...God is Light and in him is no darkness at all...
For various walks in life, please use the word EnergySource, Universe or TheGreatSpirit
for God. We are ...Living Stones... a Spiritual House...the Temple of God...
~ 1 Peter 2:5, 1 Cor 3:16. All truth goes through three stages ...ridiculed...violently rejected...third, accepted as self-evident.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer.
NoTo Both
The young Church in Galatia was asking the Apostle Paul:
Must a Gentile be a Jew to be saved?
Paul said No
.
Then must a Jew be a Gentile to be saved?
Paul said No
.
Paul said: A new creation in Christ Messiah.
Then the Law of God is null and void?
Paul said No, certainly not.
Then the Law of God is still important?
Paul said YES! Most definitely.
Paul explains Christ's teaching has a root. It grows from the five Books of Moses.
Remember that Abraham lived before Moses preached the food laws. Moses says don't mix and match dairy and meat. Eat them separately.
So then, if he lived before Moses, could Abraham eat a bacon cheeseburger?
Yes. If he wanted too. But he does not have too.
Are you saying that the food laws in the Law of Moses relate to food purity for health, not eternal salvation? Yes!
Then one function of Kosher food is to protect my health? Correct.
So then the principles of food purity in the Mosaic Law are still important? Yes!
Just take a look at the artificial food we have today. People are choosing artificial synthetic foods
that destroy their health.
They have been misled by false advertising.
One principle in Moses' food instructions: food purity will protect your health
.
A modern application of Moses' food laws could include: be diligent about food purity and livestock health because the toxins you eat will cause disease; why destroy yourself?
So Modern Kosher
deals with modern toxins, again not for eternal salvation, but to save our health. Our modern toxins are all over: artificial food preservatives, additives, colorings, fortifiers, chemical substitutes, etc. etc.
Our modern livestock methods are highly problematic and can lead to disease; pigs not kept in healthy conditions can be more prone to disease. This disease can then be easily transferred to humans. So if you like pork, choose top quality bacon or chops from well cared for pigs!
Many animals that Moses specifies as unclean
are scavengers that consume other dead animals. These animals are part of nature's recycling-ecosystem. Because they may consume other decayed dead animals, the risk factors for disease increase.
So, why the blue and white fringe in the Mosaic Law?
Blue and white fringe means Remember Me Daily
.
Why remember God daily?
Look at the society around you. You will see the result of forgetting God: violence and corruption.
So remembering God daily saves me from doing violence and corruption? Yes.
What specifically does the Law of God save?
It can save your health, it can save your money, your business, your sanity, your marriage, your children, your animals, your produce, your city, your state, your nation.
Does this mean I have to wear blue and white fringe on my clothing to remember God?
No. You can, but it will not earn you points
; i.e. justify you or make you whole before God, or give you eternal salvation. But it can still be very important. How?
Remembering God, in this case through tradition, can preserve a very valuable family and cultural heritage and an inheritance from God that reflects heavenly truths revealed in the Law of Moses.
One reason God gave the Commonwealth of Israel the blue and white fringe was to be a continual, daily reminder of the Ways of God; to remember God and His Law and His kind intervention because fallen human nature is prone to forget God (Numbers 15: 37-41).
Family heritage is important. It shows us where we came from. It shows us how other family members are generous, wise, how they teach others and train themselves and how they overcome problems in life to be healthy and help others.
So then the principle is: remember God and His Laws daily as a.) an anti-toxin to corruption and b.) to show me godly solutions for life problems?
Yes. So I can do this by reading the scripture daily, or memory verses, or blue and white fringe, or songs or reviewing the principles in Joshua and the battle of Jericho or Paul and Silas in prison, or wearing a yarmulke?
Yes, the principle of Blue and White Fringe
is about God consciousness
; to keep God's ways in your thinking every day.
God the Eternal Father is a Good God. He is looking out for us. He wants to make sure we are ok. He wants to instruct us in how to optimize our life in all ways.
Some important functions of the Law include:
a.) to define sin-injury to God, myself or other people.
b.) to tutor us in wise personal life decisions (self-government), and
c.) national wisdom: good laws with principles based in the Law of God that prevent corruption; bribery and thug politics
.
d.) there are more...
The Law is important to justify-defend people when they have been injured by other people.
The law is important because it gives consequences to people who injure other people.
One function of the Law it to train me not to injure others.
Neither the Law nor a lifestyle can save my soul; this is not their function. Again, keeping the Law of Moses cannot justify me before God; this is not its function.
Galations 3: ....oh foolish Galatians, who did deceive you?...Received you the Spirit (breath) of God by the works of the Law, of the hearing of faith?...
The Apostle Paul specifies that the promise of God is by faith and not by the law.
Paul writes in Galatians 3:18-22 ...v.18, For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God hath granted it to Abraham by promise ....v.21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid [no]: for if there had been a law given which could make alive, then righteousness would have been of the law. But the Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Our faith in Christ alone saves our soul. The righteous shall live by faith (Habakkuk).
Abraham was saved by his faith in God, not by removing the bacon cheeseburger from the menu.
The function of both the Law and the lifestyle is to train (disciple) us to Christ who is God's answer to our fallen Adamic nature.
In the context of this discussion: save the soul
means eternal life from God after physical death. So then both Gentile and Jew can be saved, and both Gentile and Jew can choose a bacon cheeseburger or be happy with a fish sandwich as each sees best and not have to worry about what the next person is eating? Yes.
In Paul's time, false Jewish legalists in Galatia said that strict adherence to the letter of the Law of Moses by circumcision would ensure both 1.) the proper progress in discipleship and 2.) eternal salvation.
Later on in history, false Christian legalists followed the same pattern and said the same thing, substituting a false Christian
doctrine for the Law of Moses, saying to their followers: if you follow my doctrine
you can earn eternal salvation. Their teaching ended in chaos.
The Law was designed to create peace.
Legalism means to twist the law and use it in a wrong way. Legalism is mis-application of the law. Legalism means to use the law to create a fight instead of creating peace.
The Apostle Paul instructs both saved Gentile and Jew to be a new creation in Christ. The problem is legalism on both sides. Both sides wanted to fight, instead of creating peace.
The function of the Law of Moses is to point to God's perfection: the Messiah who illuminates the principles in the Law of Moses for godly living and godly government.
If we want, the law can help us train ourselves to make healthy choices, so that we grow and become like Christ.
Fallen men misapply and twists God's Law unless the light of Christ enlivens them. If you like bacon cheeseburgers, this is fine. If you don't want to eat bacon cheeseburgers out of respect to the Law of Moses or for health reasons, this is also fine.
Neither way will earn
you points with God to gain eternal life. Ditto for circumcision. Strict adherence to the Law of Moses will not save to eternal salvation; this is not its function.
So what is an example of wisdom from the Law of God for sexual health?
God made sexual health to be a good thing to be enjoyed in a dedicated covenant. The fallen world system preaches a lie that sex is unclean or dirty
. The truth is that fallen man in a fallen world system makes sex dirty; they use, abuse, pervert, twist and then throw away.
The principle that is repeated in the Law of Moses is: be diligent to rule your own sexual desire. ...each of us is tempted when we are drawn away by our own lust....
~ James
Keep your seed for your own family, draw water from your own well because sexual overdrive can a.) lead to your own disease - STDs etc.) b.) alienate and injure your closest loved ones and c.) cause both your family and society to lose all respect for your integrity and d.) will bankrupt you with court fees, etc.
Why destroy yourself? Why destroy your family life? Why bankrupt yourself? Why bankrupt your family?
So then, in like manner, circumcision will not give me eternal salvation and cannot justify me before God. However, it can be a good health-sanitary measure for men as this private area can be prone to detrimental bacterial growth.
It can also be an important cultural and ceremonial inheritance reflecting the truth of the Law of Moses. Circumcision certainly does no harm; the principle of sexual restraint and health in the Law of Moses is vital and has preserved hundreds of generations for godliness: be diligent to rule your own sexual desire for good and not for destruction and disease.
Christ is the Perfection of the Law. He loves us.
Again the Apostle Paul explains: Galations 5:6-13 ...v.6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love.....v.13 For you, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even this: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' (Leviticus 19:18)....
So then, neither my food, nor circumcision, nor communion, nor my cross jewelry, nor a blue and white prayer shawl nor yarmaluke can save my soul? Correct.
However, they may be good and useful for reminding me of God's Law; His goodness and His providence. They may also be good for my health or the health of my animals, they may help me avoid bankruptcy or follow good laws or they may help me keep a valuable inheritance that demonstrates and points to God's heavenly truths? Yes.
So some functions of the Laws of God are: that we remember Him, protect our own food purity, sexual health and reflect godly truths for His Glory? yes, to life! L'chaim!
How do I become more like God? It is not by keeping The Law, although the law is important. It is by entering The Door into the Family of God. The door is Christ.
If we want, the law can help us train ourselves to make healthy choices, so that we grow and become like Christ.
From Genesis to Galatians: ....even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Know therefore that they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham....
....And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying 'in thee shall all the nations be blessed - Genesis 12:3'. So then they that are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham... (Galatians 3:6-9)