Subj : Re: The Game
To   : JOSHUA LEE
From : TODD HENSON
Date : Wed Oct 25 2000 09:27 pm

>  FM> as if Christianity ruled the horizons of the world and, for the
> 
> No comment.
> 
>  FM> atheist, ruining those horizons UNTIL the positivist came along to
>  FM> make the correction!!!!
> 
> Y'all tried to make a "correction" 2,000 years ago, and we're still
> fightin' about it today. ;-)
> 


A "correction"? Well, I guess it depends on how you look at that. I know
the intent of the 
comment was humorous, but it did bring to mind a recent commentary I sent
to someone 
regarding that issue.

--------
Jesus never made a mistatement. Nor did he make false prophecies. What he
did
do was to allow the spiritual nature of God's law to be expressed without
the
framework of earthly legalism. 

Let's take a look at the two types of laws - earthly (physical), and
spiritual. Earthly laws do not, for the most part, care about the contents
of
the heart. You can walk around your entire life and have murderous wishes
in
your heart, but as long as you never act upon them, the law doesn't care
and
cannot hurt you.

Spiritual law is different. It DOES care about the heart, but it doesn't
have
it's ultimate consequences enforced here on earth. If you have a murderous
desire in your soul, then that is a sin according to God, and you damage
your
relationship with Him, but such a law is a matter of the intangible soul
rather than earthly incarceration.

With the establishment of the OT laws, God melded the two. The world at the
time was entangled with idolatry, sexual abominations, sexual abominations
that were used as a means of "worship", baby-sacrifices to Moloch, etc.
These
things are nothing bu the fulfillment of the animal nature, and enslave and
divert attention from the divine. So God found it necessary to set up a
system of laws which were designed to stamp out such practices among His
chosen people, but it also served as an example to other nations. It is to
the credit of Judaism (and religions influenced by Judaism) that these
forms
of worship are less widespread in the world today. This was the whole
point! 

As you can see, God's efforts with the Law were more than just earthly, but
there was a spiritual lesson being taught. In Judaica, someone quoted a
rabbi
to me, and he said something like how the golden rule is the whole of the
law, and the rest is commentary. That's exactly the point! To love your
neighbor, and to love God with all your soul! That's the whole of the law,
and that was the spiritual law being taught and reflected in the earthly
law.

However, the reliance on earthly law was never God's intention. It was
never
meant to carried out forever. There came a time when the world was ready
for
the next stage in the plan. As the Apostle Paul said, the Law was meant to
be
a kind of schoolteacher until the time of the Messiah. 

If you look past all the cultural differences and hostility between
Christians and Jews (YES, both are guilty of harsh views of one another),
then you will see that the core of what Jesus taught was the same as what
the
Law taught - fairness, hope for the oppressed and downtrodden, to love your
neighbor, and to love God with all your being, to do His will, etc. 

The old law served as a kind of incubator for the spiritual law. But does
the
baby stay in the incubator forever? No! There comes a time for birth, and
when Jesus came as the catalyst and cornerstone for the new covt, God
decided
that the spiritual law had grown within the womb of the earthly law long
enough, and the protective cocoon that the old law served as was ready to
be
shed (but not unappreciated), and the new law of grace was born.

The spiritual core of what Jesus taught was the same spiritual lessons as
the
Mosaic law, but that the new covt was what happened when the law of the
spirit was removed from it's earthly Mosaic sheath.
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