As we lead up to our second Lead U Conference (For the Life of the Church: Christianity and Cultural Engagement, April 27-28), we are sharing links to the presentations from our first conference last fall, Christianity and the Death of the Old Testament. Below is a brief summary of this week’s featured presentation with a link to the video. We hope you will join us on April 27-28 for our second conference!
Main Session #1: “Christianity and the Death of the Old Testament: Problems, Causes, and Ways Forward” by Kyle Rapinchuk
Summary: In this session, Dr. Rapinchuk explores the reality that the Old Testament is dying in the life of the Church today. On account of infrequent use in sermons, worship music, and general reading, there is strong reason to fear a day quite soon in which the Old Testament becomes irrelevant for evangelicals. Using the work of Brent Strawn in his book The Old Testament is Dying, the diagnosis is more dire still. Comparing the Old Testament to a language and exploring the way languages die, Strawn shows how the Old Testament is far more sick than we feared. Dr. Rapinchuk continues to expound upon Strawn’s work and suggests some ways forward that will help save the Old Testament and the Christian gospel.