Do Christians Have To Follow The Old Testament?

[Mitspa]

I did. Then I found every verse in the bible where He talks about pork.

Did you happen to read the part where Jesus died upon the cross and the NEW Covenant was written in His blood. That He has sanctified all things unto the believer?

Ro 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

See its the DEVIL who wants believers to "think" they are still under these commandments to abstain from certain meats...

Col 2:16 ¶ Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
22 Which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men?
23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

1Ti 4:1 ¶ Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats,

 

[Mitspa]

6 horrifying things about pork

Maybe you should look up 7 wonderful things about Christ and the liberty we have in Him? Then trust Him Who bore your sicknesses to keep you healthy...but real faith is too hard right? ....

Heb 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

P.S....do you and Bro Tan belong to the same religious group?

 

[Euphemia]

Maybe you should look up 7 wonderful things about Christ and the liberty we have in Him? Then trust Him Who bore your sicknesses to keep you healthy...but real faith is too hard right? ....

Heb 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

P.S....do you and Bro Tan belong to the same religious group?

Right on!

Acts 10:9-15 (NLT)
9 The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, 10 and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. 12 In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. 13 Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”

14 “No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.”

15 But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”

 

[SparkleEyes]

I think it is not that Christians HAVE to follow the laws of the OT it is that we WANT to follow the ones that matter. It is not an affront to eat pork, but it is an affront to God to have other idols for example. As believers, God is our one and only idol.

 

[christianbacktobasics]

Maybe you should look up 7 wonderful things about Christ and the liberty we have in Him? Then trust Him Who bore your sicknesses to keep you healthy...but real faith is too hard right? ....

Heb 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

P.S....do you and Bro Tan belong to the same religious group?

What great comments Mitspa....

 

[Heart_for_Christ]

Maybe you should look up 7 wonderful things about Christ and the liberty we have in Him? Then trust Him Who bore your sicknesses to keep you healthy...but real faith is too hard right? ....

Heb 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

P.S....do you and Bro Tan belong to the same religious group?

Why didn't you use those scriptures in the PM about tithes? I'm clear now. Totally clear now.

 

[Mitspa]

Why didn't you use those scriptures in the PM about tithes? I'm clear now. Totally clear now.

You sure you got it?

 

[Heart_for_Christ]

You sure you got it?

Yeah.

 

[Mike Flanaganmenstein]

God would never change his mind my friend and that's exactly why he sent us Jesus. Jesus is the one who gave us specific instructions on how to live our lives, think and speak. God didn't say those things, Jesus did hence God is perfect and never changes his mind. God bless you my child, I hope you make it.

 

[Holy_Spirit1000]

God would never change his mind my friend and that's exactly why he sent us Jesus. Jesus is the one who gave us specific instructions on how to live our lives, think and speak. God didn't say those things, Jesus did hence God is perfect and never changes his mind. God bless you my child, I hope you make it.

God doesn't change his mind but God's laws do change.
Today we can work on the Sabbath.
2,014 years ago if we worked on the Sabbath God would ask for us to be stoned to death.
Why would God change God's laws?

 

[Mike Flanaganmenstein]

[QUOTE="Holy_Spirit1000, post: 347602, member: 13810"]God doesn't change his mind but God's laws do change.
Today we can work on the Sabbath.
2,014 years ago if we worked on the Sabbath God would ask for us to be stoned to death.
Why would God change God's laws?[/QUOTE]


The Bible clearly states that the God is unchanging and perfect Malachi 3:6
.For I am the Lord, I change not: therefore ye sonnes of Iacob are not consumed.
. It makes no sense to say that the God's law is separate from his mind. God's laws originate in his mind and it would be a farce to separate the two. As for the following the old testament there are so many sinners and fornicators out there in todays society that maybe we should stone people for working on the Sabbath. God never changes his mind!! You cant argue with the Bible. Peace unto you all my fellow brothers and sisters.

 

[Mitspa]

[QUOTE="Holy_Spirit1000, post: 347602, member: 13810"]God doesn't change his mind but God's laws do change.
Today we can work on the Sabbath.
2,014 years ago if we worked on the Sabbath God would ask for us to be stoned to death.
Why would God change God's laws?

[/QUOTE]

look sir...have your read the NEW TESTAMENT? And the purpose of the law? God did not change the law ands its purpose remains. To make all guilty before God, and to bring all men to Christ, that they might be justified by faith in Christ. You do understand that FAITH was before the law of Moses?

 

[Abdicate]

God doesn't change his mind but God's laws do change.
Today we can work on the Sabbath.
2,014 years ago if we worked on the Sabbath God would ask for us to be stoned to death.
Why would God change God's laws?

More like He fulfilled the law we can't keep, so He did it for us

 

[guest4]

Galatians 5:18 is a jewel.

but if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law.

 

[believer]

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Savior showed that the old rules were no longer adequate and that those who wished to enter the kingdom of heaven must subscribe to a new standard of righteousness. (See Matt. 5:20.) Even the Ten Commandments, the ethical heart of the Law, were represented by Jesus as insufficient for salvation except as encompassed within the higher principles of the gospel.

For example, the Savior expanded the commandments "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not commit adultery," by now commanding Christians to avoid even hatred or lust. (Matt. 5:28, 44.) Merely abstaining from adultery and murder was no longer sufficient. Christians must now change their very hearts, and this was more than the old Law had required. Also, at the Last Supper Jesus had made it clear that the atonement he was about to accomplish instituted a new covenant which would replace that of Sinai. (Luke 22:20, 37.) And on at least two occasions in the New Testament (Matt. 5:31–32; Matt. 19:3–9), Jesus made it clear that the teaching of the Law (in this case on the issue of divorce) was not eternal but was only a temporary concession made necessary by the hard-heartedness of Israel.

 

[believer]

This can get a little confusing but note that in the teaching of Jesus, the Law was not revoked nor repealed but fulfilled. (Matt. 5:17.) Under the gospel of Christ, murder, adultery, and dishonesty are still prohibited, and the formal requirements of the Law are still essentially in place; but the demand of the Law of Moses has been expanded, has been filled to its fullest extent. Where there is no hatred or greed, there can be no murder; where there is no lust, there can be no adultery. With the coming of Christ, the ethical portion of the Law had not been abolished; it had been caught up by, included in, and expanded to a broader application its intention, its potential as an ethical standard, had been fulfilled.

 

[GraceForDoubt]

To begin, God wouldn't change His mind as God is unchangeable. In fact, there are some things God is incapable of -- He cannot be both logical and illogical. He cannot NOT exist. And because He is all-perfect, He cannot change.

Mosaic law, things like wearing certain clothing and not eating certain foods, were given directly to the nation of Israel. But it wasn't strictly things like this -- it was a predecessor for the bearing of Christ, who fulfilled the New Covenant. We are still bound by divine law, but not Mosaic law.

Just a quick question and perhaps a stupid one. What is the difference between Divine Law and Mosaic Law? Where does it say in the bible that we are no longer bound by Mosaic Law?

 

[LysanderShapiro]

Just a quick question and perhaps a stupid one. What is the difference between Divine Law and Mosaic Law? Where does it say in the bible that we are no longer bound by Mosaic Law?

Good question. Mosaic Law are the laws passed onto the Jewish people through Moses -- these are laws like the dietary laws, hygienic laws, marital laws (eating kosher, divorce from the wife, washing one's hands required before meals, etc). Divine law are the laws that still existed during the Old Covenant but continued on too as they were laws directly from God -- only worshiping God, not murdering because of the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage as being of a covenant of God, etc.

You'll find that we aren't bound by Mosaic law anymore as they are expressed in Romans 7:6, Hebrews 8:13 -- but most important, in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-7:28) Jesus uses the phase "You have heard it said that... but I say to you..." many times. He proceeds to give a number of examples of how the new law is harder and a higher standard than the old. For example, He replaces the Mosaic Law of "eye for an eye" with "turn the other cheek." It is clear from this that Jesus is entirely prepared to replace and expand upon the Mosaic Law.

 

[JustPassingThru]

The Old Testament is/was physical and material, whereas the New Testament is spiritual and eternal.

We say the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament.

What that means is for every physical law in the Old Testament there is a spiritual counter part in the New Testament, for instance, keeping the physical Sabbath is explained in the fourth chapter of Hebrews as being a spiritual rest in Christ, also it's really eye opening when we study the dietary laws in the Old Testament and how they relate to our spiritual walk with our Lord, remember what Jesus said, the volume of the book is written about me, Heb 10:7, Psa 40:7 and He said that before the New Testament, ...so for those difficult passages just look for Jesus in them.

Blessings,

Gene

 

[Big Moose]

Context is what is missing. Imagine first, what kind of people were the Israelites after 400 years of slavery and then freedom suddenly given them by an unseen God? Most of them did not know about God, only the false gods of the Egyptians. They believed this God was the same type of god. Their understanding of this God was at the level of small children.
The Mosaic OT laws were meant for this hardhearted, wild, out of control people to teach and tame them over time. You can see this in many occurrences with God telling Moses to tell His people x y z. His people only, not all the other humans. That in and of itself is enough to convince you as to who the OT laws were meant for.

God has changed things many times because humanity needed changing.
God took the Garden of Eden away after creating it.
God destroyed the Earth with the Flood because of corrupted mankind.
God then promised to never destroy the entire Earth with water again.
God saw what people were doing building the tower of Babel, and took action.
God changed Abram and Sarai's names and created a new covenant involving circumcision for His chosen people.
God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, only to stop him from going through with it.
God was not going to bless Jacob, until Jacob wrestled Him for it.

On and on, God altered, added, changed things based on the person's or people's obedience or disobedience.
He is unchanging in that He is full of love, patience, and grace for us, whether we need encouragement or a proverbial swift kick in the pants, or even something stronger.
Grace was here then and grace is here now. Only the people changed over time and God dealt with them accordingly. A great question is, "Why did God send Jesus at the time in human history in which He did?". Now there was a great change by God for humanity. My answer is mankind was finally able to handle the philosophical ideas of a spiritual identity for each person, and how we connect with God. Before Jesus, humanity spent most of their time hunting and gathering (farming) food, and protecting themselves from attack from many threats.
The question is not why did God do such and such. The question is what would have happened if God had not done such and such. Often, then, you say to yourself, "Ohhhhhhh! Imagine how worse it might have been."

Your mindset is the key. Who is the smart one? The Creator or the created? The Creator of course. So then, what am I missing, and then honestly look for an answer.