Peter, a podcast listener from Hong Kong, writes and asks this.

Dear Pastor John, thank you for the Aspastor John podcast.

Your thoughtful answers provide a great help to me.

My brother, who is a nonbeliever, says, we Christians change the Old Testament commands

to suit our needs.

For example, he reiterates that God forbids Israelites to eat pork, while Jesus allows

Christians to eat pork.

Can you offer some pointers on perhaps how we can explain why it is okay for Christians

to now eat pork?

Well, God forbid it from the Israelites.

And how do I explain this change with the Old Testament commands more generally to my

non-Christian brother?

It sounds to me like Peter's brother, who's not a believer, hasn't had any serious Christian

teaching about the basic flow of redemptive history.

In other words, how does the Bible work?

What is God up to in creation, fall, prophecy, fulfillment, redemption, more promise,

consummation?

In other words, God, God, there's a history that's flowing from creation to consummation.

And there are phases in the history that are designed and built in.

So it's not arbitrary when we Christians view certain aspects of the Old Testament as

not binding anymore, because those aspects themselves gave evidence that they were pointing

to something that would one day abrogate themselves.

...