Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is the Old Testament. And this Old Testament is made up of 39 smaller books that testify of Jesus Christ. But did you know it wasn't originally called the Old Testament? And there's actually something else we could call it. Today we're going to discuss that. Welcome to Jesus Christ in Scriptures, Finding Christ on every page. I'm Tammy Uzalak hall. This is Dr. Donald W. Perry. And we are going to talk to you today about the Old Testament and another name that it could possibly have. So grab your scriptures and definitely something to mark them with. And. And we're going to dive into the Bible.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: So our chief objective for this episode is to establish that the Old Testament is the First Testament of Jesus Christ.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: So the concept for Old Testament, New Testament probably originated in the 2nd century AD in the Greek and later the Latin centuries later. The terms Old Testament, New Testament have been utilized by various English translations, including the King James Version, English Standard Version, New International Version, and New American Standard Bible.
Old Testament and New Testament are Christian terms because the Hebrew Bible is the Christian Old Testament and the various faiths that follow. Only the Hebrew Bible don't believe in the New Testament. I don't believe that it's Scripture. So these terms express a theological understanding of an Old Covenant and New Covenant.
For example, Jeremiah 31 prophesied of a new covenant. And 2 Corinthians 3 speaks of an Old Covenant, referring to the former covenant of Moses and the New Covenant based on Jesus Christ and his Gospel.
Now, is Old Testament appropriate?
Although Old Testament and New Testament are widely adopted, they've faced criticism from Christians and others, particularly from individuals who contend that the Old Testament implies an Old. Something old no longer relevant, an outdated set of scriptural books. It's old.
Some propose adapting the terms to the Old Testament Hebrew Bible. That's what we use in my field, Hebrew Bible. Of course, we're speaking of the Hebrew Hebrew Scriptures. We also use that first covenant Testament of Promise or Tanakh, which is an acronym that I'm not going to explain now. It's derived from three main sections of the Hebrew Bible.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: So could we call then the Old Testament Old Covenant?
We could write that in our Testament.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Some scholars have suggested that.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: So it's an Old Covenant, and then the New Testament is the New Covenant.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Yes. Okay. I'm going to suggest something else also.
In addition, if you don't mind reading two frames from M. Russell Ballard.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: The First Testament of Christ is the Bible's Old Testament, which predicted and prophesied of the coming of the Savior, His Transcendent life and and his liberating atonement. The second Bible Testament of Christ is the New Testament. The third Testament of Christ is the Book of Mormon. Those who think that one part is more important or more true than the other parts are missing some of the beauty and completeness of the canon of ancient scripture.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Thank you. And I've heard some people say this book is more important than this one or this one's more true, or this one is more true. And I won't name which books, but I've heard people say that. So I love this. Those who think that one part is more important or more true than the other parts are missing some of the beauty and completeness.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Oh, I really like that.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: So here's what a lot of Bibles have. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments. But based on what we just heard from Elder Ballard, I propose this one.
The Holy Bible containing the first and second testaments of Jesus Christ.
So Peter said to him, speaking of Jesus Christ, give all the prophets witness. I put it in red font to emphasize not half the prophets, not 20%, not 70%, 80%, all the prophets.
A certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in the Spirit, and he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord. For he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly. So not just privately in their homes, but out in the squares and so on, showing by the Scriptures the Old Testament that Jesus was the Christ.
Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets.
So the law of Moses. And then the prophets Isaiah and Hosea and Micah and Amos and others did write Jesus of Nazareth. Now if you'd please, this is. These are. I've got four examples of Jesus self testimony saying the Old Testament speaks of him. If you don't mind going through those four. You bet.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Search the Scriptures. They are they which testify of me.
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He, He, Jesus expounded unto them his two disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself, all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.
For had you believed Moses, ye would have believed me. For he wrote of me. Oh that's cool.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: And I just wrote a note. There's no greater affirmation than Jesus himself.
Now will there be.
This is a fascinating topic and I'm going to quote two of our apostles in just a minute.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Will there be additional witnesses of Jesus Christ? So we have the First Testament, we have another Testament, Book of Mormon, and of course the New Testament. So I've got several additional witnesses of Jesus Christ. We have the records of the lost tribes, the record of John the Baptist. We hope to get the records of Zenith, Zenith and Naom. The Book of Lehi, the full Book of Lehi, Book of Joseph, Book of Enoch. We have pieces of the Book of Enoch from the Dead Sea Scrolls. I don't think part of them are original Enoch. The visions of Iddo the Seer, the sayings of the Seers, additional plates in Hill, Cumorah and Adam's Book of Remembrance, plus others, in my opinion and my hope, and we have to remain humble about this, those will also witness and teach of Jesus.
So let's look at first Elder Oaks. It's a little bit long, but I wanted to include the whole quote. And then I'm going to say something about his last line that might be fun. Would you please read this?
[00:06:37] Speaker A: Absolutely. The Lord not only manifests himself to all nations, he also commands that they write his words. For I command all men that they shall write the words which I speak unto them. For behold, I shall speak unto the Jew, and they shall write it. And I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall write it. And I shall also speak unto other tribes of the house of Israel which I have led away, and they shall write it. And I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth, and they shall write it. Furthermore, the Book of Mormon teaches that all of these groups will have the writings of the others. We conclude from this that the Lord will eventually cause the inspired teachings he has given to his children in various nations to be brought forth for the benefit of all people.
This will include accounts of the visit of the resurrected Lord to what we call the lost tribes of Israel and His revelations to all the seed of Abraham. The finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls shows one way this can occur. Tell me how.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Well, so as a lot of people know, I do Dead Sea Scrolls research and I have full speed ahead since January 1994, working on the actual scrolls. I have many books published, but a lot of them are in Hebrew. We're Hebrew and English, so I don't want anyone to go out and buy them. They're for scholars and university libraries.
But he doesn't say the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves. He says the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls shows one way this can occur. That's exciting to me because I've studied the way they were found. Now, just a personal note. I gave this quote in Seattle, Washington many years ago. Notice this is 2006. So many years ago I was in Seattle giving a fireside. And after the fireside is over, this very nice man came up after I had a lot of people come after, but I remember this one man and he said something like this. Thank you for quoting Elder Dallin H. Oaks in your talk.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Oh wow.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: He is my father.
So that was kind of fun. So his son was sitting in the audience.
Love that. Now I have one more quote. It's by Elder Maxwell on additional Scripture Coming forth.
One of the unique features of the living church of Jesus Christ is its ever expanding body of fundamental spiritual knowledge about man's identity and purpose which enlarges the memory of this people. Lost books are among the treasures yet to come forth. See, he's, he's telling us over 20 of these are mentioned in the existing scriptures. Future revelations, brothers and sisters, will include astounding events as well as great and important truths. So I'm hoping, and I'm ready for it, that when additional scriptures come forth, we'll still have the first testimony. First testament of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament, we'll have the new New Testament, of course, another testament of Jesus, the Book of Mormon, but we'll have additional testaments of Jesus Christ.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: And I love that you said you're ready for those because you've paid the price to read them. The rest of us are like, get reading everybody. So you are ready.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: So it seems to me that the theme we have here are all the witnesses of Jesus Christ. And we're looking forward to when we get more witnesses or more word. But I keep thinking is also we've been asked to be witnesses and that we could add our witness to those lists. Dawn, really quickly, will you just share your witness of Jesus Christ?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: I'd love to. What a privilege and opportunity. I bear testimony that Jesus is the Messiah. He is our Lord, he's our Savior, he's our Redeemer. I know these things not because others have told me, but of my own self. Because the Holy Spirit has borne witness to me not once, but over and over again throughout my life.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Thank you, Don. We challenge all of you this week to share your witness of Jesus Christ or write down your witness of Jesus Christ or tell your witness of Jesus Christ to your family members and friends, even when you're just eating casually in a restaurant. And if you do this. And when you do this, you will be able to absolutely have your witness solidified, and it will grow. And we leave this with you in his name and as his witnesses. Shalom and goodbye, Sam.
