Every four years, members of the Church dust off their copies of the Old Testament, move their marker ribbon-bookmarks from somewhere in the back of their “quads” to the front and prepare to listen, ready and study books from Genesis to Malachi.
Why?
What makes the Old Testament germane to the 21st-century? What could we possibly have in common with Noah’s contemporaries?
Oh THAT!
You mean Imminent destruction of the wicked? Maybe not a global flood, just a worldwide contagion, sexual slavery, wicked people in high places, drones raining down death from the sky, and generally, mocking people, in large and spacious buildings pointing their fingers at you?
OK.OK. Now it makes more sense, doesn’t it? Some things don’t REALLY change.
Patterns repeat themselves. And as George Santayana said, if we don’t learn from history, we’re destined to repeat it. That, was after all, the message of the Book of Mormon, and it’s the sad but true story we in the books we read in the Old Testament. Ask yourself this question: Why did the Lord command Lehi and his family to go back and obtain the brass plates from Laban? And what were the brass plates? The Old Testament down through Isaiah. Remember that the Mulekites did not have access to their scriptures, and as a result, they lost not only their language, but also a knowledge of the law and the prophets.
So, we study the Old Testament. And, at Latter Day Radio, we discuss WHY this ancient book of scripture is so important, so civilizing and a key to understanding the New Testament and the modern scriptures that follow. All of our standard works focus on the three “pillars of eternity”— The Creation, the Fall and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. THEY ALL POINT THERE!
In the first three segments on the Old Testament (now joined together as one 38-minute podcast) that were originally broadcast on KLO AM1430 in 2018, Martin Tanner and GM Jarrard examine the reasons WHY the Old Testament is so important and a key to understanding the rest of the standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So listen. And share your feedback with us at www.latterdayradio.com.
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