We live in a multicultural-multi-religious world and culture. Today, I am going to show you why and how Christians today can and must become more biblically literate and more informed as to other world religions such as Islam in order to intelligibly show that Christianity is the Truth and that all other religions are false.
I was sharing my faith with a young Palestinian-Muslim man and his son Muhammed some years back when his son told me that the Bible is corrupt and that the Old Testament does not connect at all with the New Testament. I asked his son one simple question which was: “Have you read the Old or New Testaments to confirm that”? His answer was "NO! I WOULD NEVER READ THE BIBLE!" I kindly asked him how he knows that the OT and NT do not connect if he never read the Bible. Over the course of a month I took the time to show this young man that the Old Testament is not only spoken about in the New Testament, but that the two are intertwined, connected, prophesied over thousands of years and inseperable. His father was not happy that I was equipped to the point as to show his false assertions about the Bible to his son. You see, everything this young man was told about the Bible by his parents was false. As a consequence, everything he was told about the Quran then came into question. Let’s jump into today’s lesson by looking at the Old and New Testaments and see how the two are intertwined and inseparable.
Moses, the author of the Pentateuch (the first five Books of the Bible) was written by Moses. This includes the Book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, Moses wrote:
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—“(Deuteronomy 18:15). This was the foretelling of the birth of Jesus Christ-the same Jesus that is the centerpiece of the New Testament.
Deuteronomy 18 and numerous other biblical Scriptures unquestionably foretell of the birth of Christ and all human history through the intertwining of the Old and New Testament Scriptures. There are many Scritpures and observations we can make to show that the Old and New Testaments are intertwined to the point that they cannot be separated. Let’s take a look at some of these points:
FIRST: Deuteronomy was written in 1410 B.C. Jesus Christ wasn’t born until the start of our modern “Gregorian” calendar Starting with the birth of Christ). The two calendar systems that would have been prevalent prior the birth of Jesus Christ were the Hebrew calendar and the Julian calendar. The latter would have been in use throughout the ancient Mediterranean... The Gregorian Bible calendar is Luni - Solar, meaning it uses both the movements of the moon and the sun in its computations. Solar calendars. Hence, the Gregorian calendar is based on the time it takes the earth to make one complete orbit around the sun, that is, approximately 365 ¼ days. The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world. It uses the life of Jesus Christ to define year 0 (actually there is no year 0; the calendar goes straight from 1 BC to 1 AD).
This means that Moses wrote about the birth of baby Jesus 1410 years before Jesus was actually born in human form. From that perspective, Christmas was foretold almost 3,500 years ago!
SECOND: There are over 300 The Old Testament is not only intertwined by QUOTED in the New Testament. There are more than 300 prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament. These prophecies are specific enough that the mathematical probability of Jesus fulfilling even a handful of them, let alone all of them, is staggeringly improbable—if not impossible. And this includes prophecy about the coming of Jesus which started in Genesis! Let’s take a look at one example.
OT PROPHESY: God foretold the nations will be blessed with a Savior through Abraham’s lineage:
“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3).
NT FULFILLMENT:
“And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:25–26).
THIRD: Jesus is called a PROPHET 24 times in Old Testament. For example, Moses makes clear in Deuteronomy 18:15 that it is “THE LORD YOUR GOD”…who would raise up a prophet “LIKE ME” from “AMONG YOU”. Let’s pause to make a quick observation in that there are only two other persons that are “LIKE GOD THE FATHER”, and they are “GOD THE SON” and the “GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT”. In the Old Testament Moses writes about Jesus, the Son of God which comes to pass in the New Testament.
Deuteronomy 18 says, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—“(Deuteronomy 18:15).
In Acts 7:37, Paul says, “This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.” Matthew wrote in Matthew 21:11: “And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” And this is but one example of the Old Testament foretelling the coming of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
In total, there are a total 24 verses that speak to Jesus as Prophet (Jesus was both Prophet, High Priest, and God himself). For example, in Acts 3:22, the Moses’ words of Moses are proclaimed as follows: “THE LORD YOUR GOD”…who would raise up a prophet “LIKE ME” from “AMONG YOU”.
Let’s take this a step further compare the two verses to show the unquestionable connection between the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
OLD TESTAMENT: (AUTHOR MOSES, YEAR 1410 B.C.): “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—“(Deuteronomy 18:15).
NEW TESTAMENT: (AUTHOR APOSTLE PAUL). Paul wrote this: “Moses said ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you” (Acts 7:37). And these are just but a few of the Christmas connections spoken about and prophesied in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New Testament.
A LESSON FOR SHARING OUR FAITH:
The young Muslim man’s Palestinian’s father was a bit upset that I spoke with his son and was able to show his son how the Old and New Testaments are inseparable and connected by biblically fulfilled prophesy. I think this Muslim father was also upset because he was seen by his son as either holding back the truth or being ignorant of the false accusations proclaimed from his Islamic perspective.e You see, this Muslim father had married a lady from the Bible Belt in North Carolina and together, they refused to speak about the Old and New Testaments outside of the false proclamation that both were flawed, distorted and false.
As I showed his son, nothing is further from the truth in that God’s Word is the truth. When I began to share that Truth with the son (Muhammad), the son he began to question his parents assertions that the Bible was flawed and that the Old and New Testament weren’t connected. This in turn caused his father to ask me not to speak to his son about the Bible any longer. Why was the father so scared about if the Bible is truly distorted, full of errors, incorrect, and false? The answer is that it’s not any of those things. It is the Truth and the infallible Word of God. The complete opposite of what this young man was told. And this is what modern day pre-evangelism and evangelism looks like in the 21st Century ladies and gentlemen. It’s very different than decades past in America.
CONCLUSION:
We as Christians must be not only biblically literate but also astute as to other religions such as Islam in order to intelligibly understand who we are speaking to in an effort to show non-Christians not only THAT but also WHY Christianity is TRUE and other religions and cults are false.
Two ways that you can do this is by having me come out and train up and equip your church, company or any other group to more intelligibly and effectively share the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ using apologetics in evangelism. You can do that by clicking the link below https://reasonfortruth.bible/contact or by going to our website at ReasonForTruth.Org or .Bible, selecting the “CONTACT” and filling out and submitting the “CONTACT” page. I promise to get back to you in a short period of time.
The other way to get equipped is by taking the EQUIPPED “BASICS” and “ADVANCED” Online Courses using my book, “EQUIPPED-Basic Training Using Apologetics for Evangelism”. You can use the course in your church, small group or company and I, Steven Garofalo can be available in person or via Video Link according to your needs. I put a link for that below: https://www.equippedacademy.com/certificate-courses
The birth of Christ was just the beginning. We can and should use the Old Testament and New Testament to validate that Jesus Christ is in fact the true salvific Savior for all mankind. It just takes a bit of time, effort and desire. I pray you will consider interacting with me more deeply in an effort to get EQUIPPED.
