This contradicts what others have said claiming that some, if not all, of the laws handed to Moses do not apply to Christians.
They would be incorrect. Christ never abolished the law, instead he finished the law. We are held to an even higher standard than obeying the written law by not committing the act, we must not even allow the notion to enter our hearts. Christ told us that even were we to lust after a woman, then we have committed adultery in our hearts.
That's kind of the point of the article.
Because the doctrine of Christendom claims their doctrine begins in Matthew instead of Genesis, the doctrine fails on its face in that it claims that Yah’shua gave them a new commandment to form a new church and that this new church is the new chosen ones.
Mt 22:37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself...”
But what they fail to add is verse 40: “...On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
And since they neither teach or study Torah(Moses), they miss the fact that Yah’shua was quoting from Torah.
Dt 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
and
Lev 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself
It would seem Jesus Himself contradicted those claiming that some, if not all, of the laws handed to Moses do not apply to Christians.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matt. 5:17)
The traditional Christian understanding of Old Testament commands and laws is as following:
“Although the Law given from God by Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the Civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral.” (from the Anglican 39 “Articles of Religion” of 1562 (and before))
Basically, this is teaching that the commands in the Old Testament can be divided into three kinds:
Ceremonial: Having to do with the ancient Jewish religion and sacrificial system—completely fulfilled/finished in Jesus Christ (this includes the Kosher dietary regulations, blood regulations, and the Jewish feasts, etc.)
Civil: Having to do with the governance of the theocracracy of ancient Israel/Judah (which ended with the Babylonian captivity of 587 BC), but also, in a sense fulfilled/finished in Jesus Christ
Moral: Centered in the 10 Commandments—but including the sexual and other moral regulations found in the Old Testament, and summarized by Jesus as loving God (with all your heart, mind, soul, & strength) and loving your neighbor (as yourself). All still binding on Christians today.
In all the law—St. Paul is teaching that law-keeping, or morality by us does NOT SAVE....or in any way EARN us God’s favor, as Jesus shows that God loves the Christian by first by loving us—to His own death, even while we were still sinners. So the law doesn’t enable Christians to be lovable—but it does help the (already) beloved—those who believe on Jesus already, to better love God and others.
Therefore the purpose of morality—compared to other religions—is turned on its head—in that it is a response to salvation....NOT an attempt to earn it.
The Old Covenant included the Ten Commandments, the civil laws and the priestly laws. The New Testament actually validates the Ten Commandments, but the rest of the Old Testament Law has not been validated. At the heart of the Law was the temple and the Levitical priesthood chosen to offer animal sacrifices. Obviously, today it is impossible to obey the part of the Law that requires the temple and sacrifices. The Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) established that Gentile believers were not bound by the civil and priestly laws.