Can Scriptures be 'deleted'?

Some friends of mine have suggested that certain parts of the Old Testament are wrong (and hence should be 'deleted'), because they are not in line with Jesus' teaching. I guess likewise they can extend this argument to Paul's letters, and 'delete' the passages that they think are not in line with Jesus' teaching.

My friends are especially referring to the Scriptures that talk about God' vengeance and judgment. They think that Jesus teaches God's love, not God's vengeance.

A good example is Jesus' citation of Isaiah 61:1, 2a; 58:6 in Luke 4:18-19. A friend of mine would say that Jesus stops at the middle of Isaiah 61:2, and does not cite "and the day of vengeance of our God". My friend would say that it is because Jesus does not believe in God's vengeance and God's judgment. My friend would even say that he would read the Old Testament according to 'this' teaching of Jesus, and treat similar Old Testament passages accordingly. (I think my friend might be thinking of the info from, for example, David J Bosch, Transforming Mission [Orbit: Maryknoll], 110.)

But we must note that later in Luke 21:5-38 Jesus pronounced judgment on Jerusalem, which is the type of judgment commonly found in the Prophets. Also, the Old Testament citation in Luke 4:18-19 is a mixture of Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 58. Furthermore, if we use my friend's argument, one must note that the rest of Isaiah 61:2 says "to comfort all who mourn", which is straight after "and the day of vengeance of our God". My friend must ask why Jesus also leaves out "to comfort all who mourn", because blessing to those who mourn is clearly Jesus' teaching on the Sermon on the Mount (or Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6). The fact is, we cannot be certain what exactly did Jesus read on that day. Instead, all that we have is Luke's record, which may well be quite selective material. (Not that Luke had changed Jesus' words, but that he was recording materials that would be relevant to a particular context.)

I wonder whether my friends' approach to Scripture has something to do with our human nature, in that we think 'we' has the right to decide which Bible passages are in line with Jesus' teaching or not. My friends are godly people and they are amazingly generous people. But isn't it true that our fallen human nature is that we want to live a life that is independent of God? Perhaps even the best humans can choose to 'delete' the Bible passages that they don't like (even with good intentions).

But Jesus himself says that he has come to fulfil the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17; 26:54, 56; John 17:12; 13:18; 15:25), and that Israel's Scripture (our Old Testament) itself bears witness to him (John 5:39). Both Jesus and the ancient Jews (and people in many parts of the non-Western world today) held their deepest respect for their sacred texts, especially for the texts that they believed to be revelation of God. I guess somehow in our Western world we no longer treat the Scripture in that way (even among those whose doctrine upholds the authority of Scripture). Somehow 'our interpretation' of Scripture has more authority than the Scripture itself. In doing so we undermine the authority of the God who gave us the Scripture.

Here is a Scripture that says heaps about Christ, his humility and the role of the Scripture in the earliest church. I hope we all follow the ways of Christ, his humility, and learn to use the Scripture from the earliest Christ-followers.

For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:3-4)