In their treatment of the subject of God's Law, the Armstrong Churches of God ALL premise their teachings on the division of Torah into different kinds or categories of laws. As I've mentioned before, the Church of God International's Systematic Theology Project divides the Law into 1. Broad spiritual principles, 2. Civil regulations, 3. Laws of cleanliness and ritual purity, and 4. Laws relating to the sacrificial system. However, in the series of sermons which Vance Stinson has done to refute my own thesis of God's Law, he has talked about moral, civil, and ritual laws and has further differentiated between those elements which are "universal" and those that are "cultic" or ceremonial. In their treatment of the Law of Moses, they emphasize the existence of these various kinds of laws, so that they can formulate a rationale for making some of these laws binding on New Covenant Christians, while rejecting others as being not applicable to them.
However, as I have noted in previous posts here, this way of dividing Torah into different kinds of laws is NOT consistent with the way that Scripture itself views that legislation. In other words, Scripture views the Law of Moses (Torah, God's Law) as an inseparable whole. As part of God's covenant with Israel, the people were responsible for obeying ALL of the various kinds of laws.
This perspective on the nature of God's Law is further verified by the way that Torah differentiates its tenets into commandments, statutes, and judgments. For instance, we know that Abraham obeyed God's commandments, statutes, and laws (Genesis 26:5). In the book of Leviticus, we read: "If ye walk in my statutes and keep my commandments..." (Leviticus 26:3). In the book of Numbers, we read: "These are the commandments and judgments which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses..." (Numbers 36:13). Likewise, in the final book of the Pentateuch, we read: "Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day..." (Deuteronomy 4:40). "I will speak unto thee all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments..." (Deuteronomy 5:31. "Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you..." (Deuteronomy 6:1). "Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee" (Deuteronomy 6:17). "Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them" (Deuteronomy 7:11). Likewise, Moses told the children of Israel: "Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice" (Deuteronomy 26:17). By the way, what I have quoted in this paragraph is only a portion of the references to these different kinds of commandments of God.
Hence, we can see that even where the language of Torah differentiates various kinds of laws, the people were expected to obey ALL of them. In other words, the legislation was always looked upon as an inseparable whole. From a Scriptural perspective, there is absolutely NO justification for obeying some of the precepts of Torah and ignoring others. The people of Israel, to whom these commandments, statutes, judgments, laws, and testimonies were addressed, were expected to obey ALL of them. Moreover, whether we classify those commandments as ritualistic, moral, civil, sacrificial, cultural, etc., etc., the people who were part of that covenant were expected to obey all of them!
Finally, that same CGI Systematic Theology Project has this to say about this legislation (God's Law, the Law of Moses): "The concept of 'law' in the Bible is complex and cannot be defined or summarized in any brief way without danger of oversimplification. The very complexity of the subject requires the many aspects of the biblical concept of law be discussed. No adequate understanding of the teaching of God’s Church on law can be gained without a thorough and careful reading of the entire overview given here." This juxtaposed against Christ's statement: "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 7:12, ESV) And, when asked about the greatest commandment, we read that Christ replied: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40, ESV)
Likewise, Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome: "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:8-10, ESV) Why try to make this subject so complex? It's the only way that they can justify their parsing of the Law of Moses!
You keep missing the point. Nobody is "trying" to make the subject complex. The facts are as follows: 1) The New Testament shows that some of the specific commandments found in the Law of Moses apply to Christians (and to the general population) 2) The New Testament shows that some of the specific commandments found in the Law of Moses do not apply to Christians (or to anyone else not under the Old Covenant). Add to these two facts Jesus' statement on "the least of these commandments" (Mt 5:19), and you've got yourself a complex subject. What I have argued is that you need to discover the intent behind any given precept to determine how or whether it applies to you, and in doing this it is essential that you recognize that the overarching principle of love (as expressed in the Two Great Commandments) provides the "lenses" through which the Law of Moses must be read. When you do that, you'll discover that many of the specific commands are simply APPLICATIONS of "Love your neighbor as yourself." Other specific commands pertain to circumstances that are foreign to you but usually have an underlying principle that applies to everyone. It is indeed true that the Law of Moses is a unified whole, but within that unified whole there are categories of law. Recognizing those categories is helpful to us in the process of discovering how/whether a particular precept applies to us.
ReplyDeleteVS
Vance,
DeleteThank you for replying, but I think that you are missing the point. The entire Law of Moses is an elaboration of those Two Great Commandments for the ancient Israelites - tailored by God to fit their culture, circumstances, and his plans. As you know, the center piece of Torah and the Old Covenant are the Ten Commandments. Moreover, just as the Two represent the foundation of the whole and the Ten, the Ten represent the foundation of all of those lesser commandments which Christ referred to in Matthew 5:19). The intent behind ALL of those commandments was LOVE. In other words, God spelled out how to apply those two principles for a carnal people whom he knew would not have access to his Holy Spirit. Thus, while ALL iterations of God's Law are based on the Two Great Commandments (including the Law of Christ), the iteration known as Torah or the Law of Moses cannot and does not apply to those who have accepted Christ's fulfillment of it and received the Holy Spirit of God to dwell within them. For Christians, we are to judge all of our behaviors within the context of whether or not they fulfill God's commandments to love him and each other. In other words, we don't need a list of dos and don'ts designed to meet the needs of another people, time, place, and covenant.