WOF Show Podcast - Word on Fire - WOF 534 | The Evangelical Power of the Old Testament

Dr. Matthew Petrusek Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. The Old Testament is about three-quarters of the Bible. It is theologically and morally impossible for Christians to understand God’s relationship with the world, the nature and purpose of human beings, original sin, salvation history, the person of Jesus Christ, and the foundation of the Church without it. Indeed, as far back as the second century AD, the Church condemned the heresy of Marcionism, which sought to distinguish the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament and to lop off the Old Testament from the biblical canon. There is and never has been, in short, Christianity without the Old Testament. Nevertheless, much of the text remains difficult for the faithful to understand and, even more so, to explain to others, especially to those who know nothing about it. To make matters more complicated, secular critics of the faith often try to use the Old Testament against it, arguing—like the Marcionites of the past—that belief in the Old Testament is both irrational and immoral. So how should Catholics respond? What are some strategies we can employ not only to make the Old Testament accessible but also evangelically compelling? Here to help us understand the Old Testament and its enduring evangelical power, especially in a highly secularized culture, is Bishop Robert Barron. Topics Covered 00:00 | Introduction01:32 | Bishop Barron visits Washington02:54 | How many Catholics read the Bible?09:09 | The unity of theology, biblical exegesis, and scriptural interpretation11:05 | The historical critical method and the Old Testament12:58 | The influence of Joseph Ratzinger on Bishop Barron’s biblical approach15:29 | The otherness of God20:09 | Why God’s self-sufficiency matters for reading the Old Testament22:30 | God as radically transcendent and personally involved25:04 | God as father of all and of Israel, his chosen people26:12 | Critique #1: The Old Testament God is violent29:58 | Critique #2: The Old Testament God is a moody, jealous diva32:31 | Critique #3: The Old Testament God is not the New Testament God34:43 | Critique #4: The Old