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Podcast
Should Christians Keep Mosaic Law
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Transcript
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and today I'd like to address the question, should Christians
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keep the Mosaic Law?
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The definition I'm using is simple.
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The Mosaic Law is the law given to Moses.
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There are four basic views about the question, should Christians keep the Mosaic Law?
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I'll list them in what seems to me to be from the least or worst to the most or best
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biblically-based positions.
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In other words, I hold the fourth position.
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Position number one says the Mosaic Law should be kept by all Christians today.
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This is the position of what are usually called the Hebrew Roots Ministries, the HRMs.
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Position number one, the biggest problem I would say is that no major Bible teacher has
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taught this in 2,000 years of church history.
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It's certainly possible for those studying the Bible to discover biblical truth, which
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others before them have not found.
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The mega-example is the Reformation of the 1500s.
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But those who have shaped biblical theology over the years have two things in common,
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which are lacking in those who say all Christians should keep the Mosaic Law.
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First of all, men who have developed our theology, like Augustine, Athanasius, Aquinas, Luther,
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and Edwards, and Darby, represent a greater focus on the Bible over and against those
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who have ignored the Bible, such as the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages.
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HRMs, Hebrew Roots Ministries, are doing just the opposite, contradicting those who have
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focused on the Bible.
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And second, when a good theologian discovers a new true biblical concept, a significant
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amount of Bible teachers across the church will see the new position as biblically consistent.
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This is not the case with the Hebrew Roots Ministries.
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Another significant problem with this position is that many of the 613 commandments which
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make up the Mosaic Law cannot be kept today.
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The Hebrew Roots Ministries are forced to be selective in their law-keeping.
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Obedience to Mosaic Law is impossible outside the physical land of Israel.
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Consider the following list.
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Do they keep or obey these commands?
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Remember, they cannot just say we should apply them.
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We should all apply them.
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For example, one might apply the Sabbath command by resting any day of the week.
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So if the HRMs, Hebrew Roots Ministries, are keeping the Mosaic Law as a directive and
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saying every Christian should do that, then they must specifically perform these commands.
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I'll just list a few of them.
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Exodus 21, 17, he who curses his father or mother shall be put to death.
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Leviticus 19, 19, you shall not breed together two kinds of cattle.
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You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you with
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two kinds of material mixed together.
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Leviticus 19, 27, you shall not round off the side growth of your head, nor harm the
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edges of your beard.
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Leviticus 20, 13, if a man who lies with a male has those who lie with a female, both
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of them have committed a detestable act, and they shall be put to death.
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Leviticus 25, 10, and 11, you shall thus consecrate the 50th year.
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It shall be a jubilee year for you.
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Each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
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You shall not sow or reap or aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines.
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And Deuteronomy 21, 18 to 21, if any man is a stubborn or rebellious son, will not obey
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his father or mother, all the men of the city shall stone him to death.
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So the question is, would these be directives for the church today?
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So let's go to position number two.
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Position number two is the position of the seven-day Adventists.
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The Ten Commandments are eternal and should be kept, but the rest of the law was temporary.
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So the problems with position number two.
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Well, Jesus did not single out the Ten Commandments as being eternal.
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When he was asked, which is the greatest command of the law, instead of quoting or
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referring to the Ten Commandments, Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all
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your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
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This is the great and foremost commandment, and the second is like it, you shall love
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your neighbor as yourself.
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That's from Matthew 22, 35 to 39.
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This is a reference to Deuteronomy 6, 5 and Leviticus 19, 18, not to the Ten Commandments.
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Keeping the fourth commandment, keeping the Sabbath today, is fraught with problems.
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Exodus 16, 29 commands, remain every man in his place, let no one go out of his place
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on the seventh day.
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The Sabbath day's journey is defined by Luke in Acts 1, 12 as from Jerusalem to the
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Mount of Olives, which is a little over a half a mile, about a kilometer.
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So even driving more than that, more than, say, one kilometer or a half mile to get to
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church or synagogue, is violating the Sabbath.
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Another violation of the Sabbath is all the work we have to do to get to church, especially
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mothers who get their children ready and those who perform duties during the meetings, like
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the pastors.
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Then there's the violation of the Sabbath by turning on lights, heating, air conditioning,
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or other electronic equipment.
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Do they heat, air condition their homes on Saturday?
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The weekly Sabbath for Israel was about physical rest, not about worshiping or going to a meeting.
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At the time when Moses received the Ten Commandments, the Jews had no community meeting places.
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If keeping the Sabbath meant gathering on Saturday, why did Paul not reprimand the church
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in Troas for gathering on the first day of the week in Acts 20, verse 7?
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Actually, he participated in the gathering on Sunday.
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In the Jerusalem Council, recorded in Acts 15, the elders and the apostles gave four
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directives for Gentile Christians—keep from idols, fornication, blood, and things strangled.
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They made no mention of Sabbath-keeping, but rather determined to lay on, quote, lay on
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you no greater burden than these essentials.
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So apparently Sabbath-keeping is not an essential.
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Now position number three.
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Moral and civil laws should be kept today, but not the ceremonial laws.
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This is the position of the covenant communities, such as the Reformed Presbyterians and the
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Lutherans.
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Let me read it again.
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The moral and civil laws should be kept today, but not the ceremonial laws.
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The case for keeping Sunday instead of Saturday as the Lord's Day has four arguments.
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Number one, since Jesus was raised from the dead on the first day of the week, it's appropriate
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for Christians to worship on Sunday rather than Saturday.
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Number two, the reference written by Luke in Acts 20, verse 7, is that they met on the
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first day of the week.
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The third argument comes from 1 Corinthians 16, 2, where Paul wrote on the first day of
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the week that each of you put aside and save as you may prosper so that no collection be
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made when I came.
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This was a giving activity on Sunday.
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Number four, Revelation 110 says the Apostle John introduced his revelation by saying I
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was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
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Since he did not say the Sabbath day, it's assumed that he was talking about Sunday.
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R.C. Sproul wrote this, and this is a quote, John Calvin argued that it would be legitimate
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to have the Sabbath day on any day at all if the churches would agree because the principle
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in view was the regular assembling of the saints for corporate worship and for observation
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of rest.
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That's a close quote.
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So for Calvin, any day was okay as long as the churches agreed to meet on that day.
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Now the problem with position number three, Calvin's whole case is based on dividing the
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Mosaic law into three parts, moral, civil, and ceremonial, then eliminating the ceremonial.
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But there's no such division in the Bible.
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Actually, James seems to connect all parts of the law together when he said anyone who
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stumbles on one point is to become guilty of all in James 2.10.
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Also the case for Sunday keeping as a Sabbath is unconvincing.
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It's good to honor the fact that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week,
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but there's no command from Christ or the apostles that would indicate the church was
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instructed to remember that by having a meeting or resting on Sunday.
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Second, the meeting of the church in Troas described in Acts 26 to 12 is just an example
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of what one church did.
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There's no command or implication that all churches did that or were supposed to do that.
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The church in Jerusalem met every day of the week in Acts 2.
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Jesus and Paul were single and celibate.
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Does that mean we should all be single and celibate?
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Examples are not commands.
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Third, 1 Corinthians 16 is Paul's request for each one of you believers to put aside
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and save some money on the first day of the week.
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Paul's making a collection from the believers of Macedonia and Achaia to help the poor believers
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in Jerusalem.
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He was asking them to take some of their salary and set it aside weekly so that no collections
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be made when I come.
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There's no reference here to a meeting of a church.
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Number four, there's no evidence that the Lord's day in Revelation 1.10 is Sunday.
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E.W. Bullinger's commentary on Revelation explains, quote,
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there is no evidence of any kind that the first day of the week was ever called the Lord's day
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before the apocalypse was written.
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He wrote this earlier.
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In the New Testament, this day always is called the first day of the week.
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It's never called Sunday.
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It's always called the first day of the week.
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It's never called the Lord's day.
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So there's no evidence that the first day of the week was ever the Lord's day before
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the apocalypse.
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All right, you have to bring Sunday to the verse to get Sunday out of it.
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John could just as well be referring to Saturday, Sabbath.
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Isaiah called the Sabbath day the day of the Lord, and that was, of course, Saturday.
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Also, if we look at it in the context of prophecy of the book of Revelation, it could be referring
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to the Old Testament prophetic day of the Lord.
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That's the time beginning with the future tribulation.
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At any rate, nothing says that the day of the Lord is Sunday.
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The fourth position, the Mosaic law as a directive ended at the cross, but it should be applied
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like all Scripture.
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And as I mentioned, this is a position that I prefer.
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It's the position of the literal Bible community, such as the Baptists and the Brethren of the
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Pentecostals.
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It's also promoted by many modern Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox writers.
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The position is all Scripture should be applied today, 2 Timothy 3.16, but a prominent theme
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of the New Testament is that the Mosaic law is not mandated as a directive for the church.
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Actually, the Mosaic law should not be mandated for much of the Old Testament either.
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Mosaic law was not given until the 1500s BC.
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Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses for the first eight years of his
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life were part of the Torah, but they were not under the Mosaic law.
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When God spoke with Moses about the Sabbath on Mount Sinai, he specified the sons of Israel
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shall observe the Sabbath to celebrate the Sabbath.
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It's a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever, he says in Exodus 31.
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Christ and the apostles grew up and lived under Judaism, so they did Jewish things,
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not just Mosaic law things.
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Going to synagogues on the Sabbath was not part of the Mosaic law.
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Actually, Jesus seemed to strengthen the other commands, you have heard, but I say to you,
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and weaken the Sabbath.
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For example, in the Old Testament, Israel, when a man was found gathering wood on the
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Sabbath day, the Lord said to Moses, he shall be put to death.
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So the congregation stoned him to death.
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But Jesus defended his disciples for picking grain, rubbing it with their hands and removing
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the chaff, and then eating the grain on the Sabbath.
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It's hard to specify a difference between the mechanical act of gathering wood on the
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Sabbath and the mechanical act of gathering, rubbing off the chaff, and eating the grain
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on the Sabbath.
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Jesus said things like, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, and is it lawful to do
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good or harm on the Sabbath?
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And the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
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And the Sabbath day is referring to part of the Mosaic law, not the Pharisaic traditions.
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Paul and Barnabas went on the first missionary journey to Galatia.
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After that, Paul wrote to them about some Judaizers who were telling them to keep the
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Mosaic law.
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Paul calls it a different gospel in Galatians 1.6.
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Paul added, if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly in Galatians 2.21.
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And Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.
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Paul drove home his point about the end of the Mosaic law in Galatians 3.24 and 25.
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He said, quote, therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we
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may be justified by faith.
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Now that faith has come, we're no longer under a tutor.
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The principle is, one person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.
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Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.
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Well as a conclusion, the verse I always think of when the subject comes up is Romans 10.4.
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Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
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The Mosaic law was given as a directive from God to Moses to be delivered to the twelve
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tribes of Israel.
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That was between God and Israel.
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But since we have it as inspired scripture, we should apply it today as something that
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tells us about the mind of God.
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When Jesus was asked which is the greatest command of the law, he didn't give the ten commandments.
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Jesus summarized the Mosaic law saying, you shall love the Lord your God with all your
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heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
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This is the great and foremost commandment, and the second is like it, you shall love
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your neighbor as yourself.
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Well thanks for listening.
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My paper on the subject with footnotes and references is available on our website relationalconcepts.org.
