tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335270607657867160.post8380830808004094805..comments2023-03-01T11:37:09.936-08:00Comments on Answering Judaism: Observance of Torah demanded of Gentiles? 3Answering Judaismhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08118361261862962380noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335270607657867160.post-81105445374265527992015-08-09T13:35:04.816-07:002015-08-09T13:35:04.816-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Answering Judaismhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08118361261862962380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335270607657867160.post-71162701080514601442015-08-09T13:06:43.408-07:002015-08-09T13:06:43.408-07:00Legalism used to mean works salvation instead of g...Legalism used to mean works salvation instead of grace. Now it just seems to mean following God's commandments (1 John 5:2-3). Interesting how adaptive this buzzword is, that it attacks Jesus' very doctrine (Matthew 7:20-23, Matthew 5:17-20) and gets away with it. It's now up there with 'tolerance' for how quickly its meaning changes. Trev of Economiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06456754084797215573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335270607657867160.post-73438678674597498112015-08-09T13:00:38.079-07:002015-08-09T13:00:38.079-07:00The New Covenant doesn't involve the Law chang...The New Covenant doesn't involve the Law changing, but involves the Law being written on our hearts: Jeremiah 31:31-34. Trev of Economiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06456754084797215573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335270607657867160.post-45412979404610089062015-08-09T12:58:25.334-07:002015-08-09T12:58:25.334-07:00Does Ephesians 2:12 say you're still a gentile...Does Ephesians 2:12 say you're still a gentile, still out of Israel? How about Numbers 15:15-16. Are you equal before The Lord with an Israelite, or is God a respecter of persons? Does it not say here that the foreigner and the Native Israelite have the same law and status? How about Leviticus 24:22. Try as you might to escape it, it's there. The yoke their fathers couldn't endure was using the Law for salvation. God never placed that yoke on anyone, since salvation was by grace through faith since Abraham back in Genesis 15:6. The ruling in Acts 15 continues to Acts 15:21. The reason Gentiles only had a few *necessary* rules to follow was that there were synagogues for them to learn the rest of the Torah in after they had started following the restrictions in Acts 15:20. It was clear that since Cornelius was accepted by the Holy Spirit without circumcision or works, one didn't have to do anything other than have faith in Jesus to be saved. Acts 15:1 was thus addressed as heresy by that fact and by the witness of Abraham's righteousness in Genesis. The Pharisees among believers (different from certain men because they are called believers by the Bible) wanted to get the Gentiles to adhere immediately to circumcision and the entire law of Moses (Acts 15:5). That would've been too much for a new believer to bear, and none of them had to deal with any of that, so James decided that it would be made easy for the Gentiles turning to God, by giving them a few easy prohibitions, and letting them figure out the rest at the synagogues around them. Unfortunately, today, very few Christians even do well with those basic prohibitions. Many eat blood, are perfectly fine with meat from Halal and other idol ceremonies, and engage in some form of sexual immorality (such as divorce followed by remarriage). Clearly these weren't the only rules, because things like stealing and murder weren't mentioned. The reason such things weren't mentioned was that they were thought of as "common sense" or "basic morality", which virtually every person has, even though the Law spells them out. As for sexual immorality, the Law defines such, and it can be difficult to figure out what counts without it (for example, homosexuality, sex with a woman on her period, and premarital sex with a virgin you don't intend to marry are implied to be sins there, but there are a wide range of sexual situations one would need to figure out). If the Gentiles were required to do the Law for salvation, or get circumcised, it would be a massive stumbling block few would undergo. If they had to do the whole law for fellowship purposes immediately after being saved, it would be no good, because they would quickly feel overwhelmed by all these new prohibitions. The ruling was for them to have a few relatively easy commands to follow at first, aside from common sense, and pick up the rest later. That's why the four prohibitions are things from the Law.Trev of Economiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06456754084797215573noreply@blogger.com