| Author | Message | ||
| Jtree |
Here is from one of OUR FRIEND's Forum! How would you repsond? "My brother, it is so great to hear how you are studying hard to order to find the truth. I am going to try and address your concerns the best I can. With regards to Jesus doing away with the law at the cross many people get confused about this. Like **** had mentioned in his post, the written law or ceremonial law that Moses gave to the children of Israel was done away with. Now it does make mention of the Sabbath Days, but it is referring to the ceremonial Sabbaths that the Jews kept as part of the ceremonial law that were a forshadow of Jesus' coming. Christ did do away with the law in the sense that we do not receive the punishment for breaking the law (sinning). Jesus died for our sins so we can have salvation through him. The 10 commandments were written by God himself and were not done away with when Jesus died, only the ceremonial law (written law) The 10 commandments is God's holy law in which were written to show us how to live holy lives. If that law was done away with it would be ok with God to kill, steal, lie, cheat on your spouse, etc., and we know thats not true. The Sabbath was made for man, all man, not Jews. The Sabbath was instituted back at creation when God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. He blessed and sanctified and hallowed that day as a holy day, and the commandment tells us exactly how we are to keep that day holy. (See Exodus 20) The Sabbath is a day in which we are to stop and reflect on the fact that the Lord is the creator and saviour of the world. We keep the law of God (the 10 commandments) because we love him and he asks us to. It says all through the bible to keep the commandments of God. Our goal is to become just like Jesus, and my friend you said nowhere in the NT does it talk about the Sabbath, but may i suggest looking again. Jesus kept the Sabbath and he taught man how to observe the Sabbath. Whenever your in doubt about what to do or what to beleive, look into what Jesus did or taught and you can never go wrong with that. Keep praying studying and I know that God will lead you into all truth! Here is a great website where you can search for words in the bible (any version). http://bible.gospelcom.net/ May i suggest searching for the following: 1) Sabbath 2) Law 3) Commandments | ||
| Lorinc |
Jtree: Interestingly, for all of our friend's very assertive statements, he offers no scriptural support at all! (the single reference to Exodus 20 is simply a pointer to the Ten Commandments, the content of which is not under dispute). It brings back memories -- a year ago, *I* could have written his posting!! :-) I guess if I were to enter into a serious study with our friend, I'd start with looking into the biblical ideas about 'covenants', and how the 10 Commandments are explicitly called "The Covenant" in the O.T., and how the N.T. refers in several places to the passing of the "Old" Covenant. Clearly *something* passed away / was replaced with something better. Our friend agrees with this. But *what* was replaced? A careful study would show that it can only be the Decalogue. I used to also fiercely assert that if the Decalogue was abolished, we could kill, commit adultery, etc. I was so ignorant, and God was so patient! The confusion revolves around exactly what the Ten Commandments are: The Bible calls them "The Covenant"; Ellen White calls them "A transcript of God's character," "God's *eternal moral law*", etc. Mostly, I'd try to show how Jesus didn't just come to show us how to keep the Law; He came as the mediator of what the Bible itself calls "a better covenant, built on better promises." As usual, the book of Hebrews offers an interesting and helpful insight on the old/new issue. Just my $0.02 Lorin |
