Theological Migration

This particular section of the Bible Study book did capture my attention. Partly because I migrated a long time ago. As a child I attended Church and Sunday School at my Anglican Church every Sunday with few exceptions other than when I was at my Grandmother's house where we went to the United Church and when we were at the cottage we went to the Anglican Church there. During the week though when I was eight, nine, ten and perhaps a little longer I used to attend on one of the weekdays (I think it might have been Wednesday) Bethel Chapel which was perhaps Pentecostal. My knowledge of protestant churches is somewhat limited. But this Bible Study designed for children was well attended - perhaps as many as thirty children came. I had a Bible of my own and was very adept at finding verses given the name of the book, chapter and verse. I knew my Bible very well (and still like to think that I do) and could rapidly find the verse requested and I think they were called Bible draws or something like that. The prize for the one who found the most verses over a period of time (lost to me now) was a lovely white zippered Bible which I dearly wanted to win and which indeed I did win the year that I was ten. But here at this Bible Study I heard the interpretation of Bible Stories that I knew well that was somewhat different from the interpretation in my own Sunday School/ Church Sermons. Hence at a young age I learned that one could look differently at verses/stories in the Bible particularly in the Old Testament which can be confusing at times. I gradually came to realize that one must not take the old testament literally. One must put different parts together and see the entire picture and very carefully. Can we know God? I am not really sure that we can. I do not think He has ever wished us to know him. He wanted us to obey him; worship him and follow his commandments. But was the Old Testament written only for the Jewish people? Another question I have never quite answered in my mind. Jesus opened the Bible to all so that question is answered for the time after Jesus but not before. Always the question in my mind is "Can we interpret the God of the Old Testament?". What role does He/should He play in our lives? Jesus came to give us a New Covenant and that Covenant was love which I tend to see as respect. The Theological Migration section gets a big check mark from me but I am not entirely in agreement with all of the author's thoughts. My only disagreement is the idea of throwing everything out; we need continuity to preserve all the good that was passed to us by our parents/grandparents with regard to our service to the Church. The Church is not there to serve us but we are here to serve the good work that Jesus came to tell us about and that we should be doing.