A lot of christians like to pretend that the horrific brutality of the Old Testament can be swept under the rug due to the relative bloodlessness of the New testament. In fact, they'll often tell you that some of the more horrific aspects of the old testament can be ignored entirely, that they "no longer count". In this way, they try to justify the legacy of carnage and bloodlust which they carry on from throughout history. These christians ought to read what Jesus says here...

Matthew 5:17-20 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Seems that all the old rules DO count. Seems, in fact, that every last one of them, from blood-sacrifices to god, to killing gays, to murdering babies in their beds, to cleaning away mildew by dipping a live bird into the blood of a dead one... they all still count. And you need to observe each and every one of them in order to get into heaven. So guess what? Remember grandpa Paul? Remember how he never made any blood sacrifices to god? Guess where he's going when the world ends? Heaven, you say? Wrong! Guess again!

In our next study, we'll have a closer look at some of the sorts of things god demands people do for him, in the old testament, and in the new.