Category: Finding Jesus in the Old Testament

Bible Reading Plans

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

Extras

Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

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(Book Installment)

The Biblical Case for
Finding Jesus in the Old Testament

Chapter 1: The Subject of This Book (continued)

“…Finding Jesus in the Old Testament”

“Wait a minute – Isn’t Jesus found in the New Testament?” Absolutely! In fact, this is one of the very first things we learn about the Bible when we first become exposed to it. Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, and many more individuals are all Old Testament characters. Jesus is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible until we get to the New Testament.

Once we get to the New Testament, we find that Jesus is not merely mentioned in it – He dominates it! From its first page to its last, the New Testament is talking about and explaining Jesus. By reading and studying it, we learn how important He is to all of us – collectively and individually. In fact, finding Jesus is so important, and there’s so much to learn about Him in the New Testament, one might wonder why we should ever divert any of our attention to the Old Testament. 

Many people are actually distracted by the Old Testament and never get to Jesus at all. That is, they begin their reading of the Bible with Genesis, get bogged down in the last half of Exodus, and die a lonely reader’s death in the jungles of Leviticus. By following this route do many New Year’s resolutions to read the Bible die an early death.

The Bible is a book, but it is also a library of books. You read a book left to right, but you don’t read the books in a library left to right. Rather, you go to the section of the library that most interests you. Anyone who has read the Bible and understood it knows that because Jesus Christ is the Bible’s most important subject, the New Testament should be read first. In other words, read the Bible right to left. (But don’t read the New Testament right to left or else Revelation will grind you down just like Leviticus does.)

Not only should we focus on finding Jesus in the New Testament before we seek to find Him in the Old, finding Jesus in the New Testament is what will enable us to find Him in the Old. The 27 writings that comprise the New Testament were written in the 1st century – and that’s when the Old Testament was effectively the only Bible they had. They found Jesus in the Old Testament because it was the only Bible they had to look for Him! Of course, they were experiencing Jesus in the flesh so they had more than the Bible to go on. Nonetheless, they found the Jesus they experienced in the Old Testament – over and over again.

When we read the New Testament, we are able to see example after example of its authors finding references to Jesus in the Old Testament. One of the reasons I primarily use the New American Standard Bible 1995 is that it puts into small/all caps every quotation of the Old Testament that a New Testament author makes. Most other English translations put them in quotation marks, but don’t take the extra step the NASB 1995 takes to make them stand out from all other quotation marks.

Bible Reading Plans

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

Extras

Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

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(Book Installment)

The Biblical Case for
Finding Jesus in the Old Testament

Chapter 1: The Subject of This Book

The title of a book should encapsulate its contents. Let me break this book’s title down for you so that you’ll have greater visibility into what the book holds in store for you.

“The Biblical Case for…”

When writing for the Lord – whether it’s a book, an article, or a simple note – I write based on something I’ve learned from the Bible. There’s nothing within me that’s worth writing; it’s only what I’ve learned from reading and studying the Bible that gives you any reason to read something I’ve written.

That said, I don’t begin every book, article, or note I write with the phrase “The Biblical Case for…” I reserve this phrase for books that focus on a biblical idea that is 1) big, 2) new, and 3) controversial.

Biblical or not, most big ideas deserve a book to explain them. An article or note would be insufficient. With a book, an author has the chance to fully describe the idea…and then examine it from various angles to make sure it can be fully understood by the reader. This is true whether the big idea is new or old.

A big idea that is new is even more deserving of book-length treatment. It would be unreasonable for writers to expect people to accept ideas that are big and new without sufficient explanation and examination. By the way, “new” doesn’t have to be “unheard of.” It just has to be something that isn’t commonly understood. Or it can be a new way of understanding an idea that has previously circulated and been rejected.

An idea that is not just big and new, but also likely to be controversial, is the most deserving of all to be presented in book format. People can’t make a quality decision about a big, new, controversial idea if they’re not fully informed about it.

If all this is true of ideas in general, how much more it is true of biblical  ideas that are new, big, and controversial. The Bible is the word of God. Therefore, by definition, its ideas are more important than human ideas. Not all ideas in the Bible are equally important. But even the least important biblical idea is going to be more important than any human idea. We were created by God and our every breath is sustained by God, so it would be impossible to overstate the importance of His ideas.

I have written two previous books whose titles begin with “The Biblical Case for…” – The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven and The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact. Whether you agree with these two ideas or not, you have to admit they’re big, new, and controversial. That is true of this book, too, even though it’s not as apparent in the title. 

The Biblical Case for Finding Jesus in the Old Testament does not at first glance suggest an idea that is new or controversial. But as the book unfolds, I think you’ll agree that those two adjectives apply. 

I do not seek to find or write about controversial ideas. What I do seek is to learn about Jesus. There is always something new to learn about Him and those new things are both big and small. The bigger they are the more controversial they are because Jesus has always polarized the world. It’s inevitable. He is the truth, and truth polarizes because of the human will. I don’t like controversy, but I love truth so much I’m willing to endure controversy to hold on to truth. 

A controversial biblical idea deserves not just a book, but it deserves a book that lays out the biblical case for that idea. No one should just take my word for it. I will show you chapter and verse so that you can make up your own mind on the subject. That will enable you to decide on which side of the polarization you’re going to stand…because as is so often true with Jesus and His ideas, there is no middle ground.

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Bible Reading Plans

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

Extras

Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

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Below is the fresh start on the new book. If you read the article I published here yesterday, you understand why this preface is shorter than the original one, and more helpful to the reader.

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(Book Installment)

The Biblical Case for
Finding Jesus in the Old Testament

Preface

I am not interested in wasting your time or my own. You should only read this book if you think there’s a reasonable chance it will help you. For that to be the case, a couple of things have to be true.

First, you must be familiar with Jesus in the New Testament. That is, you must either be a follower of His or, at the very least, be open to the possibility that His claims, as recorded in the New Testament, are true.

Second, you must be familiar with me. That is, you must either know me personally or else be familiar with my writing. If neither are true, I suggest you set this book aside for the time being and instead go to my website (www.jesuschristandthebible.info or http://www.mikegantt.com – both of these URLs lead to the same place). There you will find all my writing – books, articles, and notes. At the very least, I suggest that you read my shortest book, The Duty of a Man. You can read it online and complete it in an hour or less. If that book doesn’t whet your appetite for more, you can save yourself the longer period of time it would take to read this book.

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