Why Are Some Old Testament Laws Followed Today While Others Are Ignored?
1) Direct Answer
Because Jesus fulfilled the Law and brought in the New Covenant. The parts of the Old Testament that were shadows and rituals for Israel’s worship ended at the Cross, but the moral righteousness of God remains and is written in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So we don’t “pick and choose”—we follow what the Bible itself carries forward in the New Testament and what it says has been fulfilled.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- “Think not that I am come to destroy the law… I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).
- “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us… nailing it to his cross… Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday… or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:14-17).
- “The law having a shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1).
- “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (Galatians 3:24).
- The New Testament repeats God’s moral commands: “Thou shalt not commit adultery… kill… steal… bear false witness… covet… and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying… Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Romans 13:9).
- Concerning food laws: Jesus declared what enters the man does not defile him (Mark 7:18-19), and “every creature of God is good… sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4-5).
- Concerning sabbath days and feast days, the Scripture calls them “a shadow,” and says not to be judged in them (Colossians 2:16-17). Our true rest is entering into Christ (Hebrews 4:9-10; Matthew 11:28-29).
- Concerning circumcision: “He is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart” (Romans 2:29; see also Colossians 2:11).
- The apostles, by the Holy Ghost, laid only necessary things on Gentile believers (Acts 15:28-29), showing that the Mosaic ritual was not binding on the church.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
Now notice how the Bible itself makes the line clear:
- Temple/ceremonial laws (sacrifices, priesthood, feast days, dietary and purity rituals) were shadows pointing to Christ. When the Lamb of God came and shed His blood, the sacrifices and priestly system reached their fulfillment (Hebrews 10:1-14). To keep the shadow after the substance has arrived would deny the very fulfillment.
- Civil/national laws (land rules, penalties, kingship statutes) governed Israel as a nation. The church is not a political nation; our Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). We submit to civil authorities where we live (Romans 13:1-7), but the church does not enforce Israel’s state penalties.
- Moral law (God’s holy character—no idolatry, no murder, no adultery, no stealing, truthfulness, purity, love) never expires. The New Testament reaffirms and even lifts it higher—anger judged as murder in the heart, lust as adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:21-30). Under grace, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk in the Spirit (Romans 8:4). God writes His law on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).
You see, it’s not three Gods and it’s not two Bibles. It’s one God unfolding His covenant. The shadow gives way to the substance, but the holy nature of God remains the same. That’s why we still reject sin but we don’t keep animal sacrifices, temple rituals, or feast-day obligations. Christ fulfilled them.
4) Reinforcing Statement
So the reason some Old Testament laws are kept and others are not is simple: the Bible says the shadows ended in Christ, and the New Testament repeats and deepens the moral commands. We’re not under the letter that kills, but under the Spirit who writes the law within and leads us to live holy.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Church choosing Law for Grace
61-0316 §31
...oup suppers to pay the preacher---where'd you ever get such a thing as that scripture? Tithes pays the preacher. He's to live by the tithes of the people. But we had to get something else to do. We have to have our part into it. And then, if they can't make it up, there's another society will do it, another society. God's way is right. Tithe and offerings goes to Levi, which was the minister. If everybody would pay their tithes, you wouldn't have to have any soup suppers. See, you adopted something else, and leave...
God keeps His Word
57-0115 §32
...nd, in the Bible we're going back over into I Kings just for a little bit, in a mental conditions, to let our mind drift back to a certain event. There was King Ahab of the Old Testament. Which King Ahab in his time, is a beautiful type of the New Testament. And notice. Just as Ahab married Jezebel, an idolater, and brought idolatry into Egypt, was a type in the seven dispensations of the Old Testament, as the seven candlesticks of the New Testament. In the dark ages, the fifteen hundred years of dark ages, Protest...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 1:E-73
Now don't let anyone be misled by what I have said and think that I do not believe in the accuracy of the Word as we now have it. I believe this Bible is accurate. Jesus completely authenticated the Old Testament when here on earth and it was compiled exactly as was our New Testament. Make no mistake about it, we have the infallible Word of God today and no man dares take from it or add to it. But we need the same Spirit that gave it, to teach it to us.
The unfailing realities of the living God
60-0626 §56
I just ask any man to produce Scripture for a woman preacher. I can prove to you that in the Old Testament, as Paul said, "Even so saith the law." I was looking in the chronology of the Old Testament yesterday, and I found in there that where they had special police, that a woman couldn't even come into the second or third court, let alone in the pulpit. They had special police in the temple to keep the Gentiles outside there, and the women next, and then come the Levites, and then to the holiest of holies. They co...
Identification
64-0216 §45
...that day. And Jezebel, the ... (2500 years ago Hollywood was starting with all of her paint and fashions) had got all the daughters of Israel doing the same thing. And one old man stand up there and battered against it. And all the priests saying, "Oh, well, the old fellow---let him alone. He'll come to his end after a while. There's nothing to it." And he... "Our fine king, who's dressed just like we're dressed, and got the finest clothes, and the best-fed nation, and everything. What does it make any difference,...