From the Shadows to the Savior
Christ in the Old Testament
(2015)
Few subjects are as important--yet ignored or misapplied--as the one addressed in this book. Jesus Christ is the absolute center and focus of the totality of God’s word. Many people confess this belief, since Jesus himself taught it (Luke 24:27; John 5:39). Christians have done well to see this on one or two levels, yet truly understanding just how primary he is as an actor—even in the Old Testament—is something few have considered.
In this book, adapted from a series of blog posts for the Decablog, Douglas Van Dorn helps us see the light of Christ that emerges from the dark hallways of Scriptures that so many find outdated, unintelligible, and irrelevant for today’s Church.
Learn how Christ is found in such things as prophecy, typology, and the law. Then, come in for a deeper study of how the Person himself is actually present, walking, speaking, and acting, beginning in the very first book of the Bible. Learn how words such as “Word,” “Name,” “Glory,” and “Wisdom” are all ideas that the Scripture itself attaches to Christ who in the OT is called The Angel of the LORD. Then see if such ideas don’t radically change the way you think about all of God’s word in this truly life-changing summary of Christ in the Old Testament.
This book is the first edition of what would become Christ in the Old Testament: Promised, Patterned, and Present. Below is the first two chapters to that book. But you can still get the original from the links above.
What they're saying
A certain kind of delight comes over the Christian when he or she discovers glorious truths in the Bible that were somehow missed or misinterpreted throughout one's life. I experienced this many times in reading Pastor Van Dorn's insightful work. Surely, Christ is found throughout the Old Testament and his ministry precedes his achievements through the Incarnation.
©2015
2023
Pastor Van Dorn has provided a marvelous introduction to a study of Christ in the Old Testament. The eternal Logos always has been and forever will be the second member of the Trinity, so shouldn’t we expect to see him at work throughout all of redemptive history? Even Jesus himself made clear to some very confused disciples that he was the one they had been reading about all along (Luke 24:27, 44-47). Jesus said in John 5:39, “You [Jewish people] diligently study the Scriptures [which at that time were the 39 books of the Old Testament]…These are the Scriptures that testify about me.”