BETWEEN THE LINES

DID GOD CHANGE THE RULES?

Exclusive: Joseph Farah responds to reader challenging value of Ten Commandments

Have you ever wondered why a nation like the U.S., where so many people attend Christian services weekly, is, by any standard, losing its Christian heritage and culture?

Maybe it’s because Christian pastors and teachers are so biblically illiterate, immoral and cowardly.

This thought is prompted by a recent letter I received from a reader apparently opposing WND’s ongoing campaign to post the Ten Commandments on billboards across the country.

Here’s what the writer contends along with his scriptural citations:

• The Law and Ten Commandments are inappropriate for those led by the Spirit as the Law and Ten Commandments are of works, not faith. Galatians 3:12
• Those under the Law are under the curse of total and complete obedience. Galatians 3: 10-12
• The Ten Commandments lead to condemnation and death. 2 Corinthians 3:7, 9
• The Ten Commandments, the Law incites coveting in the heart. Romans 7:7-9
• The commandments result in death, not life. Romans 7:10
• The Law and the Commandments lead to the dominion of sin over us, resulting in bondage. Romans 6:14
• The Law and Commandments served their purpose to preserve the lineage of Abraham to bring us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 4:23, 24.

Arland Pafford concludes with this: “You and the WND are doing a disservice to God and your fellow man by promoting the Ten Commandments.”

I don’t so much blame Mr. Pafford for his delusion. I blame the leaders of the church in America for promoting such drivel – the notion that we serve a God who changed His mind about His rules or made a mistake when He issued them in the first place.

Help WND in its effort to display the original Ten Commandments on billboards across the nation – an ongoing campaign to prick the consciences of Americans

There are teachers all over the country who are actually making such assertions. One of the most dangerous new theologies that has emerged recently has been one exposed by Michael Brown in his shocking new book “Hyper-Grace.” The doctrine of “hyper-grace,” as Brown has accurately dubbed it, is based largely on many of the out-of-context, misunderstood verses above – verses that, if they are interpreted incorrectly, stand in stark contradiction to the whole of the Bible and Jesus’ own teachings. And this doctrine of men, not God, suggests those who follow Jesus are no longer capable of sin. In fact, they shouldn’t even think about the commandments of God any longer. They simply don’t apply to believers after they repent once. This is heresy.

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I suspect my correspondent has become ensnared in this voodoo theology. Let’s take his antinomian claims one by one:

• Galatians 3:12: “And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.” It’s always a good idea to read the entire epistle from Paul for context. It’s even better to read the whole Bible, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, with the understanding that it is inerrant, consistent with one overriding message: “Obey God and live. Disobey God and perish.” Another way to put it: “Repent of your sins, which are defined as ‘transgressions of the law.’” (1 John 3:4)
  To comprehend Paul’s writings, which even Peter acknowledged were “hard to be understood” (2 Peter 3:16), it’s important to know something about the cultural context of his words and what questions he was answering. (Remember, this was a letter he was writing to the Galatians about specific questions and controversies that had arisen in the community of believers.) 
• Sadly, most pastors don’t do much homework in that regard. Yet, any confusion about what Paul was saying in Galatians about the law should have been resolved with certainty in 1994 when biblical scholar Martin Abegg wrote an article in the November-December issue of Biblical Archaeological Review titled: “Paul, ‘Works of the Law’ and MMT.” He studied the original language found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and discovered what Paul meant when he used the term “works of the law.” It turns out the phrase repeated by Paul throughout the letter refers not to the law of Moses but to rabbinical edicts in the Talmud – issues including things like bringing Gentile corn into the Temple, the presentation of Gentile offerings and the cooking of sacrificial meat in unfit (impure) vessels. Paul never repudiated the Torah. In fact, he wrote in Romans 3:31: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
• 2 Corinthians 3:7,9: “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away … For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” What was Paul talking about here? Was he saying something new? Was he suggesting the law of Moses was done away with? Paul was referring directly to the words of God in the Torah – Deuteronomy 18:15-18, to be precise. God said He would raise up a prophet like Moses who would speak all that he commands: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” 
• This was a reference to the greatest prophet – the Lord Jesus, who did all that and also said: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:18) What needed to happen before a jot or tittle of the law would pass? Heaven and earth needed to gone. Are they gone? Do we have a new heaven and a new earth as is promised in Revelation? No, we don’t. Therefore, the law stands – every jot and tittle. You have Jesus’ word on that.
• Romans 7: 7-10: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” Confused? His words are not easy to grasp – especially out of context. 
• So read on into the next two verses – Romans 7:11,12: “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Hello! “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Our correspondent – no doubt well-intended, is drawing exactly the opposite conclusion Paul was drawing.
• Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” I agree wholeheartedly. If you are living in a state of grace, sin does not have dominion over you. And what are the very next words in Paul’s letter? “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” And what is sin? The transgression of the law.
• Galatians 4:23,24: “But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.” Allegory, indeed. From these verses, our correspondent concludes: “The Law and Commandments served their purpose to preserve the lineage of Abraham to bring us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith.” Justification was always by faith. Abraham himself was justified by faith. That is not just a New Testament doctrine found in Romans 1:17, Romans 1:16-18, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. It’s found throughout the Old Testament, but most prominently in Habakkuk 2:4: “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”

Christians! It’s time for you to discover that we serve one God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus did not come to start a new religion. He came to save the world from sin. And remember what He said in John 15:15 was the key. It’s very simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/did-god-change-the-rules/#s1s6ZTHlBVOMxLHZ.99

My comments: God has not changed the rules. They are found in the whole teaching of the Word of God and the whole teaching of Christ Jesus.