Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Old Testament/ New Testament

Many Christians say that they don't follow the laws of the Old Testament because now that Jesus has died for us, the OT laws are obsolete.

This might be what the church teaches, but Jesus himself? This is what he has to say:

(Matthew 5) 18"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

19"Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

(Luke 16) 17But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

(Matthew 5)17"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

And of course Paul and John...

(Romans 3)31Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

(2 John) 6And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

So basically people need to keep the OT law down to the smallest letter ("tittle" in the King James). So how do Christians justify all the "unjust" or "unnecessary" laws of the OT like not having contact with a woman when she is on her period? Planting 2 different crops in the same field? Women wearing garments of 2 different kinds of fabric? What about all those laws that talk about killing unbelievers on sight, etc?

Personally, I don't understand why most Christians can't accept the idea that some points of the Bible are religious and some are cultural?

2 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Thanks for another great topic.

    For your reading pleasure I recommend AJ Jacobs' hilarious The Year of Living Biblically, the true story of a man who tried to follow Mosaic law to the letter for one year. I won't spoil all the fun but he does stone at least one person in Central Park and attempts to sacrifice a chicken in Brooklyn.

    My personal preference here is that Christians steer clear of Torah because according to Moses those laws belong to Israel only. John and especially Paul were at the forefront of the break with the temple cult, which was obviously moot after 70 AD. And Jesus seemed to favor this approach too, so perhaps when he says the law will remain until "all is accomplished" he is foreshadowing the cross where he would say "it is finished." As he sees it the law is not eliminated but rather satisfied in him.

    Divine orders to kill are always tricky especially with fresh memories of 2001, but I tend to give the Torah's actual intended audience a break on this one. One might say ancient Israel was right to kill their neighboring ritual child sacrificers in Canaan because (according to the text) God miraculously confirmed that kibosh to a community of voluntary participants. Something suicide bombers cannot claim.

    Since the Enlightenment we've been moving past the assumption that divine righteousness and human morality ought to correspond. The easiest solution then is to govern churches by the former, nations by the latter, and leave the rest to individual conscience. Which is pretty simple these days unless you were born in Iran or work for Apple.

    Cheers,
    Sean

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would agree with Sean, I think.
    "My personal preference here is that Christians steer clear of Torah because according to Moses those laws belong to Israel only." - I would only modify that Christians steer clear of trying to uphold the laws of the Torah. They were obviously made for Israel only, to keep them a separate nation. Paul says that sin is what damns us. For Gentiles, sin comes through the acting out of our lusts and sinful thoughts, which are more prevalent when we worship earthly things (or things of the flesh) rather than God. For Jews, sins are the actions in direct opposition with the laws. He never tells Christians to follow the law. Instead, Paul says that no one can be saved by the law because it shows how high the standard of God is and we can't be perfect. Interestingly enough, Paul also says that all Jews are saved because they are Jews- not because they keep the law, but because God promised that they would be a saved nation and God never backs out of his word.
    I also believe, like Sean, that "when he (Jesus) says the law will remain until "all is accomplished" he is foreshadowing the cross where he would say "it is finished." As he sees it the law is not eliminated but rather satisfied in him."

    Yuppers.
    Thanks Sean. :D

    ReplyDelete