Why do some religions go by the laws of the Old Testament and others the New?  I can't understand why there is so much confusion.  Could you please tell me what verses they use to back up both views?

Sincerely,
Of Two Minds

Dear Of Two Minds,

The confusion happens because people don’t understand the purpose of the Old Testament.  Since God wrote the Old Law, why would He all of a sudden discard it?  The key to why the Old Testament laws are no longer applicable is to realize that the Old Law was supposed to lead the Jews to Christ (Gal 3:24).  The Old Testament prophesied of Jesus, and it prepared people for Jesus’ coming.  When Jesus came, He didn’t discard the Old Testament – He fulfilled it (Matt 5:17).  Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are the fulfillment of everything of which the prophets of old spoke (1 Pet 1:10-12, Acts 3:20-21).  Moses said that there would come a day when a Messiah would come… and that when He came, the Jews were to follow Christ instead (Acts 3:22-24).  Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament by being the Messiah and paying the price for mankind’s sins.  The Old Testament was a tutor to lead us to Christ (Gal 3:24), but now that Christ is here, He has fulfilled the law, and we are no longer bound by its laws (Gal 3:25).  The Old Testament still provides many wonderful examples and lessons of morality (1 Cor 10:11), but its specific laws no longer apply.

Who is Judah?

Sincerely,
Identity Check

Dear Identity Check,

Judah was the fourth son born to Jacob (Gen 29:35).  Judah’s father, Jacob, was also known as Israel and was the father of the nation of Israel (Gen 32:28).  Judah later became the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Num 1:27).  The tribe of Judah bore several prominent figures of the Bible.  King David was of the tribe of Judah (1 Sam 17:12), and so were all the subsequent kings of Judah.  In fact, God prophesied that the greatest king would come from the tribe of Judah… and He did.  Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah (Heb 7:14) and is referred to as the “Lion of Judah” (Rev 5:5).

Jer 8:17, Isa 11:8, Isa 59:5, and Isa 14:29 mention cockatrices (which are half bird and half snake fictional creatures), dragons in Isa 13:22, satyrs (which are found mostly in Greek myths and are half human and half goats) in Isa 13:21 and Isa 34:14, and unicorns throughout the Bible (like in Num 23:22).  They're in the KJV Bible, but still, is the Bible saying these creatures exist or will exist for real and we should believe in them?

Sincerely,
Zoologist

Dear Zoologist,

The issue you are dealing with is a translation issue.  One of the reasons we prefer the New King James Version to the original King James is that some of the archaic language has been updated, and this includes animal classifications.  When the King James Version was written in 1611, they had less information regarding what specific animals were being referred to in the Hebrew Old Testament.  Animal names can be some of the toughest to track down in translation, especially if there isn’t any context to help pinpoint the animal.  Today, scholars believe that they have narrowed the animals in those verses down.  The word ‘cockatrice’ in the KJV is typically translated ‘snake’ or ‘adder’.  The word ‘satyr’ in the KJV is typically translated ‘wild-goat’, and ‘unicorn’ is typically translated ‘wild-ox’.  Regardless of the specific breed or species, the Bible isn’t referring to mythological beasts in these passages; it is mentioning real animals that the people of that time would have been familiar with.

There are two passages that some people say don't go well together.  In 2 Samuel 24:1, God incited David to take a census, but in 1 Chronicles 21:1, Satan incited David to take the census.  How can this be?  Some people say that either God Himself morphed into Satan or the author of Chronicles calls God "satan" because God's anger acts as an adversary to David or people say this is just a biblical error and don't know why it's there.  At first, I thought these were two separate events, but no, these two verses describe one event.  What do you say, and how would you explain this?

Sincerely,
Head Count

Dear Head Count,

Those two verses describe two sides of the same coin.  2 Sam 24:1 says that God was upset with Israel, and 1 Chr 21:1 says that Satan fought against Israel.  Both are true.  God was upset with how Israel was behaving, so He took His protection away and allowed Satan to fight against Israel by tempting David.  God often does this.  We are protected as long as we turn to Him and place our faith in Him, but when we wander into ungodly living – all bets are off.  The great lion, the devil, hunts for wayward sheep that have strayed from the Great Shepherd (1 Pet 5:8).

I don't get it... if Jesus was a Jew, why isn't Judaism the correct religion?  Did I miss something?

Sincerely,
Confused Christian

Dear Confused Christian,

Jesus was born a Jew (Matt 1:17), lived under the Jewish law (Lk 2:41-42), and even taught His fellow Jews to obey the Old Testament law (Matt 23:1-3).  Judaism was the right religion, until Jesus died on the cross and replaced Judaism with Christianity.  The Old Testament, the law the Jews followed, was a tutor to lead people to Christ, but after Jesus came, mankind was supposed to follow Him instead (Gal 3:24-25).  The Jewish law said that someday there would come a Messiah who would save them from their sins – Jesus was that Messiah (Jhn 1:45).  The Jewish law taught mankind that they needed a Savior, and that they should prepare for His coming.  Jesus came providing the grace and truth that wasn’t possible under Jewish law (Jhn 1:17).  Jesus’ death made a permanent sacrifice for sins that none of the Old Testament animal sacrifices ever could (Heb 10:1-4).