=Nehemiah6;3391976]
These are both incorrect, and I believe they misrepresent what Christians believe.
1. The Bible clearly teaches that no man can be JUSTIFIED (declared righteous) by the works of the Law of Moses. Justification is always by grace through faith.
There was an "old Covenant" with Israel that stated sins could only be forgiven by Levitical Priesthood "works of the Law". While you are correct that is was always the Grace of God, HE still instituted these "works of the Law" as a shadow of what Jesus would do for them. It was a LAW of MOSES "Added" to God's Laws "Until the Seed should come".
The Jews didn't believe in the God of the bible(Jesus, before becoming a man), but had created their own "image of God in the likeness of man". (Rom. 1) They were still promoting their version of these "works of the Law for justification of sins."
Paul explained;
Rom. 3:
27 Where
is boasting then? It is excluded.
By what law?
of works? Nay:
but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law.
There was a "Law of Works" Levitical Priesthood ceremonial, sacrificial, "Works of the Law" for remission of sins.
And a "Law of Faith". Duet. 30:That thou mayest
love the LORD thy God,
and that thou mayest
obey his voice, and that thou mayest
cleave unto him:
for he is thy life, and the length of thy days:
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law.
The Mainstream preachers of our time preach this means all of God's Laws, that is a deception. Christians are still bound to the Law of Faith to receive Grace as Paul taught.
Acts 26:
20 But shewed
first unto them of Damascus,
and at Jerusalem,
and throughout all the coasts of Judaea,
and then to the Gentiles, that they should
repent and
turn to God, and
do works meet for repentance.
Rom. 2:
11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
12 For as many as have sinned without law
shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be
judged by the law;
13 (
For not the hearers of the law are just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified.
2. The Bible clearly teaches that the Pharisees were trying to please God by (a) adherence to the letter of the law while neglecting the spirit and the weightier matters of the Law and (b) adding the traditions of the elders to the Law of Moses. Essentially, they were branded as hypocrites by Christ.
This teaching is another deception. Jesus said the Pharisees didn't know God, taught for doctrines the "Commandments of Men, not from God. They had killed the Prophets sent to correct them for centuries. Jesus said they were servants of satan. Liars, thieves. It is a false teaching to preach the Mainstream Preachers of Christ's time were trying to be righteous by keeping God's Laws. They kept some of them, but so did the Gentiles. You don't here todays Mainstream Preaches declaring the Gentiles were trying to please God by follow His Laws just because they kept a few of them.
From the beginning satan has used parts of God's Word to deceive folks into rejecting the instructions of God. At one point we are all deceived by it.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
To do this it must discredit God somehow. (You shall surely not die) So first it uses religion to separate God from HIS righteousness. His Instruction must been seen as inadequate, a mistake, a burden so people can easily be convinced, as was Eve and the Jews, to reject it.
WE all have the same choice.
(Duet. 30:
19 I (Jesus) call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
that I (Jesus) have set before you
life and
death, blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
But Jesus also said:
John 3:
18 He that believeth
on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not
is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that
doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God. (Not of Man)
The preachers of Christ's time could have "done truth". They didn't have to create their own image of God in the likeness of man. But they didn't want their traditions exposed as coming from man and not from God. So they killed Him, as they did the Prophets before Him.
To dishonor God by preaching they were trying to please the God of the Bible by obedience is a blatant falsehood that "many" have come to believe as the truth. The Bible as a whole exposes this teaching for what it is.
3. The Ten Commandments (which were distilled into the two greatest commandments) have become the Law of Christ, written on the hearts and minds of those who are regenerated, and to be obeyed by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. So Christians are not Antinomians, and the Antinomians are false teachers.
So because men have been convinced that Jesus, as God of the Old Testament, created laws impossible to follow, then killed tens of thousands of people for not obeying them, they don't believe in this Jesus. They have Separated Jesus from His Righteousness.
Ps. 119:
172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments
are righteousness.
Todays preachers have convinced people into forgetting that Jesus and the God of the Bible are one. They have created their own version of Jesus. A long Haired man, with a perfect profile, who taught differently as a man that He did as God of the Bible, even though He says He does not change. They preach that God's Instructions are obsolete. They preach the lie that the "Law of Faith and the "Law of Works" are the same.
They preach that it is no longer a sin to create images of God in the likeness of man. That it is no longer against God to create their own High Days and Sabbaths while rejecting those He created specifically for them.
They create their own "Light" which can not expose their "works" whether they be from God or from man.
They are forced to ignore volumes of God's Instructions that expose their works.
Matt. 6:
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Like the Mainstream Preachers before them, they are tricked into believing they can serve the God they created, and the God of the bible that gives life at the same time.
Since they refuse to listen when God, through His Word, corrected them, He gives them over to their foolishness.
One perfect example of this it the preaching that the New Covenant destroyed or altered the Old Testament. This is a great deceit that is easily exposed if you actually study what was Written.
Jer. 31:
33 But this
shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I (Jesus) will put
my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for
I will forgive their iniquity, and
I will remember their sin no more.
The New Covenant had to do with 2 things regarding the Priesthood, according to the Scriptures. Nothing about God's Laws being "distilled" to mean something different than they did in the NT.
#1. How God's Laws are administered. Heb. 7:
11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (
for under it the people received the law,)
#2. How sin's are forgiven. Jesus will forgive with His blood, not the "Works of the Levitical Priesthood" as Moses taught.
In the New Covenant, we no longer go to the Pharisees for information about the Will of God or His Righteousness, He writes them in our hearts. We no longer go to the Levite Priests for absolution, but to our High Priest.
The preaching that the New Covenant changed the definition of sin or the consequences of it is a false teaching.
I know it is a natural reaction to defend our lifestyle and religions, as it was for Cain all the way to the Pharisees. My hope is that you might see we all face the same choice as Eve did. Do we listen to God for our instructions or man.