Topic 3 of 35 - Your Place in the Learning Journey
Is There One Single Coherent Story?
The Church has long seen the Old Testament as the New Testament “concealed” and the New Testament as the Old Testament “revealed”. So, it’s not surprising that a storyline can be seen passing through the books of both testaments - at least by the Church.
Christ has referenced Old Testament Jonah as foreshadowing things concerning him. Peter, in Acts 2, explains the Pentecostal miracles as being the fulfillment of Joel’s Old Testament prophecy. On the mount of transfiguration, appearing with Jesus was Moses and Elijah - bringing into the same narrative with Jesus - the law and the prophets. God’s words of judgment upon the serpent in Genesis 3 seems a pronouncement of coming triumph of by one eventually to come. This seems to fit the New Testament Christ. Paul’s reference to the first Adam and the last Adam draws both the Old Testament Adam and the New Testament Jesus into the New Testament redemptive narrative.
It's important to note that the above are literary claims and not mere faith claims. In other words, New Testament narratives connect specific Old Testament events to New Testament truths. Of course, one may choose to doubt the efficacy of the claims. But the cross testament reality of the claims are literarly indisputable. And the question of a unified storyline is a literary claim.
Furthermore, both testament share so many common themes - sin, judgment, forgiveness, redemption, etc.
So, the combination of the common shared themes and the literary cross connections between the testaments do support a single coherent story like, perhaps, the tragedy of human sin and the availability of forgiveness and redemption through the finished work of Christ