Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 26:3 (Fall 2022)
Article: Reasons Why New Testament Believers Need To Study, Teach And Preach The Old Testament
Author: Terry J. Betts

SBJT 26:3 (Fall 2022) p. 168

Reasons Why New Testament Believers Need To Study, Teach And Preach The Old Testament1

T. J. Betts

T. J. Betts is Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, where he has taught for more than twenty years, and which he earned his PhD in Old Testament. Before that he was a pastor for 14 years in Ohio and Indiana. Dr. Betts has served on mission assignments in Canada, Belgium, Niger, China, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. Dr. Betts is a regular contributor for Lifeway’s Explore the Bible and Stand Firm, and he is also the author of a number of books. His most recent, How to Teach the Old Testament to Christians: Discover How to Unpack All of Scripture for Today’s Believers (Tyndale), which is to be released in fall 2023. Dr. Betts and his wife Ann have two sons and two grandchildren.

Introduction

I want to thank President R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Provost Paul Akin and Dean Hershael York for the honor of giving this faculty address. It is my joy and privilege to serve on this faculty among such gifted and godly colleagues. I also want to thank my son, Joel, who is both a graduate of Boyce College and the seminary for coming. And of course, I am grateful to my wife, Ann, for being here. She is the godliest person I know as she has lived out before me and our sons what a life of service to Christ and to those around her looks like, especially to those who are unable to care for themselves.

My lecture is entitled, “Reasons Why New Testament (NT) Believers Need to Study, Teach and Preach the Old Testament (OT).”

SBJT 26:3 (Fall 2022) p. 169

One day my Hebrew professor in seminary entered the classroom obviously agitated. After glaring down at his books, he finally looked up at us and said, “I don’t know why I do this because none of you is going to teach or preach from the OT anyhow.” In response to his challenge, I began regularly preaching from the OT. As I did, the people in my congregation and I both grew in our appreciation for the OT. After ten years, I believed God was calling me to return to seminary so that I could teach OT in higher education and encourage others to preach and teach it also. My hope was that my students would discover the treasure that is the OT and experience the joy of teaching and preaching it to others.

When I told my friends that I was preparing to return to seminary in order to teach, they understood because they knew my love for teaching God’s Word. However, when they asked me what area of study I was planning to enter and I replied, “OT,” all of them without exception got befuddled ex...