What Good is the Law?

רְאֵה נָתַתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ הַיּוֹם אֶת הַחַיִּים וְאֶת הַטּוֹב וְאֶת הַמָּוֶת וְאֶת הָרָע:

Deuteronomy 30: 15 Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil,

16 inasmuch as I command you this day to love the Lord, your God, to walk in His ways, and to observe His commandments, His statutes, and His ordinances, so that you will live and increase, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land to which you are coming to take possession of it.

For years, I was told that the Law of Moses didn't matter anymore.  There were a lot of different ways of saying it.  It was nailed to the cross was a good one.  No one could do it anyway so God sent His son to replace it.  You get the idea.  It's the New Testament.  Christianity.  The good news.  These are all false claims because they don't hold up to Scriptural scrutiny.  That is to say, if you actually read the scriptures, you can come to no other conclusion than this; Christianity is and has always been one big sham.  None of it fits; Jesus the messiah, Jesus the son of G-d, Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins, etc.  None of these claims can be substantiated through scripture.  Even if they could, it would still be false.  

Look at the scripture reference above.  According to this, what does one have to do to live?  Love the Lord your G-d, walk in His ways, observe His commandments, statutes, and ordinances.  That's it. The most basic premise of Christianity is not to keep the law.  It's not necessary because Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins.  So, even if you transgress the law, he's right there to smooth things over for you.  

If you look at the entire chapter of Deuteronomy 30, and I encourage you to do so, you will see what is being described are the blessings and the curses associated with keeping or not keeping the Law of Moses.  Also, keep in mind to whom this is being addressed; the Children of Israel.  So, when Jesus came, attempting to change the law, Deuteronomy 30 goes into effect.  To reject the law and follow Jesus is certain death.  

When we get to the end of the chapter the point is made again.  19 This day, I call upon the heaven and the earth as witnesses [that I have warned] you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. You shall choose life, so that you and your offspring will live; 20 To love the Lord your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him. For that is your life and the length of your days, to dwell on the land which the Lord swore to your forefathers to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give to them.  It says choose life so that your offspring will live.  That sounds pretty serious to me.  Would you choose the death and destruction of your children?  G-d forbid you would do that. Verse 20 says "for that is your life and the length of your days."  What is life?  "To love the Lord your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him."

Let's put some of this together.  For a Jew to accept Christianity is to reject the law.  To reject the law triggers the curses of Deuteronomy 30 which is ultimately death.  But what of the non-Jew?  Non-Jews were never expected to keep the law in the first place.  So why did the church go to all the trouble to attach itself to Judaism?  The simple reason is that Christianity cannot exist without Judaism.  They had to have something on which to base their beliefs.  It is true that much of Christianity comes from pagan religions.  But the pagan religions were weak and couldn't possibly for a strong base on which to build.  So the early church leaders, most of whom were Romans and Greeks, took what they could glean from Judaism.  They took the G-d of Israel and the concept of the messiah from the prophets and made their base,  The sad thing is that they corrupted it so much that what they were left with was useless.  Then they added in some pagan concepts; the trinity, forgiveness of sins, the resurrection, the twelve disciples, the cross.  Then they had to piece it all together.  They spent several hundred years fine tuning everything into what you see today. Fortunately for them, most people back then couldn't read.  The average people had to rely on what their church leaders taught them.  For their part, those leaders were pious men.  They built their trust with the average people.  

These days we take reading for granted.  It's easy to pick up a Bible and read what it says.  The bad thing is that those church fathers who wrote and adjusted the Bible are still trusted today.  They are venerated as saints when they were nothing more than con artists.  They added things when they saw fit to do so.  The last part of the book of Luke was added centuries after the beginning.  This is why I invite you to read the Hebrew Scriptures for yourself.  It is a fascinating text.  If you are a Christian and you made it this far, there is still hope for you.  You don't have to convert to Judaism, although you can do that.  You can live a moral life without the idolatry of the church and still have a place in the world to come.  I invite you to learn about the Noahide Movement which is currently sweeping across the globe.  There is a good life to be had without Christianity.  I have a few great links on the homepage if you are interested.

The Torah is life.  Anything that is not Torah or is opposed to Torah, or seeks to change Torah is death.  Choose wisely.  Your life and the lives of your children and their children are at stake.  

 

Copyright 2015 by:

William Bouker