Jesus wrapped up the law nicely in what we now know as the Golden Rule.
Yes sir. Jesus’ entire ministry on earth can be summed up in that passage. And He said the Law and the Prophets (the entire Old Testament) can be summed up in that passage as well. That’s it. That’s what it’s all about. The rest is just cheap whiskey.
As it relates to the Bible, define “The rest is just cheap whiskey “.
When Jesus said what He did, there was no “the Bible”. Jesus’ discourse with the Pharisee regarding the greatest commandment...
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:35-40. NIV]
To me, the second commandment is not subordinate to the first but merely second in sequence. “Like it” means ‘just as important’ or ‘equal to’...it means you can’t have the first without the second.
All of the Old Testament (the Law and the Prophets), and all of the New Testament (Jesus entire ministry on earth)...”hang on” loving God, and showing your love for God by loving others. Period. Apostle Paul (who wrote a ‘large’ part of the New Testament) said “the ONLY thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love.”
Read “The History of The Bible “ by Mark Taylor and you may understand where I’m coming from with the simple question that I asked you.
The degree of my privacy is no business of yours.
What we've learned from history is that we haven't learned from it.
He endorses same sex unions and wants a civil union law so that they are legally covered.
I think it's a great idea and what should've been done a LONG time ago. If somebody wants to have a legal partner in their life so they can can be covered by family insurance or help make those tough decisions after a life-threatening incident or pass along their inheritance after they pass, they should be able to do so regardless of sexual preference.
Yep.
Originally Posted by antlers
Some angry and hypocritical ‘Christians’ push more people away from Jesus than Satan himself does.
Yes, yes you do. Apologizing for sodomy and then gaslighting everyone trying to say you didn't or that somehow the plain teachings of Christ don't mean what they say. Pathetic! Thank God you aren't a leader.
Apologizing for sodomy and then gaslighting everyone trying to say you didn't...
Nebraska posted “I think it's a great idea and what should've been done a LONG time ago. If somebody wants to have a legal partner in their life so they can can be covered by family insurance or help make those tough decisions after a life-threatening incident or pass along their inheritance after they pass, they should be able to do so regardless of sexual preference.” I AGREE WITH WHAT NEBRASKA SAID.
Originally Posted by Tyrone
...or that somehow the plain teachings of Christ don't mean what they say.
Cherry-pick much...? Jesus clearly stated what His Greatest Commandments are. They ‘outweigh’ everything else.
Originally Posted by Tyrone
Pathetic! Thank God you aren't a leader.
Some ‘Christians’ get very angry when others don’t ‘hate’ like they do.
...who refuses to acknowledge that God wants our worship.
smh
He doesn’t want ‘hate’ from His followers.
Originally Posted by Tyrone
This isn't the first time you've come out in support of sodomy and then made stupid, Hitchens-like references to shellfish, etc.
I AGREE WITH WHAT NEBRASKA SAID. If ‘you’ believe that’s ‘supporting sodomy’ that’s your prerogative. Whatever you choose to believe is fine with me. Some ‘Christians’ cherry-pick one “abomination” from the Old Testament and use it to justify their hate, and completely ignore or disregard ‘all’ of the other “abominations” in the Old Testament...and when that’s pointed out...they get mad. The Pharisees also got mad when Jesus pointed out their hypocrisy.
This isn't the first time you've come out in support of sodomy and then made stupid, Hitchens-like references to shellfish, etc.
I AGREE WITH WHAT NEBRASKA SAID. If ‘you’ believe that’s ‘supporting sodomy’ that’s your prerogative. Whatever you choose to believe is fine with me. Some ‘Christians’ cherry-pick one “abomination” from the Old Testament and use it to justify their hate, and completely ignore or disregard ‘all’ of the other “abominations” in the Old Testament...and when that’s pointed out...they get mad. The Pharisees also got mad when Jesus pointed out their hypocrisy.
There you go again! More Hitchens! Nobody ever said that hetero sodomy, theft, etc wasn't bad, but you make gross generalizations and accusations just like that uncharitable Atheist.
BTW, the rest of the Bible isn't fluff - it's the account of previous covenants (testaments, agreements, contracts between God and man), what was required of each party to those covenants, plus teaching on what love is and how God wants to be worshiped. The New Covenant isn't a one-way agreement, it has requirements for worship and behavior too, just like the previous covenants. When Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant (Which was what? About the 4th covenant in the OT?) it simply meant that the laws pertaining to the Jerusalem-based temple worship were fulfilled and that a new set of requirements for worship were put in place. Does "Do this in remembrance of me" ring any bells? Instead of animal sacrifice for the atonement of sins, God put in place the sacrifice of the Eucharist, AKA the Sacrifice of the Mass along with the sacrament of penance, etc. The old, timeless rules of morality are still in place.
You practice a ‘religion’...just like the Pharisees practiced a ‘religion’. Rules and regulations. There’s no saving power in the sacraments. The Jewish religious leaders were thoroughly educated, highly trained, and well versed in their ‘religion’. And they practiced a graceless and hypocritical religion. Jesus criticized them for it. This is what happens when championing religious rules and religious regulations becomes more important than the people that these things were designed to serve and benefit. Modern day Pharisees are the same as the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Following Jesus isn’t a ‘religion’...it’s a way of life. Some angry ‘Christians’ seem to be mad because they can’t burn heretics at the stake nowadays.
The Law...as Jesus and Apostle Paul BOTH said...is no more. It is over. All of it. Period. God’s covenant with Israel was temporary and had a pre-planned end. Jesus said He came to ‘fulfill’ the law...to bring it to a designated end. He didn’t come to abolish - as in destroy - the validity of it...or to undermine the credibility of it...He came to bring it to a pre-planned, designated end. God set a timer when He established His covenant with Israel...and the time had run out. God’s conditional, temporary covenant with Israel was coming to an end...the law was being fulfilled through Jesus. A lot of rules and practices and rituals and instructions from the Old Testament are no longer practiced, not because they were wrong, but because they were pointing forward to when Jesus would fulfill them...and end them. He didn’t abolish them, He just made them obsolete. If you had a HUGE debt that you owed, and someone came along and paid off your debt, the obligation would be fulfilled...and the burden of fulfilling that obligation would be removed as well. Jesus fulfilled — as in ended — the necessity of the Jewish law. He didn’t abolish the law by fulfilling it...He just made it obsolete by fulfilling it. Jesus said that nothing in the law would “disappear” until everything was “accomplished.” It ‘was’ accomplished, and then the law began to disappear. Jews throughout the Roman world started abandoning strict adherence to the law to follow the resurrected Jesus. The transition came to an abrupt end on August 6 in AD70. Ancient Judaism ended, signaled by the temple’s destruction...as Jesus predicted. The Old Covenant wasn’t needed anymore...it had been fulfilled and replaced with a new, and better, covenant. I don’t equate the fulfilled-and-now-obsolete old covenant with Jesus’ New Covenant. At all. God clearly separated the two.
It’s a financial decision. Catholic baptisms are down 34%. Declining membership leads to declining revenue. The pope decided that money is more important than following scripture.
It’s the same reason priests weren’t allowed to marry. In the early days priests came from wealthy families. The Catholic Church didn’t want heirs to take money that would otherwise go to the church.
Last edited by doubletap; 10/25/20.
He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
The words say that Jesus did not come to abolish the law. If it is said that by 'fulfilling' the law he in effect abolished the law, there is a contradiction.
If the Law were a homework assignment, Jesus was completing it. If the law were a speech, Jesus was concluding it. If the law were a plane, Jesus was landing it. You don’t abolish a homework assignment by completing it; you don’t abolish a speech by concluding it; and you don’t abolish a plane by landing it. When Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law, He was saying God’s conditional, temporary covenant with Israel was coming to an end...the intended-from-the-beginning end. It was completed, it was concluded, it was landed. “It is finished.” Jesus’ famous last words from the cross. Jesus wasn’t finished...as His disheartened followers would soon discover. But the Law was. In His final moments, He was announcing that the covenant He came to fulfill was at last fulfilled. A New Covenant, a better covenant, a broader covenant was being established...through the shedding of His blood...between God and all who would choose to participate.
The story is not finished. All has not been fulfilled. The long awaited return of Jesus in power and glory has yet to happen. And if Jesus said that he had not come to abolish the law, the law cannot have been abolished by his life or ministry.
*The Law*...as Jesus Himself said, IS finished. I believe Him. When someone can predict His own death and resurrection, and pull it off...I’m gonna go with whatever He says.
