From: dsegard@nyx.cs.du.edu (Daniel Segard)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: The Law
Date: 26 Jan 93 08:52:56 GMT
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.


 pendleyiv@urvax.urich.edu (Vann Pendley)

 > It seems to me that there is a problem with this whole law
 > concept.  The law was/is part of a contract made between God and
 > the Chosen or Jewish peoples.

      In part, yes.  The "contract" (or "Covenant" as I am more used to
refering to it) was not just a contract with the Children of Israel (B'nai
Yisrael).  Rather there were a whole series of covenants laid out, one
after another.  The first Covenant was fairly easy to follow as it only had
two rules to it:  1) Be fruitful and multiply, and 2) don't eat the
forbidden fruit.  But the second command was broken prior to the first
command being obeyed.  So a new covenant was cut with them as skins were
cut from animals to clothe them.
     Other new covenants followed.  There was a Covenant with Noah and all
his descenants laid out in Genesis 9.  That Covenant with the children of
Noah (B'nai No'ach) is still in effect for today (and it was restated in
Acts 15 for the Gentiles).  But after that the new Covenants tended to be
to specific groups of people rather than to all mankind.  There was a
Covenant of Abram, then a Covenant of Abraham (the sign of which is
circumcision), then the Covenant of Moses.  The final Covenant that will
come is the Kingdom Covenant which is spoken of by the Prophet Zechariah.
The sign of that Covenant is that the Creator will write His Law directly
upon our hearts and "no longer shall each man say to his brother 'Know the
L-RD' for they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest".
That last Covenant is (if you hadn't noticed) yet to come, there are still
many who don't know Him.

 > As a Christian, while those laws are good in nature, I/we are
 > not a part of that contract but rather the contract created by the
 > coming of Jesus.

       Are you not part of the previous covenants because your male
ancestors were not descendants of Abraham or were his descendants but not
circumsized and therefore "cut off from My Covenant" (of Abraham) as
Genesis declares?  Obviously those who were part of those covenants in the
1st century continued to be part of those covenants since Matthew 5
declares "even when Heaven and Earth pass away not one iota or one tittle
(YUD or vowel mark) shall not pass from My Torah.  He who keeps even the
smallest commandment and teaches others to do likewise, he shall be called
Great in the Kingdom of Heaven.  But he who breaks even the smallest
command and advises others to do likewise he shall be least in the Kingdom
of Heaven."

 > This conract is centered around love, to both God and your neighbor.

    A restatement of the greatest two commandments of Torah.  The first is
the SH'MA: Hear O Israel, the L-RD thy G-d, the L-RD is One and you shall
love the L-RD thy G-d with all thy heart, soul and strength.  The second
greatest was "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" and is found in
Dueteronomy.  Nothing new there, those have always been the greatest
commands of Torah.  Rabbi Hillel 1 stated almost exactly the same thing
about 30 BCE, adding the comment "the rest is commentary, now GO AND
STUDY!"

 > The 10 Commandments (guidelines)

      "guidelines"?  You sound as though you are reducing them in value.
Why not just call them "suggestions"?

 > are important in
 > understanding the basis for Christianity but do not have
 > _direct_ bearing on the Christian andy more than the other,
 > ie. dietary, laws of the Jewish covenant.

      Come now, I bet that even you partially follow the dietary laws to
some extent.  You probably draw a line somewhere about what you would
consider to be an "unclean" animal that is unfit to eat.  Sewer rats for
example are not on most people's diets.  (Though Gentiles are certainly
permitted to eat them as long as they are drained of blood first according
to Acts 15.)