Posted on 10/07/2003 12:05:35 PM PDT by SJackson
But New Testatment scriptures do not "trump" the Old Testament scriptures. Islam has to cast doubt on both the Old and New Testament scriptures as having been corrupted in order to get the Koran accepted. Christianity never casts doubt on the Old Testament and holds it to be fully the Word of God. Jesus said that he didn't come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.
First, the Old Testament is very clear that the dietary laws applied only to Israel and were part of a covenant between Israel and God. The Old Testament gives the reason for the dietary laws were to separate Israel from other nations. They never applied to anyone other than Israel. Therefore all Gentiles are automatically exempt from the dietary laws because they are not part of the Mt. Sinai covenant.
Second, the same Old Testament that gave the dietary laws specifically to Israel for specific reasons, also spoke about a "New Covenant". That "New Covenant" which is Christianity casts off those dietary laws as a symbol that salvation is offered to all people unlike the Israeli covenant that was only between Israel and God. And since the New Covenant was prophesized by the Old Testament, the new covenant can hardly be considered to be inconsistent or trumping the old, but rather is a fulfillment of the Old.
Jeremiah 31:31
31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah;
Frist of all, is this "new covenant" made with the Christian Gentile Church or with the descendants of the Tribes of Jacob of the House of Judah and Ephraim (comprising the Ten Northern Tribes of Jacob)?
Let's say that you, as the Christian, are Ephraim and this prophecy applies to the Christian Church, then according to the timing of when God will make this "new covenant", can you say that this "New Covenant" is already made and existing because the Christians have been restored to the land of Israel and their ancestor's faith? Or does most of Christianity today lay outside the land of Israel and have a belief system quite opposite to the Jewish Church of Jerusalem?
Notice that this "new covenant" is not made with the Gentiles; neither is it made solely with the house of Judah, the Jews. Rather, it is a future promise that is guaranteed to the Jews and to their brothers, the descendants of Joseph/Ephraim (J*sus called these the "lost sheep of the House of Israel [Ephraim])
Was God talking through Jeremiah the Prophet to Baptists, Methodists, Catholics today, or was God speaking through Jeremiah to the House of Judah (Jews of the Tribe of Judah and Benjamin) and the House of Israel (consisting of the Ten other Tribes of Jacob)?
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
God doesn't lie.
Could these promises be taken away from the physical descendants of Jacob/Israel and given instead to a group of Gentiles calling themselves "Christians" who reject the Laws of God let alone His appointed times such as Biblical Festivals and Sabbaths?
Are you grafted into Israel as Paul stated in Romans, or are you grated into a Gentile organization built upon Replacement Theology given to you by the early Gentile Catholic Church?
Also notice that the verse says 'I will put my law in their inward parts'. The law is STILL there!
Do you observe the Festivals and Sabbaths of the Lord and of Israel, or do you observe pagan holidays that have had J*sus' name affixed to them and have taken the place of what is commanded in Scripture (the Torah)?
Have you substituted the "day of the sun" (Sunday) for the Sabbath?
Are you the "remnant" among the Gentile nations who will be gathered as the "elect" and be presented at the Marriage Supper along with Judah-Benjamin, thus making up the Bride of Messiah, or will you be delegated to be the "servant-foolish bride" and be cast out of the Wedding Supper because J*sus, a Jew, in his own Torah, is commanded by his Father to not marry Gentiles! The only Gentile who will become a bride to Messiah is one, like Ruth, who said "your people will be my people and your God my God."
Is the "New Covenant" really NEW at all?
covenant from the Hebrew
1285 briyth ber-eeth' from 1262 (in the sense of cutting (like 1254)); a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh):--confederacy, (con-)feder(-ate), covenant, league.
1) covenant, alliance, pledge
a) between men
1) treaty, alliance, league (man to man)
2) constitution, ordinance (monarch to subjects)
3) agreement, pledge (man to man)
4) alliance (of friendship)
5) alliance (of marriage)
b) between God and man
1) alliance (of friendship)
2) covenant (divine ordinance with signs or pledges)
2) (phrases)
a) covenant making
b) covenant keeping
c) covenant violation
testament and covenant both bring up 1242 from the Greek
1242 diatheke dee-ath-ay'-kay from 1303; properly, a disposition, i.e. (specially) a contract (especially a devisory will):--covenant, testament.
1) a disposition, arrangement, of any sort, which one wishes to be valid, the last disposition which one makes of his earthly possessions after his death, a testament or will
2) a compact, a covenant, a testament
a) God's covenant with Noah, etc.
Notice it does NOT say the church!
Do the actual words in the Greek Scriptures show us that a "testament" is made between God and the Church? NOPE!
It does mention the covenant with Noah though.....
Gentiles are under the covenant of Noah (Genesis 9).
Hebrews 8
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Hebrews 8:10 says: "For THIS the covenant," and then quotes from Jer. 31:33.
Hebrews 8
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
this from the Greek
3778 houtos hoo'-tos, including nominative masculine plural houtoi hoo'-toy, nominative feminine singular haute how'-tay, and nominative feminine plural hautai how'-tahee from the article 3588 and 846; the he (she or it), i.e. this or that (often with article repeated):--he (it was that), hereof, it, she, such as, the same, these, they, this (man, same, woman), which, who.
1) this, these, etc.
846 autos ow-tos' from the particle au (perhaps akin to the base of 109 through the idea of a baffling wind) (backward); the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative 1438) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other persons:--her, it(-self), one, the other, (mine) own, said, (self-), the) same, ((him-, my-, thy- )self, (your-)selves, she, that, their(-s), them(-selves), there(-at, - by, -in, -into, -of, -on, -with), they, (these) things, this (man), those, together, very, which.
1) himself, herself, themselves, itself
2) he, she, it
3) the same
In other words, "this---same" covenant, as was spoken by Jeremiah has now been RENEWED .... NOT REPLACED! THE SAME COVENANT, WITH ITS LAWS AND COMMANDMENTS WHICH ARE ITS COVENANT STIPULATIONS.
How do Gentiles, who once were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, who had no hope, and were without God in the world according to Eph. 2:12 become part of this "New/Same Covenant" of Jeremiah spoken about in the New Testament? By being grafted into Israel and the faith of Israel which practices Sabbaths and Festivals, or by becoming members of various denominations and non-denominations which reject God's Biblical Feasts, Festivals, and Sabbaths?
Are you "in the faith" or just have "a" faith about something which God never gave mankind?
Jeremiah 31 states that the day will come when this "RENEWED" covenant will be made with "whom"? Israel and Judah? Or with Judah and the church which rejects the faith of Judah?
The answer to that question is "Israel and Judah".
Israel being understood as Ephraim who today are dispersed Gentiles worldwide to whom can be traced Jewish Roots all the way back to the Assyrian Captivity and whom reject paganism and paganized religious practices, the very reason Ephraim was taken captive in the first place. They strayed from the faith of their fathers.
The New Covenant was designed to be made first with the Jews. It was extended to the Gentiles.
The New Covenant is very much like the Noahic and Abrahamic covenants that predated the Mt. Sinai covenant.
The Torah says what does the Lord require of you but you walk humbly before you God and love your neighbor as yourself.
However you cannot claim to be walking humbly before God and reject God's redemptive work on the cross. To do so is to walk arrogantly before the Lord, even if you acknowledge the Lord and His laws.
'I will put my law in their inward parts'. The law is STILL there!
The Law is indeed still there. And the Law condemns you unless you accept Jesus. But certain aspects of what is considered the Law like the dietary laws were clearly stated to be for a specific reason and for Israel only. They are no longer valid. Neither are sin sacrifices, the only sin sacrifice we need has been made. Those parts of the law were fulfilled in Jesus.
Remember what Jesus said, the Greatest law is to love God and love your neighbor. That sums up all of the laws.
To cling to parts of the law even after those parts have fulfilled their purpose is not what God's Law requires.
It is the SAME covenant, and is extended to those Gentiles that choose to acknowledge and adhere to the precepts given. That is what a covenant is, an agreement made between two parties.
Remember, the names of the parties that "WILL" make this covenant in the future. The first party is called "the house of Israel" (currently the house of Israel are dispersed and assimilated Gentiles when this prophecy was spoken by Jeremiah) and "Judah" (Judah was still in the land of Israel when Jeremiah prophesied, but would shortly be taken into Babylonian captivity). The other party to this "RENEWED" covenant is G-d.
In other words, you cannot find the Tribes or descendants of Israel when Jeremiah spoke this prophecy, as these ten tribes were literally becoming "Gentiles-heathen" since their captivity and were no longer "G-d's people." Israel as a Torah practicing people was no more! Rather, the descendants of Abraham, once monotheists, were now polytheists like their captives, and began to adopt a new religious belief system of man's invention instead of G-d's revelation. They were losing their biblical roots, they were losing their Hebrew roots. Since Ephraim's captivity, the people of Israel were becoming inter-married with pagans, being influenced and yielding to paganism, accepting and replacing, or at least mixing pagan religious beliefs with those given to them by G-d at Sinai, thus no longer following the "faith once given to the saints". We must not forget that Israel had been dispersed, assimilated, and intermarried into Gentile nations for over 200 years when Jeremiah spoke this prophecy.
This "same covenant," seen in Hebrews 8 would not be like the covenant He made with their forefathers when He took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke his covenant. This covenant He would make with the house of Israel after that time. G-d would put his law (Torah) in their minds and write it on their hearts. He would be their G-d, and they would be his people.
There was nothing wrong with the Law. It was the people that were flawed.
When those former Israelites (now inter-married and assimilated into Gentile nations where they were forgetting the faith of their fathers…Sabbaths and Festivals, like Christianity today) would once again be instructed concerning the covenants and laws of G-d, then the product of their hearing the Laws of G-d would burn the words in their "minds" which would then become engrafted into their hearts. See Nehemiah, chapter 8, for a perfect example of former Jews, who when returned from captivity where they did not hear the Word of G-d and were influenced by pagan cultures, and had forgotten the Word of G-d; yet when taught by Ezra for the first time, cried, repented, and returned to G-d with broken hearts as this "renewed" Word was "written on their hearts" as they heard with their ears and understood with their minds.
So, if you (believing Christians) are not of the house of Israel or Judah, then this "new" or RENEWED covenant has no effect on you! In other words, the Christian Church finds her validity as she is grafted into Israel, not the other way around, where Israel is being grafted into the Gentile church.
This contract cannot take effect until the Gentile Christian comes to the understanding and truly believes that he is grafted into Israel, thereby rightfully entering into the "renewed covenant" of Jer. 31. This contract/covenant can only become effective when everyone knows YHVH.
Jeremiah 31
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
'Until everyone knows the Lord', means knowing and understanding His ways which are revealed in the covenant contract, the Torah (the first five books of the Bible which have not passed away in lieu of grace). Unfortunately most Christian churches teach that the LAW (our covenant contract) has passed away.
We must understand that the Law is still in effect, only the Priesthood and the sacrifices which accompany the Priesthood have changed. We must understand and cherish our "marriage certificate with G-d," His Torah, His Law, and take our rightful place as Gentile believers as 'part' of Israel, and no longer allow ourselves to be tossed by every wind of doctrine by ascribing to replacement theology whereby we falsely believe the Christian Church has a covenant of its own to the exclusion of the covenants of Israel.
Genesis 17
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
How long is EVERLASTING? It is for 'thy seed and they seed after thee'. It is perpetual.
Or did G-d lie?
However you cannot claim to be walking humbly before God and reject God's redemptive work on the cross.
Where does it say that in the Torah?
The Law is indeed still there. And the Law condemns you unless you accept Jesus.
No. The law doesn't condemn you, or anyone. Only YOU condemn yourself when you choose not to adhere to the laws, when you fail to acknowledge your sin, when you fail to repent with a contrite heart and get back on YHVH's path of righteousness, by following the law. YHVH tells us not to vear left or right. The path is straight and narrow.
But certain aspects of what is considered the Law like the dietary laws were clearly stated to be for a specific reason and for Israel only. They are no longer valid.
Because Israel is to be a light unto the nations, they are to be a Holy and priestly nation. They are to be an example for the gentiles to follow. The dietary laws are still in effect.
Acts 15
28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
There are part of the Noachide Laws. Then not eating/drinking blood is a dietary thing. Notice that these admonitions occur AFTER the crucifixion!
Neither are sin sacrifices, the only sin sacrifice we need has been made. Those parts of the law were fulfilled in Jesus.
Acts 21
24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.
Again, Acts takes place AFTER the crucifixion, and here we have offerings to be made????
Remember what Jesus said, the Greatest law is to love God and love your neighbor. That sums up all of the laws.
That's right, J*sus said to keep the laws. If you love your neighbor you will not murder him. If you love your neighbor you will not steal from him. If you love your neighbor you will not commit adultery with his wife, etc.
To cling to parts of the law even after those parts have fulfilled their purpose is not what God's Law requires.
To cling to man made traditions is what G-d doesn't require, in fact it is an abomination.
Romans 2:13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
John 4 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Salvation is of the Jews. NOT WAS, IS.
Danny: The New Covenant negates the law.
ET: There was no new covenant (with scriptual evidence), nor the future new convenant negate the law (with evidence)
Danny: But Jesus negates the law with the new covenant! (never addressing your evidence)
I know how hard it is to accept these things, having once believed in the false doctrines of the churches myself at one time. Old habits are hard to break and I am still trying to unlearn them, as well as learn what was given to us so long ago, and so many including Hitler have tried to destroy and wipe from the face of the earth. But YHVH's will, WILL BE DONE and ALL will know YHVH. It will just take some longer than others.
Thanks for your kind reply.
Well over here I live with about 1.5 million Molems all in range of an afternoons joy ride in a car. They parade in the streets by the tens of thousands with Hamas and Hizbulla flags, burn mock effiges of city buses and carry grenade launchers chanting death to American's and death to Jews.
Never saw a single protest march, or heard A SINGLE CLERIC protest the slaughter of innocents. Perhaps because they also for kicks and grins beat people to death who tip the cops off that a mass murderer is on his way.
your problem is that you won't believe it until you've heard it from the horse's mouth...at 1 billion, that's a lot of mouths and a lot of exceptions you will point to if someone isn't quick enough or vocal enough for your tastes
At one billion I would be pretty darn happy if .0001% condemed it. Perhaps a few might get around to it in the next three years, but I do not recall any doing so in the last three years. But what the heck, Moslem Clerics are pretty busy these days, there is a war on, don't cha know...
Now I did not "whine" one bit, and you know it. To whine is to complain without much fact or substance to back your position. I just shared his own scriptures with him. I intentionaly skipped over the ones describing how they are commanded to torture their captives, or kill them if they will not "convert". I figured he did not care, and was so far gone in his brainwashing I did not need to be the one that launched another Islam-o-Kazi.
I trust you are not so far gone, yet.
I guess I was wrong, there are moderate moslems, a whole lot of them.
It is not false teachings if they are what is written in the Qu'ran my friend. The Moderate Moslem myth is simply that.
If you have not the Law, you're just clanging a bell.... by keeping the law, you show you're love of YHVH, and you're complete faith/trust in Him.
If you were leading a man out of alcoholism would you show so little love or grace?
I would NOT give the alcoholic booze, that's called tough love. If you're 5 year old is playing with matches, do you appease them, or take the matches away? You take the matches away explaining why you are doing what you are doing. Just as YHVH explained why Jeremiah and others were sent into exile for whoring after other gods.
Why then do you beat your younger brother so?
A brother infers familial relation. Christianity is not part of the Judaic family since it doesn't adhere to Judaic beliefs. Christianity is merely a 'newer' pagan religion, that combines several pagan religions into one, newer one. It was the way alledged christians got them to 'convert', by adopting pagan ways into 'christianity'.
The pagans had some favorite festivals... s*turnalia honoring m*thra, this was held around Dec. 25th, the presumed date of birth of the sun god. You probably know it better as chr*stmas. Another was the celebration of fertility and rebirth, held in the spring after the equinox, this became 'e*ster', after the godess of fertility ast*rte, or ashter*th and other various spellings of the name.
Cause trust me, your actions do speak louder than your words.
Somehow, I can imagine YHVH saying the same thing to you. Remember the verse, 'by their fruits ye shall know them'??
Please pray and listen. My guess is that our Father wants to have a word with you...
You should heed your own advice.
By the way, your target is right too. But he has only grace, where you have only law. Hmmm, sound familiar? You might find yourself on shaky ground if our Father did not have so much grace.
You need to read Ezekiel. Our Father gave us law AND grace. It's called repentance. YHVH knew that man could keep the law, BUT He also knew that without failure of keeping the law, man could not acknowledge when he errored. Man could not know guilt, and thus could not know repentance, and being contrite for his actions. It is outlined several times in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 18:20-32 and
Ezekiel 33
1 And the word of HaShem came unto me, saying:
2 'Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them: When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;
3 if, when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the horn, and warn the people;
4 then whosoever heareth the sound of the horn, and taketh not warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head;
5 he heard the sound of the horn, and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.
18 When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
19 And when the wicked turneth from his wickedness, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
YHVH is full of mercy and grace. He will keep forgiving you your sins no matter how many times you need to repent of them. Grace is not something that only came about with 'christianity'. The term may have been corrupted by christianity, but grace has always been there, for those that sought it through contrite repentance, and getting back on YHVH's path.
30 And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people that talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying: Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from HaShem;
31 and come unto thee as the people cometh, and sit before thee as My people, and hear thy words, but do them not--for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness;
32 and, lo, thou art unto them as a love song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; so they hear thy words, but they do them not--
33 when this cometh to pass--behold, it cometh--then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.'
By the way, I keep the feasts about as well as I keep the holidays. So I got one foot on each branch of the trunk.
Sounds like you are 'straddling the fence'.
Revelation 3
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Hmmmm, but it says come out of Babylon so that you not share in her curse...
That's right, it does, and the churches in Revelation are being chastised and told to REPENT!
Hmmmm, grace is a good thing.
Yes it is. Good thing that YHVH gave us grace whereby we could confess our sins, repent with a contrite heart and get back on His path of righteousness!
For it also says by your standards, you will be judged, and if you are going to keep the law on one point, you will have to keep the law on all points, and no man can find righteousness in the law.
Did I judge you? Nooooooo. I merely posted the facts of the matter.
Luke 1
5 THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Did somebody lie about Zacharias and Elisabeth?
Ezekiel 14:14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord G-D.
Ezekiel 14:20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord G-D, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.
You are responsible for your own soul. By your actions you either save it or condemn it.
Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
John 7:49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Isaiah 51:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
Proverbs 12:28 In the way of righteousness is life: and in the pathway thereof there is no death.
Ecclesiastes 12
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
So how does that all fit in with your theology? My guess is you had an allergic reaction to all the paganism that has crept into the Church and swung a bit far in reaction to it.
Hegesippus records that the Law and Prophets were taught until all the Apostles died off.:
... Up to that period the Church had remained like a virgin pure and uncorrupted: for, if there were any persons who were disposed to tamper with the wholesome rule of the preaching of salvation,11 they still lurked in some dark place of concealment or other. But, when the sacred band of apostles had in various ways closed their lives, and that generation of men to whom it had been vouchsafed to listen to the Godlike Wisdom with their own ears had passed away, then did the confederacy of godless error take its rise through the treachery of false teachers, who, seeing that none of the apostles any longer survived, at length attempted with bare and uplifted head to oppose the preaching of the truth by preaching "knowledge falsely so called."On my arrival at Rome, I drew up a list of the succession of bishops down to Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. To Anicetus succeeded Soter, and after him came Eleutherus. But in the case of every succession,14 and in every city, the state of affairs is in accordance with the teaching of the Law and of the Prophets and of the Lord....
Therefore was the Church called a virgin, for she was not as yet corrupted by worthless teaching.15 Thebulis it was who, displeased because he was not made bishop, first began to corrupt her by stealth. . . . Each of these leaders in his own private and distinct capacity brought in his own private opinion. From these have come false Christs, false prophets, false apostles-men who have split up the one Church into parts16 through their corrupting doctrines, uttered in disparagement of God and of His Christ....
Cause one thing you do not get from the Messianic flavor is love, and without love how will they know you?
First you need to know what messianic means, not what the church changed it to.
So, brothers, can’t we all just strive to get along as one big happy family? Because, hard as it might seem to be true, you are both right. This road we are all on is a merge lane, not a right and left fork.
And what happens when you merge into ONE lane??? Those other branches merge into ONE, the ROOT!
These are the various types of people we are dealing with in the first century.
I. Goyim: idolators, wicked, pagans,
II. Foreigners (Ger toshev):
1. Non Jews living in Israel
2. Any Gentile who wanted to be righteous (i.e. "saved)
3. Required to observe the 7 Noachide commandments
III. Godfearers (Ger hashair)
1. Required to observe the 7 Noachide commandments
2. Required to observe the Sabbath
3. Required to observe the dietary Laws plus others as they choose (Isa. 56)
4. Expected to maintain synagogue discipleship where "Moses is preached".
5. Lack circumcision
IV. Jews: Native Born -plus- Proselyte
1. Proselytes were given all the requirements listed above for the Godfearer
2. Required circumcision for males
3. Required mikveh for females
4. Sacrifice in Temple (optional in Diaspora)
5. Pay Temple tax yearly
You can see that not everyone needs to convert to Judaism to be saved, BUT they do need to adhere to the 7 laws of Noah, as a minimum. (Genesis 9) That is the covenant given to ALL mankind after the flood.
Those are the laws that everyone is expected to adhere to. You'll notice that there isn't a 'name' given to this set of beliefs at the time. It became the Noachide Covenant. The 7 laws are still known today, as the 7 Universal Laws. Because they applied to everyone.
When the people dispersed they took these laws with them. That is why there are so many similarities with the various 'religions' or 'faiths' around the world. Because they stemmed from the same Source. YHVH.
There are certain laws as mentioned above. You can stop with the basics, but you can also take it further, if you choose to. Become a Hasidic Gentile if you want.
Israelites/Jews and Gentiles/rest of mankind, were meant to have a special interlocking relationship. They were/are supposed to be supportive of each other, offering encouragement to one another, to help each other remain on G-d's path. So that, we ALL can DO G-D'S WILL.
Anyone not an Israelite/Jew is a Gentile. No matter what faith you label yourself with, or where you live. You are a Gentile.
Pertaining to 'other' religions or belief systems. Avesta, Confuscious, Buddha, and of course Judaism all predate 'Christianity'. Some of these have their 'branches', just as Christianity has its branches. There are 3 common denominators. 1) belief in G-d, 2) code of ethics and 3) royal law (do unto others).
Whether one calls the code of ethics (conduct), the 10 commandments (Judaism), or The Ten Charges (Buddhism, Khuddaka Patha), or Laws of Manu (Hinduism), or Tatthvarthasutra (Jainism), or the Precious Garland (Buddhism, Nagarjuna), or The Negative Confession (Egyptian Book of the Dead)... what they call it is a moot point. The point is, they have a set of rules or laws governing their conduct. And within these rules they have the royal law, of doing unto others.
"Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence." (Confucianism. Mencius VII.A.4 ) Confucious predates Christ by about 500 years.
The differences between various religions, seems to be based on culture and/or when they existed, and agendas, inserted by whoever was in 'control' at the time.
So, you see, no matter what label one applies to their faith, they are still a gentile, BUT if they are keeping the commandments they are doing G-d's will, and thus have a place in heaven. People can belong to any group and still be keeping the commandments of G-d. The labels are meaningless, and only separate people, much like the hyphenated-American garbage, compartmentalizes people.
I think this is why we can, if we look, see certain similarities between Judaism and Islam. Some were mentioned earlier in the thread. Dietary laws, for one. And that is what made me really dig for the truth. If there are any brothers that should be reconciling and hugging, it is the decendants of Isaac and Ishamel. imho The similarities is where the truth resides. The differences were brought in by man/humans.
Those 7 Noachide Laws ARE the covenant between Gentiles and G-d. If you don't reject the laws, you reject YHVH too.
You're choice. YHVH doesn't force anything on you. Free will.
Deuteronomy 11
18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your G-d, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
(Obedience is the test of true love for G-d. Adam and Eve
disobeyed, and were kicked out of the Garden. Abraham obeyed and it
was counted unto him as righteousness)
26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
(G-d gives us a choice)
27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your G-d, which I command you this day:
28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your G-d, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
The sign of G-d is His Torah, which in Hebrew means instructions and teachings. Those that accept the instructions/laws are marked as those that are true children of G-d.
FWIW
should be: If you reject the laws, you reject YHVH too.
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