Christians, the Old Testament and "cherry-picking"

[fewwillfindit]

Below are some Scriptures that I compiled in another post that has become overrun with false allegations of redaction, pseudepigraphical nonsense and unproven theories of dates of authorship. This post is simply my effort to present evidence that conservative Christians do indeed have sound Scriptural reasons why we are not bound to the Law of Moses and the Old Covenant.

My intent is not to convince skeptics to believe in this Theological view. Rather, it is to show that their repeated and voluminous allegations of cherry-picking regarding which parts of the Old Testament we follow and which parts we don't follow, are decidedly false.

I am placing it here in Holy Huddle so that it can be referred to by anyone who wishes to do so. Please feel free to copy or quote any or all of it, link to it, or merely use it for personal reference anytime this false allegation of cherry-picking regarding the Old Testament arises. I am also placing it here so that it doesn't get flooded with dissenting views, as only Christians can post here. Regarding dissenting views, please do not post here if you do not agree with the conclusions. This is not a debate, it is a reference tool.

This is just a preliminary compilation of related Scriptures and comments, and I will probably be adding more at a later date. Please feel free to add Scriptures which you feel support this position.

First, many opponents will quote the following in support of Christians being under the Law of Moses:

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. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

They will say that since heaven and Earth have not passed away, the Law of Moses is still in effect. That's right. The Law remains in effect until the end. What is important to discern is to whom the Law applies. That is the key. Everyone who has not been justified by the sacrifice of Christ is still under the Law and subject to its effects. Christians, under the New Covenant, are no longer under that law. This is why Jesus says that the Law remains in effect until the end.

It is also important to recognize the wording in this passage, "the Law and the Prophets." When referred to together like this, it means the Pentateuch and the Prophets, and refers to the Old Testament in general. Christians do indeed see fulfilled messianic prophecy in the Prophets, so Christ was indeed the fulfillment of the prophecies found in the Prophets.

After reading the Scriptural evidence, a member I was debating conceded that I was not cherry-picking after all. Then he said this:

If you accept Pauls writings as equivalent to Jesus writings, though one was a prophet and the other wasnt, go right ahead. Simply put:

If Paul=Jesus for authority then christians arent cherry picking. This is essentially saying that paul and jesus were the same person and infact the trinity is instead a quadrivium.

To which I replied:

No, it is not saying that Jesus and Paul are essentially the same person, or that Paul is a member of the Godhead. The fact is that Christians believe Paul when he said this:

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

So you are wrong. Paul was indeed a prophet. Paul is authoritative to Christians because they believe him when he said that his words are directly from Jesus Christ.

Christians also believe Peter when he very clearly said that the writings of Paul were considered to be Scripture:

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

They will also attempt to say that Jesus said to pray not to break the Sabbath by running on it, thus "proving" that Christians are under the Law of Moses. This is a twisting of the words and is misapplied due to a lack of understanding of eschatology. Here is the Scripture:

Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.

There are two primary eschatological views which are held within mainstream orthodox Christianity; Dispensationalism and Covenantal/Partial-Preterism. Both of these views destroy this false Sabbath argument.

• The Dispensational view teaches that during the Tribulation, Jews (still God's chosen people but not yet saved), are stll under the Law of Moses, and when the Antichrist comes on the scene, they are told prophetically in this passage to pray that their flight will not be on the Sabbath. Since they are Jews, they are still under the Law. They find themselves in the Tribulation after the saints have been taken up, and are beginning to come to a knowledge of the truth.
• The Covenantal/Partial-Preterist view teaches that this prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD. It teaches that this was a warning to believers about the destruction of the temple. The reason for the prayer that their flight will not be on the Sabbath is that on the Sabbath, the gates of the city would have been closed, making their flight impossible.

Both of these views adequately refute the allegation that this is a warning for Christians not to break the Sabbath by running on it.


Now regadring the Law of Moses and the Old and New Covenants:

What is the Old Covenant?

And the Lord said to Moses, "Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to posess.

Here we see that the Ten Commandments were part of the Old Covenant. But that is not all that comprises the Old Covenant:

The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction."

You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant.

Here we see that God Himself gave the entire Law, including not only the Ten Commandments, but the other 603 laws as well, which comprises the Law of Moses ratified by the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant is given from Exodus 20 to the end, plus Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

So what does the New Testament have to say about the Old and New Covenants?

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them [the Jews] is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says:

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Here it shows that everyone is under the Law, regardless of whether or not they accept and affirm it:

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Why the Law?

• It condemns mankind

  Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

  You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone [the Ten Commandments], came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

• It brings death to mankind

  I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

• It empowers sin

  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

• It imprisons everything under sin

  Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

• It holds a record of debt against mankind

  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

• It divides Jews and Gentiles

  Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

What happened to the Law after Christ?

• It was cancelled, set aside and nailed to the cross

  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

• It was set aside because of its weakness and uselessness

  For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

• It was made obsolete

  In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

• It was abolished

  by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace

It is clear the the Law was designed to lead us to Christ and to make us aware that we needed a Savior by revealing our sin and demanding a penalty for that sin. But in Christ, under the New Covenant, we are no longer under that guardian, or tutor as some translations say. Paul was quite upset when the Judaizers tried to rob the Christians of their freedom in Christ and attempted to impose the Law of Moses on them:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." But the law is not of faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many, but referring to one, "And to your offspring," who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Apparently these Judaizers were also trying to force the Sabbath, the Holy Days and the clean and unclean food laws upon unsuspecting Christians as well. Here Paul makes it clear that these were all mere shadows that pointed to Christ. Now that we have the substance, Christ, we no longer need the shadow which pointed to Him:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

There are many many more passages which confirm my points, but this should do for starters. Take note that Judaizers love to twist these passages and attempt to make it look as though Paul was speaking solely about circumcision, but when you read them in context, it is clear that he was only using circumcision as an example. He was most certainly speaking of the entire Law of Moses, as the context reveals.

This quote from a recent discussion may be helpful as well (I altered it a bit for clarity):

A question: Are the Ten Commandments not part of the Mosaic Law? The Ten Commandments are given at least lip service by most Christian denominations and are certainly part of the Old Testament, included in the part allegedly written by Moses. Is there some fine technical distinction here?

Christians obey the commandments, but it is not because they are given in the Mosaic Law. It is because they are reiterated in the New Testament, with the exception of the Sabbath command. Some Christians see the Sabbath as a creation ordinance which preceded the Mosaic Law. Others do not recognize this and only keep 9 commandments. Yet others keep the principle of resting one day in seven, but do it on Sunday in accordance with the example of the New Testament Church. However you slice it, the bottom line is that the reason that Christians keep the commandments is not because they are part of the Mosaic Law.

Another way to explain this is to look at a hypothetical. If you are a U.S. citizen and U.S. law states that espionage is illegal, yet France, which coined the term, also has an identical law, you are not accused of placing yourself under French Law because you do not commit espionage. Rather, you are under U.S. law.