Soyeong
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- Mar 10, 2015
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Jesus came as the Messiah of Judaism in fulfillment of Jewish prophecy and he set a sinless example for us to follow of how to practice Judaism by living in sinless obedience to the Torah. In Acts 21:20, they were rejoicing that tens of thousands of Jews wee coming to faith who were also zealous for the Torah, which is in accordance with believing in what Jesus accomplished through the cross in Titus 2:14. This means that Jews who were coming to faith were not ceasing to obey the Torah and that there was a period of time between the resurrection and the inclusion of Gentiles in Acts 10 that is estimated to be around 7-15 year during which all Christians were Torah observant Jews, so from the beginning Christianity taught how to practice the form of Judaism that recognized Jesus as its prophesied Messiah.The point of this thread was to show what the Church taught at the beginning. Ignatius of Antioch taught in the early second century, barely a century after Our Lord’s Ascension and mere decades after the death of the last Apostle.
Ignatius taught blasphemy and rebellion against God, so the fact that he taught in the early second century does not mean that we should follow what he said instead of what God said.
Christ spent his ministry teaching how to obey the Torah by word and by example and Paul's problem with the Judaizers was not that they were teaching Gentiles how to follow Christ, but that they were wanting to require Gentiles to become circumcised in order to become saved. All throughout the Bible, God called for His people to repent and to return to obedience to the Torah, and Jesus began his ministry with that Gospel message, so it absurd to think that it is error to follow Christ's example of obedience to God. In Galatians 5:19-23, everything that it lists as works of the flesh that are against the Spirit are also against the Torah, while all of the fruits of the Spirit are in accordance with it, so it is incorrect to include the Sabbath as being part of works of the flesh. In Romans 8:4-7, those who walk in the Spirit are contrasted with those who have minds set on the flesh who are enemies of God who refuse to submit to the Torah.There were Judahizers around that tried to teach that believers had to be circumcised to be saved and keep the whole law. Ignatius rightfully points out this error, and shows that it applies to all works of the flesh, including the Sabbath. These are Ignatius’ words, not mine.
Gentiles started going off track with the expulsion of Jews from Rome and with not wanting to come back under Jewish leadership upon their return. The Psalms express an extremely positive view of God's law, such as with David repeatedly saying that he loved it and delighted in obeying, so all those who consider the Psalms to be Scripture and to therefore express a correct view of God's law also delight in obeying it, as Paul did (Romans 7:22). For example, in Psalms 1:1-2, blessed are those who delight in the Torah of the Lord and who meditate on it day and night, so Gentiles who do not allow these word to shape their view of God's law have departed from the brief that the Psalms are Scripture.For Sabbath keeping to be the true teaching, one would have to contend that the Church became apostate early in her formation, rather than remaining Apostolic. Is that a valid argument? What evidence do we see?
There were groups like the Nazarenes who were followers of Christ who continued to follow his example of obedience to the Torah. Justin Martyr has some very anti-Semitic things to say and did not understand the role of the Jews.I reviewing history, we do not see Sabbath keeping as the dominant teaching of the Church. It is even admitted by supposed SDA scholars in the book “From Sabbath to Sunday”, in that it quoted no Church teaching from those days. The author of that book merely attempted to discredit the saints such as Justin Martyr, Iraneus, among others. If I had to read the word “hardly” one more time, I would think the Author did not know how to say anything else. That is a scoffers book, not a scholarly work. It did receive an “Imprimater” from the Catholic Church, but that means, “let it be published”. It did not receive a “Nihil Obstat”, which would mean it contained nothing against Church teaching. This merely means that it is worth taking a look at the work without agreeing with its conclusions. That is true as we would not see the fault in logic had we not been able to review the work.
The Torah was given by God and the Spirit is God, so it is the Law of the Spirit, which is why the Spirit has the role of leading us to obey it (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Jesus taught more than just the Ten Commandments, such as with the greatest two commandments, and he was not in disagreement with the Father about which commandments we should follow, but rather in John 15:10, he used a parallel statement to equate his commandment with those of the Father. In Deuteronomy 4:2, it is a sin to add to or subtract from the law, so he did not make it stricter, and to suggest that he did is to suggest that he sinned and is therefore not our Savior. It is by the Torah that we have knowledge of what sin is (Romans 3:20), so when Christians are willfully sinning when they willfully refuse to submit to it by concocting reasons to justify their refusal to obey it rather than confess their sins. In Psalms 119:29, David wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey the Torah, so that is the way to ask God for grace to follow Christ's commands.The apostolic teaching is that we keep the law of the Spirit, not the law of the flesh. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. He did not say, if you love me, keep the Ten Commandments.
Most don’t realize that Jesus’ commands are more strict than the Ten Commandments, and they are binding on pain of sin. A Christian does not sin willfully. If we do sin, we humble ourselves and confess our sins. Should we not make every effort to study and ask God for the grace to follow Jesus’ commands, instead of arguing over what the Ten Commandments say?
We are what we eat, so we need to become like Christ and he expressed the nature of God through living in obedience to the Torah. Furthermore, in Matthew 19:17 and Luke 10:25-28, Jesus said that obeying God's commandments is the way to enter eternal life, which equates those who do not eat his flesh or drink his blood with those who do not obey God's commandments.When Jesus says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you, do you believe it? Is that an important command to you, or are you more interested in arguing over the Ten Commandments? Saying that the Eucharist is merely symbolic diminishes its import and makes the word of God of no effect, rather than the source and summit of our faith as it’s suppose to be and was for 1500 years prior to Zwingli.
The modern contention is, “Ignore the Eucharist? Yeah, no problem, just make sure your flesh is in that seat on a Saturday morning.”
Does this not seem absurd to you?
When Jesus said things like that he is the vine or the door, do you think think that he was speaking literally or symbolically? If Jesus was not literally a door that can swing open, then in what way does not diminish its important and make the word of God of no effect?
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