It seems like most Christians ignore the Old Testament unless something in it is useful in interpreting the New Testament. So I wonder why the Ten Commandments are the only laws God gave that people talk about when Deuteronomy is filled with laws of all kinds handed out directly by God (through Moses, of course). He gives all sorts of laws about how to keep slaves, how to punish others for various crimes, how to deal with all kinds of civil and criminal matters, how to worship and how to build temples. And yet, we don't adhere to these laws the way we feel we should adhere to the big Ten. Why not? Are these not the words of God? Are these to be believed and lived by any less? If they are not as important, then how do you decide which laws of God you should and should not listen too? Who made the big Ten more important that all of the others?
It appears, actually, that these laws of God are nothing more than the laws of a particular society codified. This is one of the reasons I have trouble believing that the Bible is the Word of God.
1 comment:
Coming from a Catholic perspective here:
We don't ignore the old testament at all. Our Mass, offered daily, contains a reading from the Old Testament, a Psalm, a reading from one of the epistles, and a reading from the Gospels. The whole Mass is biblically based, but the readings are obvious. Our morning and evening prayers also are grounded in the old testament, though the selections are much shorter.
As to keeping all the old testament laws, funny you should mention that. This reading from the Acts of the Apostles has come up twice in the past week, so I guess the Church finds it important. Acts 15 1-2, 22-29. Basically, Paul is out preaching to the gentiles and they are willing to become Christians except for one thing: circumcision. Now circumcision is a big thing for the Jews, but the gentiles weren't having any of that, so Paul and his friend went back to Peter to find out what to do. After much discussion, Peter decided not to burden new converts with circumcision, that the important things were to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, blood, and meats of strangled animals, and to avoid unlawful marriages.
The fact that the old testament laws aren't kept by Christians doesn't, in my opinion, invalidate the bible as the inspired word of God. Until Jesus was born, God's entire focus seems to have been on His chosen Jews. Those laws were what they needed. They needed to know exactly how to build a temple in order to avoid going astray. Moses left them alone for just a few days, and when he came back, his people were worshipping golden calves, apparently forgetting completely their recent miraculous escape from Egypt. They really needed all those laws.
But Jesus came for everyone, Jew and gentile alike. I have not circumcised my son, and Jesus himself said it didn't matter. He also did not name any of the ten commandments as the most important laws when questioned. He said the most important laws were to love the Lord with all your heart and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself. The rest all kind of fall into those categories, don't they?
Post a Comment