Building on the Foundation

In the spirit of serving God and following Christ’s example, what are commonly called the “ten commandments”  become central to the life of a christian. Christ said “ If you love Me, keep my commandment s.”¹  One of the most overlooked and underrated of these is the fourth one. It is the Sabbath command. “ Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy… ”   Nearly all self-proclaimed Christians keep the Catholic Sabbath (aka Sunday), even those who readily reject the paganism of the Catholic church.  Is there a better way?  Absolutely!   “ Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and res...

There is one very important question that all those who believe God the Son’s law was done away with at His death on the cross must ask themselves. Why? Why would Christ abolish something that He had earlier given to be a delight, and what did He replace it with? As we saw in my last post on the subject, numerous old and new testament authors called God’s law the delight of their hearts. They viewed His law as a blessing and a delight, so why then would Christ have done away with it? It can’t be because it was oppressive and a heavy burden. The Bible clearly shows that the view of its authors was quite to the contrary. It was only oppressive to those who broke it. If the law Christ gave in the old testament was indeed a delight and a blessing, something good and helpful, why did He come back to die to get rid of it? Or is that what He got rid of with His death? I seem to remember Him saying that He was wiping away our sins, not the law. What, then, is the reason that Christ would do...

  Last time , in our examination of Mat. 18:18 and Mat. 16:19, we saw that those verses ought to read, as they do in most literal translations, "Whatever you bind on earth must already be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth must already be loosed in heaven." In other words, the congregations of God have no authority to overrule God or make judgments contrary to His. Any judgments they make must be within the bounds of God's Word, or else they are illegitimate. If, as we've previously noted , they tolerate wickedness and unrepentant sinners within the congregation, that judgment is contrary to God's and therefore illegitimate. If they expel people from their midst who have done no wrong, as defined by God's Word, then that judgment is contrary to God's and therefore illegitimate. These things should be self-evident. This time, let's explore the concept that God's church has authority to make judgments and decisions within the bounds of ...

 Matthew 18 contains an oft-abused passage of Scripture, stemming from a common and unfortunate mistranslation. In Mat. 18:18, according to the New King James Version , Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." A nearly identical passage is found in Mat. 16:19. Does this mean "The Church" has authority to make binding judgments on earth, judgments which God Himself will enforce? Does this mean "The Church" has authority to make rulings on the Scriptures, and that its members are bound to obey whether they see Scriptural justification or not? Not so fast. Here's Mat. 18:18 according to Young's Literal Translation : " Verily I say to you, Whatever things ye may bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever things ye may loose on the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens."   Mat. 16:19 reads si...

  Breaking! There is a troubling section in Galatians that says that the Law of God, also known as the Law of Moses, is done away with. Why would this be troubling? Doesn’t Christianity agree that His law was abolished? Wasn’t it nailed to the cross and all that? The troubling part is that for many years God’s people have faithfully kept His commandments and observed His set times according to the order Christ set forth from the beginning of time. Could generations of God’s people and Christ Himself be wrong?  When looking at any issue involving the Bible, we have to start at the beginning with what has already been established. Paul, the other apostles, and Christ Himself all affirm multiple times that the law shall never pass away until everything is fulfilled. What law? The law that is called a burden, of course. In speaking of the Pharisees and the law, Jesus says, Matthew 23:4 ASV Yea, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but ...