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Old Testament Laws Pt. 10

Start with part 1.

NOTE: If you’ve been following the comments on this series, you’ll know that there was some confusion about what I meant when I said “universal” rules. This was due to my lack of clarity and failure to adequately define my terminology. Lisa Ward’s proposed definition for my use of the word “universal” is “perpetual, applying to all people for all times.” I think this fits well.

Question 3: Just because God gave these laws to a single specific nation doesn’t mean they aren’t useful for all nations, does it?

This is indeed a big question. The answer to this question hinges on whether the asker:

1. advocates following the Sinai covenant in its unmodified entirety or,
2. seeks to use the Sinai covenant as an example of a good system of laws that we could use as a model in the drafting of a modern system for a modern nation.

My answer is that #2 is an admirable use of the Sinai covenant, but #1 is simply a bad idea because many of those laws were shadows of what was to come. Once the real thing came there was no longer any need to continue practicing them. Just as breaking a requirement in your contract with your mortgage company can nullify the entire contract, so if one law of the covenant is rendered null, the entire covenant to you is dead.

God chose Israel as to be a special nation and to bless the world through the Messiah who was to come. The laws for Israel were more complex than gentile laws in the same way that the laws for priests were more complex than the laws for lay people. This is because Israel as a nation was the world’s priest. Once Christ came, this was no longer the case.

Once Christ sacrificed himself and the curtains in the temple were torn in two, the entire sacrificial system came to an end. Much of the Sinai covenant was centered around the sacrificial system.

The Sabbath commandment was a symbol of rest. It pointed forward to the time when Jesus Christ himself would be our Sabbath. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus tells us he will give us rest. As God rested on the seventh day, we too can now rest in Christ from the works of the law.

The system of clean and unclean meats symbolized the separateness of Jews and Gentiles. In Acts 10:9-18, Peter had a dream of unclean animals. Peter told God he had never defiled his body with unclean animals, but God told him not to call anything impure that God made clean. Peter realized that this meant the gentiles would now be able to receive the gospel – not just the Jews. Previously, the unclean animals represented the gentiles and the clean the Jews. After Christ, we were all made clean. We see that this is another Jewish law that was purely symbolic and became null after Christ.

Continue reading in Part 11…

Micah’s First Ride

Last night Micah succeeded at his first bike ride (see video) without training wheels. We're proud of him. I promised him a new bike once he made this step so we'll be going shopping sometime in the next couple days.

Old Testament Laws Pt. 9

Start with part 1.

This leads me to:

Conclusion 2: The only universal set of rules given prior to Moses was that which was given to all of mankind after the flood, also called the Noahide covenant. Anything else mentioned in Genesis prior to Moses is at the most precedent and nothing more.

Let me rehash and clarify a bit.

This basically means that all those things we mentioned as being part of the Sinai covenant and also being mentioned before the Sinai covenant should not be considered rules for us to live by. This includes Sabbath keeping (Saturday OR Sunday), tithing, circumcision, animal sacrifice, and dietary restrictions (other than blood).

This is not to say that you should or should not follow any of these things. It is merely to say that they are not rules God has told us we must follow.

I go to church every Sunday, but I am not keeping the Jewish Sabbath or following the fourth commandment. Likewise, I give my 10% because it is a good thing to do, not because of a rule given to the nation of Israel thousands of years ago. On the other hand, I do not sacrifice animals or worry about whether the meat I eat is on an approved list somewhere in the Bible.

One of my biggest complaints with church leaders is that they often use these old testament passages to promote the modern practice of tithing or Sabbath keeping. I appeal to church leaders not to do this.

For example, it is OK to say something like, "Abram gave 10% to God and while God doesn't say we have to give 10%, we as church leaders think that 10% is a good target. We therefore suggest that church members aim for 10% or more." It is not OK to say, "God has told us to give him 10% and if we do not we are stealing his money." (I've actually heard this before).

In the future we will investigate New Testament guidelines for giving, weekly worship, diet, etc.

Continue reading in part 10… 

Old Testament Laws Pt. 8

Start with part 1.

Question 2: What about the issues that were mentioned prior to the Sinai covenant? (e.g. Sabbath, tithe, animal sacrifice, clean/unclean meat, circumcision)?

Several items that contemporary mainstream churches promote are mentioned in the book of Genesis before the covenant at Sinai was made. (Note that Moses is thought to have written Genesis and so the book actually post-dates the Sinai covenant.)

Other items also occur there that exist in the Sinai covenant but are not promoted by mainstream churches. For instance, animal sacrifice occurs quite regularly throughout Genesis. Great examples of this are the story of Cain and Able (Genesis 4) and Noah's sacrifice after exiting the Ark (Genesis 8:20-22). In general I don't think you can use an argument to support an idea unless you use that argument consistently. In this case if you argue in favor of tithe, Sabbath, or circumcision because they were described in Genesis, you would also have to argue in favor of continued animal sacrifice.

The simple fact of the matter is that while some stories in Genesis describe actions of people who seem to be doing what is later described as law in the Sinai covenant, none of them had as yet been given as commands. At the most we could call them precedent.

For example, Abram gave 10% of all he had to Melchizedek the priest as a tithe (Gen. 14:17-20), but nowhere is there any record of anyone having been commanded to do this prior to Moses. In fact, tithing was a common practice throughout the ancient near-east (as well as Lydia, Arabia, and Carthage) and so it was not an unusual thing for Abram to have done as part of local customs.

Some Seventh-day Adventists argue that these issues are part of some unspoken universal law theoretically given to Adam and Eve, but my question is, where is the proof? If God has a law He wants us to follow, He very clearly tells us what that law is. I hope we're not expected to infer laws from weak circumstantial evidence.

Continue reading in part 9… 

Testimony

Since I've been discussing old testament laws, I thought it would be appropriate to make my personal testimony available. It is the story of my life as a Seventh-day Adventist and how I transitioned out of it. It is 5 years old and needs to be updated, but it may still be useful to some people. You can get it in the menu-bar at the top.

At Crossroads we are becoming a culture of stories. More and more we have personal stories of how God has changed lives. In fact, we just opened a new section on our website of personal stories.

Pickles

OK, this is going to sound strange on a Christian tech blog, but I just finished making my second ever batch of pickles.

I've been on something of a health kick lately and have taken over the kitchen from Shari. She has been really busy at work lately (she's children's ministry director) and so I figured since I was doing most of the cooking anyway, I might as well do the shopping and set the menu as well.

Most pickles you buy in the store are a modern invention. However, pickling has been done for millennia. The difference is that the methods for making modern pickles have been modified to be more conducive to mass production with consistent results for the purpose of saleability. As usual, this means that most of the nutritional value and other benefits go out the window.

Traditionally made pickles (and sauerkraut, kimchee, etc.) do not have vinegar and are not cooked, boiled, etc. They are lacto-fermented. This process is actually pretty similar to the process used to make sourdough bread (another traditional food that has been usurped by its less healthy modern yeast-bread replacements). Raw pickles are put into a brine solution (with herbs and such) and left to sit out at room temperature for 5 days or so. During that time they ferment (a non-alcoholic fermentation). The salt prevents harmful bacteria from growing, but allows for certain beneficial bacteria to grow. These bacteria produce lactic acid which is where the tartness comes from. After that they are refrigerated.

In a way quite similar to yogurt, lacto-fermented vegetables benefit the digestive system. Yogurt has live and active cultures of acidophilus, bifidus, and other lacto-bacilli that benefit the intestinal tract. The lacto-bacilli available in traditional pickles also help benefit the intestinal tract as does the lactic acid. These types of foods also help to revive the digestive system after anti-biotic use.

Oddly enough, they even taste good.

Old Testament Laws Pt. 7

Start with part 1.

Question 1: Wasn't the covenantal heritage of Israel passed on to gentile Christians after Christ's resurrection?

In Acts 15 we read of a dispute between the "judaizers" and Paul's group of missionaries. The judaizers claimed that the Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised while Paul argued that this was unnecessary.

Circumcision was first and foremost the sign of the covenant between Abraham (and his decendants) and God. So its first usage was not in the Sinai covenant. However, in order to be subject to the Sinai covenant a person had to also be a decendant of Abraham and consequently circumcised. In addition, the Sinai covenant itself reiterates the circumcision requirement.

Gentiles can in fact become Jews through a ceremonial process. Jews are not evangelical as are Christians and Muslims. In general they do not prosyletize. However, if a person really wants to become a jew the process includes immersive baptism, acceptance of the jewish laws, and circumcision. So circumcision is actually a key entry point into the Sinai covenant. If you are not circumcised, you are not subject to the Sinai covenant – Period. Conversely, in Galations 5:2-4 Paul notes that being circumcised obligates you to follow the whole law.

In Acts 15:19-21 Peter declared:

"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."

(Interestingly, the things mentioned here align pretty closely with the Noahide covenant.)

Regardless, the Sinai covenant may have outlived its useful life after the resurrection even for the Jews. But that's a topic for another day.

Continue reading in part 8… 

Old Testament Laws Pt. 6

Start with part 1.

The conclusion that the Mosaic laws were nationalistic rather than universal didn't solve my dilemma. It only created more questions:

1. Wasn't the covenantal heritage of Israel passed on to gentile Christians after Christ's resurrection?
2. What about the issues that were mentioned prior to the Sinai covenant? (e.g. Sabbath, tithe, animal sacrifice, clean/unclean meat, circumcision)
3. Just because God gave these laws to a single specific nation doesn't mean they aren't useful for all nations, does it?
4. If we don't need to follow the 10 commandments, then what are we supposed to follow? Is there a different covenant for us?
5. Doesn't 2000 years of Christian tradition say we should keep the 10 commandments?

If you have questions to add to this list, please post. I'll be using whatever time it takes to do an adequate job of covering the topic.

Continue reading in part 7… 

Old Testament Laws Pt. 5

Start with Part 1.

Now we've come to the moment of crisis. As a Seventh-day Adventist I had been taught to follow the 10 commandments – with special emphasis on the 4th. (Note that in order to fully follow the 10 commandments you must keep the Sabbath on Saturday from sunset to sunset starting Friday night. You cannot work or engage in commercial activities of any kind).

As I studied the Mosaic laws, I began to realize that commandment keeping is an all or nothing proposition. If I was to keep these commandments properly, I would have to follow all 613 of them or none. If I was bound by God's covenant with Israel at Sinai, I was only fulfilling it halfway at this point. This was the tipping point.

I began to investigate what would be involved if I were to follow the covenant as it was written. You get a good idea of the complexity of the covenant if you read all of the 613 laws. Some good examples are laws against tattoos (Lev. 19:28), requirements for giving burnt offerings (Lev. 1), requirements for stoning your kids for being stubborn and rebellious (Deut. 21:18-21), etc.

At this point I teetered, wondering if I should begin following the laws, or if I should give them up altogether. I investigated denominations that followed most of these laws such as some of the Church of God groups, and Messianic Judaism. Then I seriously wondered if these laws even applied to me. That's when I began studying all the covenants and came to the point we have now reached in this discussion and to the first of several key conclusions:

1. The covenant at Sinai – which encompassed the 10 commandments – was made specifically with the biological descendants of Jacob and no others.

In fact, some sects of Judaism hold that gentiles are not required to follow all the laws of the Torah and are in fact forbidden from following some of them – such as keeping the Sabbath in the exact same way as the Jews.

Continue reading in part 6…

Old Testament Laws Pt. 4

Start with Part 1.

The 4th and probably the most well known covenant is the covenant between God and Israel (the descendants of Jacob) made a mount Sinai. This was the occasion during which Israel was given the famous 10 commandments (See Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5).

Often advocates of modern gentile observance of the 10 commandments claim that the 10 were not part of this covenant with Israel but a separate law for all men. This is not true. Deuteronomy 4:12-14, as a prologue to the reading of the commandments, makes clear the fact that the 10 commandments were synonymous with God's covenant with Israel. They are one and the same. The fact that the stone tablets were stored in the ark of the covenant (Deuteronomy 10:2-5) buttresses the fact that the the commandments were part of the covenant with Israel. Deuteronomy 5:2-3 clarifies the fact that this covenant was with those people who were at Sinai (i.e. Horeb) during the making of the covenant.

In addition, while only the 10 commandments were written in stone and placed inside the ark of the covenant, there is no other clear delimiter between the 10 and the rest of the 613 commandments in the books of Moses. Those laws were also given to Israel at Sinai during the commencement of this covenant. The 10 commandments and the other laws of Moses cannot be separated and treated differently. If you believe you must follow one, you must follow all of them. Just as by breaking any one of the fine-print rules in your mortgage contract you can violate the entire contract, if you are bound by God's covenant with Israel you must keep all 613 laws. You cannot pick and choose.

Continue reading in part 5… 

Microsoft = Big Brother?

Big Microsoft Brother – another reason not to use Windows. It certainly doesn't make me feel all warm and cozy toward Microsoft.

Dapper Drake

Ubuntu Dapper Drake has been officially been released.

I've been using it for over a month now, but hadn't upgraded my wife's laptop yet. I did that last night. It was extremely smooth and easy (unlike the pre-release upgrades I did). The update manager notified me there was a new release and I simply told it to go ahead and upgrade. The machine was still usable throughout the entire upgrade except at the end when I had to reboot to reload the kernel. Very nice.

I'll be gone next week to Hershey Pennsylvania so no posts for a while.

Old Testament Laws Pt. 3

See Part 1 and 2.

In order to understand Biblical covenants it might be beneficial to examine several of the covenants in the Bible.

The earliest mentioned covenant was with Noah and "all life on earth" (Gen. 9:17). The sign of the covenant was the rainbow and God promised never to destroy the earth with a flood again.

The Jewish Talmud actually says that this covenant established a set of laws for gentiles (i.e. non-Jews). They say that Genesis 9:1-17 established 7 laws which they refer to as "the Seven Commandments" of the "Noahide covenant." Any gentile who follows these 7 commandments is called a "righteous gentile." In my opinion, some of the exegesis that went into extracting 7 laws out of this are a bit tenuous, but it is an interesting concept nonetheless.

Later God made several covenants with Abraham and promised that he and his descendants would be given the land of Israel (Gen 15) and that he would increase his numbers and make him a father of many nations (Gen 17). The conditions of this covenant were with Abraham and his descendants (e.g. children of Jacob [Israel], Ishmael [Arabs and others], Esau [Edomites]). Their requirements to maintain the covenant were to be circumcised. God took this covenant so seriously that he almost killed Moses for not following it at one point (Ex 4:24-26). Note that since Moses was a descendant of Abraham he was bound by this covenant.

Continue reading in part 4…