CONFESSES
THAT
JEWISH LAW STILL IN FORCE
http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/godsmercy.shtml
This
Catholic site complains that despite the Church having condemned the idea that the
Jewish Scriptures in the Old Testament are opposed to the Christian New
Testament, some still treat both sets of scriptures as contradictory. The
Church however rejects the idea that the New Testament or Jesus Christ
abrogated or superseded the Old Testament. The Church rejects the view
that the Old Testament Covenant was abandoned by God and replaced with a New
Covenant. Vatican II in Dei Verbum and Nostra Aetate said this was a
total misunderstanding. John Paul II said on November 17 1980 that God
never revoked the Old Covenant with the Jews.
ACTS 15
In Acts 15, the apostles grappled with the problem of non-Jewish Christians and their relationship to the Jewish Law. As they didn’t want to burden the converts, they decreed that they must abstain from blood, eating meat sacrificed to demons, fornication and the meat of animals that were strangled. The Church concludes from this that she has the power to restore as much of the Jewish Law as she wants. In principle, the Church can require that adulterers be stoned to death. Acts 15 however only describes an emergency situation. Plainly, it cannot be concluded from it that the Church should restore parts of the Law if it wants. It sounds more like a situation where the whole Law was required but it was not possible for it to be entirely kept.
The decision was not made to please anybody. If the apostles had wanted to please people they would have given in to the Jewish Christians who considered it necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and put down circumcision as a requirement. After all, that is what the meetings and deliberations outlined in Acts 15 were about.
The decision implies the whole Law ideally and if possible should be advocated for observance. The Church says that the ban on fornication is a moral law. Yet in Acts 15 it is listed as banned. Murder was also forbidden by the Law of the Jews given by God as well as fornication was. Does the apostles banning fornication and not murder mean that the Gentiles were allowed to commit murder? Of course not. Clearly the apostles were saying that the ban on eating blood, meat sacrificed to pagan gods or the meat of strangled animals were moral laws as much as fornication was. Thus they cannot be done away. What is wrong is wrong and that cannot be changed.
THE
In the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, (Sections 577-582), we read that the Church teaches
that Jesus alone obeyed the Law of Moses perfectly and that the Law is one
inseparable whole so he who breaks one rule breaks them all.
The
Catechism agrees that Jesus did not abolish the Law at all but he only
interpreted it properly and attacked the laws that had been added to it by
tradition.
The
Church says that Jesus did not do away with the laws on diet but only expressed
what they were about and that they were meant to be reminders of the need to
keep the heart pure. In other words,
pigs were made unclean food by God though they were not really unclean in
themselves just to remind the people that they were sacred. If they eat pigs they lose these reminders
and their hearts become unclean so eating pigs is unclean. The Church however ignores the food
regulations. Jesus is thought to have
declared all foods clean. But even if
Jesus did declare that all foods were clean in themselves that does not imply
that the food regulations can be abandoned if their purpose was the purpose he
gave them. On the contrary it implies
they should still be kept.
The
Church agrees that the Law was right to condemn the foods as unclean implying
it agrees that gays and adulterers should be stoned to death.
THE
WORLDWIDE
The
Worldwide Church of God used to teach that keeping parts of the Law of Moses
was necessary for Christians. After a
dramatic change in doctrine the Worldwide Church of God issued a new statement
of their position on the Law of Moses liberalising their teachings. They said that the Bible never says the Law
was the means of salvation. They said
that the Mosiac law is a unit and the word Torah or Law in the Bible is
singular as is the word nomos used in the New Testament. James
This new
teaching is exactly the same as the orthodox Christian teaching on the
Law. But notice how it lets you make laws to kill gays and adulterers if
you want to. The fact that the New
Testament says that the Law is inoperative in the sense that it does not force
us anymore for God works within us to make us want to obey it is ignored. The New Testament never says we are free to
drop the requirements of the Law.
Moreover, you could keep the spirit of the Law and the letter. The idea of the spirit of the Law needing to
be obeyed implies that the Law wants you do follow the spirit of the Law or to
obey. If the Law says I should have
dampness on my wall treated then I cannot ignore this without turning against
the spirit of the Law. Keeping the Law
would be good discipline for me if I am already saved so not keeping it would
be gross ingratitude to God.
CONCLUSION
Those of us who see how evil the law of God is in the Bible should be disturbed by the Church’s reverence for it and the possibility that the Church could restore its inhumanity.
WORKS CONSULTED
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