I am having questions about the direction our church has taken when they discount any worship done except “in spirit and truth” so anything physical is questioned. Gnostics feel that matter is evil and spiritual is good. Our churches are not Gnostic, but many beliefs border on that. Gnostics say that we are saved through gaining supernatural knowledge; we say we are saved through Christ’s saving blood that gives us forgiveness of sin.
Some say obedience and works are too physical so God changed His mind about asking this of us, we are to follow knowledge only given by the HS, knowledge in our heart, not to listen to written law. It is only the spiritual that counts. That is not what God says. God created the world and it was good. We are to recognize the physical, too. We are to follow the HS with physical doing.
Gnosis was popular in the first days of Christianity, many scriptures speak against it.
We say that we must worship in spirit and truth, that is scriptural truth. What we do must follow the heart to be effective. The church is very against anything that God the Father suggested as ways to worship to lead us to spirit and truth, such as the feasts and our choice of meat. There are many ways God told of, and our church is dead set against all of them. I have been questioning that for some time.
I searched for what contemporaries of Jesus and Paul said as they wrote histories and comments,people like Origen, Clement, or Eusibius’s History. History says that the Jews had a council to decide what to do about the large number of people who wanted to join them in worship of the one true God, then those that wanted to join them in knowing Christ. They had always accepted these people by ceremonially having converts become Hebrews. This council made up a list of requirements that is lost in history, but is often referred to. Some references say it was made up of 18 requirements, some more than 18. Jus timagine being told, if you asked to join the church today, that it requires circumcision and change in your food habits, etc! We think it is bad enough when it is reported in Acts that they pared this list down to those that at least allowed these converts to be allowed in synagogue to learn about God from scripture. Sometimes Paul referred to this list as “circumcision” and sometimes as “the law” as in Galatians. There are people today who take everything Paul reported God as saying about telling people this is not required as God saying He was wrong, He takes all He said about law back, that Christ is God now so forget I am the Father.
As we listen to truths from our God about how to worship, we have thrown out all ways used to unite daily living to worship. There is nothing about food, nothing about washing as part of devotion, nothing required in regard to prayer. As long as we have at least a vague awareness of God through our days, we can live a life barely touched by our God and still live within NT scripture. Some say that because it is not God’s law so not doing it can be called sin, no one should go the extra mile in worship to do any of it.
There are churches in the last 50 years or so that have brought some of the feasts and rituals back into worship practice. I think Satan is against such, for there is a great cry that these people are denying grace,they are teaching that the works of such worship is not to lead to everyday awareness and worship of God but saying the work of the ritual saves them. I have never heard or read of this except in the accusations of those who want to destroy this kind of worship.
There are Jews, even today, who worship the Father and look for the Messiah with a devotion we lack. They do not know all that occurred when the Son lived and was crucified here. Many Christians worship the Father and also know the Son and the HS. But there are Christians who recognize the Son and HS, but deny the Father just as the Jews deny the Son.
I hope I can get someone to prayerfully think about these things! Go into the book of Hebrews, not as a born again Christian without a very thorough background of OT, but as a Jew, raised in the synagogue, new to Christ, and wondering about returning to life without Christ. That is who the book was written to. It puts a whole new perspective on this book, but check what is God telling us there about the rituals. It tells how we can keep the OT and use it as a step in growth in the Christ we know. Go to Galatians and imagine it as speaking, not against all written law, but against those 18 requirements. Search the feasts for an outline of God’s plan for our redemption. Search Romans, asking God about what He is doing about the Jews who are true to worshipping Him, but denying Christ as the man who lived here and was crucified, remembering that Christ was part of the entire OT. Don't stop with scripture telling us we must use Christ to be saved, certain that the OT Christ won't work at all, but keep searching. I have taken these steps, and still wonder.
Some say obedience and works are too physical so God changed His mind about asking this of us, we are to follow knowledge only given by the HS, knowledge in our heart, not to listen to written law. It is only the spiritual that counts. That is not what God says. God created the world and it was good. We are to recognize the physical, too. We are to follow the HS with physical doing.
Gnosis was popular in the first days of Christianity, many scriptures speak against it.
We say that we must worship in spirit and truth, that is scriptural truth. What we do must follow the heart to be effective. The church is very against anything that God the Father suggested as ways to worship to lead us to spirit and truth, such as the feasts and our choice of meat. There are many ways God told of, and our church is dead set against all of them. I have been questioning that for some time.
I searched for what contemporaries of Jesus and Paul said as they wrote histories and comments,people like Origen, Clement, or Eusibius’s History. History says that the Jews had a council to decide what to do about the large number of people who wanted to join them in worship of the one true God, then those that wanted to join them in knowing Christ. They had always accepted these people by ceremonially having converts become Hebrews. This council made up a list of requirements that is lost in history, but is often referred to. Some references say it was made up of 18 requirements, some more than 18. Jus timagine being told, if you asked to join the church today, that it requires circumcision and change in your food habits, etc! We think it is bad enough when it is reported in Acts that they pared this list down to those that at least allowed these converts to be allowed in synagogue to learn about God from scripture. Sometimes Paul referred to this list as “circumcision” and sometimes as “the law” as in Galatians. There are people today who take everything Paul reported God as saying about telling people this is not required as God saying He was wrong, He takes all He said about law back, that Christ is God now so forget I am the Father.
As we listen to truths from our God about how to worship, we have thrown out all ways used to unite daily living to worship. There is nothing about food, nothing about washing as part of devotion, nothing required in regard to prayer. As long as we have at least a vague awareness of God through our days, we can live a life barely touched by our God and still live within NT scripture. Some say that because it is not God’s law so not doing it can be called sin, no one should go the extra mile in worship to do any of it.
There are churches in the last 50 years or so that have brought some of the feasts and rituals back into worship practice. I think Satan is against such, for there is a great cry that these people are denying grace,they are teaching that the works of such worship is not to lead to everyday awareness and worship of God but saying the work of the ritual saves them. I have never heard or read of this except in the accusations of those who want to destroy this kind of worship.
There are Jews, even today, who worship the Father and look for the Messiah with a devotion we lack. They do not know all that occurred when the Son lived and was crucified here. Many Christians worship the Father and also know the Son and the HS. But there are Christians who recognize the Son and HS, but deny the Father just as the Jews deny the Son.
I hope I can get someone to prayerfully think about these things! Go into the book of Hebrews, not as a born again Christian without a very thorough background of OT, but as a Jew, raised in the synagogue, new to Christ, and wondering about returning to life without Christ. That is who the book was written to. It puts a whole new perspective on this book, but check what is God telling us there about the rituals. It tells how we can keep the OT and use it as a step in growth in the Christ we know. Go to Galatians and imagine it as speaking, not against all written law, but against those 18 requirements. Search the feasts for an outline of God’s plan for our redemption. Search Romans, asking God about what He is doing about the Jews who are true to worshipping Him, but denying Christ as the man who lived here and was crucified, remembering that Christ was part of the entire OT. Don't stop with scripture telling us we must use Christ to be saved, certain that the OT Christ won't work at all, but keep searching. I have taken these steps, and still wonder.
