What kind of messiah abolishes Torah laws but not post-Torah laws?
One who, as God, introduces a New Covenant.
Funny that the Bible contains the "obsolete" laws rather than the ones in effect now.
Once a Protestant begins opening up to the concept of law and merit/demerit, it is almost impossible not to "go all the way." Do you understand this?
Fundamentalist Protestants believe in J*sus because they believe they are in need of "salvation." Salvation is passive. One does not "obtain salvation." One is passively "saved" as one free-falls. If there are laws and rituals, then religion is not salvational at all but statutory.
Judaism/Noachism is consistent because it is a non-salvational, statutory religion. Antinomian Protestantism is consistent (somewhat at least) because it is salvational. Catholicism and Orthodoxy seem to be a hodgepodge of statute and salvationism. To put it bluntly, "salvation" is invoked as an excuse to replace the old rituals, after which their religion becomes statutory.
If Catholic/Orthodox laws, rituals, and traditions are beautiful, then so are those of the Torah. If Protestants are out of line in demanding that Catholics and Orthodox drop their laws, rituals, and traditions, then Catholics and Orthodox are out of line in demanding that Jews abandon the Torah.
As you seem fond of saying to Christians when talking about the Law, "you just don't see the argument." Where is the inconsistency you allege? We Christians acknowledge that the Old Testament is equally the Word of God along with the New Testament. And, without a doubt, the Torah delineates the Law that the chosen people were expected to follow. The Old Testament, then, as the inspired Word of God, gives us a perfect historical record of those Laws that the Israelites/Jews were expected to follow, by God's command. We accept and acknowledge this wholeheartedly. But we see why the Jews were expected to follow the Law with a different slant than the Jews themselves do, because our New Testament explains it in a way that the Jews did not need to hear while the Law still had a God-mandated role to fulfill in them. It is therefore hardly as inconsistent of us as you imply that we reject the Law while accepting (half-heartedly, according to you) the Old Testament as Scripture.
If Catholic/Orthodox laws, rituals, and traditions are beautiful, then so are those of the Torah. If Protestants are out of line in demanding that Catholics and Orthodox drop their laws, rituals, and traditions, then Catholics and Orthodox are out of line in demanding that Jews abandon the Torah.
No. The Torah was imposed by God on the Jews. The ceremonial laws and rituals in Christianity that surround the essentials of the various Sacraments grow out of the experimentation and experience of men through an organic development. They can be changed or abrogated at the whim of the proper human authorities, if felt necessary. The Jews could not do that with the Torah. But, since Christians live by Grace and not the Law, what laws and traditions we have pertain to orderliness , consistency and discipline, and do pertain to salvation per se. Big difference.