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 For them the teachings of the Old Testament represent an outdated, if not misguided, view of and approach to God embraced in a previous era.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 They see the performance demanded by the law and the ensuing judgment for failure as having been replaced by unconditional acceptance.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.