ROFLMAO - now there's an idea! Much better than going cold-turkey
Why be obedient to god?
by nicolaou 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Forscher
Maybe because God's laws are not as burdensome as many think.
Most of the laws we think of as "God's laws" are really laws imposed by men who were into control. There were something like 700 laws agreed to by the Jews with Moses as the mediator. But that was a different situation than the one under which Christians find themselves. Israel was a confederacy set up by God with himself as its head initially. That required more laws simply in order to keep order like any other country.
Christians, on the other hand, are a people without a nation since their "kingdom" is yet for the future. So they were freed from a voluminous law code and given freedom to "use their Little gray cells," As Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot would put it, to figure out what God wanted as they grow in their understanding of him. Likely that was because being a people who had to live among the rest of mankind and be subject to the laws of the nations, that would leave them wiggle room to conform with laws which might not square with a code built perfectly on God's views without worry of displeasing him.
Think about it. The only place in the Bible where we those most prominent in the early Christian movement in agreement as to just what constitutes "requirements" encumbent upon all is in the fifteenth chapter of Acts. Those laws are as follows:
- Abstain from foods polluted by idols.
- Abstain from sexual immorality.
- Abstain from the meat of strangled animals.
- Abstain from blood.
Of course, common sense would tell us, that a few other things (not worshipping other gods, no stealing, etc.) would fit the short list of what is required of Christians, but think about it, go all the way through the NT and you will find that list short and sweet. The point is that we are incapable of keeping a perfect law faithfully, as demonstrated by the failures of the Jews in that regard, so God doesn't place that sort of burden on our shoulders. Men, however, do. The whole sordid history of institutions like the Catholic Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and many more illustrates that one quite well.
God didn't call people under the Christian church for the burden of law, he called us to freedom, and gives us the benefit of the doubt as long as we do our best. That is what gets lost in all the noise of men trying to impose their own consciences on others in God's name.
Forscher
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nicolaou
Bumped in response to realone's topic . . . and because I miss arguing the toss with Ross.
Where is that beardy old scroat?