’t conceive of nuclear weapons falling on our cities, of people of other nations occupying our cities, or of the inhumanities such conquerors would exact on us. After all, rape and pillage are a violation of the Geneva Convention. Certainly the UN or someone would step in. The ACLU might even take them to court.
It is this false sense of security that stupefies our nation and the evangelical church into much of the nonsense that we accept. Congress continues to spend, President Bush does nothing of substance to protect our borders, we continue to propagate to our children the lie that homosexuality is a fine alternative, and evangelicals continue to chase fads rather than grabbing hold of the bedrock teachings of Scripture such as God’s demand for righteous living.
Samuel Johnson observed: “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully,” or, as he is more popularly credited with saying, “The prospect of being hanged focuses the mind wonderfully.” Either way, the point is well-taken. The awareness of impending danger tends to clear our minds.
The reality of the dangers that confront us could inspire an evangelical reformation. The question is whether we come to that reality too late.