I hate CNN, but I like to know what’s going on in the world and what people are saying about it. So, when I was doing a little catching up on the news Saturday morning (11/21/2015), I was bothered by something Michael Smerconish said on his program. In a discussion of radical Islam and interpretations of the Koran, the host said, “There is justification in the Bible for a lot of bad things.” What? I don’t think so!
First of all, who made Smerconish the authority on “bad things”? As Jesus said to a man who was seeking eternal life, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good” (Matthew 19:17). All goodness comes from God. What is good and what is evil are determined by God and by Him alone. Therefore, what someone greatly lacking in omniscience like a TV pundit thinks is bad may in the mind of God be a good thing. The fact that we don’t understand how such can be so does not make it less so.
However, the greater problem here is in a misunderstanding of the Bible. Michael makes the mistake that is made by so many others in not distinguishing the testaments. God has authorized three dispensations of religion: the Patriarchal, the Mosaical, and the Christian. In 2015, we live in the time of the third, i.e. the Christian Age. This has been the case since the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross outside Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago. When He shed His blood there, Jesus brought both the Patriarchal Age and the Mosaical Age to an end and ushered in the new age. Now, God does not bind the Law of Moses upon men, not even the Jews. All men are amenable to God today under the New Testament, the last will and testament of Jesus Christ.
The New Testament is the perfect rule of faith and practice for all men. It is the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25), and, as such, it does not justify any bad things. God had His good reasons for giving certain specific laws to Israel during the days of the Old Testament. Those laws were always meant to be preparatory for much better things to come in the future (cf. Hebrews 7:18; 8:6; 9:23). Furthermore, I submit that with diligent Bible study we might come to know the mind of God better and understand that those things we thought were so bad really turned out to be good (cf. Romans 8:28).
–Andy