Occam's Razor or the Law of Parsimony is a philosophical principle which suggests that the simplest or most straightforward solution to a problem is the most probable solution. When that principle is applied to the question of a Christian's obligation to obey the commandments of Torah, the ACOGs answer to that question seems more suspect. For that matter, many of the other extant versions of Christianity also offer complex and convoluted formulas for determining which provisions of Torah apply to them and which ones do not have any relevance for their faith. In effect, they have decided that God and "His Word" must be parsed in just the right way to be properly understood. It's almost as if God had intentionally made His Will in this matter difficult to discern!
Interestingly, most Christians (including Armstrongists) accept the premise that Christians are NOT responsible for obeying all of the instructions outlined in Torah. They diverge then in the way that they decide what is obligatory for Christians and what is ignored. In other words, they have different formulas for cherry-picking which provisions of Torah apply to them. To accomplish this, most of them organize the commandments of Torah into various categories or groupings. For example, the Church of God International's (CGI's) "Systematic Theology Project" divides Torah into "broad spiritual principles, civil regulations, laws of cleanliness and ritual purity," and "laws relating to the sacrificial system." Other groups simplify their classification of commandments into two broad categories of law like moral and ceremonial. Never mind that this contradicts the Scriptural view of Torah as a comprehensive whole (Old and New Testaments). They reason that these categories of law allow them to develop a rationale for accepting some provisions of Torah while rejecting others. It goes something like this - we are responsible for obeying the moral/spiritual provisions, but we are not responsible for observing the ceremonial/ritualistic/sacrificial provisions of Torah.
Of course, it never seems to cross their minds that they are effectively saying that Jesus Christ didn't fulfill ALL of the Law and Prophets. Most of them are willing to acknowledge that Christ fulfilled the sacrificial parts of the Law, but many of them stumble when it comes to those "moral" or "broad spiritual principles"! Likewise, it never seems to occur to them that someone has to sort all of these commandments into the various categories. In other words, who gets to do the sorting? Is it the individual Christian? Is it the human leadership of the group? Is it the entire group? Do we really comprehend just how quickly this exercise can become very complex and controversial? Do we begin to understand just how subjective such an exercise must be?
Unfortunately, many of these folks completely ignore what Jesus and his apostles had to say on the subject! They ignore or dismiss Christ's distillation of Torah into two broad commandments which he said comprehended and satisfied the intent of the whole (see Matthew 22). They ignore Christ's commandment for his disciples to love each other, and his promulgation of the Golden Rule. They ignore the Jerusalem Council's decision that Gentile Christians would NOT have to become Torah observant Jews. They ignore the Apostle Paul's assertion that LOVE fulfills the requirements of God's Law. I guess the Scriptural formula is much too simple and easy to satisfy these folks. The allure of a complicated rationale for cherry-picking is more appealing to them! Sad, so sad! What do you think? Is it possible they're making something much more complex than it has to be?
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