As a Christian I do not follow the entire Bible. Only Jesus.

Yekcidmij said:

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How about believing it all, not what just speaks to your soul?



Problems with the old testament require a deeper study not just to disregard them.

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As for the woman caught in adultery: The religious leaders brought the woman to Jesus. The law (Old Testament) said that if someone committed adultery, both the man and the woman were to be brought to trial. It also said that there needed to be at least 2 proper witnesses. If it was determined (by trial) that indeed the man and woman committed adultery, they were both to be stoned.
The problems with this particular case were that 1) the man wasn't brought 2) there weren't 2 witnesses 3) there wasn't a trial. So according to the law, the woman should not have been stoned. So there was no contradiction. Jesus wasn't setting aside the Old Testament. In fact, Jesus often quoted from the Old Testament as testimony to His ministry.
On top of that, the reason the religious leaders brought the woman to Jesus wasn't to uphold the Old Testament law, rather they had hoped to trap Jesus.

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Nice post. Everything Jesus did and spoke had to fulfill OT prophecies.

http://www.christianforums.com/t4427388-john-8-and-the-jesus-writing-in-the-dirt.html


John 8:6 and this they said, trying him, that they might have to accuse him. And Jesus, having stooped down, with the finger he was writing on the ground,
7 and when they continued asking him, having bent himself back, he said unto them, `The sinless of you--let him first cast the stone at her;' 8 and again having stooped down, he was writing on the ground,

Daniel 5:24 "Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written. 25 " And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26 "This [is] the interpretation of [each] word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; 27 "TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; 28 "PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."

karzma said:

I do not follow everything that is written in the Bible. I consider myself Christian. I only do something is Jesus said to do it.

My own "personal religion" is very small compared to most other forms of Christianity. I don't have any beliefs of what heaven or hell is like, what god "looks like" (if he does "look like" something), or stuff like that.

My entire religion is just a large set of laws. A large set of "do's" and "do not's". If Jesus said do it, do it. If Jesus said do not do it, do not do it.

However, I know the Bible does not contain everything Jesus ever said. And of course, there are some problems in life that Jesus did not tell us how to solve (Like what do we do if someone has a gun and is about to shoot us?). Still, I look to the Bible to learn anything about Jesus and his teachings that I possibly can. Everything else is up to my own personal morality to try and figure out.

for example, Jesus was never asked the question "What do you do if a man is about to kill you?". Jesus probably would have said, "It is ok to kill a man only if it is a last resort to stop him from killing you. That is the basic form of self defense. You have a right to defend yourself".

But, alas, Jesus was never asked that question (thankfully so). So really, that is up to interpretation, in my religion anyway, for me to figure out if it is OK or NOT OK to kill in Self Defense as a last resort becuase Jesus never directly said so therefore "you should never, ever, kill someone" is not a clear-cut law in my religion.

However, on the other hand, Jesus was asked the question "What do you do if someone is beating you up" and Jesus said "Turn the other cheek". So I do follow his teachings on that.


From what I can see, Jesus is pretty much perfect in his teachings. Jesus never told any of his followers to kill (unlike Muhammad, the muslim prophet, I have read a lot of the holy book of Islam and Muhammad told people to kill non-believers for no reason).



Am I wrong to follow Jesus this way? Should I follow the entire bible? Should I follow religious authorities? From what I remember, old laws before Jesus said that a woman should be stoned to death for committing adultery, and Jesus said "no, do not stone her to death, thou amongst you who is without sin my cast the first stone". So old mosaic laws of stoning women to death and Jesus' law contradict eachother. Things like that is why I decided to follow only Jesus, and not the entire bible.

Am I wrong about this?

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Just be careful how far you go with this.

There are so many treasures in the whole of the new testament, that I feel very sad for you to miss them. It contains an abundance of good things.

I met a couple who were universalists, and they claimed only to follow after Jesus' words, but the funny thing is, is that the hardest verse about hell to overcome for this theology came from Jesus' own mouth.

Matthew 25

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

I guess they somehow thought that cutting out the rest of the bible, they could then believe in their theology in peace.

2 Timothy 3

15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I truely believe that God put the new testament together, and that it is God-breathed, just like the old testament. The Holy Spirit testifies to me of this fact, and to millions of other christians as well. I don't know if I would say that the scriptures are the "Word of God" in the fullness that John wrote about though.

John 1

The Word Became Flesh

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

karzma said:

I do not follow everything that is written in the Bible. I consider myself Christian. I only do something is Jesus said to do it.


Am I wrong to follow Jesus this way? Should I follow the entire bible? Should I follow religious authorities? From what I remember, old laws before Jesus said that a woman should be stoned to death for committing adultery, and Jesus said "no, do not stone her to death, thou amongst you who is without sin my cast the first stone". So old mosaic laws of stoning women to death and Jesus' law contradict eachother. Things like that is why I decided to follow only Jesus, and not the entire bible.

Am I wrong about this?

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1 Follow what Jesus said.

2.Be aware of that which comes from the Old Testament which Jesus superceded or altered. When he says that eternal life is in him, for example, it no longer is in the rituals of the OT Hebrews.

3. Don't dismiss the OT otherwise. After all, Jesus referred to it frequently as being divine revelation worth following. He specifically said that the Commandments are still in force, for instance.

4. Believe the New Testament books that come after the Gospels in your Bible, but do not suppose that much of that which is merely a description of how the first Christians behaved is obligatory for us to imitate. There are, of course, parts that are not given in this vein but are believed by the Church to have been as inspired (Paul's admonitions to his listeners, for example) as any other part of Scripture. BTW, there is truth in these books but nothing that replaces or adds to the essential truth Jesus taught, i.e. that we are saved by Faith in him, and not by anything of ourselves. Therefore, you should have no difficulty using them and still holding to your instinctive reliance upon what Jesus taught personally.

karzma said:

My entire religion is just a large set of laws.

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That's not good. It ought to be a large set of Jesus. You shouldn't live according to law.

karzma said:

I do not follow everything that is written in the Bible. I consider myself Christian. I only do something is Jesus said to do it.

My own "personal religion" is very small compared to most other forms of Christianity. I don't have any beliefs of what heaven or hell is like, what god "looks like" (if he does "look like" something), or stuff like that.

My entire religion is just a large set of laws. A large set of "do's" and "do not's". If Jesus said do it, do it. If Jesus said do not do it, do not do it.

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That's quite sad . For one thing, you are missing out on a lot. We are not bound by the Jewish food and hygiene laws of the OT, nor do we observe the Jewish law or sacrificial system. But there is many other beautiful and inspirational passages in the OT from which we can learn and be nourished - like Psalms, and stories of the prophets and leaders like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, and so on. For another thing, Jesus taught about heaven and hell, and the epistles tell us that if you want to know what God is like, look at him (Jesus.)

Jesus' coming was prophesied in the Old Testament. He quoted from the Old Testament, and refers to people like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and so on.

In the rest of the NT, we have some marvellous passages about the love of God, (Romans 8:31-39; Ephesians 3:14-21; 1 Corinthians 13) and teaching about what Jesus did for us - died for our sins to reconcile us to God. This is what God wants us to know; that he loves us very much and demonstrated that love by dealing with our sins instead of punishing us for them.

karzma said:

My entire religion is just a large set of laws. A large set of "do's" and "do not's". If Jesus said do it, do it. If Jesus said do not do it, do not do it.

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That's quite sad too . Christianity is about a relationship with this living, loving God, and not a list of dos and dont's.

karzma said:

However, I know the Bible does not contain everything Jesus ever said. And of course, there are some problems in life that Jesus did not tell us how to solve (Like what do we do if someone has a gun and is about to shoot us?). Still, I look to the Bible to learn anything about Jesus and his teachings that I possibly can. Everything else is up to my own personal morality to try and figure out.

for example, Jesus was never asked the question "What do you do if a man is about to kill you?". Jesus probably would have said, "It is ok to kill a man only if it is a last resort to stop him from killing you. That is the basic form of self defense. You have a right to defend yourself".

But, alas, Jesus was never asked that question (thankfully so). So really, that is up to interpretation, in my religion anyway, for me to figure out if it is OK or NOT OK to kill in Self Defense as a last resort becuase Jesus never directly said so therefore "you should never, ever, kill someone" is not a clear-cut law in my religion.

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Yes, we have to work out for ourselves just how we love one another as Jesus loved us. He does not give the solution to abortion, euthanasia, greenhouse gases, the minimum wage or any other modern issue. But these things do not save us. You might come to one conclusion on a moral issue, after reading Jesus' teachings; someone else may come to another. But neither of you will be saved because you "got it right". Salvation is through Jesus alone, he is the only giver of eternal life, (John 3:16) the only way to the Father, (John 14:6) the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep, (John 10and the One who shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins.

karzma said:

Am I wrong to follow Jesus this way? Should I follow the entire bible? Should I follow religious authorities? From what I remember, old laws before Jesus said that a woman should be stoned to death for committing adultery, and Jesus said "no, do not stone her to death, thou amongst you who is without sin my cast the first stone". So old mosaic laws of stoning women to death and Jesus' law contradict eachother. Things like that is why I decided to follow only Jesus, and not the entire bible.

Am I wrong about this?

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If you sincerely believe that this is right, and that the rest of the Bible either can't be trusted or is irrelevant, then that's where you are at the moment, and that's what you must follow. As long as you don't think that it is doing things - following your list of dos and don'ts - that will save you.
As I, and others, have said though, Jesus is revealed in the whole of the Bible and the rest of the New Testament gives us wonderful teaching about living in the new relationship we have with God once we have been born again and given a new nature. So I would personally say that you are missing out on a lot, although it is good that you want to focus on Jesus and follow him.

God bless

Striving to be like Jesus is not wrong, but be certain you know just who He is. In another response to you here, someone said Jesus was the Word and that is the Truth. See the following verses:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." John 1:14

So how much of the Word is Jesus? I would say 'all of it'. By all of it I would include all of what is written in the Book of paper and ink we call the Bible. As someone else here said Jesus continuously quotes the O.T. (Old Testament) during His ministry. So if you must just start with the words shown in red in the gospels, do so and then add the books of the O.T. from which He quoted. If you add a little here and a little there as the connections between the different verses are made, you will eventually find that the whole of the written Bible is pertinent. If you include only part of it then you will miss out on part of Him.

"Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:" Isaiah 28:9-10

If you really do that, He will tell you to read His Word lol!
Not kidding. One time I while I was seeking the Lord for more wisdom,
I asked Him for it and He told me start with Proverbs! lol!

Just a note of mention, you should consider when deciding to reject
the Word of God, and that is that JESUS IS the Word of God.


PS. God watches over His Word. Any mistakes YOU might think are there,
the Holy Spirit will straighten out for you as you have need. The more you study,
more He will quicken the Word of God to your spirit.
(I emphasized, "you" as I do not believe the Word of God to be errant in anyway,
I have seen some mistranslations (of certain words or passages), but I wouldn't have seen
them without the Holy Spirit and without study. Remember, the Word wasn't initially
penned in english, so there may be some translation errors (in fact there are) but God is
bigger than the translation errors are and the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth.
But do not forsake the Scripture. They are life to
those that find them and health to all their flesh. (Proverbs 4:22)

R3quiem said:

I think you are fine in your beliefs.

I don't believe in the whole bible myself, I belive it was written by men who make mistakes.

I think the best way to answer questions is through prayer- ask god personally to guide you to the Truth.

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billwald said:

There isn't a single verse in Exo thru Deut that obligates gentiles in New Jersey or refers to one's status in the next life.

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If you believe in Jesus you are now part of Israel.

So it applies to you if you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

When I refer to Israel I am not talking about that thing in the middle east.

IamRedeemed said:

They are life to
those that find them and health to all their flesh. (Proverbs 4:22)

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To be precise, that verse refers to the words of Solomon, not the word of God or the bible.

[/quote]

"For one thing, you are missing out on a lot. We are not bound by the Jewish food and hygiene laws of the OT"

You are being led my a blind guided or guides!!
Those are not Jewish food and hygiene Laws those are Gods Laws to Israel. If you believe in Jesus you are part of Israel. You think Jesus disobeyed God and ate pork etc? Well he did not do this. He Obeyed all or Gods Laws, Statutes Judgments and diet etc. Deut.11:27 A blessing, IF ye OBEY The Commandments of the "I AM" your God, which I command you this day:
11:28 And a curse, IF ye will NOT obey The Commandments of the "I AM" your God, but turn aside out of The Way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
11:32 And ye shall observe to do all the Statutes and Judgments which I set before you this day.

Matt. 22:36 Master, which [is] the Great Commandment in The Law?
22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with [SIZE=+1]all[SIZE=+1] thy heart, and with [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]all[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] thy soul, and with [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]all[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] thy mind.
22:38 This is the First and Great Commandment.
22:39 And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
22:40 On these two Commandments hang all The Law and the Prophets.[/SIZE]

[/SIZE] "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."

You cannot do this and live like Jesus did unless you Obey Gods Laws, Statutes, Judgments and diet etc.

12:34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him [any question].

Jesus said, "I am [SIZE=+1]The Way[SIZE=+1], the [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]Truth[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] and the [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]Life[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]" and "[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]no[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] man comes to the Father [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]except [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]by me." "How does that relate to the Song of Moses? The Covenant is called "The Way" in The Torah (Deuteronomy chapter 9 verses 12, 16 and 11:28 and 13:5 and 31:29) and Jesus was saying that he was a living demonstration of it (The Way) [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]in action[/SIZE][SIZE=+1], demonstrating how [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]YOU[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] have to be if [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]YOU[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] want to survive and go home to Father." JAH[/SIZE][/SIZE]

Deut. 11:28 And[SIZE=+1] a curse, IF ye will NOT obey[SIZE=+1] The Commandments of the "I AM" your God, but [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]turn aside[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] out of [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]The Way[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] which I command [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]you[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. [/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Like your house of lords who make up laws.

13:5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn [[SIZE=+1]you[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]] away from the "I AM" your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]The Way[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] which the "I AM" thy God commanded [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]thee[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] to walk in. [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee[/SIZE][SIZE=+1].[/SIZE]

31:26 [SIZE=+1]Take this Book of The Law[/SIZE][SIZE=+1], and put it in the side of [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]The Ark of The Covenant of the "I AM" your God, that it may be THERE for a witness against thee.
[/SIZE][SIZE=+1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]31:27 For I know thy [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]rebellion[/SIZE][SIZE=+1], and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]rebellious against[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] the "I AM"; and how [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]much more[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] after my death?

[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]31:28 Gather unto me [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]all[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]to record[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] against them.
31:29 For I know that after my death ye will [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]utterly[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] corrupt [yourselves], and turn aside from [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]The[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]Way[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]in the "LATTER days"[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]; because ye will [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]do evil[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] in the sight of the "I AM", [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]to provoke[/SIZE][SIZE=+1] Him to anger through the work of your hands.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]8:19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the "I AM" thy God, and walk after other gods (politicks and politicians house of lords), and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]You must obey Gods Laws not follow blind guides or politicians.


[/SIZE][/SIZE]

The law was given to Israel. The law is for the wicked and the ungodly, for people who murder their fathers, and so forth. It was given to make sin exceedingly sinful.

The law has no place in the life of a believer.

karzma said:

Am I wrong to follow Jesus this way? Should I follow the entire bible? Should I follow religious authorities? From what I remember, old laws before Jesus said that a woman should be stoned to death for committing adultery, and Jesus said "no, do not stone her to death, thou amongst you who is without sin my cast the first stone". So old mosaic laws of stoning women to death and Jesus' law contradict eachother. Things like that is why I decided to follow only Jesus, and not the entire bible.

Am I wrong about this?

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I suggest you read through Romans and Galatians very slowly and very carefully.

Blessings.

holo said:

The law was given to Israel. The law is for the wicked and the ungodly, for people who murder their fathers, and so forth. It was given to make sin exceedingly sinful.

The law has no place in the life of a believer.

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Indeed the ceremonial law was given to Israel for the purpose of exposing humanity's sinful nature and total inability to save itself. It was also given to set Israel apart from the pagans. Christ's death and resurrection freed us from ceremonial law. But we must remember that God's moral laws are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And all who desire to truly serve Him strive to obey those laws which is the natural process of sanctification, the rebirth in a pure and Holy God, and desire to seek after His holiness in our own lives. This is not for the purpose of achieving salvation, but a natural reaction to receiving salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads us to the living truth which we find in Scripture, and gives us that burning desire to know His nature better and align ourselves with it.

holo said:

The law was given to Israel. The law is for the wicked and the ungodly, for people who murder their fathers, and so forth. It was given to make sin exceedingly sinful.

The law has no place in the life of a believer.

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Really? I thought Jesus came to fullfill the law, not just do away with it.

karzma said:

I do not follow everything that is written in the Bible. I consider myself Christian. I only do something is Jesus said to do it.

My own "personal religion" is very small compared to most other forms of Christianity. I don't have any beliefs of what heaven or hell is like, what god "looks like" (if he does "look like" something), or stuff like that.

My entire religion is just a large set of laws. A large set of "do's" and "do not's". If Jesus said do it, do it. If Jesus said do not do it, do not do it.

However, I know the Bible does not contain everything Jesus ever said. And of course, there are some problems in life that Jesus did not tell us how to solve (Like what do we do if someone has a gun and is about to shoot us?). Still, I look to the Bible to learn anything about Jesus and his teachings that I possibly can. Everything else is up to my own personal morality to try and figure out.

for example, Jesus was never asked the question "What do you do if a man is about to kill you?". Jesus probably would have said, "It is ok to kill a man only if it is a last resort to stop him from killing you. That is the basic form of self defense. You have a right to defend yourself".

But, alas, Jesus was never asked that question (thankfully so). So really, that is up to interpretation, in my religion anyway, for me to figure out if it is OK or NOT OK to kill in Self Defense as a last resort becuase Jesus never directly said so therefore "you should never, ever, kill someone" is not a clear-cut law in my religion.

However, on the other hand, Jesus was asked the question "What do you do if someone is beating you up" and Jesus said "Turn the other cheek". So I do follow his teachings on that.


From what I can see, Jesus is pretty much perfect in his teachings. Jesus never told any of his followers to kill (unlike Muhammad, the muslim prophet, I have read a lot of the holy book of Islam and Muhammad told people to kill non-believers for no reason).



Am I wrong to follow Jesus this way? Should I follow the entire bible? Should I follow religious authorities? From what I remember, old laws before Jesus said that a woman should be stoned to death for committing adultery, and Jesus said "no, do not stone her to death, thou amongst you who is without sin my cast the first stone". So old mosaic laws of stoning women to death and Jesus' law contradict eachother. Things like that is why I decided to follow only Jesus, and not the entire bible.

Am I wrong about this?

Click to expand...

My first question for you is did you do what Jesus said in John Chapter 3.

Jn 3:3
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
KJV

Have you been born again. That is scripturally what makes a person a Christian.

These verses tells how to be born again.
It is simple. Has to be so anyone can do it.

Ro 10:9-10
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
KJV

Weasels. Don't eat 'em.

There's no such thing as "ceremonial law" vs. "moral law" - there was ONE law. Not one IOTA of it should pass, Jesus said. Don't divide it up in divisions that were never there.

Yekcidmij said:

Really? I thought Jesus came to fullfill the law, not just do away with it.

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If you're not a jew, you were never under the law to begin with. True, he didn't abolish it, he fulfilled it. He traded places with us. We are DEAD to the law, and the believer is never once told to live according to the law - that was strictly under the old covenant. In fact, we're warned against living according to the law.

The saddest thing is that people who insist on being under the law don't even try to live according to it, but rather according to nine of the ten commandments, ignoring the rest of the law, and adding a few commandments that they milk out of the NT.

It's a sad, faulty and unproductive way to live. It only makes you miss out on the actual power and victory and peace in Christ.

CaDan said:

Weasels. Don't eat 'em.

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Amen. Smoking them is right out as well.