Does the Old Testament continue to function for the Church as Holy Scripture, and if so, how? This is a key question for the Church’s faith and life. Interest in the question among Evangelicals and Reformed Christians often quickly turns into the alleyways of debates over theonomy, the uses of the law, and other such topics. But there’s a far more fundamental, even elemental, theological reality to which this question of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture belongs, one which requires that we first appreciate the nature of Scripture as rooted in God’s economy--that is, his ordered and purposed working in the world to the end or eschatological telos of the glory of the Son by the Spirit through the Church. Holy Scripture is what it is only as it is first located within those purposes. But this entails certain other commitments such as the relationship of the Son, the Arche and Logos, to Scripture from the very beginning and not only at the end. If the Scriptures which we call “Old” are as much the Word of God about the Son of God as the New Testament Scriptures are, how then should we understand the Old Testament in relation to this Christ and to the New Testament?

To discuss this and more, Dr. Mark A. Garcia, President and Fellow in Scripture and Theology at Greystone Theological Institute, sits down with Greystone's Fellow in Old Testament and associate professor of Old Testament at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA (USA), Dr. Don C. Collett. Dr. Collett has spent many years reflecting carefully on the questions we are exploring today, and he’s just recently published a book on this topic entitled Figural Reading and the Old Testament: Theology and Practice, released by Baker Academic in April of this year (2020).

Dr. Collett’s Greystone course, Job as Christian Scripture, is available to all Greystone Members. Become a member today for unlimited access to the growing Greystone Connect library.

The Old Testament as the Church's Scripture