So you expect people to burn down their houses if they get the flu? That's in the law. "Hear O Israel", not "Hear O gentiles". Read Acts 15. And Galatians. Colossians as well.
THE LAW OF CHRIST
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No, it's not. The flu is not even mentioned in the Bible.
In Ephesians 2:12-19, Gentiles were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world, which is in accordance with Gentiles at one time not being doers of the Torah, but through faith in Christ all of that is no longer true in that Gentiles are no longer strangers or aliens but are fellow citizens of Israel along with the saints in the household of God, which is in accordance with Gentiles becoming doers of the Torah. Israel was given the role of being a light and a blessing to the nations, so there is no sense in rejecting the light and the blessing because Israel was given that role.
In Deuteronomy 13, the way that God instructed to determine that someone is a false prophet is if they speak against obeying the Torah, so it is either incorrect to interpret what you referenced as speaking against obeying the Torah (my position) or they were written by false prophets, but either way followers of Christ should follow the example that he set for his followers to follow of how to walk in obedience to the Torah.
The Levitical law gives instructions regarding the response to any contagious disease. I used the flu as a modern example. Not so many people get leprosy these days.
God does not save people in order to place them back under the law that killed them in the first place. I've said this many times before: the law is the shadow. You live in the shadows. That is why you can't/won't see the truth of the new covenant. Come into the light and you will see how wrong you are.
the torah? really ? see this: Deu 13:4 Ye shall walk after Jehovah your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
The Hebrew word "tzaraat" does not have an English equivalent and it certainly does not refer to any contagious disease or to leprosy. "Leprosy" is used because they needed an English word to fill the gap, so it is perhaps the closest word in English, but it is nevertheless a different concept. For example, if tzaraat spread to cover their entire body from head to toe, then the priest was to declared them to be clean. A house was not considered to have tzaraat until the moment that the priest declared it to have it, so people could remove their possessions from their house up until that point, moreover, a house can not get the flu. In Matthew 8:2, he did not ask for Jesus to heal him, but rather he said that if Jesus was willing, then he could make him clean.
Jesus saves us from our sin (Matthew 1:21) and it is by the Torah that we have knowledge of what sin is (Romans 3:20), so Jesus graciously teaching us to experience being a doer of the Torah is intrinsically the way that he is giving us his gift of saving us from not being a doer of it at it is contradictory for someone to think that they need salvation from sin while also thinking that they have no obligation to refrain from doing what the Torah reveals to be sin.
In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul spoke in regard to how Passover foreshadowed Christ by drawing a connection of him being our Passover lamb, however, instead of concluding that we no longer need to celebrate Passover, he concluded that we should therefore continue to celebrate it, so the fact that Passover is a foreshadow of Christ does not diminish its importance but rather it amplifies it. The Torah teaches us how to point to Christ and as his followers we should live in a way that points towards him by following the example that he set for his followers to follow of how to walk in obedience to it rather than a way that points away from him. The Torah is truth (Psalm 119:142), the Torah is light (Proverbs 6:23), and the New Covenant still involves following the Torah (Jeremiah 31:33).
There is nothing sinful about not following laws that we legitimately can't keep and that should not prevent us from getting to experience obedience to the laws that we can legitimately keep. For example, in Deuteronomy 17:18, it specifically instructs the king to write a copy of the Torah, so only the king can get to legitimately experience obedience to that law and everyone who is not the king has a legitimate reason for not following it. Not even Jesus got to experience obedience to the laws in regard to giving birth or to having a period, but again there is nothing wrong with that. The Israelites were give a number of laws that had the condition "when you enter the land" while they were still wandering the wilderness for 40 years that a generation did not get to keep, but that did not prevent them from getting to keep them as soon as they entered the land. The condition for the Israelites to return to the land after they had been exiled to Babylon was to return to obedience to the Torah, which contains instructions in regard to Temple practice which they could not obey while they were in exile, so that did not prevent them from getting to obey the laws that they could obey.
God's character traits are eternal, so there is a reality of what is true about who God is that we true before He gave any laws, that has been revealed through His laws, and that is true regardless of which covenant someone is under if any. For example, God's righteousness is eternal (Psalm 119:142), therefore all of His righteous laws are eternal (Psalm 119:160), so anyone who has the goal of embodying God's righteousness will consider any instructions that He has given for how to do that to be eternally and cumulatively valid. It is not the case that that someone were have no obligation to embody God's righteousness if they were not in a covenant relationship with Him, so it is missing the point to focus on the specifics of God's covenants instead of on what they teach us that is eternally true about who God is.
The Hebrew word "Torah" used in Jeremiah 31:33 refers to all of the Law of Moses, not to just the Decalogue. In Deuteronomy 30, it forms the basis for the New Covenant by prophesying about a time when the Israelites would return from exile, God would circumcise their hearts, and they would return to obedience to the Torah, which is what Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27 are in regard to. In Ezekiel 36:26-27, God will take away our hearts of stone, give us hearts of flesh, and send His Spirit to lead us to obey the "mishpatim" and the "chukim, which again are not limited to just the Decalogue but are the two main categories of law in the Law of Moses.
The phrase "the Law and the Prophets" is like saying "the Gospels and the Epistles" and refers to everything within a large body of text, not to just the Decalogue.
While it is possible to interpret Acts 15:19-21 as ruling against followers of Christ following over 99% (609/613) of what he taught, I don't think that it makes much sense to do that. Do you think that Acts 15:19-21 contains an exhaustive list for mature believers? It is would be contradictory to treat it as being an exhaustive list for mature believers in order to limit which ways Gentile followers of Christ should follow Christ while also treating it as being a non-exhaustive list by taking the position that there are obviously other ways that followers of Christ should follow Christ, such as with the greatest two commandments, the Decalogue, or those things spoken against in Romans 1:29-31, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, and Galatians 5:19-21, or Titus 3:1-3. Moreover, the the reason why the commandments to love God and our neighbor are the greatest two commandments is because they are inclusive of all of the other commandments, so the moment that you include those you also include everything else in the Law of Moses.
Is God's holiness eternal or did it fail to get renewed under the New Covenant? In 1 Peter 1:16, we are told to be holy for God is holy, which is a quote from Leviticus where God was giving instructions for how to do that, such as by refraining from eating unclean animals (Leviticus 11:44-45) or by following "ceremonial or boundary-marker provisions". If our goal is to embody God's character traits, then the only way that we should cease to follow God's instructions for how to be holy as He is holy would be if He were to cease to be holy under the New Covenant. Morality is based on God's character traits, which means that God's instructions for how to be holy as He is holy are moral laws as well as everything else in the Law of Moses, so none of it has been set aside.
Indeed, that verse uses the Hebrew word "mitzvot" and there are 613 "mitzvot" in the Law of Moses. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has the character traits that the Law of Moses was given in order to teach us how to embody, such as how to be holy as He is holy, which is why Deuteronomy 13 associates false prophets who speak against obeying God's commandments with those who lead people to follow other gods. The only way that we should follow a different set of laws for how to embody a different set of character traits would be if the New Covenant were made with a different god with a different set of character traits, but it is made with the same God with the same character traits and therefore the same eternal and cumulatively valid instructions for how to embody His character traits (Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26-27).
The new covenant speaks of the ten commandment not because I said so but because God declared the ten commandments to be the covenant, it is written in many places in the O.T. and it is certain. However you are correct that we can still follow some of the mosaic laws if they are applicable today, and why not I think it's a good thing and why not. but this is not populat as you know its already difficult proving we have to keep the commandments imagine telling people to keep the rest of the law of Moses. I understand what you say about God's character traits and it it important. personally if you follow the ten ahd follow the mindset of jesus as seen in scrioture, you certainly keep the rest pf teese applicable laws. is it so? what do you think.
Cheers
Absurd conclusion. "Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ." Colossians 2:16 & 17.
The Torah demands that covenant people be circumcised. Paul said circumcision is not only unnecessary but meaningless. (Galatians 6:15). You can't have it both ways. Either the Torah has been superseded or Paul is an evil heretic.
"..........by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace...." Ephesians 2:15
I realise that the truth is of no use to you because you are blind. The only reason I respond is to help others who might be persuaded by your false doctrine. All that you have said implies that Jesus died and rose again for nothing.
Galatians 5:1-4
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery."
"Take notice: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."
As I thought I said already...the two are a summation of the 600+.
Loving God and loving neighbor is what we are called to do by Christ Jesus.
Which would make them disobedient to the second commandment.
With the Law now written in our hearts, there is no such scenario as you opine.
Why make things difficult when Jesus made it easy ?
Are you a Christian ?
You claimed that Jesus only had two laws for us to keep, which would mean that someone who committed idolatry would not be breaking the 2nd Commandment because that is not one of the two laws that Jesus had for us to keep. On the other hand, all of the Torah being written on our hearts would include the 2nd Commandment against committing idolatry.
While Jesus simplified our understanding of what the Torah is essentially about how to do, he did not simplify what we are obligated to do. If you recognize that following the greatest two commandments includes refraining from committing idolatry, then that does not simplify our obligation to refrain from committing idolatry and the same is true for everything else in the Torah.
Indeed. In Matthew 4:15-23, Jesus began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and the Torah was how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting from our disobedience to it is a central part of the Gospel message. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact likeness of His character (Hebrews 1:3), which he embodied through his works by setting a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in the Spirt/how to walk in obedience to the Torah, and we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22) and that those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way that he walked. So Christ sent his ministry teaching his followers to obey the Torah by word and by example and being a Christian is about being a follower of what Christ taught.
We need to die to the law of sin in order to be free to obey the Law of God, not the other way around.
Is idolatry a way to love God ?
If not, it is not in keeping with Jesus' two commandments
As idolatry is counter to loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, it has been covered by Jesus' commandments
Amen...love God, and love your neighbors.
Even if you heal on the sabbath, or shuck corn on the sabbath.
Thank God that death has been made mainfest in our "immersion" into Christ, and into His death.
I am dead to the Law, and alive in Christ.
Those verses leave room for two scenarios:
1.) The Colossians were not celebrating God's feasts, they were being judged by Jews because they were not, and Paul was encouraging them not to let anyone judge them for not celebrating them.
2.) The Colossians were celebrating God's feastps, they were being judged by pagans because they were, and Paul was encouraging them not to let anyone judge them for celebrating them.
In Colossians 2:16-23, Paul described the people who were judging the Colossians as promoting human precepts and traditions, self-made religion, asceticism, and severity to the body, which means that they were being judged by pagans and that the second scenario was the case. Those promoting asceticism and severity to the body would be judging people for celebrating feasts, not for refraining from doing that. God's feasts are foreshadows of what is to come and we should live in a way that testifies about the truth of what is to come by following Christ's example of celebrating them rather than a way that bears false witness against what is to come, so Paul was emphasizing the importance of not allowing anyone to prevent us from obeying what God has commanded, which makes it especially ironic that you are trying to use these verses to justify your refusal to obey what God has commanded.
It is important to recognize that a servant of God can speak against obeying what God has commanded for an incorrect reason without speaking against obeying what God has commanded. If Paul have been speaking against circumcision for any reason, then Galatians 5:2 would mean that Paul caused Christ to be of no value to Timothy when he had him circumcised and Christ if of no value to roughly 70% of the men in the US. In Acts 15:1, men from Judea were wanting to require Gentiles to become circumcised in order to become saved, however, that was never the reason for why God commanded circumcision, so the Jerusalem Council upheld the Torah by correctly ruling against requiring Gentiles to become circumcised for an incorrect reason. In Exodus 12:48, Gentiles who want to eat of the Passover lamb are required to become circumcised, so the Jerusalem Council should not be interpreted a ruling against Gentiles correctly obeying what God has commanded as if they had the authority to countermand God. Paul was a servant of God, so he therefore did not speak against obeying what God has commanded, but if you think that he did, then you should be the one arguing that he was an evil heretic.
The Greek word "dogma" is not used by the Bible to refer to the Torah. In Ephesians 2:12-19, Gentiles were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world, which is in accordance with Gentiles at the time not being doers of the Torah, but through faith in Christ all of that is no longer true in that Gentiles are no longer strangers or aliens but are fellow citizens of Israel along with the saints in the household of God, which is in accordance with Gentiles becoming doers of the Torah.
The torah is truth (Psalm 119:142), so you are imposed to truth. It bizarre that you are the one who is arguing against following Christ's example of obedience to what God has commanded and you consider me to be blind. In Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so the way to believe in what Jesus accomplished through the cross is by becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to the Torah (Acts 21:20) while the way to believe that he died and rose again for nothing would be by returning to the lawlessness that he gave himself to redeem us from.
If God saved the Israelites our of slavery in Egypt in order to put them under slavery to the Torah, then it would be for slavery that God sets us free, however, Galatians 5:1 says that it is for freedom that God sets us free, so you are not correctly identifying what he was speaking against. In John 8:31-36, it is the transgression of the Torah that puts us into slavery while the truth sets us free.
In Psalm 119:29-30, he wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to hi by teaching him to obey the Torah, and he chose the way of faith by setting it before him, so this has always been the one and only way of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.
God wanted His children to repent and to return to obedience to the Torah all throughout the Bible and even Christ began his ministry with that Gospel message (Matthew 4:15-23), so it would be absurd to interpret Galatians 5:4 as Paul warning us against obeying God and warning that we will be cut off from Christ if we believe the Gospel of Christ. It would also be absurd to interpret Psalm 119:29 as him wanting God to be gracious to him by teaching him how to fall from grace, so again you are not correctly identifying what Paul was speaking against.
No.
Agreed.
Transgressing any other command in the Torah is also counter to loving God with al our heart, mind, soul, and strength, which is why that is the greatest commandment.
Some of God's laws appear to conflict with each other, such as when God commanded to rest on the Sabbath while also commanding priests to make offerings on the Sabbath (Numbers 28:9-10), however, it was not the case that priests were forced to sin by disobeying one of the two commands no matter what they chose to do but that the lesser command was never intended to be understood as preventing the greater command from being obeyed. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 12:5-7 that priests who did their duties on the Sabbath were held innocent, why David and his men were held innocent, and why he defended his disciples as being innocent. This is also why it is lawful to circumcise a baby on the 8th day if it happens to fall on the Sabbath, why it is lawful to get an ox out of a ditch on the Sabbath, and so forth.
Some Pharisees had reasoned that it is unlawful to do work on the Sabbath and that healing is work, therefore it is unlawful to heal on the Sabbath, however, we are also commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, we would not be doing that if we refused to heal someone, and no command was intended to be understood as preventing us from obeying the greatest two commandments, which is why it was lawful for Jesus to heal on the Sabbath. God could not have created the Sabbath until He had created everything else, which means that it is the goal of everything else He created first in mind and last in deed, so it is easy to see why someone might think that the Sabbath is the greatest commandment if they did not have the authority of Jesus to rely upon.
Everything in Romans 6 is about dying to being slaves to sin and resurrecting with Christ in newness of life as slaves to righteousness, not the other way around. In 1 John 2:6, those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way that he walked, so only those who are following his example of walking in obedience to the Torah are in Christ. The way to be alive in God's Word made flesh is not by dying to God's Word, but just the other way around.
The Mosaic Covenant contained more than just the Ten Commandments and the Bible does not use the word "Torah" to specifically refer to just the Ten Commandment. If our goal is to embody God's character traits, then we will consider any instructions that God has given for how to do that to be eternal and cumulatively valid regardless of which covenant they are under. Embodying God's character traits is the way to know, love, worship, believe in, testify about, and be one with God, so if we want to do those things, then we should follow the Torah to the extent that we are able.
I don't know how you arrive at such absurd conclusions. No one obeyed the Law ever apart from Lord Jesus. The law was only given to Israel, not to Gentiles.
Being led by the Spirit is not disobeying God. Unless, of course, you believe that the Holy Spirit is not God. I can assure you that the Holy Spirit is not a murderer or a thief.
Being bound to the law is not freedom. Paul reminded us that freedom does not mean licence. You Torah observers seem to think that those who are not are looking for excuses to sin. That is not true. Being born again gives believers a new set of desires that are opposed to sin. It does not mean that a believer never sins. It does mean that his conscience convicts him that he is wrong.
Believers are those who have died to sin, died to self, died to the world and died to the law (Galatians 2:19).