Posted on 01/20/2015 7:03:15 PM PST by Faith Presses On
I read the Newsweek article on the Bible and of course noted all the falsehoods in it. I pray for the writer Kurt Eichenwald, but also hope to respond to the falsehoods and that he and Newsweek won't succeed in further undermining the Bible.
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/01/02/thats-not-what-bible-says-294018.html
This is a partial response to the article's falsehoods in the section on Christians and the question of keeping the Mosaic law or not. From the article:
>>When they heard about the goings-on in Antioch, a debate ensued: Did gentiles have to become Jews first (like Jesus) and follow Mosaic Law before they could be accepted as Christians?
>>Some of the original disciples said yes, an opinion that seems to find support in words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets....” The author of Matthew made it clear that Christians must keep Mosaic Law like the most religious Jews, in order to achieve salvation. But Paul, particularly in Galatians and Romans, says a person’s salvation is won by his or her faith in Christ’s death and resurrection—nothing more. Those who try to follow Mosaic Law, Paul believed, risked losing salvation.
>>In other words, Orthodox Jews who follow Mosaic Law can use Leviticus to condemn homosexuality without being hypocrites. But fundamentalist Christians must choose: They can either follow Mosaic Law by keeping kosher, being circumcised, never wearing clothes made of two types of thread and the like. Or they can accept that finding salvation in the Resurrection of Christ means that Leviticus is off the table.
I'm going to respond here using Scripture itself just on what Leviticus says about different things it calls abominations and the subjects of unclean foods and mixed fibers. It's clear from Leviticus that God considers some things to be innately evil, or abominations, while the prohibitions He gave against "unclean" things were essentially to isolate the Israelites from other peoples and their sinful practices.
- In Leviticus 11, which concerns itself with clean and unclean animals, God tells Moses that certain animals are unclean *for the children of Israel.* As the KJV translates it that they are "unclean" or "an abomination" "unto you."
1 And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.
3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.
4 Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
5 And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
6 And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
7 And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
8 Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you...
10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
11 They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
12 Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.
13 And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
14 And the vulture, and the kite after his kind...
- And at the conclusion of Leviticus 11, the Lord tells the Israelites why He's made certain animals unclean for them - in order to set them apart from other people.
43 Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
44 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
45 For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
46 This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth:
47 To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.
- In contrast, the Lord as recorded in Leviticus 18 declares some things to be abominations in and of themselves. He says that because the nations that came before Israel did these abominations, it was the very reason He was destroying them and setting Israel apart for Himself.
1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God.
3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God.
Then next in Leviticus 18, the Lord forbids them from uncovering the nakedness of relatives, adultery, sacrificing their children to Molech, lying with mankind as with womankind, and lying with beasts to defile themselves. And directly following this, the Lord once again speaks of these things as abominations in themselves which other nations were judged for committing:
24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.
- Leviticus 19 contains the passage on not wearing clothes of mixed fibers, but that command clearly fits into the category of being an "abomination unto you" - the children of Israel - for the purpose of separation, and not an abomination in and of itself.
19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.
20 And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
21 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering.
22 And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.
23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of.
24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal.
25 And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the Lord your God.
26 Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.
- Then in Leviticus 20, the Lord speaks again of things that are abominations in and of themselves. He begins by saying even more about how He detests the sacrificing of children to Molech:
1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:
5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people...
Then the Lord forbids them from turning after familiar spirits and wizards, cursing their parents, adultery, from a man lying with his father's wife, or his son's wife, men lying with men as with womankind, taking to wife a woman and her mother, lying with animals, and other similar things.
Then the Lord again tells them not to do any of the abominations for which He was casting out the other nations, and reminds them that He has separated them from other peoples, and the difference between clean and unclean beasts is a token of that:
22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.
23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people.
25 Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.
26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.
“I read the Newsweek article on the Bible”
So you’re the one.
Of course, what you discuss was addressed by the apostles in the First Jerusalem Council, described in Acts. Christians are not obligated to follow the kosher laws, but they are obligated to keep the Old Testament laws on sexual immorality.
You have it right.
If you ever discuss the meaning of the Bible with someone like the Newsweek author, always begin with the question as to whether he or she actually accepts the authority of the Bible.
You will find out very quickly they want to pontificate as authorities on a subject they cannot begin to understand.
How can someone understand the intent and meaning of Christ’s words when they do not even believe He is real?
They try to approach the Bible from a purely intellectual point of view but can never find the true meaning. The Bible may be great literature, but it is far more than that. It is the book that reads you.
That was a very good reply to ignorance.
By the way, didn’t God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah well before He gave Israel the Law? Apparently their behavior was wicked even without the Law of Moses.
And what of divorce, adultery, and fornication? Didn’t Jesus say it was wickedness “from the beginning”?
(Of course, if the Newsweek author just wants to do evil, nothing God has said will stop him.)
“They try to approach the Bible from a purely intellectual point of view but can never find the true meaning. The Bible may be great literature, but it is far more than that. It is the book that reads you.”
Truth. Jesus thanked Father for hiding “these things from the wise and learned, and revealing them to babes”. Scripture also says that “to the wicked He makes himself seem tortuous”.
And even Noah knew there was clean and unclean meats so it was probably generally known long before the Jews even came into existence or the laws of Moses given.
I doubt if any of the apostles ever ate pig meat in their lives, especially Paul who was a Pharisee.
Mathew 15
2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
15 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
16 And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
The question was not ;can we eat pig meat; it was why does your disciples eat with unwashed hands, Jesus gave them an answer that would fit everything.
Jesus forgives our sins but does that give us permission to wallow in it and exult and promote it?
Read it.
Learn it.
I don't understand why it never seems to be brought up but that is the verse about Christians of any ethnicity abstaining from sexual immorality or, to make it clearer, any sex that is not between a married (to each other) man and woman.
Not hard people.
Not complicated either.
Clean animals were animals that were used for sacrifice.
There is more then a slight difference.
Clean and unclean animals not meat.
Genesis 1: 29, 30 plant based diet. Then you can read Genesis 9: 2,3 for God making the change and switching us to an omnivorous diet. Which was long after Abel was dead.
I doubt if any of the apostles ever ate pig meat in their lives
Peter may have been open to eating pig meat after he baptized Cornelius. (Acts 10) Not saying that he did, but the voice in his dream sure made it clear that it would be acceptable.
Then you can read Genesis 9: 2,3 for God making the change and switching us to an omnivorous diet.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
We go from vegetarian to any thing that lives and then only the Clean.
Not saying that he did, but the voice in his dream sure made it clear that it would be acceptable.
28 And he said to them: You know how abominable it is for a man that is a Jew, to keep company or to come unto one of another nation: but God hath shewed to me, to call no man common or unclean.
That does not apply to everyone else any more then the laws on blended clothing does.
Look up the Seven Laws of Noah if you want more insight.
I did read the whole chapter to the end, where they invited Peter to stay with them for a few days.
If you think about it, Cornelius would likely have food that Peter would consider to be profane and unclean.
I agree that the vision was preparing Peter to go with the three men to see Cornelius. But it was also preparing Peter to share in the food that would be served while he stayed with them without qualms of conscience.
There is also Luke 10:8, I Corinthians 10:27 and I Timothy 4:4,5.
But it was also preparing Peter to share in the food that would be served while he stayed with them without qualms of conscience.
no...
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